CMP - Inquiry

1. How does the CMP curriculum align with the national Common Core and NCTM standards?

In 2000 the Connected Mathematics Project used the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics developed and issued by the NCTM. It appears as though the CMP has been designed in alignment with the Content Standards set forth by the NCTM, from Number and Operations all the way to Data analysis and probability. Another striking similarity that can be seen as a philosophical alignment are the Six Principles set forth by the NCTM, striking because the language used seems to almost mandate a teaching style that the CMP has been designed to facilitate. Principles such as Equity, which the NCTM says should encourage the provision of extra help to students in need and advocates that teachers not shy away from having high expectations for all of their students; Teaching, where the NCTM suggests teachers not adopt a 'one size fits all' methodology. The NCTM standards and guiding principles go on to basically say that students should not merely be able to perform calculations in vacuum. And that they recognize that helping students improve their problem solving skills is something that all students have the capacity to accomplish.


2. Numerous students are a year or more behind in the basics. How does one address the needs of these students on a daily basis so they can get up to grade level and also experience success in the inquiry to investigation philosophy of the CMP?

Judging on the literature concerning the CMP model it appears as though many students are behind when the begin being instructed in the CMP way, and that the CMP method does not initially raise those students' apparent skill level, based on standardized tests, until they reach their 3rd year of CMP instruction according to a study titled Standards-based Mathematics Curricula and Middle-Grades Students' Performance on Standardized Achievement Tests, published by the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 2008, Vol. 39, No. 2, 184-212. Basically they are saying that while the CMP model did not provide immediately measurable positive gains in learning, the learning gains over time were significant when compared to the standard methods of teaching math. "In related investigations, the authors concluded that there is no immediate short-term advantage to CMP, but that the longer view is promising, with CMP students making large gains on a broad range of curriculum topics and processes when compared to non-CMP students."

That being said, CMP model is designed so that overtime those students who need extra attention, are afforded it. With CMP it is imperative that a teacher be instrumental in care-taking each student's needs with regard to their current skill level. Given the instructional material that has been devised to accompany the CMP classroom, students will find that even though they may lack certain mathematical skills initially, they will still be able to contribute to the overall understanding of whatever math concept is being taught, and will come to realize that understanding the concept is more powerful than merely knowing how to do the calculations, which overtime they will gain the skill to perform regardless. So, the CMP student with sub-par skill sets will overtime gain those missing skills by the very nature of learning in the CMP way; that is, through a realistic and relevant problems based curriculum.


3. What is the role of homework (and accountability) in the CMP?

While the role of homework in the CMP is still very much tied to an individual teachers philosophy some of the most common reasons for giving homework in the CMP are:

• To provide additional explanation and practice of the key mathematical ideas in the lesson.
• To grade students' work .
• To assess what students do and do not know in order to plan instruction.
• To connect learning experiences on two consecutive days.
• To instill good study habits.
• To accomplish more mathematical study outside the time limits of the classroom.

4. CMP Investigations are often composed of small-groups (pair-share, teamwork, cooperative learning).

Notebooks and journaling can be on great method for assessing students, while also helping to ensure that all the students are participating. When students are in these small groups some of the ways that teachers can ensure maximum engagement from every students are:

• Have students assign numbers to each student in their group. Then, have them roll a number cube or draw to determine who will present the group's findings.

• Write each student's name on a craft stick, store the sticks in a cup at the front of the room, and choose one stick at random to determine who will present.

• Have the students choose the presenter for their group, but ask each of the other students a question related to the work.

John Geffert - Teaching

For my math methods class I created a video of myself teaching a short lesson about using the Pythagorean Theorem. I used a cloud based presentation software called Prezi, that creates intuitive and smooth transitions between slides for the intro of my lesson, and then, using a standard HD video camera I filmed myself moving step by step through setting up and solving for the hypotenuse of a right triangle. In order to turn the Prezi into usable video I used a cloud based screen casting software called Screenr. Then, when I had all my clips complete, I simple loaded them into iMovie, and spliced them together.

I used the Khan Academy as my template for creating a simple and effective visual for creating and solving math questions. I really enjoyed producing the video, and I truly believe that videos like this, when made available for your students, can have a significant impact on their abilities over time. Being able to review, start and stop a video at home give the student a lot more control of their learning than they might otherwise have during a class period.

