Category: EdTech (Page 1 of 2)

Hello fellow bloggers!

Just a quick blog for you all today, I tried coding for the first time ever and to say the least, it was so confusing. Out of the 20 levels there, I only got to level 6 🙁 Even after watching the videos, I just struggled to understand.

This was the final skating move I got at.  I just could not figure out how to get Elsa to skate in squares in a continuous motion! Oh well, maybe next time!

I really enjoyed bringing coding into this lesson. It allowed me to understand just how hard coding is, but also how beneficial it can be to include in the classroom for student learning. Not only just for math, but for science, English, or geometry reasons as well. I will however, have to get better at it first in order to teach it!

Thanks so much for joining me on this learning journey, it has been a wonderful and very beneficial time 🙂

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Hello fellow bloggers

As you have all already heard, UVic has switched all classes from face-to-face to online. Some courses have decided to just post their lecture slides online, and some have taken it to the next level: Zoom.

Zoom is an interactive platform where students can see, hear, and engage with their fellow peers in the comfort of their own home. Students and teachers can share slides and even do presentations,  which is what my class did today. I noticed that there were practically no technical difficulties and everything went very smoothly. All we had to do to get on the chat was click on a link that our Professor provided, and we were all set to go! We could mute whenever we wanted, pause the camera whenever we wanted, and record our conversation. Overall, I think Zoom is an awesome outlet for online lecturing that all professors should use during this stressful time.

I experimented with the software called Twine. Twine is an interactive platform in which people can make non linear stories. I really enjoyed trying it out. The pre-class video and quiz helped prepare me to create my own story, in which I was very grateful as it made this experience a calm and fluid one.

See you next week,

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Hello fellow bloggers!

Today, I did something I never thought I would do in my University career: I played Minecraft for one of my classes.

At first, I had no idea how Minecraft could be used as an educational tool for both the teacher and the students. Practically every subject can have a lesson using Minecraft in order to make some of these concepts more concrete for the students. For every boomer that might say that Minecraft can be distracting; the teacher has control over everything happening on the students screens. If the students are getting too distracted, the teacher can freeze the students in order to get their attention. Teachers can add or take away anything, and can monitor what the students are doing on the software at all times.

I looked at a few lesson plans online that include Minecraft. My favourite one was a Gr. 3 math one, where the students would look at shapes in the Math Model Exhibition World. They would then make shapes out of those shapes, in order to get a better understanding of shapes. How cool is that?

This class has allowed me to have an appreciation for Minecraft that I never had before. I do not know if I will personally use it in the classroom but I am not closed to the idea!

See you next week!

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Hello fellow bloggers!

In class today, we dove into the world of Screencastify; a software where you can screen record your screen to show what you are researching or in this case, provoking an idea to your students. It is super simple, convenient and fun! Claire and I decided to provoke our audience with an interesting question: Why is the p in pterodactyl is silent.  This question was inspired by our previous visit to Rebecca Bathursts’ class, as her students are currently doing an inquiry on dinosaurs (I wrote about this in a previous blog post, which is why this blog is short!). Here is the link to the video https://youtu.be/bao93pdNLDw

I really hope you enjoyed our video!

See you next week!

LOBO

Hello fellow bloggers!

Last Wednesday, my class visited a Kindergarten class at George Jay Elementary.  To say the least, I learned so much about what being a teacher really is about.

Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt welcomed my classroom into hers from 3:30-4:30. She talked about her “teacher heart”, her inquiry based approach, and potential resources us future teachers may want to use. She allowed us to walk around her classroom and observe the many details her classroom has. I was quite overwhelmed, as there was SO many resources in her classrooms for her students to use and I was wondering how she got all of these resources. During the Q&A part of the meeting, I asked her how her classroom has changed and evolved compared to her first year teaching. She stated that not only has her classroom changed from her first year teaching, but her classroom has changed from the beginning of this current school year. This allowed me to put things into perspective; it is ok for me to not have all of these resources into my classroom when I begin teaching.

I really enjoyed hearing about her inquiry based approach. I had NO idea how a Kindergarten class would be based off of an inquiry based approach. After this visit, my thoughts are cleared up a little. She allows her students to pick what they want to research. Her classroom is really into dinosaurs right now, and so they are researching on all aspects of dinosaurs. Not all inquiries are free. For the first part of the year, she guided the inquiry based off of animal needs. I find this so interesting. The students are involved, engaged, and determined to learn; what more can a teacher ask for?

Rebecca is an organized, smart, and creative teacher. I would love to be like her when I become a teacher!

Hello Fellow Bloggers!

Today during my Tech class, we had a guess speaker come in and talk about online safety and whether or not children should be allowed screen time. To say the least, I have learned A LOT today about the internet I use everyday.

