Mission: Organization

After finding out that I had secured my first teaching job in June, I was very excited to see my classroom for the first time! After spending two years working in other people's rooms, I was excited to put my own touch on the classroom. The first time I saw my room, I was a little overwhelmed! My classroom was left with tons of resources and supplies, but they were so disorganized. I like my things to be orderly and I hate wasting time looking for things, so I knew I had a big job ahead of me. I needed a system, and so my mission to find organization began.

It took me about two weeks to get everything how I wanted it. I was lucky that I had an extremely organized mother to help me out for a few days. She did all of the little jobs that take so much time to do by yourself, like sorting supplies, moving books, cleaning shelves, and throwing old stuff out. We threw out four bags of garbage and recycled at least six buckets of recyclable paper. I also moved my desk to the back of the room so I wouldn't be tempted to sit at it during class time. I wanted to have my own space that wouldn't get in the way of my instruction. I took down most of the posters so that the room wasn't so busy for kids that have trouble concentrating. I am so happy with how things turned out, and now I feel prepared to take on the new school year! Hopefully my hard work all adds up to a better learning experience for the kids. Check out my before and after pictures.

Good luck to all the new teachers out there! I know things are really going to get crazy starting tomorrow, so I hope you all had time to organize like I did!

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Teacher's desk BEFORE

My desk AFTER

NEW station for supplies

Book shelf and table for handing in assignments AFTER

My new chapter

I am very excited to have secured a full time teaching job for the 2012/2013 school year! My placement is in a small town about a half hour from where we live. Half of my day will be spent co-teaching, and the other half is a permanent position. The classes are mostly split, so I have on average 14 or 15 students per class. I will be teaching 6/7 ELA, 6/7 Social Studies, 6/7 Health, 6/7 computers, 8/9 Social Studies, and 8/9 Computers. I will also be co-teaching in 4/5 ELA and Math and 8/9 Science. I am very excited to begin my new journey as a teacher!

I have visited the school a few times since I accepted the job, and I have a TON of work to do already! I am going to do my best this summer to prepare for my classes so that I don't burn out in the first month. I know that as a first year teacher, I will face many challenges so I want to be as prepared as possible. To top it all off, I am dealing with new curriculums since I have moved to a new province!

I cannot wait to start de-cluttering my classroom. I am lucky that I have my own room even though I will be co-teaching in someone else's room for half of the day. There are lots of old books, guides, projects, novels, anthologies, etc. to be thrown out and sorted through. I am also going to have to work hard to collect new resources for my students so that they can get excited about reading and learning! I cannot wait for September, although I am trying my best to enjoy the summer as well. I have excellent support groups at my new school, including an amazing resource teacher and some experienced staff who have offered to support me in any way that they can. As I was told today, everyone has to start somewhere, and the first year is all about surviving, so use every resource available to make your life easier! And so... my blog will now become about my experiences as a first year teacher. Enjoy!

 Let the journey begin...

And the student becomes the teacher...

Wow! The last eight weeks really flew by! I don't think I actually realized I was finished student teaching until this morning when I woke up and didn't need to be at the school. My last student teaching placement was the best one yet. I loved taking on more responsibility and testing out some of the lesson plan theories we developed in our final year of university. I learned so much, and somewhere along the way I began to feel like a real teacher. I gained so much confidence, and I can't wait to get my first job! Now I know that I can do this! I am currently applying for jobs. It has become a waiting game! I think I will spend the next month or two organizing my resources and doing lots of reading, something that I haven't had time to do while in school. I am also hoping to do some subbing for EA's. Because I have recently moved to Saskatchewan, I am not able to substitute for teachers until I have received my teacher's certificate.

