Sunday, February 26, 2012

Professional Advisory

Although the information heard in the attached advisory is known and commonly mentioned, watching and reading the advisory was one of the last assignments of my technology class. Once we've embarked on our digital footprint journey and hopped on the educational technology train we are warned about the implications that can come along with using educational technology.



However, I believe this was done intentionally. Many of my peers came into this class with fears; fears of technology, fears of breaching our new found standards of practice, fears of leaving behind a permanent mistake. It would not have been right to start the class off only reiterating those fears or misconceptions. Starting the class off with this advisory would have been a steep fall off of the ed tech bandwagon.

I also believe the process we went through, and the pedagogy of the technology we were exposed to steered us in the right direction. We were not driving blind, but had all the guidance and support of our peers, our teacher Zoe Branigan-Pipe, and all of those who joined us along the way developing our professional learning networks. We were in a safe environment to explore and learn about the technology, without the fear of making a costly mistake. We were exposed to the educational side of technology rather than the mere entertainment side.

One of my first posts was about the two types of users of Twitter and my hesitation to get an account. This hesitation was a product of the lack of knowledge of the tool. From this class I have now gained a full understanding of the power of twitter, have fully adopted the social network and participate in weekly chats, gaining and sharing resources.

My Twitter experience is what students need to experience. 21st century students are lucky to be learning at such an innovative time, but they need to know how these sites are properly used and how they can truly benefit from them. I still hear people discussing exactly how I used to feel about Twitter - why do people care what I am doing every second of every day? People do not understand the networking it creates, the amount of learning that takes place and the relationships made. Students understand how to work the machine, but they don't really know what the machine does. Integrating these social media sites and other technologies in the classroom can open students up to be always learning, always creating and always building. I find my school day never ends anymore because of all the social networking outlets I now have. I find myself feeling accountable and needing to research new ed tech tools to contribute to my network rather than just taking the resources from others.

If we begin teaching our elementary school students about networking, proper online etiquette, the power of Google Plus, the educational side of technology versus the entertainment side - imagine the networks they can start building. Imagine the possibilities these students will have when they graduate high school or university. Sheikha Al Mayassa on a recent Ted Talk discusses Globalizing the Local and Localizing the Global. Social networking has the capabilities to do so - if students start learning how to use the tools properly and effectively - now.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

My First...

Imagine yourself in a place completely outside of your comfort zone, somewhere new and somewhere unrecognizable. Now imagine everyone looking at you with eyes of curiosity and wonder, whispers of questions and pointed fingers all directed in your way.

This was my first experience in El Salvador.

This was my first experience as a minority group.

For the first time in my life, I am that completely unique, foreign body. The traditional roles of a Eurocentric upbringing have been reversed. I am no longer the majority.  An aura of enquiring, marveling and curiosity was felt lingering in the air. However, there was never a feeling that I did not belong there. Sometimes I forgot about my skin colour difference and thought the curious looks were because I was wearing shorts (something not common among the locals, especially for a female).

This was until one my students reminded me - a 22-year-old university student asked me why my skin is white.

At first I did not even know how to answer this. I had never been asked that question before, but in my broken Spanish I began to discuss our British heritage and family lineage, as well as geography and Canadian climate (this then lead into a discussion about the cold and snow, but that’s for another time!)
Before answering this question I had to take a minute and think about it. I was not thinking this was something to be offended by; I was focusing more on about the reasons it was asked. This was not an act of discrimination, but rather an act of curiosity. This student had never seen a person with white skin before. In fact, this was also a first for these students.
At that moment, our firsts became unified and we shared this experience together. This first experience as a minority no longer felt that way as we embarked on a learning experience together. Our differences were embraced and explored. Things were taught and things were learned.
My first experience as a minority was not even known as that. Although the stares and the questions, and the curiosity remained it was our first experience as students working together from two different countries and cultures. It was our first experience of sharing. It was our first experience of learning. It was my first time going through a life changing experience. 

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Popplet

In tech class we have been exploring a collection of the many Web 2.0 options for classroom uses. I have always used mind maps to organize my ideas when writing an essay, or as a part of a study sheet of key concepts, so I decided to explore the uses of Popplet.

Popplet is an interactive, creative mind map tool. Popplet allows you to brainstorm ideas, collaborate ideas, and visually represent ideas. Multiple students can work on one Popplet, engaging in one brainstorm and compiling a class full of ideas.

This can be a great tool to co-construct a success criteria, or a diagnostic assessment of a unit. I have created a Popplet which you can see below about other uses in a few classroom subjects.




I created a Popplet about the uses to understand the user ability of the program and simplicity of the program. It offers a tutorial as you create your first mind map and the buttons are clearly displayed about what to and how to do it. All you need is to come up with the ideas for the text!

