Week 14 Post

Assessment is something that music teachers constantly struggle with. In a group situation like an orchestra, it's hard to pick out one single player and decide how they should be graded. In that kind of situation, it's almost impossible to give a grade that truly reflects the students performance, and also the effort that they put in to learning the music, and producing a quality sound. Dr. Bauer's article was very informative in this aspect. He gave us many good ideas about how we could assess our students. The ways to use tools, such as checklists and rubrics were a very good reminder of what we should be doing in order to make sure our students are properly assessed. With technology it can also be hard to assess what is going on, as some of the work can be harder to assess. Although there are several ways that we are using technology to get around some of our assessment issues. This is one of the reasons that when we explored SmartMusic I was fascinated. It gives us the oppurtunity as music teachers to give tests the way any other teacher does. I think it's a tool that I will use in the future. The article about technology for people with diabilities was also very interesting. I really enjoy that technology is all inclusive so that anyone, regardless of what disability they may have can be something for everyone to use.