5 Years has come and gone!

Well the final day has come and gone and I can finally say I am done university classes! Where has the last five years gone! During my undergrad degree time seemed to go by slower and the last two years of my after degree here in education has seemed to fly by! It’s definitely a weird feeling of not being able to see my classmate’s everyday like we have for the last two years, and I will definitely miss that! Student teaching begins on Monday which I am super excited to work with the children and towards the end of March start applying for jobs in hope of finding one! I have learned so much over the last two years, especially in ICT. The endless amount of apps, that I never knew existed, blogging (which I found difficult at first), as well as creating our e-portfolios. I definitely will take a lot of what I have learned over the past two years with me into my own classroom and will help students use technology effectively and appropriately. 

Week 8- Free resource for teaching digital citezenship

EverFi is a free resource that is partnered up with different organizations such as NHL, singers such as Pharrell Williams that allows these courses to be a free resource for education and teachers! EverFi has 10 + years experience, 8000 schools, 180 employees, 9 million students, 1000 partners and innovative investors. I think that is it really neat that the NHL is involved and they have created courses such as math and science of hockey for grades 5-7- focusing on science/ technology/ engineering/ math and integrating these areas together, as well as alchoholedu, etc.. I think that students would be extremely engaged in this type of course work if they are interested in hockey or sports and would help them understand it in a way that works for them. Being someone who struggled with math a lot, and science a little bit in school I think that this would have put it into terms that I would have understood and would have enjoyed math more. I think that these courses are an amazing resource for teachers to use to teach students and have I mentioned it's FREE! That's awesome, especially when your first starting out teaching! This was a great presentation!

Tech Task #6- Connected Student

My connected world is fairly minimal compared to most. I only use the basic technology tools to listen to music, connect with family, and watch videos on. I find that the tools that I used are the ones that work best for me because I like to have a minimal of tools to have to check on daily and to continuously update, as I am not one that shares a whole lot on the internets or Facebook.

I think that students in todays world are a lot more connected and have signed up for every possible social media site possible. I think that the more tools that the students are able to use the more learning that we as teachers can provide them. It allows for the opportunity for us as teachers to allow students to create amazing assignments using technology like never before and allows students to explore with that creativity. I think that students growing up in our technology driven world are more comfortable and do not think twice about posting something online because they feel like it will not harm them- I think that we as teachers need to take the tools that they are so vigorously engaged in and make sure that we are teaching them to be smart digital citizens and to make responsible choices!

Tech Task # 8- Rethinking Classroom Cell Phones- Podcast

This podcast had talked about how cell phones are being used for cheating, and the response was well don't ask questions that are able to be answered by Google. Using technology as a tool of engagement will help reduce management problems in the classroom and allow students to enjoy school and technology. When I was in high school we were not allowed to use our cellphones at all in class and they would be taken away if they were seen out in the classroom at all. But I think in todays classrooms that is not at all how it is anymore. Teachers are really experimenting with various uses of bring your own device to allow students to use them for educational purposes (not texting) while in the classroom. I think that the ideas of this podcast are somewhat dated in the fact that some believe that students should not have their devices in the classroom. Using podcasts in the classroom is a great way to create a discussion or a debate in the classroom. You could have students take one side or the other of the podcast and engage in pros and cons of the topic at hand. Cheating and chatting is the topic of this podcast- I also do not believe that cheating is possible with cellphones, because if you are asking questions that students can easily answer than that is not an effective question. Students need to be able to access technology during assessment, to access the tools of technology and to use it at any time during their learning and not just some of the time. The podcast had talked about the fact that devices will be pencils and papers of the future- yes I agree that they will be the main way that students take notes and create assignments, but I also think that pen and paper skills are also critical for students to still know. Cellphones being forbidden in poor schools? I do not know if that is a fair question- why should all students suffer in that school if some students cant afford devices but some can. I think that with the school divisions headed towards providing devices for students this will eliminate this problem somewhat!
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Week 7- Almost Student teaching time!!!

