Guitar Genius {presentation}

We've made it to the final work days of our Genius Projects. For my guitar presentation, I have my introduction and research information prepared on Google Slides, will play a Christmas song with two different sounds thanks to my amp, and will end with a conclusion with helpful suggestions based off my own challenges throughout this project. This will require me to bring in my music, guitar, amp, and music stand.

I am feeling nervous about this presentation. Typically I am very comfortable with public speaking thanks to my previous speech experiences. I took two speech classes in college, so that helps. My most intimidating speech, though was at high school graduation. Another reason to feel comfortable is that we've been studying as a class for more than three months, so I know that my students are extremely respectful. This helps me feel more comfortable. To be honest though, I have not practiced as much as I should have these last four weeks, and now I am not as prepared as I should be. This makes me nervous of making mistakes when I play my song selection.

I hope you enjoy my Guitar Genius presentation this week!

{practicing} to be a Guitar Genius

This past week I have been working on the creation part of my Genius Project. This requires me to practice my song(s) that I will be performing with different sound settings to my class. I have been trying to complete most of my research during class and then practicing guitar three nights every week. Some weeks I have done a good job of practicing, but there was one night that I thought I was going to fall asleep with my guitar on my lap! So I went to bed instead.

I am finding that it's difficult to practice guitar on the nights that I have basketball games or late practice, but I also find that even though this is my homework, I enjoy this time and it's a relaxing part of my evening. My dog Chance is a little confused by what I'm doing. He stares at me, and occasionally barrels over to be pet when I pause between songs.

I have chosen to play a holiday tune because then students will be familiar. It is also practical for me! Christmas break is coming up and I will be able to play sing-along songs for my nieces and nephew now. I have been practicing two different songs since I haven't decided which to play. It'll either be a fingerstyle of "The First Noel" which is my personal favorite to play or "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". This one would be fun to play with the rock-style settings on my amp!

Here is Carrie Underwood's version of "The First Noel".

I will NOT be singing when I present, but this is beautiful and for any students reading this before my performance, you may be able to sing along!

Just for fun, I found this rock version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

Deer students, please don't expect this kind of expertise from me.

I'm looking forward to preparing my presentation and performing next week already. Yikes!
Thanks again for following this Genius Journey!

Guitar Genius {research focus}

The first step I needed to accomplish was to dust off my guitar case and get this musical beauty set back up on it's rightful place on her stand. Yes, I personify my guitar. I spent 33 minutes searching through all the electronic cords in our house looking for the power cord and auxiliary cord to connect my Taylor T-5 to my Fender Mustang I amp. Guess where I found it... yeah, in my bag of guitar supplies.

Once I got my guitar unpacked and plugged in (which took 31 minutes longer than I expected), I had to tune my guitar. Despite being a recluse in it's case for over a year, it wasn't as out of tune as I expected. The first strum still made my ears burn, but it is relatively painless to correct. No, I cannot tune by ear. I can tell you when it's off, but don't have the skill to correct it.

Alright, power source ready, tuned guitar, and now it was time to warm up. Ay. Ay. Ay.

My fingers are out of shape! Compared to what I used to do, they are slow and I felt like I could only get them moving one tempo and trying to swing notes got me mixed up. However, I successfully made it through two warm-ups both with a pick and finger style.

After this warmup, I did my first research step: examined what I already know. While in college, I took a year of lessons, one semester with a small group and one semester private lessons. Luckily, since I was earning a minor, my program of study wasn't as intense as music majors. Did you know they practice THREE to FIVE hours EACH DAY?! Anyway, I started looking at all the scales and arpeggios I had memorized about six years ago, and yikes! I feel like I don't remember any of it anymore.

Copies of scales memorized while in college.

It's intimidating to feel like I've lost all of this knowledge and skill, but then I returned my thoughts to my goals of this project:

Short term: Learn the settings on my guitar and amp to create different sounds.
Long term: Feel comfortable to play at church.

This helped me narrow the focus of what research I need to do. I want to be able to play notes and chords at different speeds and create different sounds for different genres of music; I'm OK with not being able to improvise over a jazz piece. There's no reason to stress over my scale proficiency.

Now I've been working on learning and relearning settings on my guitar and amp.

This video has helped me understand my own guitar better:

This ten minute tutorial explains the different pickup settings on my guitar. I found it really helpful to set my amp on a neutral setting, watch the video, and pause and change the settings along with Corey Witt. These are sound changes I can adjust right on my guitar without changing the settings on my amp at all. Note, I have to connected to an amp for these, not playing my guitar acoustically.

There's a disc with settings that came with my amp and direction booklet for my amp, so I started looking into this but haven't done much with it yet. Turns out my amp has pre-programmed settings and then I can also create my own once I know what I'm doing.

This next week, I plan to pick out my song to play for students and to learn the settings that are on my amp.

Thanks for following my Guitar Genius Journey!

