The richest man in town

Two kids with a house full of electronics, Netflix and a library of kids DVDs and what do they pick to watch (and are captivated watching it)....

Every year it is a family tradition to watch "It's A Wonderful Life" and after all these years it still seems fresh. Here are a few reflections on the film after watching it now as an adult:
- Sadly, Pottersville does not seem that far removed from present day Regina. Is it too much to ask that everyone has four walls, a fireplace and somewhere decent to raise their family?
- Uncle Billy! What a tool! Every year I get more upset with him and what is his deal anyway? I am sure it is some form of mental illness, but man is he strange.
- everyone mistreated and took George for granted. From his dad asking him to stay on at the buildings and loans to his brother not keeping his end of the deal to take over so George could go to school. I really feel for the guy and it makes it that much more powerful when he snaps. Classic old-school repression
- it is comforting to me to think there is someone out there looking out for us throughout our lives no matter what your religious beliefs.
- George's life DID matter to all the lives he helped improve in Bedford Falls. While not as flashy as his brother or Sam Wainwright, he quietly did the most Christian thing one could do by always helping others and doing so without complaint or expectation of a return.
- it is amazing how powerful people coming together can be.
- tell those people who make a difference in your life how much they have done for you.
- I hope my kids get as much out of this film as it has given me year after year.

With so much negativity out there it is hard to remain optimistic. Watching this film is a reminder of all the good out there and I will do my best to be the sort of father/husband/friend/son to my family that George is to his.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Trying to stay connected in a disconnected, "connected" world

Hi everyone,

I have mixed feelings about this last post of the class. Normally, I can't wait to finish a class and move on, but this feels a little different. While I have never met most of you, I feel like I know you so well based on your posts and hopefully you know a little about me too. I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of so many people in this class from our instructors, to our presenters (giving their time when these world-class experts could charge a hefty fee-I'm not sure the exact arrangement Alec worked out, but I bet it is not $1000's of fees) to the people in the class sharing their knowledge it has been one of the most enriching experiences I have had. This was my 4th on-line class and by far the best in content, instruction, course materials and wealth of information. No disrespect to our instructors or presenters, but most of the best material came from each other. Can you imagine a classroom where this already happens? I bet it does happen, but not in my classroom and I hope that changes. I feel empowered to move forward with so many ideas that I received from people in this class that are already making this sort of dream class a reality. I have loved this class and always looked forward to our Tuesday night sessions.

I personally feel more detached the more technology I have in my life and one of the reasons I rationalize getting new technology (i.e smartphone, tablet) is to be more connected. I definitely am too connected to my devices. Do any of you have similar feelings? To me the fact that I can check my work email before I go to bed or anyone can get a hold of me just about anytime is not progress. What I try and do lately is to find balance, not be so dependant on devices and maintain a real relationship with my friends and family.

I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of so many people in this class from our instructors, to our presenters (giving their time when these world-class experts could charge a hefty fee-I'm not sure the exact arrangement Alec worked out, but I bet it is not $1000's of fees) to the people in the class sharing their knowledge it has been one of the most enriching experiences I have had. This was my 4th on-line class and by far the best in content, instruction, course materials and wealth of information. No disrespect to our instructors or presenters, but most of the best material came from each other. Can you imagine a classroom where this already happens? I bet it does happen, but not in my classroom and I hope that changes.

This week's topic was a suitable wrap-up for us as everything up until this point has been an example of the benefits of networked and connected learning. While the presentation was great, the amount of side conversations and humour several times derailed the discussion a bit. Not in a bad way, but what was cool was that so many in the class were engaged. Most on-line classes I have taken are passive to a fault. Participation is calculated on how many minutes you were logged into the course site or the number of posts you made. All of these combinations usually made for a lot of "talking" and not a lot of "listening". This class was different as there was so much responding to what people posted in a sincere way. While I get the instructors needing a quantifiable way of marking participation, there is something very disconnected at the same time of relying on this.

