THIS SONG IS SO FAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s so much faster than House of the Rising Sun. I get no breaks. Be kind.
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Today in EDCI 336 was presentation day! My group and I studied the effects of screen usage on children’s learning and development. I was particularly interested in this topic because I have many little sisters who use screens everyday. I am also a big advocate for outdoor education and it feels like screen time is taking away from this.
I studied the balance between educational screen use (like Duolingo and Crash Course Kids) where kids are engaged and learning, versus non-educational screen use (like Roblox and YouTube Shorts) where kids are mindlessly engaged and doom-scrolling.
My group and I put a lot of time and research into this, so check out our slide deck below!
Listened to, learned, played. I hope you all enjoy.
This song is pitchy on its own. It’s not me, on jah.
So, I have not yet perfected “The House of the Rising Sun.” Instead, I have taken upon myself to start learning “Hurt” by Johnny Cash. Consider this the same as when someone reads 5 books at once. Eventually, they will all get finished. Eventually…
My goal for learning the harmonica was to learning “The House of the Rising Sun” and “Hurt.” Those are two songs that I absolutely love, so I promise I won’t be starting any more after this. Knowing the Great Four: “Alouette,” “Happy Birthday,” “The House of the Rising Sun,” and “Hurt” is what I consider perfect. Once I can play those four, I will be a sensation. An idol among harmonicists and a musical being placed in some kind of knock-off Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
This song is a bit easier than “The House of the Rising Sun.” It’s not so shrill, so my ears are protected from my harmonica for the most part. It’s long though… very long. This is not a tab I will memorize, but rather one I must carry around with me forever.
I persist, and I perfect. I will soon be a harmonica champion, diatonic diva. See you soon, Free Inquiry project, because I will be back and I will be a star.
If outdoor education has 1 000 000 fans, I’m one of them. If outdoor education has 1 000 fans, I’m one of them. If outdoor education has 1 fan, it’s me. If outdoor education has 0 fans, I’m dead.
I love outdoor education. I want to get my master’s in outdoor education. I think that nature can teach kids about the world faster and more efficiently than a classroom ever could. Outdoor education reinforces physical health, improves mental health, increases focus and understanding, and all around, makes learning more engaging. Educating outside supplies real-world applications to all things science, math, history, and creates a connection between students and the land they reside on.
Additionally, the mental benefits of being outside are far superior than spending 7 hours sitting inside a box with fluorescent lights. Being outside exposes students to fresh air, vitamin D, and reduces sedentary behaviour. Time in nature also has a calming effect, reducing stress and anxiety, while boosting mood and self-esteem.
Lastly, spending time learning in nature fosters a deep connection with the environment, creating a sense of responsibility among students. This leads students to respect the land around them, picking up litter, taking care of plants and animals, and overall fighting for the environment. In the time we live in, this is more important than ever. The environment can’t fight for or fix itself; instead, we must protect the environment ourselves.
Feminism: the idea that everyone is entitled to freedom and equality, somehow seen as “controversial” among certain political groups. Feminism was born from the oppression of women as a homogenous group, although we see today that intersectionality plays a large role in this unequal power dynamic. In our contemporary society, gendered power is not equally distributed but experienced differently by each woman, shaped by various overlapping factors. This, my friends, is intersectionality.
The modern feminist understanding states that the struggles of women cannot be reduced to a single monolithic narrative, as factors including but not limited to class, race, gender identity, religion, and sexual orientation also play a role in privilege. For instance, a rich, white woman would experience more privilege than a woman of colour or a working-class woman, as she might have more access to resources, educational and work opportunities, and beneficial social networks. In order to create a truly equal society, a comprehensive feminist movement must address how these dimensions intersect to shape each woman’s life.
Gender itself is a made-up system which serves to maintain the structure of inequality. Dismantling these confining gender roles would challenge the sexist power structure established in our heavily-gendered society. The idea of gender functions as a mechanism of control, limiting individual freedoms and conforming people to narrow definitions of femininity and masculinity, reinforcing this inequality.
Advocating for the rights, freedoms, and equality of women means advocating for ALL women. Not just a niche, privileged version of the 4 billion women who walk this Earth every day.
