Technology Integration Plan

           My Matrix was created off of a recent lesson plan I had created for a second grade dance class on Non-locomotor and Locomotor movement. My lesson is made to increase my students ability and understanding of Locomotor and non-locomotor movement. I want my students to understand the literacy behind the vocabulary and also be able to create there own movement sequence using the the two movement types. This lesson plan will take place over four different class periods, I will introduce the lesson, then have them use improvisation to figure out ways they can incorporate locomotor and non-locomotor movement into their own body language. I will use youtube videos to provide examples of the two types of movement, along with a smart board presentation, and music. I will use a video camera, and a recorder as well so the students can see themselves dancing, to then truly differentiate the difference between movement that is taking place in ones personal space, and movement that is traveling through space. I will ask my students to support their intention of the phrase they will produce by supporting there choices of movement with technological embellishments. I will stress to my students the importance of using technology in a way that supports their intent, and not just use random youtube videos that do not help support there ideas. Throughout the project I will give them time working with their partners to research using the internet, video taping and recording each others movement to then create some type of collective presentation. Keeping in mind that this is a second grade class, I will be open to many different idea that my students may come up with when incorporating technology into there presentation. The use of technology will be fairly new to some students who are in the second grade so I plan to be extremely encouraging and supportive of all there ideas.

          The first section of my Matrix is the introduction to my lesson plan. The first standard that covers my lesson plan is Identifying the elements of dance in planned and improvised dance sequence. This will be the access part of my lesson, to get my students involved and interested in the lesson. I will identify and introduce the lesson plan by showing youtube videos on examples of locomotor and locomotor movement. I will also show a smart-board presentation explaining the lesson in detail. For this part of the lesson my students will simply listen and understand the lesson. The second row of my Matrix will be the analyzing and the creating part of the lesson, now the students will get involved. The standard that supports this part of the lesson is the students working in small groups creating and performing improvised movements using locomotor and non locomotor movements. For this portion of the lesson I will film the students, and have them watch themselves dance. The third part of the lesson will be the analyze and creating part. The students will further their research by trying to incorporate technology into their movement. The students should create their own sequence of movement using technological embellishments to support the intention of their phrase. The next section of my matrix will be the performance part of the lesson. This will be the most important part of the lesson so the students can execute the movement phrase they produced with technology to back it up. This is most important because this is the part where I can assess the students understanding of the material that was taught for the lesson. Performance is very beneficial in dance because when students are learning material the best way to see if they are understanding what they are learning is to physically do the movement with their bodies. When students are capable and comfortable physically articulating the movement, it then becomes natural when language and literacy becomes involved. Students can then explain what they did because it is embedded in their body language.

            An ideal presentation I would expect to see from my students may be a video presentation of themselves doing their movement phrase and then actually showing it in person. This would be a good way to critique themselves and compare and contrast the video to their live movement. Another potential project a student might present would be a smart-board presentation of photos of they found on google of examples of locomotor and non locomotor movement, and then pictures of themselves duplicating the shapes they found on the internet. I feel this lesson plan is very exciting and will increase my students understanding and ability of technology and dance. It will give them a way to create their own phrase that incorporates technology while using dance at the same time. This lesson plan has opened up my eyes to new ways that technology can be naturally incorporated into my lesson plans without force. I am really excited to see where my future takes me with teaching and am thrilled to find ways to incorporate the use of technology.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtTz1mNYo61vdFp6LTJnVFhYOXJ3aU83aW92cU1LRlE&usp=sharing

Relying On Technology

              In one of my dance classes I am required to take for my major, my teacher assigned us a day where we had to teach the class using the Horton technique. I teach dance on daily basis and have a set playlist that I choose directly from my itunes library to then use for my classes. I literally hook up my phone to the sound system in the dance studio I teach at and teach my class relying on my iphone. This past week when I was teaching in my dance class at school, we were using live music as our accompaniment. I was excited by the opportunity of finally having to work with a live musician rather then simply pressing next on my I pod when a specific song I needed wasn't working with the movement that I was teaching. Working with a live musician was much harder than I thought it would be. I had to thoughtfully prepare my movement and count it out so the musician could understand and then play it as we danced. Since I am constantly relying on the technology of my ipod and the sound system in my studio, I never really have to count my movement out because I can just change the songs on my ipod until I find the right song that works for the combination I am teaching. Since I am constantly relying on technology for music purposes it was extremely difficult for me to adapt to a live musician. I would like to further my education working with live accompaniment and learning how to adapt and function without using an ipod or sound system. I never realized how much I rely on technology for musical purposes that I lost touch with my interaction with live music. It is extremely important to be versatile and adapt to anything that is being thrown at me when it comes to teaching. Technology is not always the way.

The Change of Dance and Evolution

              Dance and technology over many years have worked hand in hand in the process of change and evolution. They both have evolved so much so far and continue to. Dance was greatly effected by technology because now for instance people don't need to go see a live performance anymore when they can just simply go on the internet and see a live performance right there in front of their eyes. This helps to show a dance companies work to a vast audience and communicate more effectively. Although you'll never get the same effect of a live performance experience, through a computer you can still experience a virtual one. This also can be very convenient and cheaper to some. Another great improvement made by technology to help and effect dance positively was the technological advancement of pre-recorded music. Now instead of a live orchestra which many dancers do still work with today, you can replay a song, pause it, or even stop it to add on to a work your trying to create. This also creates an easier and more effective way for dancers to rehearse and practice. Pre recorded music is a technological advancement that is very beneficial when I am teaching. I can literally look up any song that I want and connect it to a sound system in an instant. In conclusion these are just two ways out of many that technology helps and will continue to help advance dance in the near future.