Alec and Katia were great about opening the door to many wonderful rooms for us to play in. I know when I asked them questions they responded directly, but for the most part they managed the class rather than lead the discussion (which was great). It forced me to be more active and participatory. Did you know Alec has just under 70,000 followers and has sent out 104,000 tweets on Twitter? Incredible! We know Alec is great, but it is hard for us to measure his influence outside of our class. We have had one of the world's finest people in the field for a teacher and his role was mostly to get out of the way. Again, no disrespect, but he is an example of the sort of thing he preached of giving  students a voice and redefining the role of the teacher.  His example of how he organized the class along with Katia is one of the biggest take-away things I have from this class. It makes me want to do the same thing for my students to hand over the power of learning into their capable hands and my role changes dramatically in order to help them attain the things they need to learn. This sounds simple, but I fear it as it really is a sea change for the way I have run my classroom for 15+ years. I hope I am a strong enough teacher like many of you already are to be able to stick to my guns on this and make this sort of classroom environment a reality.

Speaking of fear, one other take-away that applies to this week's topic is my fear of trying new things. I have really gone out of my comfort zone this semester and while it was a little scary, I am pleased with the results. Having a more connected classroom (i.e. my blog, student blogs) has paid off in better student engagement. The kids in the classroom today are different than when we went to school so relying on old practices will not speak or engage todays students. It blows me away to read the student blogs by teachers like Lisa who have been getting very young children to express themselves. From a kid talking about his grandma to another talking about how much he loves basketball these young voices are wonderful and I am so pleased there are teachers out there like Lisa who give kids a voice. I am a parent and I would love if my kids did a similar project, not because they use technology, but I want my own children to be expressive and feel like what they say matters. These are some wonderful lessons being taught to young people.

In closing, I have no idea what a classroom will look like 10 years from now. I am sure there will be similarities to today's classrooms, but with the rapid changes happening it is too difficult to predict. What I am optimistic about is giving students a way to become connected and explore. To teach kids that what they say matters and that someone is listening. My own fear held me back in these areas and I feel stronger now that I have been shown these ways of expression and I feel confident that no matter how technology changes, I will be able to be a effective teacher and give my students the tools they need to express themselves for years to come.
Sincerely,
Ryan Hicks
December 2nd, 2014

If You Don't Like What They're Saying, Change The Conversation

This has been quite a depressing week for me with our topic. Audrey Watters' presentation was hard to stomach. She did say it would be shocking, but I did not find it that shocking. I certainly have not been the victim of the type of abuse she and other's in our class such as Tammy Lee have experienced.
http://misstlee.edublogs.org/2014/11/20/speaking-from-my-spot-in-the-corner-let-the-over-sharing-begin/

While I have not directly experienced it, that does not mean I can not relate or empathize to it. It was not shocking because I have heard so many people with similar stories. Shocking to me would be this was the first time I had heard of such a story and I would be shocked to believe that it could happen. Sadly, it does happen. I am not excusing it, but it makes me sad that it keeps happening to more and more people (both men and women as men in the class shared their own on-line harassment tales).

I was tempted to call my blog this week the same as the James Brown song, "This is A Man's World".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juTeHsKPWhY

The chorus is, "This is a man world, but it would not mean nothing without a woman or a girl". James Brown was one of the truly great musicians of the last 100 years, but as a man he was deeply flawed including his treatment of women. Why should powerful men such as James Brown, Jian Gomeshi Bill Cosby, John Lennon, Rick James, Phil Spector or Ray Rice receive a free pass in terms of assault and abuse just because they are either great artists, athletes or entertainers? CBS sportscaster with the same name of James Brown gave a great commentary on the the message we a a society send out to kids in regard to the treatment of women:
http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2014/09/12/3566738/cbs-host-domestic-violence/
His honest, insightful commentary was shocking in that it occurred during a pre-game show. I am so tuned out as I assumed pre-game shows were glorified commercials for products that I was not expecting that message. Brown talked about the impact of having a negative view on women is and that "attitudes will eventually manifest in some fashion".