This week I was able to go and visit my class that I will be student teaching in, and will be teaching science ( soils) as well as focusing on earth day, ELA (poetry), and math (measurement). I am super excited to work with the children that are in Grade 3 and teaching grade 3 science will be a new experience that I am excited for! While I was there for my visit the students were on the carpet area when I entered and were using a toilet paper roll with popsicle sticks on it.... they were using them to knit with!!!! What a cool idea, they all have time to work on knitting but by March they measure whose is the longest and they then put them all end to end to see if they can reach from the classroom to the gym. I can't wait to get to work with this awesome class of students!
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Week 6- Brandon School Division Technology

This week we had a guest speaker from Brandon School division who discussed the technology within the division. Kelly had talked about the fact that Brandon School division is Microsoft based and if there is a form of a Microsoft program available teachers use that instead of something else. I was amazed at this because of the fact that although programs are similar, they do differ and some that are not Microsoft based are often programs that offer more. The fact that teachers are stuck using mostly Microsoft based programs could be seen as a downfall. I think that teacher are fully capable of using the internet and the programs on it, effectively and responsibly, so therefore I think that they should be able to explore with what programs that they would like to use to teach and engage students. I think that limiting this is harming the students in the end because of the opportunities that they may be missing out on.
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Week 5- 1:1 teaching in the classroom

Bryce had a lot of great positives about using technology in the classroom. Having a teacher like Bryce that is knowledgeable in the area of technology and willing to try new things with students allows 1:1 teaching to be successful in his classroom. I really like the idea of using different website to allow students to explore and really have the opportunity to use creativity at a deeper level than ever before! A lot of the students work that was shown to us was absolutely amazing on the time, effort and thought that was put into creating various forms as such. We were asked in class this week if we would use social media in our classroom during teaching, and I think that if used properly it can be a great resource. However, with someone like myself who is interested in teaching elementary I think that it makes it a little more difficult with the legality with the students being under age. I think that I would use a classroom website for my main resource of social media and communicating with parents and students online. I also think that if students are in grade 3 or higher that they than can start experimenting with using various programs to really create neat projects and portray their ideas and creativity in a unique way.  I think that some teachers are scared to explore with the students the different website tools that are available and allow students to have class time to create some amazing work. I really look forward to exploring and helping students use their creativity, because this is something I really enjoy myself. I am the type of learner that prefers to create something new rather than follow in the footsteps of everyone else!

Infographics- Tech task #7

I used the website pictograph to create this info graphic. I think that in the classroom this is a great tool that students can use to create projects on the information that they know. It was interesting using the program to create this info graphic just because of the fact that it was not something I had used before so it took me some time to navigate the page. The various choice of formats allows for students to have a variety of options and incorporate their creativity into the info graphic that they choose to create. I also think that the complexity would vary on the grade level and that the age level of students and the program that I used would allow students to create various work based on their skill level.

Video in the classroom- Tech task #9

 

 

The video that I have chose is on a game called Tchouke ball and I would use this video in the gym to show to my students prior to starting this unit with them. I taught this unit during one of my student teaching placement and found that the students were more involved in the game after watching how intense the professionals play the game. I think that using multimedia in the classroom allows students to see various aspects of the information you are trying to teach them. Teaching this unit you could always only demonstrate how the game should be played but seeing at such an intense speed as this allows students to really connect to what they are learning. I think that allowing students to create their own videos is beneficial because they then can assess them to review information, as well as using what they know in order to create the you tube video. I think that in my own classroom I would use the videos on the classroom website or on their blogs but I don't know if I would post them on YouTube if it was of students at a younger age. And of course having parental permission would be something that would need to be sorted out also. Having videos allows students to learn in the various methods of visual, auditory, kinaesthetically, and allows endless possibilities for students.

 

iLearnTechnology-Edublogger- Tech Task #4

Link: http://ilearntechnology.com/wordpress/
Name of Person: Kelly Tenkely

Background of Kelly:
Teaching History: 1 year as a 2nd grade classroom teacher, 7 years as a k-5 technology specialist/teacher. 5 years as a technology integration specialist offering mentoring, training, and professional development.
Current Work: I am not in the classroom, you can learn more about that decision here.  In the year I was out of the classroom, I offered freelance technology training, social media consulting, professional development, curriculum design, and technology integration consulting, virtual classroom. If you are interested in working with me, you can contact me here.
In 2011 I started my own school, Anastasis Academy.  I believe that education needs a reinvention.  Anastasis is my dream of what education can and should be.
In 2010 I created the Learning Genome Project.  I am currently seeking funding for this project that will make personalized learning available to children all over the world.

