Blog#3 Music Education

I have been having the hardest time figuring out what I want my subject to be for the semester.  I went from wanting to write about the safety of snakes and how they are not dangerous at all to obesity and then bullying.  The one thing I did not want to write about was anything to do with Music because I am surrounded by music all day and night since that is my major and it is what i love to do! Trying to figure out a topic made me realize all i care about is Music and decided, I want to focus on how Music Education is very important in schools and help people understand why it benefits not only Music Majors and students who love music but music can benefit those who are not pursuing a career in music.

Since attending WT, the library source thing has never really been much of help but this semester has been totally different.  The library website has been great not just because it gives you articles but because it helped me pick out my topi at the end. 

• What key words worked well for your search?  Which were less useful?

Key words that were useful for me were "Music Education."  That was really the one thing that helped.  Other than that, I used "Secondary Music Education," "Importance of Music in Schools" and "Secondary Education with music."  By using the library website, I chatted with the box called "Ask  a Librarian" to help me narrow my topic much more and they suggested a link called ERIC (EBSCO) which has been helping me a lot.

• Are there a lot of sources for your topic?  Were you overwhelmed by the number of sources or desperate to find some?

Yes, there were a lot of sources for my topic and i was overwhelmed because I was still not sure what I wanted my topic to be until today, January 3 really.  Now that I have narrowed it, I am hoping to have an easier time with finding resources.

• What are some of the approaches that the sources took to the topic? For example, were there sources mostly in one area of study, or from several different disciplines?  What aspects of the topic did they focus on?

Some of the approaches taken were how music helped children to learn the language of English ( which is the way I began learning how to speak English as well). Others were more on how it helped with emotions or disabilities, some on the education for women. One that I plan on looking at is the "Common ground for community music and music education."

• How did you sort through the sources?  What criteria did you use to figure out if they were useful to you or not?

Way I sorted my topic was by changing the date to 2010-2014 and finding articles with full text so I could read more into the article to make sure it is something that will help me.  Under subject, I narrowed it down as well by focusing strictly on articles that focus on Music Education Advocacy and Music Education.  Also, Under "Source Type." there are three different choices which are Academic Journals, Reviews and Books. 

• What did you learn about your topic just from sorting through some of these source?

I learned that how Music can help so many people in different occasions.  Such as health issues, Women/Men, emotions, etc.  I cant wait to continue looking into my subject and begin writing!

blog #2 snakes being misunderstood as a dangerous

Humans misunderstand snakes as being dangerous when in reality they are not out to hurt us.  Snakes can and do play an important role in nature.  Most of the time, stories and movies exaggerate the abilities of a snake and create an image of them being evil. 

           

·      How are snakes useful?

·      How can we use their venom to our advantage?

·      Can they really hypnotize you with their stare?

·      What to do if you hear/approach a snake?

·       

My topic is important because snakes are really not dangerous.  They are not out to try and kill you at all.  When getting close to a snake, they actually freeze and blend with their surroundings in order to avoid contact with humans.  If they are seen, they will try to move away or get in a defense position.  Once in a defensive position, they will strike but only to warn you that it will bite you if it must in order to survive and make you leave and when biting humans, it usually happens when you provoke them.   Snakes venom is also said to be able to cure sickness; possible destroy blood vessels that feed cancerous tumors.  Also, snakes do eat other snakes and because of it keep each other’s population of snakes in check. 

I am researching snakes because I want to find out how snakes can play an important part in nature in order to help readers understand that humans should not kill snakes.

Introducing myself; Job Najera

My name is Job Najera. I was born and raised in El Monte, California and moved to Texas when I turned 16.  I've been singing since I was 5 years old so music has been part of my life since I can remember.  The funny thing is I never did choir until I came to WT; I actually didn't know how to read music or anything related to it until I came here.  All I knew was that I loved to sing and that one day, I could make it a career as a performer.  I have performed in California, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and internationally in all of Southern France and Spain.  This is also my last semester at WT as I will be graduating with a Music Performance and Education degree.  I have three jobs at the moment which are  Men's Wearhouse, Residential Living and the Amarillo Opera company.
My favorite hobbies are singing (obviously haha), power lifting, anything to do outdoors, and a crazy one nobody would think is reptiles.  I have held alligators, cobras, pythons, rattlesnakes, and other kinds.  The only subject I really enjoy besides anything to deal with music, is history.  What I enjoy the most is things like the wars or things to do with the indians specially the holocaust.  These topics are really cool to me and catch my attention.  Anything to do with music is really my passion! Im surrounded by musicians most of the time, I listen to music pretty much all day, its my major, its what I do for a living; music is my life.  When it comes to english though, Im horrible! Im not a great reader so I dont like to read much or enjoy reading either.  So i would like to become better with this english class in all ways possible.