Category: Weekly Reflections (page 1 of 1)

This week’s class was super cool! We had the opportunity to get outside and get some fresh air which was incredible. Luckily, we were blessed with and warm and sunny day. For this class, I decided not to use any apps on my phone besides the camera app as it is already downloaded on every phone. I wanted to see what I could do with an app that has no real direction. In the end, this became a documentation of what I learnt on my walk. Luckily for you, I have the photos and can take you along on my journey.

I got the opportunity to go on this journey with two of my very lovely friends!

These were too pretty to not photograph! However, I wish there was a sign explaining more about this flower and if it is a native or non-native species. This is where a plant identification app would have come in handy.

I had to capture the ducks!

So did my friends!

I thought this aspect of the walk was a key moment as it highlights the importance of understanding which species are native to where you live. In connection to the First Peoples Principles of Learning, it is important to not only learn about land but also focus on the land you stand on. It is important for students to be able to identify the types of plants they learn about in the world around them.

Some more photography!

Overall, I had a really fun time collecting photos and learning about the different plants in the Finerty Gardens. I think students could have a really fun time with this, especially if they take the time to download plant identification apps.

While I was walking, I thought a fun cross-curricular activity could include tasking students to take pictures of things from nature on a walk and then have them create an art piece of a chosen photo. This could be multimedia and include a technology art aspect like digital drawing, animation, or chatterpix. The students would also be expected to research and discover facts about their chosen species.

Have an awesome week!

This week, we spent some time discussing and exploring ways to gamify the classroom in a digital way. This is something I am very familiar with. Growing up, I remember playing hours of Mathletics with my classmates. Mathletics was an online math competition where you competed with students across the world. The competitive aspect of the platform encouraged me to practice math outside of school to improve my skills. In my Link2Practice, the kindergarten students I work with use apps that turn learning letters and their sounds into games. I have noticed a lot of improvement and engagement from the students with these apps.

In class, we looked at a variety of different websites that offer educational resources and games. I spent the most time on PBS Kids, which I believe reflects the structures of a lot of educational games in the classroom. I have no issues with the website, but I would not use it in my classroom. I find that having students separated from one another, only focussed on their screens is not the best way to learn. I would much prefer to gamify subjects with collaborative games that do not place all the heavy lifting onto an iPad. With this, I would send parents and guardians of students a list of links to websites like PBS Kids for the students to engage with at home. While their at school, I want to really focus on the social aspects of classroom learning.

In fifth grade, I played a lot of Mathletics at school, but I also participated in a group project where we researched and created food trucks. The goal of the assignment was to understand how to make a profit from a business. I do not remember a single aspect of the problems I did in Mathletics, but I remember every aspect of my group’s food truck.

Of course, I am a long way from having my own classroom, so there is time for my opinion to shift. For now, I plan to gamify my classroom in a variety of ways to create a more collaborative environment.

This week’s topic was near and dear to my heart as am always searching for ways to make classrooms more inclusive. I have a lot of very important people in my life who have diverse needs and abilities and they have struggled throughout their school years with inclusion. There are so many incredible ways to use technology for inclusivity, such as iPads for communication, digital personalized learning programs, translation devices, and so much more. After completing my BEd, I have intention of earning my Special Education Certification so I can continue to assist students and build more inclusive classrooms.

While doing so more research into what has been successful in this area, I came across Microsoft Education, a branch of the Microsoft company that focuses on Education. Microsoft Education has dedicated itself to inclusive education across its platforms, such as Word or PowerPoint. The website highlights important features, such as a narrator, eye control, colour filters, and an accessibility checker to see if your work is accessible to all learners. Along with these, courses are offered for educators to explore and learn more about inclusive education.

I do want to highlight that Microsoft is a company that asks you to pay for its services. I understand that the website is trying to sell its readers on buying the Microsoft programs and I am not trying to sell it to you. With that, many school districts partner with Microsoft and give their educators and students full access to all of its features. If you are working in a school with this privilege, I encourage you to explore the inclusivity that Microsoft has to offer.

Here is a link to the website:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/education/educators/student-centered-learning

If you’re more of a video person, here is Microsofts official video on inclusion:

Thanks for stopping by and see you soon!

This week, we experimented with the concept of EdCamp and even had the opportunity to participate in our own. EdCamps allow the participants to choose the discussion topics and explore meaningful conversations. I believe this form of conference will help teachers build excitement and remain engaged.

Something I really loved about our mini EdCamp was that the conversations flowed so naturally. During one of the stations I was participating in, the conversation shifted to a completely different topic. It was still regarding education and everyone was actively engaged. I appreciated that we did not need to rush and change back to the original topic because the goal was simply to learn from each other, even if it involved a topic change.

One aspect that I did find odd was leaving conversations whenever I felt like it. If the conversation had not concluded, it felt rude to just stand up and leave. However, this is part of the culture of EdCamp so I believe it is something I could get used to.

Overall, I hope to experience several EdCamps over the course of my career as I truly believe I could learn a lot from my colleagues.

See you next week!

This week, we addressed the hottest topic in the technology world today- AI. Specifically, generative AI such as ChatGPT, which I am quite familiar with. Last year, when ChatGPT was first released and quickly gained popularity, I was too afraid to look into it. There was just something so creepy about AI, that I honestly thought that this would be the beginning of the robot apocalypse. However, a friend finally convinced me to experiment with it and I was swept into the AI world and now I believe that it could save my generation of educators.