I mentioned Phil Spector and Phil Spector is responsible for making some of the greatest rock and roll records of all time in the 1960's. He was always known for being eccentric,a little crazy and was rumoured through the years as being violent towards women. In the 1960's he recorded a song with his group The Crystals called "He Hit Me and It Felt Like A Kiss", written by Gerry Goffin and Carol King.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f20Oz9Yr_So 
The husband and wife duo were inspired to write this song after a conversation with their babysitter, who recalled a story of an old abusive boyfriend. She was okay with it as she felt like that was a way to let her know how much he cared for her. The Crystals HATED the song and did not want to do it, but Phil Spector basically forced them to record it. Why he wanted to record it is a mystery but certainly could be interpreted as a red flag from long ago. Currently, Phil Spector is serving life in prison for the murder of a women he shot after going on a date. Perhaps this is the sort of thing James Brown meant when he said at some point it will manifest.

It is easy to start to paint with a pretty big brush after hearing a few stories (i.e All NFL players disrespect women, all musicians beat women) and we need to be careful about our assumptions. One of my favourite records is "Grandma's Hands" by Bill Withers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv5pagal-ls
The above link is great as it includes a short intro by Bill on why he wrote the song. The song is a love song about his grandma and all the good things she has done, including teaching him what love is all about. I felt inspired by this song and one song I am working on is about my grandma too. Keep in mind this song was written in the 1970's so we can't say men respecting women or showing positive messages is a new thing. That is the danger of painting with too big a brush.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, this has been a depressing week for me. While not shocking, it was still hard to read or hear Audrey's story and many people in the class including Tammy and Carmen Holata shared similar stories. I was especially impressed with the passion of Carmen's post and that she will continue to speak loudly in her blog titled, "Can You Hear Me Now".
http://mrsholota.com/can-you-hear-me-now/
It is depressing to think that in all of our progress, this still happens. I would hope that over time things would improve and judging from this week's discussion I don't feel like we as a society have progressed that much in terms of the treatment and status of women. I love the show Mad Men and to me two of the most interesting characters are Joan and Peggy. While the story is set in the 1960's, sadly many of the storylines involving those two characters seem like they could be happening in 2014 (ie. no one taking Peggy seriously as a boss or people assuming Joan "slept" her way to the top instead of rightfully earning partnership).

The issue is depressing for me as I tend to see myself as an optimistic person and after hearing these stories it really has made me question how far we have come. The allegations against Bill Cosby are especially troubling as while I don't know the man, I loved the Cosby show and idolized the man. How could Mr. Huxtable do such a thing? We in North America are quick to point a finger at other cultures in the world in their treatment or lack of opportunity for women, but what would those countries (or others) say about us? I also try to be respectful of anyone and I would hope to think that I am not part of the problem. Not as a man, but as an individual I have the responsibility to treat all people fairly and I hope that when people judge me as a person my actions reflect the sort of person I want others to view me as. This is not only true for how I treat women, but for all I do. It is important to me to treat all people fairly and with kindness and I would assume most people would try and live their life the same way. I also know that most "bad guys" don't view themselves as bad guys and in their head can justify their actions. Whether the issue is mansplaining or rationalizing violence towards women I would think most people who do those things sleep fine at night because in their mind they are right.  

One area that really made me think about Audrey's presentation was she mentioned she has a team in place that if there was something that blew up on social media or was too hurtful, she could walk way and her team could manage the site. I see bullying all the time on social media and sometimes the best thing to do is to disconnect from it. However, whether you are an adult or a high school kid those messages can be so hurtful it is hard to disconnect and protect ourselves. Amanda Todd is sadly an example of this. What sort of team did she have? What sort of protection or support do we give to anyone? If more people speak out that it is wrong to cyber-bully than maybe thing will get better. My friend Val wrote a terrific song about this and proceeds from the sales of the song go towards the Amanda Todd Foundation. The song is called, "I'm A Loser and I Like It".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr0E4zjaIb0

