Collaboration Project Reflection

This project and the work involved in getting to the final student product was the most rewarding experience of this course. The curriculum design coupled with the collaboration component and the use of technology created a rich learning and teaching experience for my students, my teaching partners and me. I worked primarily with the music teacher. She taught my students several songs relating to immigration either through different cultures and their music traditions, song generated by immigrants in America and relating to their experiences in a new country, or new music that has been created from the inspiration of early musical traditions brought to America by so many different people and cultures.

There was wonderful addition to the music portion of the unit, our art teacher became involved. She had the students draw still life using antique artifacts that either the students brought from home or she provided. She talked with the students about the special objects the immigrants may have chosen to bring to America and what they may have represented. The students then drew the objects using black ink and either quills or old fashion ink pens just like immigrant children would have used when in an American school learning to read and write English. The student products are outstanding. We have created a wonderful display of the students’ work for the school to enjoy.

The integration of the technology into this unit motivated my students and engaged them in new ways. They were excited about the new skills they acquired; doing screen shots, creating files for images, using a flash drive, creating a PowerPoint, exploring Google Earth, using digital cameras, Photo Booth and working with iMovie. Even though we had a few glitches (mostly printing or connecting to iMovie) the experience for my students was very positive. I was especially pleased the other day when I listened to one of my special education students talk an Ed. Tech. through how to do a PowerPoint slide. Can it get any better than that? Oh, we are going to share our movie with the whole school at an assembly. Yeah!!!!

In thinking about all we did for this project the words; play, imagination, empathy, and creativity keep popping into my head. I loved seeing how my students became immigrants and showed their learning in ways that were empathetic and thoughtful. But at the same time they used their creativity and playfulness to create their movie.
It’s magical when this happens. And I truly believe that working with other teachers who bring their ideas to a unit provides the students with other perspectives and ways to connect to the topic. It’s a richer experience

Collaboration on Stage 3

I met with Alicia and shared my stage 3 template. We looked over each facet and brainstormed how to integrate music lessons to each one. Alicia sees my students once a week so this will work out well for us. She is thinking about music and adaption. She will take this in two strands. The first will be how people used music, dance and tradition as a way to adapt to their new surroundings and preserve their culture. The second will focus on how traditional music has adapted over time and fused into something new i.e. Bluegrass, Jazz, Zydeco and pop music of today.
Our goal is to have the students use what they learn and create either and iMovie or podcast. These can then be part of their final project.
From a leadership perspective, it was a good experience. Alicia was open to the unit design. I am not asking her to complete a template but I may create one based on what she plans to do with her students. I felt she was able to look at the unit in way that adds a different perspective which will enrich the students learning experiences.

Colleague Sessions

My partner and I have been meeting occasionally to continue our work on the immigration unit.We have focused on the concept of adaptation and Alicia is creating lessons to illustrate how music and dance have adapted overtime and how ethnic music has and does influence music created in the United States today. She has been collecting songs and music that have either integrated ethnic music and created something new or a song that may tell a story of immigrants in America such as the Irish working on the Transcontinental Railroad or Blue Grass Music's roots, or Acadian Music and it's story. She will teach students traditional dance but have them create movements to music as well. She also plans to have the student compose music to go along with Haiku poems they write.