The education world is currently extremely unappealing. Teachers are overworked, underpaid, and not listened to by our governments. Thus, so many are quitting early on due to burnout. My social media is often flooded with teachers explaining why they just cannot do it anymore. Although AI cannot change the amount we are paid or make our premiers listen to us, it can help cut down the amount of hours spent on work. Teachers are expected to spend hours outside of school hours planning lessons and grading assignments, which is a recipe for early burnout. ChatGPT can create lesson plans and rubrics in a matter of seconds, allowing teachers to spend more time with their families or on hobbies- the things that keep us going. Even if what AI produces is not exactly what you are lo0oking for, it is still a start.

For example, my favourite book is The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton and it also happens to be one of the top books read in seventh-grade classrooms. If I wanted to introduce my students to the novel and did not want to spend the time lesson planning I could simply prompt ChatGPT with something along the lines of “write me an introduction lesson for seventh grades students about to read The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton” and it would produce something like this:

With this, I can take what I find helpful to use or I could continue to prompt ChatGPT until I get something I loke or inspires me.

Furthermore, once my students have finished the novel, if I assign them a project of redesigning the book cover and I have no rubric, I can ask ChatGPT.

I was able to complete all of this in a matter of minutes! I personally plan to use AI as a tool to help me prevent burnout and save time. I think you should consider it too.

See you all next week!

This week, we spent time on using graphics in the classroom. We discussed different ways to photoshop images and add text, specifically using PowerPoint. I am no stranger to photoshopping images, it was one of my many pandemic hobbies when lockdowns were still in place. However, I do not usually use the “classic” platforms, my app of choice has always been Picsart on my iPhone. As someone who is not very comfortable on a laptop, I like to do all my photo editing on my iPhone. Thus, I found an app that allows me to do so for free.

In the future, I would like to get more comfortable with using Canva and PowerPoint due to their convenience and the features they have. I think that making a worksheet on the app I use now would be difficult. However, this week I just wanted to mess around and work on blending things in by increasing shadows and messing with contrast. This is what I made:

One issue I did run into while using free images from Unsplash, I could not remove the watermark, nor was I sure if that would be legal. Either way, I am still pretty proud of this image and I will definitely use photo editing to brighten my student’s days and for worksheets.

See you next week!

Videos can be a tool used in the classroom to help students further engage in their learning in a variety of ways. One way that teachers currently use them is for brain-breaks. There is a large selection of brain-break videos available on YouTube for teachers to use. This is a quick way to get students moving in the classroom with little to no equipment. Another way they can be used is for more inclusive learning. Students learn in a variety of ways and at a variety of paces. Videos allow students to experience a different form of instruction and they have the opportunity to pause, slow down, or rewind the video. Here are a few examples of videos that can be used in the classroom and how:

As a brain-break to get students moving and a cross-curricular connection to music and beat counting:

As a resource to review or introduce material to students:

As a study tool for students at home:

And there is so much more available out there! Just ensure to watch all the videos the entire way through to make sure they are completely safe for students.

If you do not like what is already out there, you can make videos for your own students and reuse them for years to come. You do not need any special equipment, just something to film with and a lesson in mind. This gives students more flexibility and the option to review concepts for further understanding. In high school, I had several Math teachers upload videos of themselves teaching certain concepts onto YouTube and Microsoft Teams so that students could review content at their own pace. These videos were particularly helpful when I needed to study for the final and could not remember what we did early on in the semester.

Videos can really help teachers and students in the day-to-day classroom life.

While watching the film, “Most Likely to Succeed,” I was very intrigued by how the students at High Tech High scored so well on their SAT exams. From what I witnessed during the film, High Tech High seemed to be a very interesting inquiry-based school. I wondered if some student inquiries would benefit their ability to do well on the SATs, while others would not cover the necessary information. It is important to note that I have never taken the SAT exam, thus I do not know what the questions are truly asking or how to prepare for the exam. However, from exploring the High Tech High website, I have begun to understand how the students perform well on the SATs. There are three possible factors I have come up with; student motivation, parental involvement, and private tutoring. The students who attend High Tech High are encouraged to explore inquiry topics that mean something to them, likely preventing burnout as they are participating in activities they genuinely enjoy. The lack of burnout among students can assist them in their SAT prep and studying, as they will feel more motivated. Secondly, parents seem to be more involved in their student’s lives and can be of assistance when preparing for the SATs. This ties into my third point about private tutoring for the SATs. Parents may be more inclined to fund private tutoring for their children. However, High Tech High has a wide range of students from different financial backgrounds, so not every family may be able to afford something like that. Overall, the film did not discuss in detail how their students performed so well on their exams. Their website does not explicitly state how they achieve this, leading me to draw my conclusions. 

Perishable. (n.d.). Publications. High Tech High. v https://www.hightechhigh.org/student-work/publications/ 

Hello! Welcome to my Blog!

I have spent a few days reflecting on our last class, and I have gathered a few thoughts about this whole blog thing and the course in general. First off, I am very excited to get creative on this platform. I grew up as a kid who experimented with making movies on YouTube with my friends (this is hopefully buried deep in my digital footprint) and I have loved exploring the tech world. I hope this blog will bring back the creativity that used to ooze out of me as a kid. Secondly, it is very important to me that we discuss digital footprints and the dangers of social media, as I believe it is an increasingly important topic. I want to gain a strong understanding of it so that I can educate my future students on being safe online. Overall, my hopes are very high for this class! See you all next week!