Becoming a Guitar Genius {one note at a time}

Genius Project is one of our major units in 7th grade, which is an adaptation of Genius Hour. Rather than focusing on one hour each week, we set aside 4-6 weeks for students to brainstorm, research, create, and present their own projects. This year we have decided to switch from keeping journals to writing blog posts, so I will model with my own! This first blog post is to describe what topic I have chosen and why.

This years Genius Project for me is to become a Guitar Genius! I admit, I have been playing guitar since I was 6 years old, but adulting has gotten in the way and I haven't played for a few years. Specifically, my short-term goal is to learn how to use my amp and it's settings to create different sounds. I also have the long-term goal to play in church when I'm more comfortable with these settings and back in a routine of practicing consistently.

My guitar {one of them actually}
 This is a Taylor T5, which I saved for one summer during college to buy.
If you ever buy a guitar or piano, go here: Carlson's Music World
Amazing service!!!

I miss playing my guitar! This is the most important reason why I chose this topic for my Genius Project. I fell in love with guitar at a young age and thankfully had supportive parents who arranged lessons for me, and I continued to use my guitar to help me earn a music minor in college. I have been meaning to be more consistent with practicing, and this project will help me do that! Another reason I chose this topic is because my music ability is not natural, but requires lots and lots of practice. I related with one of my colleagues when she said, "I can play notes, but playing and creating music is not my talent." I know that practicing will help me feel more comfortable.

My Mustang GT amp {I have very little idea how to use this}

For my creation I plan to learn a new song (maybe one my 7th graders will recognize?!) and play the chorus in a variety of settings on my amp. In four or five weeks, I don't think it's realistic for me to learn multiple songs with the settings on my amp. Perhaps my song will be a holiday tune with holiday break coming up. I know this part of my project may change as I research more information.

I hope you enjoy reading about my Guitar Genius Journey!

For any readers wondering, last year I modeled learning the basic skills of crocheting by creating a blanket for my car and have grown to making a triangular scarf. Here's the Pinterest inspiration of the scarf I'm currently working on: Caron Cakes Triangle Scarf

Embracing an "Innovator's Mindset"

Back in July, our teacher book club tackled reading George Couros' The Innovator's Mindset. 

https://georgecouros.ca/blog/the-innovators-mindset-book

Though it's been a few months since I've read this book, it has been inspiring me throughout the first quarter of the school year, not with specific plans, but with the idea that it's not only "ok" to try something new, rather applauded and necessary! This is why I want to share my reflective takeaways of this book. 

George Couros has over 17 years of educational experience, and you can read about him here on his website. 

The back of this book advocates that any leader in a school will benefit from reading this book, and I definitely agree. In our book club, our principal joined us and he exclaimed that this book had him ready to go back to school and excited to make a difference. Teachers of any level or content will be encouraged from this book.

As a teacher, I felt that the messages were inspirational. It didn't necessarily spark specific lesson plans that I wanted to add to my curriculum (which is sometimes a relief!); however, it helped me see my current curriculum with new eyes to see which ways I have tried to innovate and those that will benefit from innovation.

It also had me thinking about what I have my students reading and writing in my class: "In our world today, what is a student more likely going to need to be able to write: an essay or a blog post?" One of my projects throughout the year is to have students read independent books, completely their choice: novels, nonfiction, chapter books, or short biographies--it's completely up to them, and I ask them to write reviews on Goodreads or our Google Classroom. However, this year I had them read a blog post from a writer about why they should write reviews and what they should you include. I'm wondering what other blog posts I could have them read before asking them to write one themselves...

Another recommendation from Couros that I want to embrace is collaboration. He explains the importance, "Innovation (and enjoyment) flourishes when teachers collaborate to learn and practice new strategies. Isolation is often the enemy of innovation." I have been in the position of being the only teacher of my grade level and now with shared classes, and there are many benefits to collaborating! Sometimes collaboration requires us to compromise, but our relationships grow stronger because of this.

Much more could be said about The Innovator's Mindset! If you're considering a teacher book club, this needs to be on your list. George Couros also has resources for you to use on his website. 

Speed Date {Books} on the First Day

Woohoo! School has arrived here in Minnesota, and I couldn't wait to share my classroom with students this morning. Not only did I have new flexible seating, but I completely changed my first day curriculum.

Flexible seating and books ready to be "dated."

I have used Book Speed Dating in my classroom before, but this is the first time on the FIRST day. Why the change?

I must admit, I saw Kelly Gallagher post the same idea on his Twitter, which was encouraging. I highly recommend following him!

As I was preparing my classroom, I asked myself what were my goals for the year. This is the first one I chose to display prominently:

I shared this goal with my students and I told them that we were going to start aiming for it right away.

To begin, I placed books from our classroom library throughout the room. I did my best to mix genres at each spot to offer variety.

When students came into the room, I explained my goal and why; then I shared their "golden ticket" with them. You can find a copy here.  