The Pythagorean Theorem from John Geffert on Vimeo.

Inquiry & CMP research

The guiding principles behind the CMP INstructional model are designed to help students generate meaning and relevancy for what they are learning, in their own terms, by working through problems that have been devised to incorporate common skills as the student explores problem solving methodology. Thus the intent of CMP is to help students create a deeper understanding of a subject or key idea through the direct and open investigation of a well crafted problem situation.

The CMP model of instruction does appear to be inquiry based, in that it relies on open ended inquiry and investigation. Where the student's interest in a subject or idea may be piqued by the Teacher, but ultimately the Teacher is relying on the process of the activity to impart knowledge and to further a Student's understanding of that subject or Idea.

True inquiry based models of teaching require that the Teacher is ultimately encouraging the Student to think for themselves, by not looking for constant validation. The Teacher is reinforcing the Students behavior, to continue to be curious and to continue to work on a project despite hardship, and without giving the information directly to the Student, if it can be helped. CMP seems to follow some of these basic tenants as well.

Anticipatory Set and Closure

The Anticipatory Set (AS) is used by the Teacher at the outset of leading the class through new material. I looked at a couple of definitions, one from the Oklahoma Baptist University and another from About.com. These two definitions agree that the AS should whet the students' appetite for the new material, be used to assess what level of understanding about the subject the student's may already possess and give the students a clear indication of what the lesson will cover and what is expected.

Some of the methods that can be utilized during the AS are direct questioning, role playing or skits, quiz, modeling and even stories or anecdotes. If at all possible I really like role playing with math, because if you can get the body involved in the math principle then it really has a chance to stick. With measurement you could have the students role play the transition from 1 gallon, played by one student, to 4 quarts played by 4 other students and so on. This method also taps into the visual learner as well because now the concept has lept to life and is more visually tangible.

The Closure Set (CS) is more than just a summary (Oklahoma Baptist University). I like OKBU definition because it puts the responsibility for carrying on the information in the hands of the students. Through the closure the students are empowered to reflect on what they've learned as the Teacher puts the new information in a larger context or even better, leads the Students into forming their own context or framework with the new information attached in order to increase retention and to facilitate transfer. The closure is also an opportunity for the Teacher to assess whether the students really got the subject matter.

Some of the methods that can be utilized during the CS it that the Teacher could lead a class discussion, have the students make short presentations, do project in class, or require writing in the students' reflection journal.

Practicum - Sharing a Lesson

Recently at my practicum site I had the opportunity to work with the flute section on a J.P. Sousa March that features a very well known melody (well known maybe 20 years ago) but none of these students had ever heard the march let alone this solo flute part featured in it. My task was to introduce it to them and begin working with them on it. I had about 15 minutes and we were relegated to a room where there was standing room only, and where I could not move around easily, also with the lay out of the room (a storage locker really) I could not easily get the attention of all the students because some students had to stand behind other students to make room for all of us. My strategy was to briefly play it for them at a very slow tempo and then have them all play together as many times as I could in 15 minutes, while selecting various students from time to time to play a certain section by themselves.

From the moment we entered the room I was sidetracked by comments ranging from, "I don't like this, why do we have to play it?" to "flutes aren't supposed to play that high, why are we playing what should really be a piccolo part?" Out of the ten students, 4 of them made comments along these lines. There are no quick satisfying answers to these questions, and so I could only push forward and at least get them focused on trying to play the piece at the moment.

What worked for me was to have a student that I knew could play it, do so. That got everyone's attention, and even the students that were resistant at first gave it a greater effort. We played through it twice without any comments from me. Afterward, I noticed that there were 3 students of the 10 that clearly did not have the fingerings under their control and would not have been able to play it at that moment at any speed, so I enlisted the help of my 'complainers' to take the next 5 minutes to work with those students to write in fingerings so they would have the correct material to practice at home.

At this point we are about 10 minutes into the short session.

After this I had the group play together again. Then I asked someone I hadn't engaged yet to play a particular 4 measure section. This served as one of my checks on learning because then I asked the two students next to him to play together.

