The teacher I interviewed is from the Madison School District and teaches K-5 music. The teacher mentioned that before today, she was not aware of these standards.
When I showed her the standards she was happy to know that she incorporates many of these already. Just the other day she used a website to show children the difference between the sounds of different instruments. Her district has not begun to implement the NET-S or NET-T standards. She attends Staff Meetings and workshops where the importance of media literacy and integrating technology are expressed. She mentioned that the standard that expects students to "Use digital imaging technology to modify or create works of art for use in a digital presentation (1,2,6)" would be perfect in her music classroom if it asked students to create musical compositions. However, it may be hard for students to really do this. How can students all accomplish this? Do they all need their own computer? A music lab would be a nice resource to have.
She also responded to the Teacher standard about modeling digital citizenship. She expressed to me the importance, as a future teacher, to do this. She sees some of her friends on Facebook that are teachers say things that they really shouldn't say. She said it was imperative to have good digital citizenship and to not post anything unprofessional. She said she has seen people get fired over this. This didn't surprise me.
I would personally promote these standards to my peers. I think it is very important that we teach our students how to be users of technology. Students need to have skills and strategies to learn how to respect technology but also need to understand that technology can also be a distraction. These standards provide plenty of ways to get students involved on a higher level than just games and social networking. At first, one might be thinking: "Oh great! MORE standards?" We are in an age where more has to be covered in shorter amounts of time. Educators are pressured to follow State mandated standards. The standards seem to be getting higher in expectation AND number. Considering real-life constraints like lack of funding, lack of sufficient class time, and the fact that everyone learns differently, these standards may not (and in many, MANY cases they do not) reflect reality. In my opinion, students should grasp a few things well rather than a bunch of things not so well. The teacher I interviewed makes sure that students grasp everything before moving on to more material, regardless of what the State says everyone should know. Fortunately, the NET standards may help us aid our students. I believe incorporating NET is worthwhile.
Lesson Plan Analysis Map