I am looking forward to this next chapter in my life, and I can't wait to start my career! I have my fingers crossed for a job. In the meantime, I will keep updating my blog with resources and ideas that I am finding. I just can't seem to sit still now that I am inspired and read to take on my first job! Congrats to all of the other student teachers who have finished their placements! See you all at grad :)

A New Kind of Gym Class

I will admit, I was a little nervous when I found out that my final student teaching placement would include a grade 11 gym class! When I attended class on the first day, I wasn't sure what to expect. What I found out was that there are only four girls in a class of thirteen, and somewhere along the line, someone made them HATE gym class. They didn't want to run in front of the boys, they didn't pull their hair back, and there were frequent screams when a ball happened to come their way. I haven't totally reformed them, but I found a way to work with them instead of against them, and this is what we came up with! I hope that my experience will be helpful to other teachers who run into the same problem...

Tuesdays and Thursdays, the class had been going to the gym to lift weights and run on the treadmills. The first day that i went to the gym with them, the girls maybe spent ten minutes actually active during a one hour period. At first, I found this hard to understand, because I have always been an athletic girl, and I would have loved the opportunity to go the gym during school. Instead of getting frustrated, I started to talk to the girls and look at the situation from their point of view. They didn't like having to compete against the boys, and they did not enjoy participating in the rough physical activity. The solution that i came up with along with my co-operating teacher was to split the class up. We were able to do this because we are both in the classroom (because I am student teaching). So, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, i take the girls into a classroom and we play a dancing game on the WII. We close the door, we turn the lights off, and we dance! AND THEY LOVE IT! Now, they are active for at least 50 minutes in a one hour block. We are laughing, dancing, singing, and inviting other teacher's to participate with us. For those that haven't tried a dance game on the wii, you definitely should, because it is a great workout. Just today, the teacher that joined us for a few songs said that this is the way gym class should be! I know for myself, I am in a better mood all day after having danced in the morning.

I am pretty proud of my girls for taking a chance and trying something different with me. It was an unconventional idea, but it works and the students are active and engaged for the entire class. Thinking outside of the box is a good thing! Happy Dancing

Personal Growth Outside of the Classroom

I was lucky enough to participate in the Manitoba Provincials this past weekend with my hockey team the Souris Blue Ice. We finished the weekend with a 2-1 victory in the finals!!! I hadn't played hockey that competitive since high school. I had an absolutely amazing experience with some great women. It was a 4.5 hour drive for me, so I left right after school on Friday and did not get home until late Sunday night.

On my drive home, I got to thinking about a colleagues blog that I follow. One of her recent topics was about bringing outside experiences into the classroom (thanks Kat!). I will not lie, I had to do some major prep ahead of time so that I could go away for an entire weekend and not pick up a book, and Monday morning was a little rough in the classroom because I was so sore and tired from my weekend of playing hockey.

However, I also would not change a thing about my weekend. As a teacher, it can be difficult to find time to do things for ourselves, but we cannot forget the importance of taking care of ourselves!!! When our minds and bodies are healthy, we are better teachers! I came back to school today sore and tired, but I also felt energized from having been part of such an amazing team. Participating in extracurricular activities is important for our students, we all know that, so why do so many of us not take the time to participate in extracurriculars ourselves?!?! We need to take the time to make ourselves healthy too.

I think my weekend away gave me some new perspective on my place in the classroom. I had forgotten how much of a role model we are for our students. Today when I came to class, I proudly showed off my metal to the kids and told them about my experience. They were so excited for me! This is particularly important for the girls in our school, because somewhere along the way, they have lost the confidence to participate in sports. I want them to think that its cool to be sweaty and wear sweat pants in the name of competition. I also think its important for our students to know that we do wear other hats besides the "teacher" hat.

I am feeling very inspired, and I know that this feeling will last me for at least a couple of weeks. Competing in an event such as provincials made me remember all of the good reasons why we all need extracurriculars. Some of my best friends throughout the years I have met on my sports teams. A person's true character is shown on the ball diamond or in a hockey rink. I truly believe that my work ethic and drive to succeed comes from my struggles and triumphs through athletics. They made me the teacher that I am today, and I have made a new commitment to myself to continue to grow through sport.

