This is a blog I had to do for an education class to finish my degree. It was a huge waste of time...please disregard till i figure out how to delete it!
I have no pleasure in any man who despises music. It is no invention of ours: it is a gift of God. I place it next to theology. Satan hates music: he knows how it drives the evil spirit out of us. - Martin Luther
A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski
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Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ~Berthold Auerbach
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Without music life would be a mistake. ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass? ~Michael Torke
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He who sings scares away his woes. ~Cervantes
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Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. ~Ludwig van Beethoven
Music cleanses the understanding; inspires it, and lifts it into a realm which it would not reach if it were left to itself. ~Henry Ward Beecher
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Music is the universal language of mankind. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Outre-Mer
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You can't possibly hear the last movement of Beethoven's Seventh and go slow. ~Oscar Levant, explaining his way out of a speeding ticket
Web Evaluation: DSO Kids
- Name of Website: DSOKids
- Web Site Address: www.dsokids.com
- Copyright date and/or last update: 2003 Dallas Symphony Orchestra
- Author/organization Credentials: Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Texas.
- Web site design and ease of navigation: On a scale of 1 – 10 (1 being the lowest ease of use and 10 being the highest) I would give this site a 7. The ease of navigation is fantastic. It is very user friendly and especially kids friendly however some of the design elements are lacking.
One of the navigations tools that I love is that the site is split up into two “rooms”, one for Teacher use and the other for Student use. This would make it very easy to send students to this site and not be bogged down by all of the teacher material. On the student side, there is a very kid friendly room where students can view and listen to the instrument encyclopedia, look at the orchestra seating chart over the different time periods, read about Texas history, listen to music, download instructions on building your own instrument, read news, read about composers, play games and more. The games are fun and encourage learning. My favorite games were “The Time Machine” where you place composers in the correct period, and “Beethoven Baseball” where you answer music history questions to bat the ball and score your players. The “Teachers Lounge” is full of resources for Elementary music teachers and links to other great sites and resources.
The only reason I would give this site a lower than 10 ranking is because of some of the design elements. Some of the design is very cheesy and I think you would lose some of the great opportunities to use the site to teach with older elementary students because of the “cheesyness”. Also, the site is very slow loading. There are a lot of flash elements involved in the rooms and in the games so it takes a long time to load even on a fast computer.
- My response and recommendation for use: I would highly recommend this site for an elementary music teacher. It could be used as reward for good behavior, letting the students have “play time” on this website which reinforces what is being taught in the classroom. I could also see using some of the games (like the Time Machine game) in a group setting with all of the kids playing along.
The “Teachers Lounges” is a must for music teachers offering many helpful resources. I would recommend that music teachers check out the “Activities” links that sends you to lesson plans that are cross-curriculum (example: connecting music to math) and include the TEKS numbers.
Finally, I think this site would be especially helpful for a music teacher in the Dallas area. DSO does a great job of connecting the classroom to their performances and all elementary music teachers should take advantage of this if possible. The “I am a musician” page tells facts about some of the performers in the DSO. It would be great to have students read those pages and then meet the performers at the concerts.
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