This morning before I sat down to write my blog, I was working on an assignment in my songwriting class. Part of the class is evaluating the work of other students in the class. Of the five songs I listened  to today, two contained lyrics that were borderline criminal. One lyric was about having sex (I assume consensual) while being filmed by a webcam (I assume again consensual) and another was about hitting and pulling hair during sex as a thrilling act (kind of vague in if it was consensual in addition to other creepy lyrics like the man staring at her and making her feel uncomfortable). Did I miss something in the class that our songs were supposed to be creepy, violent, perverse and demeaning to women?  I did call to task the writers of those songs and whether it was their intention or not how inappropriate their lyrics were. In both cases, the songs were love songs written by men and they were trying to say how much they loved the women in the song. That is a pretty twisted way of thinking that is a positive way of expressing love. Maybe part of the problem is men knowing how to express themselves and show emotion?

Moving forward, I will try to follow Audrey's and Carmen's advice in speaking out against such things as they happen. I was told long ago, "when you say nothing you are saying something." While I proudly say I am not part of the problem if I stick my head in the sand and ignore it I feel I am part of the problem. Perhaps we are moving forward as more people are coming forward, both men and women, and saying this is not right or acceptable. While the voices did not seem to exist in Peggy Olson's 1960's they do seem to exist in 2014 and that is a sign of progress. With many of these issues, including gamer gate, getting attention I am starting to feel a bit more optimistic for our future. What is clear is we need strong voices like Audrey's, Carmen's, Tammy's and others to give courage to all out there who need some hope and leadership. To quote Peggy Olson, "If you don't like what they are saying, change the conversation."

Say something!

Hi everyone,

I am in the home stretch of my MOOC on Songwriting. The last assignment is to create a song (imagine that)! What I like about the class is has not been, "Go make a song", like it was a magic trick. The class was set-up sequentially so that every week we worked on a new skills (mostly creative writing). For example, in week one we were introduced to the concept of three boxes. Each box would reveal something about the song and box became a little bigger indicating new information that would forward the message of the song. The third box was the payoff, or the central idea of what everything was moving to (i.e. like the plot diagram moving to a climax in our digital storytelling presentation). Here is a screen shot of not only the final assignment, but a diagram of the three boxes to illustrate the idea:

As the weeks continued, we learned more detail about putting ideas together. At no time did Pat Pattison (the instructor) say, "here is how you write a chorus" or "here is how you write a bridge". It was all about generating ideas. For example, in week one we learned about your six best friends; who, what, when, where, why and how. Does this sound familiar? Good story telling is universal no matter if it is writing a song or doing a Prezi. Some of the "best" songs are musically simple, but what makes them great is the story.

Here is another screenshot from the class. The layout is easy to follow and even though it is delivered as "distance" education, the instructor directly address you, which I feel has made it more personal than if someone filmed the instructor giving the lesson in a traditional classroom. Simple, yet effective and personal.

As I prepare my final song (which I will eventually share along with more detail in my final presentation) I look back and see I have gained so many skills beyond becoming a better songwriter. For example, in learning the process, it has given me several ideas on how to teach storytelling to a group of students.

Pat gave the example of a bow and arrow and that by learning these skills like development of ideas, your six best friends, stable vs unstable, these skills pull the bow back further. When we eventually release the bow and shoot the arrow (ie. writing a song) the arrow will travel farther and straighter because we were prepared. Telling a story is not an act of magic. It relies on generating ideas, organizing your thoughts, thinking of ways to develop the story and interest so that when you sit down to write it should come quickly.

I remember my favourite math teacher in high school essentially saying the same thing, "math is not magic. There are formulas and strategies and your job is to learn these and find the best one to use in a given situation." Brilliant! Up until then I felt very down on myself as I was terrible at math. I was always thinking it must be easy for everyone and I clearly lacked the "magic" to be able to do it. It was in that teacher's class that I discovered I could do math and I am proud to say that he advice did help.