So, I challenge my fellow teachers to get out there and take some time for yourself! You never know how your experience outside of the classroom might help you to grow inside the classroom.

Suicide Prevention and Anti-Bullying Websites My Students Found:

www.youthsuicide.ca
www.suicidal.com
www.metanoia.org/suicide
www.kidshelpphone.ca
www.kidshealth.org
www.stopcyberbullying.org/teens
www.dbsalliance.org
www.sp-rc.ca
www.bullyingcanada.ca
www.cmha.ca

Student's Creations About Bullying and Suicide (made using Tagxedo.com)

Cyber-Bullying and Teen Suicide Unit

This week I began a new unit on cyber-bullying and teen suicide with my grade 9 health class at my last student teaching placement. I put together all of the resources and knowledge that I have gained over this past semester at BU to create this unit. The final assessment is going to be a Public Service Announcement raising awareness about bullying and suicide. I cannot wait to see what the students come up with!
First of all, this is an excellent class. They are great for having discussion about these issues. Most are not afraid to speak up, and those that say nothing are still engaged in our discussions. The first day of class, we discussed the differences between traditional bullying and cyber-bullying. The students did a survey on how bad they think bullying is in this school. Today I showed them the results of the survey in a bar graph. They seemed to really be shocked by the results. Bullying and cyber-bullying are issues here and everywhere. I'm glad this began our class because it makes the information relevant. I also showed a short video to begin class. Students became emotional, and it really opened them up for the rest of the class. I was lucky enough to receive some resources from a prof at BU that we used in class. First we did an agree/disagree sheet to touch on some statistics and facts related to suicide. Then, I divided students into groups and they guessed the suicide risk for each scenario. Students were visibly shaken when I told them that all of these students had committed suicide. I then shared my personal story about a friend who committed suicide. I really felt like I got to them! I'm excited that we are going to start "being the change" as a class. I want us to be leaders in this school!
Here are a list of things the students learned in today's class:
Signs to watch for when a person is considering suicide: bullying, appearance changes, being tired, excluded, grades down, quitting sports or clubs, sudden happiness, planning a suicide attempt, giving things away, loss, family or parent problems, drug and alcohol use, uncharacteristic behaviour, stop caring, acting out, break-ups, divorce
How to help yourself and others: focus on positives, get help, talk, include people, do fun things: sports, music, friends, eat well, build self-confidence in self and others, follow the school rules on bullying, don't bully!, give compliments, say hi to everyone, BE NICE TO PEOPLE
This is a great unit, and I hope that more teachers will start talking about this HUGE issue. I can't wait for the students to make their PSA's and for us to share them with the whole school on bully-prevention day!

My philosophy on what makes an effective teacher

This was part of an application I completed for a teaching position! The questions was asked: what do you think makes for an effective classroom teacher? What do you think of my response? I thought it might be useful to include it on my blog, which I am going to continue during student teaching.

An effective classroom teacher knows their student's ability levels, interests, strengths and weaknesses. This knowledge is very important for lesson planning and differentiating instruction. Being approachable and fair are key qualities that help to build trust and a sense of community in the classroom. An effective teacher is resourceful, having multiple methods of instructing and strategies to help students effectively retain the curriculum content. They also find ways to integrate technology into the curriculum in order to make lessons relevant and current. To be effective, a teacher needs to be professional and have good classroom management while maintaining a balance of student-centred activities and incorporating an inquiry based approach. Knowing students outside of the classroom through extracurricular activities and taking time to get to know each student is the first step in developing a positive classroom environment and being proactive in classroom discipline. First and foremost, a teacher must teach students first and content second!

Final Project!!!

I think this speaks for itself!!! Thanks to Prof. N and my colleagues for all of the help and support this term!