I decided to follow this blog because technology and teaching have a huge impact in todays world. One of the blogs that Kelly had posted was name Metanoia- which focuses on always searching for the next best thing in education and the continuous pattern that we seem to go through as educators. I agree 100 % with what she says about education always trying to incorporate the next best thing and spending money on PD's to try to learn the new item, but than not long after that piece of technology is pushed to the side and the process starts over again. This blog focuses on incorporating technology in the classroom and the blogs that she has posted are an amazing read, and really makes you think about what is being said!

http://ilearntechnology.com/wordpress/

Web- based courses

Donald and Shannon provided us information in regards to web based courses. I myself have not had a whole lot of experience with online courses, besides a partial one that I did not complete. During the time that I was working on this online course I found it extremely difficult to stay focused on completing it along with everything else in life that was going on. I felt extremely stressed out by doing the course online because I learn best with someone standing in front of me and actually teaching me. Donald had mentioned LMS- blackboard to learn which he had said that over 1000 teachers, and over 9000 students use it, as well as over 50 % of teachers use WBCs as a resource for teaching/professional learning. Web based learning is for supporting learners/teachers, assure congruence and to model good pedagogy for E-learning and in assessment strategies. I think that for students who are not able to complete courses in a classroom that this is a great resource for students to succeed and complete courses. Don had mentioned that it is important for accessibility which is a great aspect of the web based courses. The fact that a student with a disability can easily learn just like any other student is great! Engagement I can see would be a problem for some students and they may find that web based courses don't work for them- but they have set it up so that students can easily access help at their finger tips, they can use blogs or wikis, and whiteboard and chat so this allows students to stay connective and communicate easily through blackboard so that students can easily do all the necessary things. It is to the teachers discretion what tools they want to use, which I think is great so that teachers and students can get used to the program! The question was asked to us on how we would engage students in our own class if we were teaching an online course? I think that personally I would prefer that students have more creative assignments rather than tests, essays, or questions that are to be answered. I think that students would be more engaged if it was creative assignments that can be done using an online source. I think that as an early years teacher it would be more difficult to include something like the blackboard in my classroom because the students are not quite at that level yet. Students in middle years and senior years though would definitely be able to benefit from the blackboard!

Week 3- Diggo and Scoop it

John Evans was the presenter that we had come in this week that first introduced us to maple, which is a Manitoba professional learning environment for teachers. I like this program for the fact that you can join a group and get ideas on a certain subject that you may be teaching, as well as share ideas within the group. John talked about the idea of professional development and how teachers are always attending PD's that you travel to and sit and learn for hours on end. He than mentioned the idea that we are constantly upgrading our professional develop through the resources that we have right in from of us such as twitter, you tube, Diggo and scoop it, just to name a few. I think that as teachers we are always learning something new and we push ourselves to attend professional development, or to have it come to us in order to stay on top of our learning and I think the fact that the resources that are online are considered PD opportunity is great. John also introduced us to a resource online called Diggo, which allows you to find article and write ups that you know are good because many people have read them and approved of them. Its a great tool that allows you to access accurate information quickly. Scoop it was another tool that was introduced to us, and between Diggo and Scoop it, I liked Diggo better.  I found Diggo easier to navigate and the overall liked the layout of it better. Did anyone else prefer one over the other?
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Tech task #3- Twitter

Twitter is something that I have never really used a whole lot, but can see the benefits to it for an educational purpose. I myself am not someone who usually posts a whole lot on twitter or Facebook. I think that twitter is a great tool to communicate quickly and effectively amongst a group of people and is a great way to share ideas. I think once I become more comfortable with twitter that I may use it more for the purpose of my teaching and retrieving information from others that I find beneficial. Initially my views of twitter was that it was not really something that I would use but in the last few weeks my view has changed for the better and will definitely be something that I use more often!

Tech Task #5 Digital Footprint

The other day in class we were discussing what your personal digital footprint is? For myself when I Google my own name my website about me page is the first thing that appears among other things such as awards from my high school graduation, and my experience at the Girls Baseball Nationals in which we played against Ontario and I was put in as a relief pitcher and somehow managed to pull out a win! My digital footprint is something that I view as very important and want it to be something that others see as a leader or a good influence. In order to protect my personal digital footprint I believe that you have to monitor what you place online as well as what others put online about you. Your actions in any situation, if they are negative, can affect your digital footprint because things such as newspaper articles and such would than be the first thing that pops up about you. I do believe however though that digital dualism should be the same in both worlds. You should not pretend to be someone you are not online and act totally different there than you would in person, and vise versa. I believe that teaching your students that digital footprints are important and the appropriate ways that they should act online is very important. If you as the teacher are not teaching them this, most likely no one else is, so how else are they going to learn what is appropriate to place online. It is up to you if this is a positive digital footprint or negative!
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Tech task #11- new/favorite app

We were recently introduced to an app called interval timer, which is an app that can be used in the gym for physical education teachers. This app allows teachers to play music for a period of time, than have a rest to explain to the students what the next task will be and than the music will play again after this period. I really like this app because you do not always have to run over to the music machine and push stop on your device in order to talk to students. You can adjust the settings to allow for shorter or longer music periods or shorter or longer rest periods. You also can allow it to change songs after that time limit is up, so for example if you are doing a circuit you can have the music set to play for a minute and than once the music changes they move to the next station. This app is great and I haven't found too many flaws with it so far. You are able to choose your playlist off of your device and can organize your music that way.
Here is a link to this cool app: http://www.intervaltimer.com/