It is a very powerful thing we have to potential to do in our classes. Without sounding to much like Dr. Phil it is my hope that I can give kids the opportunity to have a voice. What an amazing time we live in where technology has made it possible for just about anyone of any age to connect. I believe +Jennifer Stewart-Mitchell along with others in many previous blogs spoke about their desire to empower, create access and through this give more people the opportunity to learn. As we have seen in this class we can learn from each other. I applaud the many teachers in this class who have encouraged blogging and set-up their students with how to blog. From the comments I have read it seems that the students have really enjoyed this opportunity and it shows that anyone, even young kids have something very powerful to say. By my journey into songwriting I am not only developing my skills, but wanting to show students a simple, artistic way to express themselves. I feel like I have never really been that eloquent and songwriting has given me a way to express myself, my feelings and my message in a more powerful way than I ever could in a journal or blog. I appreciate reading those that have that skill and I respect the gifts they have.

As we wrap up our class I hope everyone on their own journey is finding success. From learning to play guitar, photography, learn a new language, learn to cook, setting up digital resources and others I have enjoyed reading the progress you all have been making. Keep up the good work and enjoy your experience as we come closer to the conclusion!

Voice for the Voiceless- Digital Storytelling

Good day to you!

This past week I have been doing a great deal of thinking on storytelling. Truthfully, in our EC & I class this week's topic had very little to do with communication technologies or social media; It was about good storytelling. For thousands of years people have been telling stories for a variety of reasons. These include a moral lesson (like a fable or a story for a religious text), entertainment (Star Wars), expression (songwriting), teach us history (The murder of Medgar Evans in Bob Dylan's "Only A Pawn In Their Game http://www.eyeneer.com/video/rock/bob-dylan/only-a-pawn-in-their-game) and many other reasons. All good storytelling has the following traits in common:
- the story has a clear message
- the story, while perhaps about a specific story, has universal meaning
- has "familiar" elements (we can relate to the story as it might be similar to a story we previously had heard
- says something in a unique way. The author is able to say something that has not quite been said like this before.

This last point is key to good storytelling. Think about it? We are surround by "stories" daily. I appreciated Alan Levine's presentation last week and I liked that he included commercials. One commercial was about a product and the benefits of that product and other one had little to do about the product, but it told the story of a shy boy getting ready for a speech. I can see why Alan selected both, but to me the more human story of the shy boy was more effective. To me, that boys story is all one we can relate to and in turn it has a deeper, almost subliminal impact. I remembering watching an interview with George Lucus in which he stated he did about a year and a half of research on "stories" while working on the original script for Star Wars. He went back and studied legends, and old stories (i.e. King Arthur, Hamlet) and based his story on archetypes (ie. the hero, the rebel, the mystic, the evil presence) from these stories. Even though the story was futuristic, he wanted the audience to feel as though they already knew these characters so they could relate to them(Long ago in a galaxy far, far away).

The concept of digital storytelling is an interesting one. As Danielle Degelman mentioned in her blog, "Children are full of stories".
http://deedegs831.wordpress.com/2014/11/11/once-upon-a-digital-story/
It has been years since I worked with little kids, so I appreciated Lisa K sharing her class blog
http://kidblog.org/MrsKowalyshynsClass/
It is true that kids have their own stories and what they say are delightful. I appreciated reading about someone's basketball team or helping grandma.

Digital Storytelling is all about expression and finding a voice. Years ago at an Apple Distinguished Educators meeting in Quebec City I worked with a group on a digital storytelling project. It started out as a photo safari, where we took pictures and then put them together to tell a story. While we were taking photos, I came across a poster for a missing child. The poster made me think about children, rights of children and forms of abuse (i.e. abduction). Our photo project than became seeing the world through a child of abuse's eyes. The project was probably one of the hardest things I had to do, but it did not start out that way. No one told us that was the subject we had to take on, but it happened on our journey and became the journey.