Kudos to Couros

I found the Skype chat with George Couros to be extremely helpful! First of all, I liked that George said he would not speak specifically about technology because it should be integrated in with everything else we are doing in the classroom. How true is that?!?! We have been extremely focused on technology this semester during this class, and we have all learned so much, but the next step is that we find ways to integrate the technology into what we are already doing in the classroom with the purpose of enhancing student learning. In other words, we should not be using technology just for technology sake, but with a purpose!
I'm not sure that I completely agreed with all of Couros' comments about Facebook. I am moving to a very small community where I don't know anyone, so I DO appreciate the fact that Couros wants us to be careful about who we add on Facebook. Just the other day, a student tried to add me but I declined. The thing I was critical about was not adding parents. I have friends in the community who have children that I will teach eventually. I would feel wrong deleting that parents once their child is in my class. I think because it is a small town, you have to be somewhat flexible in your approach, because it is important that people like you, as shallow as that sounds. I think I would come across in the wrong way if I was so rigid about my Facebook membership. I would not want people to think that I am "too good" to add them as a friend. However, I also have absolutely nothing on my Facebook that I could not show a future employer. I can see from Couros' administrative perspective that it is good advice for him to give. At least he made us think about our actions, even if we do not change our ways!
The advice George gave about preparing for interviews was invaluable. It was really great to hear from an administrative perspective what they are looking for in your interview. George put a lot of emphasis into working hard in your final placement. He recommended getting to know the kids as well as you can, and getting involved with the school as much as possible. I am for sure taking his advice to talk to the principal and get her to watch me teach a class. I had never thought of doing that before, but its true, she is the one that will likely play a big role in me getting hired next year! The one thing that resonated with me most from George's advice was his approach to discipline. The analogy about the cop giving out tickets is a great one! As a teacher, you need to deal with discipline as much as possible on your own. We should always try to deal with the child on our own unless we feel unsafe or the situation has exploded. The first step to discipline is to really know the kids. It is much more effective to have a conversation with a child about their behaviour if you actually know their typical behaviour and where they are coming from. An officer gives a ticket and walks away, but that is not something that is effective with discipline in the classroom.
This Skype interview was an excellent end to our guest speaker series. It made me look towards the future, and I am just as excited as ever to get into the classroom and do what I love every day. I am also sad that my time at BU is coming to an end. I have learned so much from my colleagues and professors! I think it is going to be a difficult last couples of days! I think bittersweet is the right word :)

Web Based Courses

I ordered four courses from the Manitoba Education website: Grade 9 Social Studies, Grade 10 Social Studies, History of Canada for grade 11, and World Issues. During high school, I took grade 12 Biology using the Blackboard system. After exploring the courses, my opinion of the web-based system has not changed. I still don't think it would be my preferred system of learning. My goal as a history teacher is to make history come alive, because a lot of students HATE history! They find it boring and monotonous. The online courses are based on reading modules and answering questions or participating in a discussion. I'm not sure that this type of system is effective for the majority of students. It does not make the material interactive and relevant. However, I could see online learning being extremely effective for those students that are very self-motivated or who have trouble with classroom interactions. I think it is very valuable to have the online courses for students who have to be away from the school setting, perhaps due to other responsibilities, sickness, motherhood, or work commitments. I could also see these courses being useful for teachers in their planning of courses. It gives a nice outline of topics to be covered, and there are a few assignments that could easily be adapted to be interactive in the classroom. I plan on exploring the courses even further, and printing out the sections/resources that I would be able to use in my own classroom!

Looking into the crystal ball...

What does the future hold for education??

This was a good assignment to do as we are wrapping up our coursework at University, and we are about to go into the field to gain valuable real life experience. Hopefully, all of our efforts over the past five years will culminate in us getting jobs! But what will our classrooms look like in two years? five years? twenty years?

