Story Bird: Milestone Lesson

My VAT does a great job keeping up with the technological devices of the 21st century. One thing  Anne Shillolo blogged about was Story Bird which I created for my Grade 11 World Religions Class. I found it was very simple to create and easy to use. It is only useful if you plan on writing few words or else the pictures won't fit on the screen. It was a neat technology tool to give brief details. I used the story to give very simple details on Islam so they were hooked in the lesson. I think it would have been great to have the students create the own digital story and it is something that I will implement in my own classroom (provided computer labs are available or the school allows the students to BYOD).
Milestones in Islam: Birth, Marriage and Death by HollowayKm on Storybird

Reflecting on Block 1

All of my classes are having us do simple reflections for them, they want to know what was great, what was hard, what was surprising or unexpected, and what we need to know for next time/should have known for the first block. In the spirit of keeping this short, I'm going to share with you the area I felt least prepared

I felt very unprepared when it came to the area of marking. We never did any practice marking in any of our classes where we would give a grade value to a student. It was something my Teacher Associate had expected me to already have experience in, so we didn't really go over it to much other then however many marks its worth is how many different pieces of information I'm looking for. When I was marking these kids, I sometimes felt that if they came up to me and argued there mark I would be more than happy to change it because who am I to tell them what they deserve?

All of my classes taught me something before I left out for my block, but I feel like it was only in a few that I was given the opportunity to practice these teachings. My teachable classes did a great job of introducing us to lesson plans, how to plan them and write them, this was essential for me. The class that did the best job allowing me to implement the tools was my optional Technology class, Zoe did a fantastic job giving us a wide range of tools to use in our course of teaching and she always gave us the opportunity to practice them in class.

In closing, I had a fantastic experience out on my teaching block. I'm very thankful for what I learned before I left, I just wish I could have been more prepared form the technical area of marking. I did a great job with formative assessment, providing my students with a lot of feedback for their success, I just wish I had a little bit more. I'm excited to learn more, because one day I want to truly believe this video can apply to me! (Thanks Anne for sharing this with me.)

Micro Teaching #2....Using Prezi!

I had my second micro teaching lesson today. I did a 15 minute lesson on the youth and entertainment during 1920s. I was determined to implement some technology into my lesson plan this time because last time I fell short. I decided it was time experiment a little bit, move out of my power point comfort zone and try doing a Prezi. My efforts proved to be very successful, my classmates commented on how the effects were very eye catching and entertaining. In addition, I experimented with importing some u tube clips and showed a Charlie Chaplin silent film and a mash up of the “Charleston”. For my first prezi, I think it was a pretty eye-catching presentation and I’m proud of my efforts!

The Roaring Twenties! on Prezi

After my presentation, I had the class do a little slang activity. Rather than have them write a letter (which was done when I was in grade 10), I decided I would implement something they would be used to. I gave them a photocopy of a blank cell phone and told them they would be writing me a text message that would be no more than 5 sentences. They would be responsible for using 1920s slang words and incorporating something about fashion, film or dance.  It was a fun activity for them to do and because I said “text message” I think it was even more appealing. For homework, my hypothetical class would be responsible for posting their text messages to our class’s blog and answering one of the two questions which I would have posted.

All in all, I was pretty happy with my attempts at implementing technology into the classroom. I’m very excited to continue experimenting and to bring more technology into my own classroom when I head out to teach!  

Google, how I love thee

I had a group presentation today, and we did our whole presentation collaboratively on Google docs! It was such a great tool to be able to access from anywhere and all of us could use it. We accessed our power point through the internet! No need to bring in a USB or our own computer... It was there waiting for us. Where were Google documents when I was in high school? I can just imagine how much more simple group projects would have been if we could have used Google documents. How easy would homework have been in group projects if we could have all worked together through Google documents? Thank you Zoe for introducing me to this amazing Google tool that I can use in my classroom! How great is it that you can monitor recent activity and find out just how much work is being posted by different members of the group. If you haven’t tried Google documents, do it NOW! 

I'm also a fan of the igoogle website. I've got my website set up mostly for keeping track of my fellow peers blogging websites. It updates the latest posts they created. It's a great place to keep all of my information in one place! Not to mention it has all sorts of neat gadgets. I have one that gives me a new quote every time I go online, I can play hangman, get the weather, a joke, and some useless knowledge! It's a great tool to enjoy! 

12 Most Important Things

In many of my classes we have been talking about what qualities the best teachers have. When my classmates and I toss around ideas our list of qualities looked something like this: fair, knowledgeable, gives specific expectations, effective communicator, and interesting. According to my psychology text book, the top five things students’ love the most about teachers are when they have a sense of humour, make class interesting, are knowledge, able to explain things clearly and spend time helping students. 12 most important things

While I’m sure my textbook has lots of research to back up its statements, it turns out it’s those small things that we do which students notice and love the most.  My Virtual Associate Teacher had this link on her blog about the 12 most important things children want from their teachers. All of the things on the list seem like common sense, yet when my class was listing off qualities we didn’t hit very many of them. It put a smile on my face to read them...I got to see how my simple actions will make all the difference in the classroom!

Hesitation to Technology

This week I have been preparing for my micro lesson, which I taught today. It took me 8 minutes to teach the lesson and approximately 4 hours to prepare. When I was preparing for my lesson I tried to implement a variety of way to teach the lesson to accommodate for different learning styles. I created a handout which had step by step instructions on it. Then I decided I needed visual pictures to go along with the written descriptions. Finally, I demonstrated the activity with the class.  I searched the internet for the visual aids and even watched a couple you tube videos to give me some ideas on the best approach. I was thinking about where I would have been without technology... I wouldn’t have had the ability to check out other people’s ideas and I would have had to create the visual aids myself on the computer. Suddenly, a lesson that took 4 hours to prepare would have probably taken me 6 or more.  

After I thought about this, I realized that even though I utilized technology in my lesson preparation, I didn’t use it at all in my actual teaching. It got me wondering why it is so easy for teachers to use technology but so hard for us to implement it into our classrooms. I realize that my lesson was only 8 minutes but there are ways I could have used some technology. I could have used a projector that would allow that class to see my demonstrations on screen or even played an audio clip on how the game is played while the class was still working. With all these tools available what makes us hesitate?

Thoughts on Technology in Education

When I tell people I’m taking an optional course, they always ask me why I want to burden myself with extra courses. My response is always that it isn’t a burden if you’re interested in the topic you’re taking. I opted to take 8Y59: 21^st Century Learning- Teaching the Digital Generation because I’m completely aware that the children in my classroom will be up to date with the current technology. I would like to prepare myself so I can be as up to date as possible.  I took this course, so I could learn ways of integrating technology into my classrooms. 

It’s my belief that technology should be implemented in the classrooms. The students we will be teaching are interested in technology! Since we have found something they like, we should implement it in our teaching practices in order to keep them more interested. Half of teaching is learning about your students, finding out what they like, and using this information to keep them engaged in the classroom. We already know that high school students are interested in technology, therefore, we should do our very best to use it in our classrooms. My wordle up above describes some of the new devices and approaches we should be implementing into our own classrooms one day.