Using blogs in the high school band setting

This summer I discovered something that really changed the way that I used my time, and allowed me to accomplish goals that I had set for myself. It is called the "3 in 30 Method."

Since it was so great for me on a personal level, I began to think about how useful it might be to high school students to help them with goal setting, and goal achieving.

I kept thinking about how we could make this work. I called a friend on staff at the high school (initials L.H.) that I knew already used blogs with her students, and I picked her brain about how she managed them in her classes.

Then I lined up the help of some of the tech savvy higher ups and we got all 33 students set up with their own blogs on blogger. We ran in to some interesting problems on the way, but persevered, and now all of the student blogs are up and running, using this "3 in 30" program that I mentioned.

The technology piece is exciting, but the real value of the assignment is watching the students take ownership of their musicianship. It is an exciting thing to watch! :)

Because we are now using the internet as a large part of the expectations in the class, even though we rarely use CLASS TIME to complete the assignments, the integration of 1 to 1 technology could NOT be coming at a better time. I was thrilled to learn that second semester, all of the students will have an internet ready device available to them.