Jesse Miller brought up some very interesting points about the internet I never knew and about apps I use everyday that frightened me. For example, the fact that every Snapchat I take – whether I send it to people or not – gets saved by Snapchat and they have all of those pictures stored somewhere. I decided to ask Jesse why Snapchat does this and what do they do with the billions of pictures they have stored.  He answered by saying that this data is essentially a way to keep their investors and prove to them that hey, people are using this app and you are investing into an app that people use everyday. It is also important if one day, the owners of Snapchat want to sell their software to another company, they have all this data to give to the knew owners. When Jesse told me this, it made a lot more sense. I did not understand what the point of keeping all those pictures with me and a stupid filter would benefit for their App.

I really enjoyed having Jesse come into our class today. I learned a lot of information I will carry with me forever!

As well, I edited an iMovie today for the first time in a long time! Although it does not seem like much, I cut time out, split a clip, added a transition, added titles, and lowered the volume of the second clip! Call me an iMovie queen!

See you in two weeks!

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Hola fellow bloggers!

Can you believe it! My streak on Duolingo is now up to 12 days! I am so proud of myself for being consistent with my learning journey because learning a new language only happens with constant and effortful work.

I really enjoy that Duolingo sends me a notification everyday when it is time for me to practice. It keeps me motivated and I do not have any excuses not to practice for a 5 minute lesson, as I am reminded to do so everyday. Sometimes however, I receive the notification and kind of internally whine, as at the time I may not want to do it.

I want to take my learning journey to the next step. Although Duolingo is beneficial and practical, I feel as though I can get more practice else where. I need to start watching videos/movies in Spanish, or better yet, holding an actual conversation in Spanish. I can only get better if I do this, even though it may be really challenging. My good friend Kaylyn, who is also in this class, took Spanish all throughout highschool. She is really good at speaking Spanish and understanding it, and would love to practice with her.

Tune in next week to see if I can hold a conversation with Kaylyn and keep my Duolingo streak alive!

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Hello fellow bloggers!

Today, my EDCI 336 class had the opportunity to visit the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry located in Downtown Victoria. Upon arrival, I had no idea what to expect. My first thought was that I thought it was odd having a school in the heart of downtown. Can students just go off to the mall during lunch? Is it dangerous to be in an area where some dangerous affaires take place? I am not sure.

My peers and I sat down in a classroom and we listened to principle Jeff Hopkins explain how the school works. Basically, the 96 students at this school learn at their own pace, learn whatever they want to learn, whenever they want to learn it. Learning is taught mostly through self-guided inquiry projects and is supported by the teachers. There is no set schedule, routine, or structure. It is all up to the individual student to decide what his/her week will look like and what they will accomplish. Students can choose to work collaboratively, individually, and with or without teacher help.

My first thought when Jeff was explaining the school system was “what about if students want to go in the Sciences for Post Secondary Education, how do they learn Chemistry 12 or Physics 12 to get themselves ready for University level science courses through self-guided inquiry projects?” Jeff Hopkins answered my question by stating that the learning in the school in not strictly taught through self-guided inquiry projects. There are time slots where students can choose to go to certain “sessions” such as Math, physics, or any necessary academic class needed to graduate high school. This now made much more sense to me and reassured me that the students attending PSII are learning information needed for some post secondary schools.

I really enjoyed this visit. It really opened my eyes as to how learning can be done. It does not have to always be done the standard way where teachers stand in front of the classroom and students simply sit and listen. It can be engaging, self-drawn, and interesting. Although I do thing PSII is not flawless, I do believe it allows for students to make their learning journey their own unique journey and as a teacher, there is no better feeling than that. In my future classrooms, I definately want to incorporate self-guided inquiry projects into my teaching.

See you guys next week!

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Hello fellow bloggers!

Today in class, we watched a super interesting documentary called “RiP A Manifesto Remix” and we also learnt about Creative Commons.

I learned a lot today in my Tech class.  “Creative commons was born to set culture free” (RiP Remix Manifesto Remix, 2008). It allows artists/producers of any sort to distribute work that anybody can build on, remix, etc without any copyright allegations. I find creative commons a very interesting and beneficial license. It allows for people to be creative and work collaboratively to make songs, articles, etc.  Our society is a society that works and builds off of each other. Without one another, we could not survive. Therefore, why is it so harmful using somebody’s beat in a song, remixing it, and making music for other people to enjoy? Personally if I were an artist, I would be honoured and humbled to know that people are using my beats for their own use. I just do not see the problem. OER’s are a great example of a Creative Common. As a future teacher, this is an excellent resource for me. I will be able to use resources without having any fear of stealing somebody else’s work and getting copyrighted.  As a teacher, what more could I ask for?

In other news, I wanted to talk a bit about Twitter. Personally, I have a twitter account. I never tweet, I only use it to follow my favourite celebrities and I always take the time to look at whats “trending” as I enjoy keeping up with the news in one way or another. I never thought of using Twitter professionally however, I am not closed to the idea.

Here is a link to the documentary “RiP A Remix Manifesto” we watched in class: https://www.nfb.ca/film/rip_a_remix_manifesto/