During my first placement I was teaching persuasive writing. We were writing an essay as whole class at first. In order to organize our ideas we created a mind map to develop topic sentences and the proofs supporting those statements. 

If I were to teach that lesson again, I would use the Popplet tool. I love the collaboration aspect and that multiple students can work on this together. Individuals can create their own Popplet and then add collaborators to add more ideas.

Tying in with my EduBlog; Miss Steward's Gymnasium, I have created a popplet to incorporate my students' learning throughout the unit. This Popplet teaches the skill of collaboration, and team work while reflecting on their classroom learning. Collaboration and teamwork are commonly used skills in Physical Education. This collaborative mind map is to introduce the skill into all aspects of life, rather than merely in an athletic atmosphere.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Legacy

This week the world celebrated the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens was born February 7th, 1812 and died June 9th, 1870, 142 years and we're still celebrating the life of this incredible man.

The events and articles commemorating this man's work had me thinking of what it takes to leave behind such a legacy.

The journey of becoming a teacher all began with a dream and desire to make a difference in a child's life, to aid in their success and the betterment of their being. But is this a legacy?

Many conversations of the first week of Teachers College focused around memorable teachers and the role models we had that influenced our decision to become teachers. To us, those role models left an impression of legacy in our lives. They had enough of an influence to shape my life and get me to the place I am today and possibly heading to.

In my International Education class we had a guest speaker talk to us about idealistic visions and holding onto your dreams. This involved creating and leaving behind your own legacy. However, creating your own legacy sounds like a lot of pressure. How do make such an impact? What actually defines a legacy?

Ideally, everyone secretly would love to be famous, and if it was because you had a huge impact on the world like Oprah or Nelson Mandela would be incredible. But is it actually realistic to dream that big?

I live life through an idealistic perspective. I carry dreams with me that are ultimate goals. I have a vision of making a difference. I have a dream of helping people. I have an optimistic view and a heart full of hope and inspiration.

 I believe that anyone who wants to make a difference can, on any scale whether it be large or small. If you wish to make one person smile a day or help a whole population of those in need, the choice is yours. The choice in legacy is yours. The definition of legacy is yours. You make your own legacy. You create your own definition of legacy.

So what is a legacy? Whatever you want it to be. Go out there and make a difference for someone, or many!

Miss Steward's Gymnasium



"They say you never know how much something means until you lose it", but I also believe in "You never know how useful something is until you try it."

This year I took on the new task of blogging. Blogging became a whole new experience, and something I quite enjoy. But on top of this experience, I was then given the task of an EduBlog.

An EduBlog is a blog that carries an educational responsibility. It acts as a resource for students, parents and teachers. A solid form of communication between the classroom, school and community. An interactive, web 2.0 tool for classroom communication both inside and outside the classroom. This process provides more opportunity for student choice, and student, parent and teacher collaboration.

I created a blog to represent my idealistic situation of being a physical education teacher. Throughout my tech class I have been constantly thinking of ways of how to integrate physical education and technology. This EduBlog role play became a source insight to me of how this could be done.

I had some difficulties with this process originally; struggled to think of content and how or what to put on the blog. I found myself taking on a different form of the role play; I took on the position of parent and of student. I thought about as the parent or the student what information would I like to see and what I would like to be informed about. From this, I took on the role of teacher and thought about how I would like to run my classroom - or gymnasium.

Despite the initial struggles, I enjoyed this assignment and resource that I have built. I find this to be an effective pedagogy in keeping everyone aware of what is going on.

Please check out Miss Steward's Gymnasium and provide any feedback or suggestions you may have to improve this resource.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Imagine

As per requirement for Tech class I was to make an Ebook. However, this experience turned into much more than an assignment. It turned into a reflection, an expression and a learning experience.

When first assigned an Ebook I had no idea what to do. I don't consider myself an overly creative writer, but I knew I wanted to use my pictures. This is why I chose song lyrics.

John Lennon's Imagine has always been a favourite of mine, and the lyrics are meaningful to my life philosophy. These are words I live by, and words I explore in my daily endeavours. The words explain choices I have made, career path I have chosen and my desire to teach internationally and explore the world.

In the classroom I can see an assignment being mad similar to this. This Ebook covers art, music and language curriculum. Exploring the lyrics and the moods created by the imagery and the stories that can develop through a single screen capture.

Enjoy and Imagine!


Wednesday, February 1, 2012

It's a Book

This summer my Mum bought this book as she found it rather amusing given the recent technology shift. Some people carry a fear of the existence or potential lack thereof, of paper books. This book mocks those techies and addiction to the devices.

This video was shown in my english class. It's a trailer of the book - the trailer reads and acts out the book.

A little ironic that a book mocking technology has now integrated technology...

But nonetheless, a cute, entertaining story holding onto the idea of paper books.