To me the biggest significance of digital storytelling is it empowers and gives a voice to those who sometimes do not have a voice. Many artists are not necessarily eloquent with words or do not quite fit into normal society. It is the very fact that they are often outsiders that makes them want to look for new ways to express themselves. I feel proud that I have selected doing a MOOC on Songwriting as it is a way for giving someone a voice and by studying songwriting.  I hope to not only become a better writer, but to help give the tools to my students to help give them a voice.

For my own songs, I worked closely with filmmaker Brian Ganong to create a music video for every song on my album. The videos were meant to reflect the meaning/feeling of each of the stories contained in each song and in their own way were examples of digital storytelling. Here is the video Brian made for my song, "Every Step". The song was written eight years ago while my wife was pregnant with our first child. I used to sing and read stories to my daughter Lily while she was in the womb. I had such love for someone whom I had never met and so I was moved to write this song. I feel Brian was able to capture that love and playfulness in his video. His video is really special as now Lily is almost 8 and we have another daughter, Maggie. Even though they are growing up, that special love that I have for them has grown. From feedback I have received (from parents and non-parents) they too can relate to the words of the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtIPxB0hXss

My daughter Lily as a little baby

Lily is now almost eight! Other than getting bigger, she has not really changed that much (she is still a sweet kid)!

Major Project Reflection

I thought I would take some time to reflect on my major project, which is a Song Writing MOOC I am taking through Berklee.
http://www.berklee.edu/

https://www.coursera.org/course/songwriting

https://www.coursera.org/instructor/~326

The class started about a month ago and so far I have really enjoyed it! Up until this week, it has mainly been a creative writing style course dealing mostly with lyrics. The past week and this week have started to introduce music (ie. melodies and harmonies) into the class. The reason I wanted to focus on this class was I wanted to improve my abilities as a song writer. Music has always come easily to me, but the lyrics have always been challenging. It is difficult for me express myself in words as they either come out not quite what I wanted to say or too cliché. I am very aware of this and I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to learn something not only new, but for personal enjoyment. I do teach song writing in my classes at work, but I took this class more for reasons of wanting to learn something new rather than something useful for my classroom (although so much I what I have learned does apply to the classes I teach).

In a perfect world, I would love to travel to Berklee to study. In the real world, I would need to leave my family, quit my job and grow a money tree in order for this to happen (yes, there must be money trees in my alternate real world). I would want to travel to Berklee in Massachusetts as their music school is world-class and I would love to immerse myself in their knowledge. What I love about this class is that I feel that I am getting the best of both worlds; I can live and work in my hometown and still get a quality education. This is the appeal of this MOOC and hopefully future MOOCs I might enroll in. My 85 year old grandfather, who passed away last year, for years had taken world history courses by listening to tapes of lectures. I don't know what institution he went through, but essentially it was a similar format to what I am doing. He took the classes because he was interested in the topic and was able to learn new things well into his 80's from his home. I hope to follow in his footsteps and continue my learning based on interest for years to come.

The format is the week's lessons are posted on a Monday and you have a week to work through several video lecture, mini-assignments and quizzes. At the end of the week the assignment is posted and the next set of lectures/ assignments for the next week is given. You have until Thursday (3-4 days) to complete the assignment and then you have 3 days to mark and critique a minimum 5 other classmate's work. You assign them a mark based on a set criteria and give feedback. I am still waiting to hear the feedback from the first assignment,  but so far I like the structure. Pat, the instructor, is very wise and has very good advice. I have not received a mark on my first song writing assignment, but the course has several quizzes in each week and I am scoring near 100% on all of them. If I make a mistake I can go back and re-write the quiz, but for the most part I have been scoring 100% on my first attempts. The course is set-up very logical and what I tend to do is watch the videos several times before I write the test. Like Angus said in his blog this week, I too struggle in traditional school settings. I need a great deal of repetition for something to sink in. In addition, I need a great deal of repetition for something to sink in.
http://www.angusmcintosh.ca/2014/11/how-alec-couros-katia-hildebrandt-and-friends-have-ruined-things-for-me/
On the other hand, I have enjoyed following Carmen Holota's progress on guitar as that is an area more in my comfort zone. I have shared some tips with her and hopefully they have helped her. I feel her pain as it is more difficult to pick up a new skill for me at this point in my life. I really appreciate her sticking with it as sometimes the results are not immediate and it can be discouraging.
http://mrsholota.com/video-did-not-kill-this-radio-star/

