My name is Amanda Peterson, and this is the first post of my new blog.  I am an orchestra teacher at a middle school in Kansas, and I teach grades 6, 7, and 8.  This is our first year as a 1:1 iPad school, and I am very excited about the possibilities and opportunities for my students.  I have not done much with iPads this year, but I have had a playing test in every grade level.  They have recorded themselves, and submitted it online for review, grading and feedback.  This is a great way for me to give personal feedback to each of my students about their playing and what they can work on.  I am hoping to take this a step further to add self-evaluations and goal setting.  This way, students can listen to their own recordings, evaluate themselves, read my evaluation of them, and create a goal to work toward over a specific time frame. 

Another way I'd like to incorporate iPads in a way for students to learn about background and cultural information about pieces of music performed throughout the school year.  This year, I am focusing on multi-cultural music; the next concert is focusing on Mexico and Africa.  I want my students to research different aspects of each culture, the music of that culture, and how it pertains to the piece of music we are performing.  Students may do this in small groups or independently. 

Next, I would like to use the iPads to practice music theory skills.  There are websites that create games and lessons to help students learn these crucial skills.  I did this last semester as a beginning step, and I did it once this semester.  If I can continue doing this and build upon it, I believe that my students will gain momentous knowledge.

Lastly, I would like to begin a flipped classroom model.  This would give me the ability to have my students watch videos at home explaining a playing technique, either something brand new or a much needed review.  Then, during class time, we could work on the playing aspect of those techniques.  This gives me the chance to take less time explaining why and how the new techniques work, and spend time playing and giving feedback to them on their actual playing abilities.

The most important part of using technology in the orchestra classroom is the ability for my students to become more independent learners.  Hopefully, all of these techniques when combined teach my students how to use technology to further their knowledge base, in music, as well as other areas in their lives.  Through this blog, I will keep updated all of my experiences of the start of iPad use in my orchestra class.