I read the Horizon Report document, and I found it very insightful. The document connected a lot of the ideas we have been blogging about already. I agreed with almost everything that I read in the document. The internet has revised our role as educators. More and more, we are becoming facilitators in our classrooms, and not lecturers. Student-driven education and lesson planning is the way that education is going. Our instruction is differentiated and plays to each type of learning style. Even our assessments are designed so that each student can prove to us what they know in the form that best suits their learning style. Success is no longer determined solely by a person's intelligence or ability to memorize facts and information; we value creativity and innovation more than any other time in the past. Being successful in the workplace means being able to find and present information when it is needed and in a creative manner, not just specifically having the information in your brain.
I believe that technology has played a role in these changes. It has affected how we work, collaborate, communicate, and succeed. People can work and learn anywhere and at any time. Information is no longer found in one single location (a library) but is accessible by millions of people in millions of locations. I love that information and knowledge is becoming open to everyone. As a teacher, I believe that it is fundamental that each person should be able to educate themselves if they so desire. More and more institutions are becoming about sharing, collaborating, and open-content, something that I have come to value because of this course.  
In summary, here is what I believe the future of education will involve: being skilled in digital media as a requirement for almost any job, increased sharing of information, collaboration, personalized education, no "set" learning environment or standardized assessments of knowledge, changing technologies, constant learning and adjustment in teacher's planning to adapt to technologies, and the need for teachers to connect what students are learning outside of school to what we teach IN the school. When I look into the crystal ball that is the future, I get very excited about the way things are going! I don't think any of us will be able to say that we are bored with our jobs!

Online Videos

I love using videos in my classroom! On of my ideals as a teacher is that students should be learning things in the classroom that they can relate to every day life and their own experience. Videos appeal to visual and auditory learners. They bring the content alive. In my field of history, I find that it is particularly important to bring events of the past to life in the classroom. I hope that YouTube will not be blocked in the school I am working in, because it is one of my favourite tools for finding online videos. Here are a few examples that I would use in my classroom:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_YBplucfuk&feature=fvst Martin Luther King Junior's "I Have a Dream" Speech. This would be very helpful in a study of social justice, human rights, and the movements of the sixties. Instead of reading his speech, the students actually get to hear and see him speak. He was an amazing speaker, and the atmosphere that you can see at the rally around him is fascinating. Plus, its only seventeen minutes and would be excellent to begin a class or unit to get the student's minds activated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXIe5GbLSUs&skipcontrinter=1  Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics in Germany. I have actually used this video in a grade 8 classroom for our Holocaust unit. I had a lot of boys in that classroom that were very into sports, so I thought another way to get my students thinking about the consequences of the Holocaust and Hitler's way of thinking was to show them how much influence he had over the people of Germany. Owens was a black track star at the olympics that year. Hitler made a speech at the opening ceremonies declaring that the games would show the superiority of the Aryan race over every other race, including black people. The video explains the propaganda of the games, and Owens triumph despite adversity. I love this story because it shows the resilience of humans. I love sports and I believe that a person's true character is shown when they are competing in athletics. The video is a great tool for bringing a human side to the Holocaust, and giving some hope to students because it is a very heavy unit!

Podcasts!

I am coming to realize that before being in this class, I was using my laptop to about 20% of its capabilities. I have never actually used iTunes before! That seems ridiculous to me now, because I have an iPod that I use on a regular basis, but I have always just gotten other people to add music to it for me! I am so glad that  Mike got us to look into podcasts as a resource for our classrooms. Once I figured out how to use the iTunes Store, I spent almost an hour looking through podcasts and educational materials. I just couldn't seem to stop! It blows my mind the amount of resources that are available to us as teachers.

I ended up settling on a few different podcasts to download in my subject area. I love Global 3000: The Globalization Project. There are fifteen episodes that you can download about globalization and world issues. It would be excellent reference material for both teachers and students on a unit about globalization, environmental issues, and social justice. I also found some professional development resources. In particular, one I think that will be very useful is Teaching with SmartBoard. It is a series of tutorials about how you can use the SmartBoard to enhance your lessons.

I also found a few podcasts that were student created! I thought that was amazing. The ones I looked into were about history because that's my passion. Students could create a podcast as a final project to complete a unit. They could make a dialogue between historical characters, or dictate a paper or essay. This could be very useful for review purposes but also for assessment AS learning.