So 15 minutes is not a lot of time to work with 10 flute players who are learning a short solo section they've never really seen before, but as the minutes wore on I was able to assess the ability and motivation level of the individuals within the group. Collecting bits of data in this way helped me focus on the strengths of the students by asking them to be examples for the group, and to deflect/diffuse the poor attitude of a number of the other students by asking them to coach/mentor the few students that were struggling with simple things like the fingerings for common notes.

Had I not been paying attention, or had I let the initial comments from some dissatisfied students corrupt my intentions for the instructional period then I might've spent the entire time lecturing about why the piece was important to learn instead of letting the music speak for itself.

Were I to relive this session, I would have identified some key notes that have multiple fingering possibilities to avoid confusion right off the bat for my inexperienced players. I would have brought in my Ipad with a really awesome rendition of the piece cued up to the flute part so the students could have the full experience of what they are working towards, and I would not have had the full group playing all at once. I would have had students play in pairs, and would have kept things moving more quickly. Pacing is very important and I would like to get better at keeping the momentum.

My site supervisor asked how the session went afterwards, and just as I was about to tell him that I really didn't think we accomplished that much, one of the students that had said she didn't like the piece because it reminder her too much of circus music, came around the corner and said that the session was really helpful and that she felt like she got a lot out of it. Kinda made my day!

Warm-ups in Math Education

Warm-ups serve to set the atmosphere for doing math and should help students begin to shed the mindset of the previous period and begin shape their minds for the lessons they are about to embark on. And, this may be a radical thought, but in math class, or any class for that matter, warm-ups don’t necessarily have to be related to the subject. The class could be led through a follow the leader clapping exercise, or any activity that could get the students attitudes and minds ready to be engaged in the class. When using math problems as a warm up exercise the teacher’s role is to quickly evaluate the quality of the answers produced and decide if more problems of that type are need for certain students. Also warm-ups can be a great way to help give the teacher an idea of where their class is with the fundamentals.

Appropriate Use of Technology

Appropriate Use of Technology

Salman Khan was a hedge fund analyst who was helping his younger cousins with their math lesson. What makes him special is the unique and effective way he used technology. Khan, after giving his cousins a lesson in person, would then record a short Youtube video covering the same material, which was meant to be used as supplemental to the face to face lesson. However, what is remarkable is that Khan discovered that his cousins' preferred his video posts more than the face to face lesson. The idea here is that because everyone learns at a different pace and because we all are differently abled when it comes to attention span, a well crafted lesson that each of us have access to, can start, stop and rewind at will, means we all have our own personal tutor. This subtle but powerful notion is not meant to replace the traditional class room, but it is obvious that technology in this case is more than merely a conduit for supplemental information. With web 2.0 tools available, the Khan Academy has created a virtual learning environment where students are held to high standards of excellence, but are given the opportunity to fail as many times as necessary to achieve that excellence. This is something that only the most charismatic and talented teacher can do for a class of 40 or 50 students.


I found a tutorial covering the concept of indirect measurement using a given scale to measure the size of an object. This video used a simple picture of a helicopter and a small length scale a literal inch represents 7 feet in the image. The teacher walks the student through the thought process of answering various length question as he self talks through the problem. Then the video moves on to measuring the height of the Empire State Building based the relationship between its shadow and the the shadow thrown by a yardstick at the same time of day. I felt like this type of tutorial was very effective, because the visual aspect of online learning brings to bear the full capability of computers and technology with regard to resources that are rich and vibrant (in contrast to a piece of yellow or white chalk), combined with the audio of someone who is doing more than just lecturing, the teacher's in these lessons are also modeling their own thought process and methodology. Very powerful. As I mentioned earlier technology allows the use of more polished, interesting and thus engaging material than a simple chalk/white board can. In addition to this benefit of technology, with the use of streaming videos I can pause for a moment to take in a point the speaker has made without fear of missing out on the material that follows. This serves to reduce my stress level during the lesson. There are, or course, other methods in which this lesson could have been taught, but for the medium - the internet - this was very effective. I can see this lesson being taught by taking a class outside to get a more realistic view of scale and measurements, maybe with taking a model car that has been built in 1:25 scale and comparing it with the original. I honestly can't think of any fundamental way I would have delivered this lesson any differently. I thought the teacher in this case did a great job. Any differences would lie in my own style of delivery, that is my speaking mannerisms, not in the sequence or manner in which he delivered the material versus how I would deliver the material. I thought he was spot on.