Tech Task #12- what the future holds

The Horizon Report discusses the role of teachers and the primary responsibility of teachers and how they may have to change their roles. I believe that teachers have adapted to the new up and coming technology that is present and until it is pushed to the side it will be the focus. Teachers are expected to continuously train themselves on the brand new technology that is created, with no true reward. Although I like the idea of student centered learning and the fact that students are able to explore and discover in the classroom, in my opinion I believe that eventually things will be back to the way they were in the 1950's and technology will eventually plateau. As of right now teachers will be adapting their teaching styles to better suit the needs of the technology demands. I believe that until it does switch back to the way it was we will continue to teach around the fact that we are unsure what jobs will come, in which I also believe that no matter what we as educators still need to teach the way that we always have! We still need people that are teachers, nurses, entrepreneurs, dentists, doctors, etc. I do not believe that we would be able to survive as a culture without these jobs and we still need to be focusing on these in order to have success. I see technology as an addition that will help make these jobs better or maybe create expansions of these jobs, but the point is, is that these are still our basis that we need to teach around because eventually technology will plateau. I found this picture online, do you believe we are close to a plateau in technological advances? I believe it will be 20 years from now. The article also discusses authentic learning, and bringing real life experiences into the classroom. I love the idea of authentic learning as it allows students to be engaged in what they are learning and relate it to real life situations. Vocational education is the best chance for authentic learning but I think that this should be incorporated in the classroom and in university more. The opportunity for hands on learning and relating what you will be doing in the future to what you are learning now will allow our society to have a higher educated society.
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Tech Task #2- Organizing yourself online

I believe that organizing yourself online is important in order to survive in the 21st century of technology. There are so many options available to use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, Google, and so on and each of these resources require a password. I like the easiness of just going on your iphone and not needing to remember passwords every time you log onto something because the iphone allows you to click the app in which you are already signed onto. Due to the fact that I only use pinterest, google, and Facebook this makes my organization online a little bit easier than someone who uses all the others too. I have really enjoyed having the google classroom set up for this class as it makes things a lot easier to access and view what is happening. I think that this is definitely something that I would use in my own classroom to help students be organized online. Although some people may view being organized online as not really important, it really does help in the end and is a skill that should be taught!

Week 2- Digital Identity

This week we focused on digital identity, and digital dualism and I believe that as an educator we are constantly filtering our digital identity. I know for myself that I only use Facebook as a source of social media and I often think to myself before posting, would someone else who doesn't know me take this not as it is intended? This therefore makes what I do post on Facebook very minimal and mostly consists of posts to do with my family and friends. I realize that some people have cleaned up their Facebook of stuff that they think shouldn't be on there but a realization that I have is that everyone goes through stages right? So therefore during the teen years you may be exploring and figuring out what is the right path to go down, and during your first few years of university you may have not wanted to be a teacher. This all should not affect how we should be viewed as educators in my opinion because people change and often what they have done when they are younger is not what they are doing now and therefore they should not be judged on that by people who barely know them now and definitely didn't know them then. What are your opinions on this? I just think that your social media consist of people who are your friends and family and the events and activities that you do with them should not be a concern of anyone else's if it happened in the past. However I do think that once we become certified teachers we need to watch what we are putting out there as parents may see it differently than it was intended or may affect their view of us.

Week 1- copyrights and education

This week was an interesting one for me as we had a presenter in the class that talked about copyrights for us as future teachers. I was taken back a bit by the information that was given to us because as a physical education teacher we have always been told to incorporate music, or use videos in our teachings to provide students with a better learning opportunity. This was fine, until Thursday when we were told that we are only allowed to do use these resources if they are for educational purposes.  In my opinion though, physical education and music go hand in hand, and music is necessary to help kids move and explore creativity during movement. So therefore, I view music as being educational and necessary for students to learn and grow.
The idea of not being able to use anything that you need a login code for was also an interesting topic, because of the fact that it is preventing students from learning in a world that is so technologically focussed, and yet students are unable to fully use it properly in the educational setting. I struggle with the idea that anything that may be beneficial to our students, is something that we are unable to use unless it relates to the outcomes or topic that we are teaching.
I believe that as long as you have the reasoning as to why you are doing what you are in your classroom, and it relates to the topic that you are teaching, than there should never be any reason to question the way you are teaching. Therefore, I say teach with the resources you have available to you and you will do fine, as long as they are education based. 


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