Time to get selfish
Well, I have been trying to motivate my students to work on the podcast of the trip to see Joe Fab and they just don’t seem interested. They don’t want to have to “script” anything and I refuse to do work “for them”. I hoped it would be a collaborative process but it seems like they just want me to do all the work. I’m trying to take this with a grain of salt: hey, if they don’t want to work on it, there are plenty of other things we can work on. That leaves me with a project to get together.
I’ve decided to do my own podcast of a song that I’ve written entitled, Life Sails you round in Circles. I am using a program called Band in a Box which allows the user to arrange music digitally. Because I am so used to just recording my voice and a guitar, without all the bells and whistles, this has been a somewhat difficult process. The software is pretty complicated and it’s taking me a while to figure things out. That being said, I am enjoying the process and I look forward to presenting my work to the class.
I think I’ve learned an important lesson from this experience. Sometimes it’s worth it to do things only for yourself. I’m getting a certain gratification from doing a project that has nothing to do with my job and everything to do with who I am as an artist. I think my students could gain from this philosophy too. The bead project is wonderful, and my students have been amazing, but I need to give them a chance to work on themselves a little bit more. I have a few students who I am teaching music to, and who are interested in writing songs. Perhaps learning this new software will open up avenues of music and lyric composition that I didn’t know existed. There are so many different ways to create music with this software, and so many different genres available (almost like templates of music) that some of my students could spend hours playing around with it. I’m excited to see how opening this door might help motivate my students to be more creative, and consequently, more happy with their education.
Jonathan
Jon,
I’m really excited to hear your song once you’ve finished it! I do think it’s important to stop, take a step back, and recenter on your own passions and interests because it truly does drive the energy and excitement into your classroom (hence you opening options up to your students and their interests).
Your experience getting acclimated with the music production software sounds quite similar to what Mandy and I went through in our rather bumpy introduction to iMovie. I do think it is so important, though, to take the time to mess around with the tools available to us and discover the ways we can create with them. If I ever have a free moment or day, I’d really like to sit in front of a Mac and just play!
Amanda
Very wise Jon. I look forward to your podcast. I wonder what your kids might want to podcast if left to their own devices to as Amanda says, just play? KES
It was wonderful to share your music video with you on TH. night. Now I’m excited to see how your students, inspired by you, will respond. Can you post the link to the video on your blog Jon? KES
I agree with Dr. Stearns! Your music video was superb on Thursday night. I also find that Amanda’s advice on recentering your own passions in order to drive energy into your classroom is a very wise thought. It looks like this video has really helped you do that, Jon. Nice work. -Sofia