Standards, Standards, Everywhere

The category I was assigned to focus on was Measurements, and right from the start one major difference is that the Common Core doesn't break down the study of measurements like the NCTM or CMP do. For example the NCTM really lays out a long term plan spanning K-12 whereby a student should come to fully understand the nature of what it means to measure things. This student would have a broad concept of the difference of standards with regards to units, be able to select the correct tool for what is being measured, and be able to covert within a given system as well as between two or more systems. In contrast while the Common Core does mention measurements as a standard and does lay out standards that are in line with the NCTM, it does not provide such a detailed framework for achieving this. The CMP only mentions measurements in relation to surface area, volume and angle measurements, and there is no mention of helping students build a philosophy and thus a deeper understanding of how measurement may be applied.

National and State technology standards incorporated in band class

The NETS*S standards, taken as a whole have been designed to provide educators with the tools to ensure students today achieve a minimum level of technological literacy. By fostering the use of modern technology in the class room Oregon is showing that it is committed to helping students develop a broad set of skills in utilizing technology of all sorts. The requirements cover creativity, problem solving, communication, learning, research, and critical thinking, which are great attributes to be fostered in students regardless of the context.

In my high school band class I would develop a project requiring students to write music that must be done with some sort of music notation software. This can be in the form of an off the shelf program like Finale, or Sibelius, or with various cloud based free notation programs. I even have one for the ipad which is surprisingly powerful and easy to use. This kind of exercise would cover the creativity portion of the OETS.

To help develop my students' musical abilities I could arrange a series of master classes with former professors from Sacramento State, as well as from Portland State using Skype. It might be a bit awkward at first but I think this could be a valid use for video communication on the web.

With my band I will have students acting in leadership roles as band officers and will encourage them to use cloud based tools like Google Docs to collaborate and publish guidance for the rest of the band. I would also have my students update and keep current the class blog. These actions will help satisfy the Critical thinking, problem solving and Decision making criteria.

Here are some of the challenges educators may face in implementing these standards:

1. Quantity and Quality of equipment
2. Network access to certain websites
3. Lack of support for integrated lesson plans from the administration
4. Teachers themselves must evaluate their own abilities and have a high level of facility with technology if the standards are to be met.


Quantity and Quality of Equipment
With regards to point number one, as long as there is at least one computer in the classroom that has access to the internet then you can design projects that utilize the power of technology. Also, not having 30 computers in the classroom is a poor excuse for not requiring assignments be done on a computer, or in then cloud. Students have access to the library both in the school, and the public library, and Teachers can let students use their classroom computer when warranted.

Network Access to Certain Websites
Network access can be challenging, but the Teacher must not shy away from making the request to use a currently blocked website, if it truly enhances their lesson plan.

Lack of Upper Echelon Support
Sometimes the administration just needs to be given a demonstration of how you will be using the technology before they can fully buy in and support it.

Self Evaluation and Tech Education
Teachers need to be willing to ask for help if they feel they have hit a creative wall with regards to using technology in the classroom. A Teacher's disinterest in using technology should not be tolerated if we truly believe we are acting as guides for our students in the modern age. Therefore Teachers need to be able to rely on each other, and not be afraid to steal ideas that are working from other Teachers.

Best Practices in Education and Instruction

I love the idea of 'Best Practices in education/instruction'. What this means to me is that the education community is sharing their experience of instruction and approaches to education, whether purely scientific or merely  anecdotal, which can only have positive benefits resulting in better overall educators -- for those that seek out new information at least. This is a lot like a division of the Army called the Center for Army Lessons Learned. This program began as early as World War II when the Army would send out pamphlets alerting the ranks about safety issues concerning equipment or new tactics or training methods other units have found useful. I had been wondering why it appeared like the teaching profession seemed to be reinventing itself every decade or so, and not circulating the 'lessons learned' from successful classrooms. A bit naive I know, and now I've learned that information is available if one asks. However as there is no one single governing body for education, like there is in the military, it is obviously more difficult bringing about change much beyond the district level.