When looking at the history of teaching, there are two places where teaching had to change and adapt completely: 1998 and 2023. 1998 marked the birth of Google, which meant that learning was no longer centred around learning through teaching. Classrooms and libraries were not the only place to learn now, you could find any information you wanted through the internet. Access to knowledge was free and it was everywhere. Rote memorization was abandoned, replaced with critical thinking and personalized learning. A new tool, originally frowned upon, was embraced in education, forever changing the way we think, learn, and teach.
A similar change began in 2023 with the introduction of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) chat bots, like ChatGPT. AI swept the world like a plague, getting faster and more accurate with each new user feeding it information on how to better replicate human scholars. Most notably, ChatGPT found its way into schooling, learning how to forge essays, plagiarize art, and answer an entire math test in approximately 5-10 seconds.
Believe it or not, I’m pro-AI. Well, pro-in-small-amounts. Like candy.
I believe that AI is tool, valuable for everyone, but notably for my future profession as an elementary teacher. It is a tool that can be taken advantage of, for sure, but when used correctly, AI is helpful. It is your own personal assistant, happy to do boring, tedious tasks, lowering workload and decreasing burnout. AI is a tool to be embraced, for it is here now, and it cannot be squished down and put out.
New technology faces backlash and skepticism, no matter what. The calculator was originally seen as a replacement for learning, wiping out teachers and mathematicians. People believed that calculators would lead to future students with no basic math skills… and look at schools now. Calculators are a tool, embraced in school, embraced in society.
AI can write essays and make “art” and answer 100 math questions in 10 seconds, sure. The rate it is advancing and growing is scary, yes. But we were scared of the calculator too. AI is a tool and once it is accepted as one, it will benefit everyone and every profession enormously.
After weeks of practicing how to read tabs, play different notes, and play simple songs like “Alouette” and “Happy Birthday,” it was time to fulfill my true calling: learning to play songs I love on the harmonica. It was hard work choosing one to start with, with my loved songs ranging from “Piano Man,” to “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.” In the end, after heavy debate, I settled on “The House of the Rising Sun.”
This song is much more complex than the previous ones I’ve played. It’s longer (about 5 stanzas, only 2 are pictured below), faster, and has a wide range of notes. It gets high and it gets low and it’s hard to make a harmonica screech sound good when it’s at 150dB and the highest pitch you can think of.
But still… I persist. I love this song, and by my next entry, I will have perfected it. On gang.
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, I love iMovie. It’s not the best software, not the most advanced, or the easiest to use, but I love it anyway, for all its flaws. I’ve tried every free editing software in the book, and while some come close (like CapCut), iMovie reigns supreme. I think it’s less about the quality of the software and more about how this is an app I’ve grown up using, since I was an aspiring director at age 8.
I use iMovie for the grunt work of montaging. It’s a wonderful platform for getting all my videos into one place and editing them down to a respectable length, going with the beat of whatever song I think fits the montage. I use CapCut for aesthetics like captions, or filters/transitions if I’m really going all out.
Check out my most recent montage below!
This week was my kid sister’s 18th birthday. I met her at the ripe age of 2 and my, how time has passed! For her birthday this year we got Chipotle for dinner and chocolate milkshakes for dessert. What did I get her? you may ask. Well, I got her the most fantabulous gift of all: “Happy Birthday” played by me on the harmonica.
After my many weeks of practicing and performing “Alouette,” I had gotten comfortable with the melody and notes of the song. “Alouette” uses 3 notes: 3, 4, and 5. These three are in the middle of the harmonica, easy to play as they are not super high or super low. “Happy Birthday,” however, uses the notes 6, 7, 8, and 9. Not only are these notes I haven’t played before, but they’re distinctly higher.
I’m a procrastinator, so learning this was placed on the back burner much longer than it should’ve been… Eventually I pushed on through to begin learning this song and it was… well, awful. With such high pitches, I discovered how to make some very disharmonious noises my first time playing “Happy Birthday.”
I was ready in time though. My sister received the beautiful, shrilling gift of me playing for her to celebrate her 18th rotation around the sun. I’m glad to have more songs in my arsenal now, and can’t wait to perfect and perform this beauty.