Eric began with an introduction to mashups. Not a new thing to me, but I haven’t used them in class. I could. He clued us into a site/dj – DJ Earworm – Music Mashups – bunches of resources.

So far this is about pulling music into the classroom, allowing the children to find meaning in it. He pulled us into Taylor Swift’s 15. Useful for anti-bullying curriculum, lessons on tolerance, acceptance, taking the high road, the power of change, the power of we.

I like what I’m seeing happen here. It looks like a lot of teachers present seem to be finding new ideas. There are likely a great many teachers who don’t know how to or don’t want to pull the kids’ music into the classroom. Maybe they don’t know what music to pull into the classroom at all. This is for those who are afraid to pull “the number one culturally identifying tool” into their classrooms. Very worthwhile session. Although I haven’t touched any new ideas yet, I feel the value of my presence here will be revealed at some point.

I guess I do all this stuff, but where is the question for me? Am I staying current? How does a teacher stay current? What tools are out there to assist with this?

He gave props to a faith based website that promotes parent and youth mutual understanding. The site is a daily one stop shop to help parents stay current with what is going on with their children. Where is the secular power structure?

I would offer that the separation between church and state is tenuous as things stand right now. How can atheists, agnostics, and the myriad of faiths out there keep up with the conservative movement? Under the current. Under the message. Under it all. So many educators have taught a core message to question everything. Every group has a motive. My motive is to get you, all of you, to find yourselves fully. To completely realize your self. Not mine. Your own self. To be and become more of who you are every moment – THAT is my  motive. Your faith, or your manner of belief – you pick.

ENOUGH!!

Part 2 of our time in here took us to WINGCLIPS.COM. Cool stuff. Found out about it a couple of years ago, but never put it to use. This site is sweet. We can search for clips that carry a message that I could talk about, but why listen to me. Right? This is definitely a source I will go to. I recommend it highly.

In the end, I think this session was definitely valuable.

Music? I’m there.

Video? I’m getting there.

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