Best Practices in Education:

Taking a cue from the drama teacher or choral director can work for math as well. The idea here is that in order to create an environment where students are ready to actively participate in class the teacher can prepare the class to learn. An example of this is leading the class in some sort of warm up, such as clapping out rhythms and having the class respond. This serves to get the students thinking about what's coming next, and by challenging them with a sort of physical game you are engaging the students kinesthetically, aurally and visually. The idea of this is great because every moment the students are in the classroom is precious and valuable and you want them all to be at their most receptive, especially if you are making the supreme effort of creating novel and engaging lesson plans and only have a short time with your students.


Parental involvement is crucial to a students success academically. This is true for students regardless of social class or wealth. When parents are involved in their children's academic life those children are significantly more likely to get better grades, graduate, and move on to a postsecondary education. I learned, while I was earning my degree in Psychology while working at a YMCA day care for two years, that if I did not have the support of the parent then any progress I might have with a child could be overwritten in the course of only a weekend. If the values and skills the students are learning in school are not modeled and/or positively reinforced at home then affecting longterm change in a student can be a daunting proposition. I would love to work at a school that had high expectations for its parents as well as its students. I would gladly go on home visits if the school sanctioned and supported this type of outreach and family/community involvement.


Best Practices in instruction:

Encouraging cooperation between students in the classroom, eg. Think, Pair, Share; or small group projects and presentations has long been a method many teachers use in the classroom. However current research and a growing collection of anecdotal evidence suggests that incorporating even more sharing between students can significantly aid in recall of specific facts as well as dramatically helping to solidify a concept within the students mind. I am very much in favor of having students teach/learn/discover a subject together. By allowing more student interaction you are, after a fashion,  crowd sourcing your teaching by allowing one student to help you teach another student. This means that both students win. The one helping, is strengthening their understanding of a subject while the one being helped is being given the information in a new light, therefore the concept or subject has a greater chance of gaining purchase. Einstien said that to really understand a subject one should be able to explain it in the simplest of terms. Couple that observation with research that shows that the first born child on average does better in school and earns more money than their siblings because they have had so much more opportunity to teach their younger siblings, and you've got a great recipe for learning.


Another significant element in student achievement is their own belief, or their self efficacy; which is the belief that one has the ability to do something. Marzano believes that student's attitudes and beliefs have a significant effect on their success in school. I've always believed this, and one of my favorite quotes from Einstein is, "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid." This quote actually embodies the power self efficacy as well as the power those around us have over our own self efficacy.

About Me

As part of my Ed Tech class assignments I've written a description of myself that pretty well sums me up, and can be read here. So I will take this opportunity to talk about some of personal interests, hobbies and future plans I have.


Thanks to my wife, of almost eight years now, I have become an avid runner. Being in the military I have been required to maintain a high degree of fitness, but that doesn't mean I am an Olympian; that being said, for the past 5 years my wife and I have been very serious runners, and have completed many 10k's and half marathons in the various states and countries we've been assigned to by the Army, and we are currently training for this years Portland Marathon. Also, I have begun training in earnest to run an ultra marathon by next summer. In order to achieve this I have increased my average weekly mileage to between 45 and 50 miles. However, I have slacked off recently due to the MAT program, but I still maintain between 15 and 20 miles a week.

Another long term goal of mine is to learn to speak Spanish. I lived in Panama with my family for three years when I was in middle school, and I have had an affinity for Hispanic/Latin cultures ever since. I hope to be able to use this skill in my role as an educator as well, by being able to connect a little better with various Spanish speaking students I will have.

Between my running, my future as a music educator, my personal growth as a musician and my family, I've got a rewarding life with plenty of things to challenge me and keep me healthy.

Using Google Sheets to Track Class Data

Google Sheets is a great tool for inputting and tracking any type of classroom data you can imagine. If you want to track something and then analyze the data afterwards then Google Sheets is your tool. Everything from class attendance, to assignments, and grade tracking can be done easily in this cloud based tool. I've embedded below an example of having collected data from a class over the course of 5 tests. The graph represents the relationship of average scores for the entire class from test 6 to test 10. What the graph reveals is that as a class the scores increased over time.