While most of the content has been areas I am familiar with, there have been some interesting aspects I never considered before. Pat talks about Aristotle's theory of Prosody. Prosody is where everything is balanced and works together in a work of art. In a song, the lyrics should be appropriate, the music should match the emotion of the lyric and the performance should deliver a convincing take. When all these elements work together then you start to have a song that is meaningful. There are several areas that create balance or imbalance, depending on what you are looking for. For example, even numbers of lines of text generally create balance while odd numbers of lines create imbalance. This is effective as either you want feeling of arrival (like the chorus of a song) or imbalance to reflect an emotion or to move the song forward from verse to verse. The content thus far has focused on:
week one: the idea of a song, your main idea and supporting ideas, balance and imbalance
week two: line length
week three: rhyme and rhythm
week four: making it move (I don't know what this means yet as it was just posted today)

I would love to be in an actual class with Pat and the other students. There is a blog and discussion area for the class, but it is not the same. This has been a challenge as you deal with isolation. I don't feel that so much in the EC & I class as I feel I know many of the students through either actually knowing them (through work or previous classes) or through their reflections. I don't know or can really relate to anyone in my MOOC. When you are creating songs it is very personal and there is something "impersonal" about some on-line classes such as mine. I am a little intimidated submitting my work as I have no idea what sort of judgements strangers will say about my work.

What works for me is playing the videos repeatedly over the course of maybe five days. I will sometimes have the lecture on while I am working on another thing or sometimes take notes as I listen. After repeated listening I go back and take the quizzes. A couple things that I find helpful is I can change the speed of the video (ex. 1.25, 1.5, 2 times as fast works great when I want to just review the video) and I usually put on the captions to see the text that he is speaking. I don't know why this helps, but it does for me.

What I hope to accomplish and eventually share with others are songs that I write. I released my debut album in the summer and I am starting writing songs for the follow-up.
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/prairie-ocean/id894684181
Last night I sat down a revisited a couple songs I have been working on for awhile, but was never happy with the lyrics. I tried applying some of the techniques Pat has taught me and already the songs are greatly improved. I hope to share these soon, but I want to try working them out a bit more. As a writer and musician I appreciate craftsmanship and that is what I strive to do (write really well-crafted pop music). This is no different than a blogger, academic or anyone who writes. We all strive for prosody! 

Great writing is usually great editing and I take my time to work on my songs, edit and get them to a point where I am happy with them. I appreciate Twitter as you have very limited characters to say something. I try not to be careless and I take my time in crafting new songs. However, there is no formula to do it. What I do know is in order for me to be creative I need to recharge and relax. As soon as there is a deadline or a pressure, my creativity usually runs dry. I have found several ways to overcome that and I will continue to do so as I work on my craft.

Here is a screenshot from my class. Here is professor Pat Pattison giving a lecture on song writing.

A question I have for others is, "Are you surprised by what you have learned so far? Has it met your expectations or has there been some aspect that has happened you never considered would happen?" For me, I am surprised by how much new material I have learned. Pat is a great teacher and he has really demystified something that always seemed out of reach for me, which is creating quality lyrics.