Podcasts are another solid resource that I look forward to incorporating into my classroom!

Group Projects

I was really impressed by our presentations in class yesterday! I thought everyone did an excellent job of discussing the positive (and sometimes negative) uses of technology. I was happy that my classmates were able to extend our Skype presentation. They thought of things that none of us had. I love that type of learning. It's amazing what can happen when you get lots of heads together!
I had never considered using Facebook as a personal homepage for your classroom. I LOVED the idea of Edmodo when we first saw it, but I wanted more details and without being able to log in, I wasn't sure if this was a useful tool or not! Rachel, Josh, and Colin's presentation really made me think about the pros and cons of each type of technology. Although I'm not sure I would ever use Facebook, I was glad that I at least had the opportunity to consider it and "talk it out" with my colleagues. I am very excited about using Edmodo in my classroom, and can't wait to get a job next year so I can try it out!
I was very excited when I heard that Sylvia, Mike, and Jess were making a wiki on cyberbullying. My CT asked me to do a unit for our health class on bullying and cyberbullying. I was planning on getting the kids to make PSA's about bullying, so I will definitely use their videos as examples! I thought their site was very creative and full of useful information that I am excited to use in my unit planning!
Good work everyone, but I think the MVP Award goes to Rachel for her creativity in making the T-shirts haha!

My New Favourite App!

I have been having a lot of fun lately exploring my Mac computer's app store. I LOVE my new laptop, and I would never buy anything other than a Mac again. Plus, it only weighs about two pounds, so its light in my backpack and can come everywhere with me!
I recently downloaded SimpleMind from the app store. It was free to download on my apple, but you can also go to the website and download it that way for free. You can put it on your iPhone or iPad as well. Its an easy tool for creating mind maps and brainstorming. It is very simple and easy to use, and you can easily print out your maps to use in the classroom as a handout or for studying purposes. I used it to make my PLN, and I have also been using it as a review tool for my personal studying. I am also using it for my lesson and unit planning during student teaching! Definitely worth looking into for differentiating instruction, vocabulary, review exercises, concept maps, outlining, and visual learners.

Follow the link below to try it out:
http://www.simpleapps.eu/simplemind/ 

Learning Outside of the Classroom - Distance and Web-Based Education!

I found G &G’s presentation about distance and web based learning to be very informative. It was an area that I had not really thought of during my time at BU. I took a biology course in grade 12 that was designed by the province as a web based course. I personally did not enjoy this type of learning experience, because it was completely web based, and the only time I had contact with my teacher was if I needed help with assignments. I read everything on the computer and completed assignments at my own pace.  I am an auditory learner, so I learn by listening to others and making it relevant to my own life experience. I found that I had trouble connecting with the content, and so I rushed through the reading and assignments so that I could be done early! While I did not have a positive experience with that particular course, I do see the value in a having distance learning courses.

It is very important that we recognize that everyone learns differently. I believe that the distance option can work under the right circumstances. The student has to be highly self-motivated and have good thinking, writing, and reading skills so that they can absorb the content. They also have to be goal oriented. I can see this option being effective for students who cannot spend time in the classroom due to personal circumstances (young mothers, students who work, rural students, those returning to school, those who want to extend their education or prepare for University, or students who do not work well with others to name a few examples).  Another thing I had not thought of was that teachers have the opportunity to order these courses to supplement their own learning and to build their resources. Teachers can refresh themselves on the course content, or use the online courses to enhance their own lesson planning. I love that this is possible, and I am going to look into ordering a few courses that I think will be useful in my subject area!

It is so important for us to know about all of the resources that are available to us as teachers so that we can keep developing our courses and ourselves so that our students get the best learning experience possible! This is one more tool that we can use, and I am really glad we got the opportunity to learn more about it!

My search for an edublogger!