What is 'Web 2.0' ?

Web 2.0 is a term used to describe the nature of the internet since the the early 2000's. It is meant to imply an improvement over what was thought of as Web 1.0. What this means to me is specifically that there has been a fundamental shift in the ways and in the frequency of internet use over the past decade. The most significant of these changes is in the way we use the web to interact socially, which has also had an impact on the way news of the world is disseminated and absorbed.

With the birth of the blogosphere, Myspace, Facebook and Twitter, the web (web 2.0) has become a dynamic realm where everyone who wishes to have a voice in the world can do so easily. And that is really what separates web 2.0 from web 1.0, this idea of 'easy'. With technological improvements adding to the speed of personal computers, the amazing growth of server farms, and the near exponential increase in bandwidth, in combination with the websites mentioned earlier, normal, non-techy people now have a medium for creating web based content that runs the gamut from the ridiculous to the extremely topical. This is significant because back int the web 1.0 days, in order to put even a single thought on the world wide web, one had to know how to build a website, which meant you had to understand how to purchase a domaine name, then buy server space, then choose an ftp program and then learn how to code in html, all of this in order to put 'Hello World' on the front page of a site called www.anynamehere.com. Only now, because of the technological advantages and because of the software upgrades, this method for creating content on the web has been placed behind a curtain and away from a shy public. The average person won't ever know what's going on in the background and thus the web appears open, inviting, and easy to use.

With web 1.0 I we had sites like Geocities, and Tripod where we could create a personal web page. These were not necessarily difficult to use, and I would say they were every bit the same as blogs are today. Technology however is not the only thing that differentiates web 2.0 from web 1.0. Like I said, there really is not much difference between a site I might have had hosted on Geocities to a site like Blogspot. The difference is in how we, as internet users, have begun to trust the web as primary source for our information. In 1997 it would have been difficult to trust a personal website as being the authority on anything because the precedent just hadn't been established. But now, 13 years later we go to the web first, before even thinking about turning on the television. In this way web 2.0 represents a shift in how we choose to be informed and even entertained.

Basically web 2.0 is a term used to describe the web as we have come to know it for more than ten years. A place where, when you use the term -online community- you no longer use the air quotes to qualify your statement, because true communities are being built, maintained, and growing in the cloud. A place where not just techno-nerd-geekophiles are updating static content on a website once a week or even once a day, but where my grandmother comments on a picture of her grandson only minutes after I upload it directly from my web enabled camera. Really, web 2.0 is just a term used to describe the web that all of us have always imagined. Only, now technology and prevailing attitudes are beginning to align with the initial visions of those that created the web in the first place.

My Screenr Cast

Screencasting with Screenr.com

I recently reviewed the screen capture website Screenr.com and have found it to be simple and effortless to use. It allows you to record 5 minutes of screen capture video, which automatically gets loaded up to the Screenr.com servers as a .mp4 video flle. At which point you can send out the link to the video, embed it into a website or blog, download the file directly, or transfer it to youtube.com. For two examples of Screenr.com's functionality I have recorded a screencast reviewing and showing some of its functions, and the youtube output from that screencast.


Screenr.com has quite a few uses in a classroom setting. As a teacher I can see using it to develop and record additional study material for on going lessons in class. And it could be a great tool for organizing group projects requiring a presentation

Useful Bookmark Archival Tools in the Cloud

I recently reviewed the website Delicious.com which is a bookmark archival and sharing tool. Delicious.com allows you to upload your favorite bookmarks from whatever browser you use, so you can access them in the cloud. Additionally, you can share these links to anyone you wish via email. The website is organized as a community, which means you can browse and search for other bookmarks through Delicious.com users on the network. One other nice feature is that you can download a plugin for you browser in order to keep you bookmarks synced up.

Using this tool in the classroom would allow you to pre-load certain websites at home so you can access them later on any computer in the school.

However, I prefer Xmarks.com. It has the same basic functions, with the added features of allowing you to sync your bookmarks across all the browsers you use, and if you have a class blog you can show the important links in either your postings or as part of the site itself. I've shown an example of imbedding your links as part of your site in this blog (see right). Also I prefer the general layout and visualization of the bookmarks as opposed to Delicious.com's.