I demonstrated to the students how to review the books before deciding if the book was worthy of their "Want to Read" lists:

1. Switch seats when the timer buzzes--no jumping ahead; no staying behind.

2. Focus on your "date." Limit your talking.

3. Judge the cover.

4. Read the blurb and about the author.

5. Look at size: the number of pages, size of font, words per page.

6. Read the first 3 pages.

7. Decide if the book is worthy of your chart! (Not all books need to be on your chart)

This sheet guided them how to "date" their book and allowed them to record which books interested them and now they can save it to remind them which they may want to read later.

In my classroom, each "date" was 2:30 long. The timer was on the board to keep us all focused.

We continued for approximately 25 minutes. Then students completed the reflection "What types of books interest you? Explain why!" as a quick write, again with 2:30. I made a point to explain that this was an open-ended question and they could tell me about books they didn't enjoy, favorite books, etc. 

Then MY favorite part! I showed students how to utilize our classroom library, which has a simple checkout clipboard, return and repair bins. Students then checked books out!

So what's next? I'm planning several opportunities for students to share books.

One is this new bookcase display. Students will be recommending books to their classmates by decorating the spines of books. 

At the end of each quarter, students write book reviews online, either via Google Classroom or Goodreads to share their thoughts with their peers. 

And one still developing plan:

Reading and Writing Challenges! More to come later this year. 

I hope this inspires you to find ways to share books and reading with your students!

Happy school year!

Avast ye! (Pay attention) and Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess

I loved reading Dave Burgess' Teach Like a Pirate during our teacher book club this summer. Why?

http://daveburgess.com/

Just read the title! Ever since Pirates of the Caribbean, I've wanted to be a pirate, so what does it mean if I teach like a pirate? 

Burgess opens with this: "Pirates are daring, adventurous, and willing to set forth into uncharted territories with no guarantee of success. They reject the status quo and refuse to conform to any society that stifles creativity and independence. They are entrepreneurs who take risks and are willing to travel to the ends of the earth for that which they value."

Don't you want to adventure like Jack Sparrow?

https://pirates.disney.com/movies

In some seriousness, below are my top three reasons for encouraging other teachers who are passionate about teaching students to read this book:

First: It was an enjoyable and easy read. I could sit down on my couch, put my feet up, and read without stopping. Occasionally I did end up stopping, either because my adorable lab still thought he was a lap dog OR I was inspired and needed to write down an idea before it sailed away from me. (See what I did there?)

Second: This book will help you see how you show your enthusiasm. I reflected on my favorite teachers throughout my school career, from elementary all the way through college. I asked myself, "Why did I love these teachers and their classes?" Don't get me wrong, I reflected on this same question during college too, but once you are really out to sea, theory and practice can take on different perspectives. Then the question morphed into, "How am I mimicking those teachers?"

Again, Burgess has an answer: "I'll always choose a teacher with enthusiasm and weak technique over one with brilliant strategies but who is just punching the clock. Why? An enthusiastic teacher can learn technique, but it is almost impossible to light a fire inside the charred heart of a burned-out teacher." You'll have to read the book yourself to learn about the different types of passion you can show enthusiasm for.

Weren't your favorite teachers the most enthusiastic? Mine were. 

Third: This book is meant to be inspiring. I didn't find a go-to book of lesson plans to commandeer. Instead, Burgess' examples of projects, teaching style, and engaging hooks got me to think about ways that I would like to create MORE in my own classroom. You don't have to be a creative person; you just have to be open to new ideas and the concept of failure: "If you haven't failed in the classroom lately, you aren't pushing the envelope far enough. 'Safe' lessons are a recipe for mediocrity at best."

If you are in education and feel like you're lost in a storm, please consider reading this book to rediscover your treasure and passion for teaching.

“I'll always choose a teacher with enthusiasm and weak technique over one with brilliant strategies but who is just punching the clock. Why? An enthusiastic teacher can learn technique, but it is almost impossible to light a fire inside the charred heart of a burned-out teacher.” 

A Grand Idea: Teacher Book Clubs

A wonderful colleague and I had a GRAND idea this spring. 

We started a...

TEACHER BOOK CLUB.

Why?

We both have these two desires for our teaching careers: 

1. to create a positive reading culture within our school for our students
2. to be part of a professional community dedicated to facing everyday challenges with passion and innovation

We are leading by example (because we know students learn from observation). Reading doesn't have to happen within a vacuum; reading can be (and arguably should be) a social activity to be the catalyst of discussion, the sharing of ideas, and opportunities of growth to benefit us, our students, and our communities.

We decided that our book club is open to all of our secondary staff: teachers, administrators, substitutes, support staff, and anyone else willing to grow as a professional. Our books have been chosen by the group of us attending our informal noon meals (because we are not above bribing our friends and colleagues with food...).

Before Minnesota schools resume, I want to share with you what we've read this summer.

June: 

http://daveburgess.com/

July: 

https://georgecouros.ca/blog/the-innovators-mindset-book

August: 

http://heyjuliesmith.com/my-books/

In the coming days (or weeks or months), I will continue to share my takeaways from these texts and our continuing book club journey.

Please share your own tales of book clubs, as a student, as a teacher, or--simply--as a reader.

Connect with me on Twitter @sharingengteach