Rob--Featured Teacher: Shirley Terrinoni

“It is much easier to access Schoology as I do not worry about losing a piece of paper or having to carry around a textbook for my assignments.”

- A student testimonial

Shirley Terrinoni
Music Teacher
Hannibal High School
Hannibal Central School District

Our May 2015 Featured Teacher has more than 30 years of teaching experience. For the past 15 years, Shirley has taught Music Theory, Guitar, and Band to students in grades 9-12 at Hannibal High School.

What are some of the innovative ways that Shirley integrates technology into her curriculum?

Shirley incorporates technology into many aspects of her classes through a variety of tools such as SMARTBoards, Schoology, iPads, Google Apps, and websites. She has found the SMARTBoard to be useful for showing students how to create their own music or view YouTube videos for techniques. Schoology also plays an important part in Shirley’s music classes. She uses the online learning management system to allow students who miss class the ability to access the work that was discussed during their absence. To do this, Shirley converts her SMART Notebook files into PDFs and uploads to Schoology, as well as links to videos that she created about the lessons. Shirley also uses Schoology as a platform for student discussions regarding performances and pieces of music.

Another technology tool that Shirley embraces is Google Drive. She was an early adopter of the cloud-based system and uses it frequently with her students. She commonly uses Google Forms for Exit Tickets for her students. She has also found Google Drive to be helpful organizing meal choices for field trips and uses Google Docs for guided reading activities for her AP Music Theory class.

How have students benefited from technology integration initiatives?
Shirley believes that students have benefited from her use of technology by becoming independent learners with the blended learning. Additionally, students benefit from access to class lessons on Schoology, ensuring that a class absence will not prevent them from making up work at home. She has also noticed an increase in students experimenting with music outside of class, especially with the use of Noteflight . The students are coming to class with compositions that they have created and tested. Shirley's use of the SMARTboard has helped with increased engagement during class and allows the students to become the information experts by showing others instead of just sitting and receiving the information. Review activities have also become more engaging using the SMARTboard. One of the websites that Shirley incorporates into class is musictheory.net, which has many exercises that are game-like for the students to practice and show what they know!

When a few of Shirley's students were asked about their experiences with technology in the classroom, the responses were “I really like the ability to type our notes into the laptops or iPads - it is much easier to read!,” “It is much easier to access Schoology as I do not worry about losing a piece of paper or having to carry around a textbook for my assignments,” and “I love using the Noteflight website to write my music - I have horrible handwriting and I can also listen to what I have written to make sure it sounds like what I thought!”

Is This You?
Are you the type of teacher who thinks about technology integration and new ways to enhance instruction, engage students, and make learning fun? Know someone who fits the profile? Recommend a "Featured Teacher" so we can recognize and celebrate great work in the area of instructional technology!