Google Docs Group Presentation

The purpose of our group project was to explore the Google Docs presentation program. We utilized this program collaboratively via 'the cloud' and although the program itself is not quite as powerful as the desktop version, the trade-offs however are worth it for the ease of use in collaboration and making changes quickly and efficiently.

Click here for Google Presentation

Because the Google Docs tools are web based and thus can be accessed anywhere I have an internet signal I naturally reduce the need to save anything I am working on, on one computer. This allows me to be much more productive, in the sense that as long as I can find a computer terminal with internet access I can continue to reliable update any project I am working on. Additionally, if I imagine working in a collaborative setting then the web-based-ness of this service compounds its value to me and my team by allowing us as a group to effortlessly work and rework a document.

In an educational setting I can see myself using Google Docs Presentation to store and work on class notes, lesson plans, or lecture material. I may also assign a project in my class that requires a group of students to create a presentation that covers whatever subject we are currently learning. I would feel comfortable trusting Google Doc's applications in this way, thus allowing my students to confidently and easily create, edit, and eventually present a complete product that the entire group had an opportunity to work on.


My learning curve for this product is very slight as I have been a power Microsoft Office user for many years. If anything I found frustration not from trying to do something but from finding out that many functions I've come to expect from a product like this simply don't exist.


My contributions to the presentation group were in setting up the initial slide deck and managing the security and editing options. Also I helped write the third slide outlining how the product can be used.

Cloud Based Music Notation

Noteflight.com is a wonderful, free website that allows anyone to create written music. The tool is easy to navigate and very intuitive to use. Although it may not have the publishing power of desktop notation program like Finale or Sibelius, it can still be used with great effect. Some of the key features of this tool that make it valuable to me as a music educator are:

- With my personal free account I can create a database of music and exercises accessible anywhere in the world.
- I can share these files with anyone.
- I can allow anyone to make changes to it (cloud based collaboration).
- It creates various file types for printing a hard copy and sharing
- Supports play back in Midi
- Can be linked to, or embedded into another website, or blog (see below)

Technology in Band Class

 In teaching band I would like to be able to engage my students and motivate them to think beyond just the notes on the page. What is music? Why is it important? Where does music fit in society today? How is music relevant today and what made it relevant throughout various periods in history?

• Have students develop a personal blog where they write a sentence or two describing how they feel about the practice they do each day at home and in band class.

• I would build a class blog where I would be able to talk about the lessons of the day, the current rehearsal schedule, and be able to post links to related musical examples that we are learning about

• In teaching theory I would use a site like noteflight.com which would allow students to collaborate on a piece of written music.

A Few Words About Me

I am focused on becoming a leader in the teaching community of Oregon. My area of expertise is music, specifically band, low brass instruments, and classical guitar. I am a graduate of The Military School of Music (94'), where I studied music performance on the tuba and subsequently served 4 years as a tubist as well as a guitarist; both stateside and abroad. When my tour was up I decided to move back to San Jose, California in order to pursue a degree in Psychology. In the accomplishment of this goal I was once again drawn into the military, only this time through the ROTC program at Santa Clara University; where, in 2002 I graduated with a B.S. in Psychology, along with the gold bars of a 2nd Lieutenant. Soon after graduation I was shipped off to Ft. Rucker, Alabama to attend the Army's helicopter flight school. After a year and a half of the most demanding schooling I had ever experienced I exited flight school as a UH-60 Black Hawk pilot bound for the first of what would end up being three separate tours to the Middle East and South West Asia.

College is also where I met my wife Michelle. We have been married for seven and a half years. She was also an Army officer and we were both deployed to Iraq for 15 months between 2006 and 2008. Soon after we came home we began making plans to leave the military, reinvent ourselves, begin new careers and start a family. Fast forward a few years and we now have our first child, a boy, named William, who is a little over a year old and perfect! My wife is in her second year of pre-med courses at Portland State U. and I have recently begun my Masters in the Art of Teaching at Willamette University.

 I am currently a Captain in the Army Reserves and plan on retiring from the military in about seven years. I could not be more excited about my decision to become a teacher, and I am eager with anticipation to begin.