Final Project: What did I learn?

Well this course seem to just fly by! I have truly learned so much from this class and from all of you! I cannot believe that it is already the end. Thank you all for commenting on my blog and for many of your great posts.
Here is a video of my final assignement I did upload it on a mac so I hope all of you can open it. If not my apologies. Again its been a blast!

Technology in the classroom

I found this video about the importance of incorporating technology in the classroom. I thought it was interesting. What are some of your thoughts?

What are your fears about technology in the classroom?

http://www.pbs.org/about/news/archive/2012/teacher-survey-fetc/


I found these two images today and thought both were very interesting. Clearly there are tons of reasons/benefits for teachers to use technology in the classroom. However from this survey teachers lack the right level of technology/information. I have seen this in my pre-internship, where my co-op wanted to use technology in the class, but did not have access to the right level of technology. This resulted in her not being able to complete that lesson.

I have also seen other teachers not use technology in the classroom because they did not feel comfortable implementing/using it in the class. I have seen teachers not use certain technology because they do not want to branch away from something that they already know and understand. I was concerned about trying technology in the classroom because I did not know how to do it. Yet I tried it out with the class and it was a  great learning experience for the students and myself. I believe we need to push our boundaries/comfort zone and not be afraid to try new things. That is how we learn and see if something works, by trying it out and making mistakes.

Was there any type of technology you were afraid to use when teaching? Please share :)

When Was the Last Time You Did Nothing?

As I reach the final stretch of my classes I can't help but feel stressed with the amount of school work I have. I get caught up in working two jobs, going to school full time, playing sports all while trying to maintain relationships with my friends and family. I feel that I am constantly on the go and I am finding myself saying "I'm too busy" or "I don't have time for that". I feel when I start my internship I will become even more busy, and that will be amplified when I become a first year teacher!

Yesterday as I was going to sit down and do homework my dogs distracted me. I decided to take them both to the park. It was a gorgeous day, I sat in the park with them and just watched the clouds turn into things. I spent majority of the afternoon just lounging outside and doing nothing. After enjoying my afternoon in the park I felt happier, relaxed and less stressed.

I truly believe we need to take time to just do things that make us happy. Take a break from being so busy and slow down. Especially as we are so close to becoming teachers we need to take care of our personal health.

When was the last time you did nothing?

No Child Left Behind Pros and Cons

http://www.people-press.org/2007/06/13/no-child-left-behind-gets-mixed-grades/

I found this image today about the no child left behind act implemented in the states. As I read through the pros and cons of government involvement in education, I couldn't help but think who is left behind in schools today? Are students who are at risk, have exceptionalities, disabilities, or are very diverse left behind? Who falls through the cracks and how can we ask educators fill them?

The Real Polar Bears

Some of you may have seen this video. I think it speaks strongly to the rising percent of obese children in Canada. Working in a summer camp I have seen the negative effects of children eating junk food. Our camp foster healthy living and being physically active, yet children come with pop, chips, candy and a ton of other junk foods. It is hard for children/youth to eat healthy when they may come from families that cannot afford anything but fast food. Also with all of the advertisement of junk food making it attractive to people. I am very concerned with how healthy children are. Research has shown that if children have these bad eating/physical habits that will carry into adulthood, and are more likely to become obese. These habits are detrimental to their health. What are some of your thoughts to these issues of children eating junk food and not being physically active? Thoughts or comments?

Great Teaching!

I found this image and it made me smile.  I think all of us should print this off and tape it on our desks to remind us why we became teachers.
Why did some of you want to become a teacher? I would be interested in hearing your stories.

Are we meeting the needs of all students?

http://www.ldao.ca/

I found this image while browsing the internet on my lunch break today. It stood out to me because I am in an EPSY 400 class which focuses on working with differences and diversity. After viewing this image I thought what does it mean to learn differently?
Our role as classroom teachers is to meet the needs of all of our students and in Gwen Keith's words "all means all". This means we need to develop and understand how to meet the needs of all of our learners while being as inclusive as possible.
I would be interested in hearing some of your stories you may of had dealing with a child who has an exceptionality or disability. How did you meet their needs? Please share :)

Technology in the Classroom

Watching this video shows that you can use technology in the classroom at any grade! This also reveals the benefits to implementing technology for students and parents. What are some of your thoughts?

