My Eighth Blog Bost

 Another Sunday, another blog post. 

When I first started my website assignment, I thought making a website would be really hard. I think having sites that help you create your own site, such as weebly (the one I used) is super helpful to get started. I found a layout that I liked, and included a bunch of different pictures for different ensembles I might have. I like that I am able to break everything up into a bunch of different pages, like having one for each group of ensembles. However, I didn't really have the motivation to fill out all of the different pages for that. But if I was a director, I would basically put my class syllabuses, class descriptions, and resources on there at the least. I also didn't realize how easy it would be to make my own calendar, and share it to the website. Additionally, there is a blog section of the website, which could be used for parent announcements. I'm still a little unsure about linking things, as I was able to link everything I wanted, but only sometimes I was able to get it to show up in the color I wanted, so it wouldn't blend in with the background. But it's okay. Overall I think I learned that making a website is easier than I thought, and it isn't too hard to edit my website either.

https://wearetheband.weebly.com/ 

I'm not gonna lie I kind of forgot about Diigo, but checking it for this blog, I realized I posted something on my own Diigo for myself. When I started using Diigo, I realized that it's a great place to put links to websites that I want to come back to, along with any important information I found from the website. I like bookmarking websites on my computer, but I found out it only lets me do so many. Sometimes I save links to websites on google docs, but it's random and gets lost. So I like that I can have my own library of documents or links, as well as a place to share them with others in group settings. The fact that I can highlight things on websites really helps, especially for when there is so much information, and I know I've saved the website for something but now have to comb through to find why I saved it.

I couldn't decide on one, so I found three different websites that blog or post about technology in music education. They have different recommendations for equipment to use, as well as planning lessons in the classroom, and making sure your classroom is accessible. As far as building my own professional development with technology, I can always go online and research tools to use and the latest gadget and apps. However, I did find that there is a music education conference in texas, that also has this organization called TI:ME, there may be something similar at the conference in Florida that I plan on going to. So, I'll be on the lookout for presentations from TI:ME or similar music technology groups. I think in general technology in the music classroom feels kind of new to me. I'm used to paper and just making music together with our instruments, minimal technology involved. So I will have to be open-minded, and access what is attainable for me to implement on a low budget starting out, and what I think would be really awesome to save for as a teacher later down the line.

https://www.robbyburns.com/my-favorite-technology 

https://techinmusiced.wordpress.com/ 

https://tech.ed.gov/blog/

https://ti-me.org/home/