Looking back and running forward

I would like to quote the great educational theorist, Kenny Rogers (okay I am talking about THE Kenny Rogers, but he made an excellent point that I will apply in a different context):

Famous for his duets, Rogers talked about how he chose singing partners. “You don’t start with a partner, you start with a song—that’s what makes it work,” he said. “I’ve learned this about duets. Everybody sings better on a duet. It’s like running a hundred-yard dash. You can run it as fast as you think you can. But if you put someone faster next to you, you’re going to run faster.”

http://countrymusichalloffame.org/newsandupdates/posts/interview-kenny-rogers#.VFZTg4fEfKd

Kenny was talking about some of his most successful songs being duets. He liked doing duets as he felt working with other great artists made him sing and perform at a higher level. I heard the story of the recording of Kenny's most famous duet, "Islands in the Stream", a duet he sang with Dolly Parton and a song written for Kenny by The Bee Gees. The Bee Gees in the early 80's were ready to get rid of the massive stereotype hanging over them that they were a disco act (and by this time tastes had changed and they were not the flavour of the month anymore). The Bee Gees wanted to try new things and write for other artists in different genres. As they started the recording process for the song, things just did not seem to click. Kenny had a hard time finding the right feeling for the song and no one was happy with the results. Kenny found out that Dolly was working in the same recording studio and he asked her to come by the recording room where they were working. Kenny wanted to try it as a duet with Dolly and rest is karaoke history. 

I started my 15th year of teaching this year. For the last eight years I have had more or less the same sort of classes (a music teacher at Riffel Catholic High School in Regina). I love my job, but certainly there is a challenge of staying motivated as certain things can become routine. Trying to improve and innovate my teaching was the reason I started in the master's program three years ago. I can say without a doubt the last two months have been some of my most enjoyable of my whole teaching career. The reason for this is all of the new skills and technologies I have learned from this class from presenters, our teachers and my fellow educators taking the class with me. Everyone has been so generous with sharing their knowledge and at first I felt very intimidated. I felt like there were so many wonderful ideas being shared and I had very little to give back in return. 

Up until now, I have never really blogged, shared my learning, shared my students learning or used social media to share education knowledge. I was overwhelmed as so many in the class not only were talking about innovative new technologies, but had already been using them for a long time! I took the advice of many including +Kelly Christopherson +Jennifer Stewart-Mitchell +Lisi Wang and just dived right in. Like Kenny, I instinctively felt like I needed to get out of my comfort zone and try something new.  I know I was not alone in this feeling through our Tuesday night sessions, but it was with the encouragement of these people that really convinced me to just go for it. The following are some of the best resources I have found in the last month:

http://suewaters.com
+Sue Waters was fantastic and I was shocked that she actually commented on one of my comments in a conversation. Sue pointed me in the right direction of some blogs specific to music education and I credit her with really pushing me to discover blogging.

http://mrhicks306.edublogs.org
Here is the blog I started for my music program. The site is easy to use and I can often update it with images from the class as it is happening!

https://www.planboardapp.com
Planboard is great! I now use it to schedule my lessons, plan units and it even ties into the Saskatchewan curriculum. I shared this with my staff and now many teachers at my school are using it. I am working with an intern and she is able to share all of her lessons with me via Planboard.

https://www.coursera.org
I never knew what a MOOC was when this class started. I did a little digging and found Coursera,  which is the largest MOOC site out there. I found a great music course on song writing offered by Berekly. I enrolled and I am about halfway through the class.

https://class.coursera.org/songwriting-005
This is the class I am taking. Pat Pattison, the instructor, delivers a very interesting course. Up until now, there has been very little music discussed as it mostly deals with lyrics. At this point it is more a creative writing class, but that is okay. In the class, I watch videos of Pat's lectures, study song structure, look at examples from existing song, create my own lyrics, review and rate songs by other students in the class and have my songs critiqued.

One of the biggest challenges so far in our EC & I class is finding time. There are so many good resources out there and I need time to discover them. The resources I mentioned above were the ones I have focused on, but there are so many I would like to examine in the next month.

To summarise, it feels pretty crazy as there is so much to learn I feel like I am running in a race with my classmates. Not in a direct competitive way, but I want to contribute and get caught up. At this point I feel like I am contributing and I have had some nice comments on some of the items I have contributed. Even though there is only a month left in this class I am proud of what I have accomplished in the last month and I am looking forward to keep running forward!

P.S.
Someone, somewhere is singing their heart out to, "Islands in the Stream" right now.