Tech Task #7: Mobiles For Learning

After watching the session with Liz Klob I learned a lot about incorporating mobile phones into the classroom. One of the ideas in Liz's presentation that I really liked and would use in a classroom was         Qr Codes.  I will be interning in a kindergarten classroom and majority of the students do have IPad's . Teachers can also book out IPads and use them for their class. So the kindergarten's can use their ipads for a ton of different activities especially QR Codes. Also parents can use their smart phones to see what their children are learning, or can do different activities at home. 

I would use QR Codes in my kindergarten classroom to: 

• Advertise school events or classroom announcements 
• Use the QR Codes as a scavenger hunt game where students can search the classroom/school to answer a question or clue 
• Link to a variety of children's books 
• Use the codes for a variety of counting activities that children can use and play to help them develop number sense 

Here is a link to create your own QR Codes:

http://www.qrstuff.com/

Here you can do a ton of cool things with QR Codes like change the colour of your QR Code for different events. 

As I got to thinking of different activities to do with the kindergarten class I found the blog Technology in Early Childhood. In this blog kindergarten teachers post different activities young children can do using technology. There was a link to QR Codes for kindergarten classrooms where there are a ton a different activities and bar codes to use in the classroom. Such as counting games, activity sheets or sliders to help young children match words to texts. 

http://www.classroomfreebies.com/

Why Finland Has The Best Education System In The World!

As I begin to think about what I will be expected to teach when I have a classroom of my own I do become worried.  In regards to implementing practices such as standardize testing. The notion of standardize testing fosters higher percentages/performances in all subject areas. Yet in Finland they have the highest scores and do not believe in standardize testing.
What are some of your thoughts?

What does teaching mean to you?

I found these two images very interesting. All these words go through my mind as I think about what it means to become a new teacher. What words or thoughts come to your mind as you think about becoming a new teacher? 

Image found on: http://timetoteachworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/teaching.jpg

Image found on: http://mathsse2011.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/how-become-a-good-teacher/

Tech Task #6: Story Telling Part 2

For the second part of this task I decided to complete question #1 by creating one story using two different tools.

I found it quite difficult finding a tool that would work for me. However after some time of trying a ton of different tools I found Bubblr. I find cites with a ton of stuff every where very distracting and hard to use. I liked Bubblr because there is minimal things on the cite, making it very easy to use. There are a ton of examples to click on and visual cues to help you figure out what to do. One challenge with the site would be the font is very small, making it challenging to see what you are writing.

Using this cite would be very easy to implement in the classroom. I could see many students loving the comic book style of the story, especially students who struggle with reading. You could definitely use the cite as an introduction to story writing.


Below is a link to my story:

http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/?custom=






http://www.flickr.com/photos/organize/?start_tab=one_set72157633857914631

The next tool I used for the story was on Flicktion. I did not find it as easy to use as Bubblr and I probably wouldn't use it again. I did like the idea of the cite, to post one picture and write a story on one imagine. In the classroom I would use this activity as a lesson to teach children to write engaging stories based on one picture. Maybe if I had some help utilizing the cite it could have been more beneficial to me, however using it on my own did pose a challenge for me.

Tech Task #6: Story Telling Part 1

For this weeks tech task we were allowed to explore the nature of story telling. I have always loved telling stories and having stories told to me.  In regards to this, I  decided to take part in question 2.

Using Five Card Stories was surprisingly easy. I am always apprehensive to try new tech tasks because I struggle using new technology, especially online! Yet five card was easy to use, fun and something I will definitely use in the future. Everything was very easy to find and the pictures were incredible.
If I had to point out a challenge with using the website I would have to say saving your story might pose as a challenge for some students. To save your story you have to write a security code and the letters are very close together and may be difficult for some people to read. Other than that this was a great source and I saved it as one of my favourites.

As a future educator I would definitely use this website in my classroom.  I believe this would be a great activity for any grade. This is a great way to introduce the processes of story making/telling. As well as teaching young children the fundamental tools of literature when matching/adding pictures to texts.

Below are the links to my two stories.

http://5card.cogdogblog.com//show.php?id=32084

http://5card.cogdogblog.com//show.php?id=32083