A Bump in the Road

In class this week, we have began using Powtoon to create a video to introduce and explain Genius Hour. We are using a chunking process where each week we have small steps to work on to eventually have a completed, polished video. I really appreciate this chunking process and it is a great strategy to use as a teacher, to help scaffold students' learning.

Regarding my Genius Hour project, I have been so eager to move on to the next stage of my project and to begin recording this week, but I have unfortunately hit a small bump in the road. In order to record with my guitar, I need a pickup. I have been wanting to purchase a new guitar with a pickup for quite a while now, so this project gave me the motivation I needed to do so. I spent a lot of time researching pickups this week and trying to decide whether I would be better off getting a pickup installed into my current guitar or to purchase a new guitar with an already installed pickup. After a lot of research and consideration, I decided to purchase a new guitar, so I went to The Music Room to buy the guitar that I had picked out, but unfortunately they had just sold it. Thus, I now have to wait up to two weeks before my new guitar comes in so that I can begin recording.

Although this was a bit frustrating because of how eager I am to get started, I have still been able to have a productive week. In addition to learning a lot of what to look for in a guitar and a pickup I have also been watching tutorials on Garageband and fiddling around with it so that once my songs are recorded, I will not need to learn how to use Garageband before editing them. I posted the tutorial that I found the most useful below. After this week of learning and practicing, I feel like I will be able to add some percussion and other instruments to some of my songs with the help of Garageband. I have also taken this time to fine tune some of my songs, making sure that they are completely ready to be recorded. To be honest, this setback is is probably going to help me in the long run because it forces me to take my time to make sure I am fully prepared before jumping into the recording process. Below you will see a photo of the beautiful guitar that I purchased. I am so excited for it to arrive and to begin playing it.

Godin Guitars. Art & Lutherie Americana Acoustic (Online Photograph). 
[Retrieved form http://www.artandlutherieguitars.com/americana/]

Bai (June 11, 2016). Apple Garageband - Tutorial for Beginners (Youtube Video). 

[Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O1KBsbyu-M&t=2s]

Off to a Great Start!

In class this week we explored what a genius hour is and were given the chance to narrow down our passions in order to decide on a driving question for our own genius hour projects. Something that I am very passionate about is my music. I love singing, playing guitar, and writing songs and I knew that I wanted to my songwriting to be the focus of my genius hour project. I love writing songs and I have wanted to record and share them on online platforms for many years now, but I have struggled to find the time. This project gave me the perfect excuse to commit to this dream that I have had for so long. I decided to focus my project on the driving question: "How can I share my music with others?"

Throughout this project, I will be learning about how to record and produce polished versions of my song, I will develop my skills using music and video editing software,  I will be creating profiles and sharing my music on multiple online platforms, and I will create at least one music video to also share on my sites. I have taken some time this week to begin my research on this project by starting to look into strategies for creating polished and professional recordings. I do not have the money to spend on booking time in a recording studio, so I have been researching how I can achieve a professional sound from my own home, but instead I came to discover that Brock's Makerspace has recording equippment that is free for students to use! I visited the Makerspace to learn more about it and to book time for me to begin recording next week. Brock uses Focusrite recording equipment and Garageband for editing, so I intend on spending more time this week researching how to use this software to prepare to start recording next week.

Brock University. Focusrite Solo Studio (Online Photograph)
[Retrieved from https://brocku.ca/library/makerspace/resources/]

Welcome

Red Letter Photography (May 2016). Head Shot (Photograph).

My name is Natalie McMillan. I am a pre-service teacher at Brock University, in my fifth and final year of the Concurrent education program where I am specializing in French and Mathematics. I am passionate about inspiring students and helping them to realize the potential in themselves. In addition to my passion for children and teaching, I enjoy reading, writing music, cooking, and exploring nature. If you are looking to learn more about me and my interests, you can follow me on twitter. For my pre-service tech course, I will be completing a genius hour project and I will be using this blog to document my progress with this project. What is a genius hour What a great question. Feel free to check out the video below that explains the concept of genius hours! Thank you for your interest in my project and I hope you enjoy the adventure!

John Spencer (March 9, 2017) What is a Genius Hour? (Youtube Video). 

[Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n7EelMbzG0&feature=youtu.be]