So... my search for an edublogger began with a tested and true method... GOOGLE! I typed in social studies edublogger. I got lots of hit, but I quickly refined my search to include only Canadian edubloggers because I felt it would be more relevant. Long story short, I stumbled upon a blog called "Thinking In Mind." It is written by a Canadian named Neil Stephenson. He is the PD and Outreach Coordinator at the Calgary Science School. His approach to learning and teaching is focused around inquiry-based inquiry, and he has been lucky to work in forward thinking schools where technology is a priority. He taught grade 6-7 Humanities and is known for his "cigar box project." Stephenson used an inquiry based, student-centred atmosphere in his classroom. To briefly describe this project, students researched cigar box pictures as artifacts of Canadian history. They found the ones that were most meaningful to them, and then they created their own cigar boxes. This is the main reason why I decided to follow this blog, because there are lots of great resources and links to follow for good ideas to teach Social Studies (my area of interest).

After I got exploring the blog, I learned more about inquiry based learning, and it really made me excited to try this approach! In my past student-teaching experiences, I have gotten good reviews from my advisors and co-operating teachers. BUT... the comment that they all leave on my reviews is that I need to work on "projecting my voice and disciplining the students." I will admit, I am not a very loud person, and I do not enjoy disciplining students, so this is an area that I know I need to grow in. At one point, I was crying in the bathroom telling myself that I couldn't be a teacher because I wasn't loud enough! After picking myself up, I set out to make myself "louder." My attempts began with singing as loud as I could to the radio on my way to school every day (I'm serious haha) and doing as much talking in front of the students as possible. Needless to say, I lasted about a day and a half before losing my voice. I got pretty upset about my inability to project, so upset that I talked to several teachers about my problem. At the end of it all, I came to the conclusion that I was just not going to be a loud person, and I would have to stick to my strengths if I was going to succeed in the classroom. My strengths are that I am a good planner, I'm creative, and I CARE about my students. I want them to like what they are doing!

So, the point of this very long story is that Stephenson's blog has renewed my belief that I can be a good teacher based on my skills and not my weaknesses. In an inquiry based classroom, students are the centre of all of the instruction. You research and plan projects based on what they enjoy and what makes them curious.  No longer does the teacher need to be at the front of the room demanding silence from the students. Instead, they can be circulating around the room facilitating collaborative learning. I am so excited to begin this journey as a teacher, and instead of working on my weaknesses, I have decided to play to my strengths! I will continue to follow Stephenson's blog, and I have also added him to twitter where I have already gotten several excellent resources from him.

Happy blogging everyone, I am learning so much about myself and my "craft" as we go along!

MY PLN

My PLN:

The 21st Century Student:

Two heads are always better than one!!! (PLN'S and the Connected Teacher)

I learned a lot from listening to John Evans about the pros of developing a personal learning network.  I couldn't help but agree with him that you can't do it alone, and you need to stay connected with other professionals so that you can improve yourself.  Professional Development is part of our mandate as teachers, and the easiest way to learn nowadays is no longer driving for an hour to a PD once a year, its by using the internet and connecting with other people all across the world! I think it is so exciting that we are becoming teachers in a time when it is possible to access information and people from anywhere in the world. The possibilities are astounding! You no longer have to be in one place with one person to learn, you can be anywhere, and the learning can happen at any time. Of the applications John talked about, the ones I am most excited to learn about are Teaching with Ted, Scoop.it, and Maple once it is fully up and running.  I am also excited about expanding myself in the areas of diigo, RSS, and twitter.  I don't think I have been using these tools to their greatest advantage, and after learning about all of the new tools from our presenters, and I am coming to realize that the most important thing I can do is to get organized so that I can use these tools to their highest advantage!
From the research that i did on my own before the presentation, I learned that social learning is the idea that learning is a human centred experience, and that we learn best when we learn from other people's experiences.  Learning socially has become a world-wide revolution.  I am very excited about social learning, because I know myself that I learn best when I am emotionally and meaningfully connected to the content. As a child and young adult, I loved to listen to other people's stories. I am an avid reader, and I think that the reason I have been so successful in school is because I am able to find ways to make the learning relevant to my own life experience.  This is a skill that I have learned over the years through trial and error, but imagine the possibilities if teachers could show students how to use the tools available to them to create their own learning experience from the very beginning. This is what I am so excited about! Every person learns differently and is interested in different things, but the internet and technology provide the tools for every student to reach their highest potential. As teachers, imagine being the facilitators of this type of learning! WOW... and the way to get there is to build your personal learning network (or community or environment). I will publish a copy of my own PLN, created using SimpleMind on Monday once I get help from some of my "teammates."After all, we can't (and shouldn't) do this job on our own, because two heads (or 1000's) are better than one!!!

Would love to be a student in 8W with Mr. W!

I got so many great ideas from listening to Landon this week. It was awesome to see a young teacher who is being innovative in using technology in his classroom, but more importantly, the technology is helping him to enhance the student's education. I cannot wait until I have my own classroom so that I can implement some of the techniques he uses in his classroom. If I were in 8W, I think everyday would be exciting because something new happens each day, and the students truly do take ownership in their work because they are able to share it with so many people.
I am really grateful that we learned how to make our own websites and blogs with Prof. N in our education classes. They are something that Landon uses on a daily basis, and I am also committed to using these tools in my classroom. Landon took the idea even further by using blogs for the students to post their work. What a great idea! They took pictures of their work and created weekly review videos.  This is a great tool for parents and families to check up on their child's work, and the quality of work goes up because there is an audience the child wants to share with!
The biggest thing that I learned about from Landon was edmodo... I am SOOOO excited to try this tool out once I get a job. Being a part time tree hugger, I think it is great that students can hand in their work electronically. Imagine how much paper that would save in a year! Its also a lot less messy for the teacher. All of your student's work is in one spot, and the marks are recorded as you go along. It can also be used as a place for discussion and commenting. What a great tool! Another thing I loved were the google docs journals. Some students have an easier time writing on the computer, so I would love to give students that option.
Landon makes his classroom work with only four computers, because his students have access to technology that they are able to bring into the classroom. Not having the technology in the school is something we have all been concerned about, but I think that Landon really showed us that you can make anything work if you are committed to working through issues.  Technology can be a great tool once you have worked out the kinks. I know that I have been fearful of trying new things in the past, but now I am excited about continuing to learn and develop my own classroom with the use of technology. There may be problems along the way (like Landon has had with the admin), but knowing that there are other people who have had these struggles before me is very comforting. It makes me realize how much support there is out there, and the benefits of using technology far outweigh the cons.
Happy Blogging everyone!

A real life conversation with John Finch

First of all, I loved that we were able to have a conversation with John instead of him lecturing to us! I thought it was great that we could all ask questions and speak freely.  What I remember most from our conversation on Thursday was the idea of how learning has changed. Because we now have so much access to technology, we are able to open our students minds to all new ways of seeing the world. We learn through real life tasks, experiencing and talking to other people about their experiences. I think that the internet and technology can be a huge tool for us in creating a learning experience that is student-centred and relevant (as long as the sites are not blocked haha).

Another thing that stood out of me was our conversation about student teaching and how some of us feel restricted by our environment. I would agree with that point, and I think it circles back to our reflections last week in the NING about FUD. I will be the first to admit that I am afraid to take a risk with a class when I know my advisor is going to be watching the lesson. I feel constrained by the "procedure" of lesson planning sometimes. I fear that the advisor might not appreciate me taking that risk in my lesson planning.  Typically, I select a lesson for them to see where the students are all sitting in their desks nicely and I am leading the conversation. This is not a realistic and productive classroom environment, and I am going to make a commitment to myself that I am going to take some risks in my final placement. This will mean trying out some of the new tools that we have learned about in this class: blogging, twitter, social networking, creating podcasts and videos. I am also going to try not to panic when my classroom is a little bit loud! Conversation means people are learning, and I have to remind myself of that!

Change is coming, and I'm jumping on the bandwagon of forward thinking teachers! