A Real Introduction

Hello Everyone,

The first introduction was more of a test blog. I've never done this before so I'm still figuring out how this all works.

My name is Derek Cressman and I live in Morrisville, Pennsylvania which is just across the river from Trenton, NJ. It's about 40 minutes northeast of Philadelphia and about 1.5 hours southwest of New York City. I live with my partner Jason and our three dogs, Maddie, Roy and Roxy in a beautiful two hundred year old colonial farm house.

In my spare time I love to cook...it's therapeutic to me...I could spend all day in the kitchen and not ever get tired of it. Other than that, I enjoy reading, crossword puzzles, old school video games (Dragon Warrior anyone?) exercising, learning, listening to Judy Collins' voice and card games.

My undergraduate work was done at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ and I am now in my final semester at TC.

I teach music at William Penn Middle School which is part of the Pennsbury School District. I live ten minutes away from work which is really fantastic. At William Penn, I spend most of my day in the general music classroom, one to two periods a week for chorus. In the winter months, I spend every afternoon and many Saturdays rehearsing for the spring musical. This year we're presenting "The Boy Friend" and we open on Wednesday!

At Westminster, I learned that an important aspect of education is to not just know who your students are but to honor who they are and to incorporate who they are into your practice.

Technology is an everyday part of students lives. Last year, during our choral concert I didn't see any student with a cell phone out. This year I asked several students to put their phones away so they wouldn't be texting during the performance of the other choirs.

Students text, IM, they join more online social communities than I can name. When I get home, I check my e-mail and maybe sign on facebook.

By taking this class, I'm hoping to learn how to learn more about the digital world that my students are immersed in and how that world can be used in the classroom. I think the biggest problem with technology is that either people don't know how to use it or they don't know how to use it well. I hope to learn both.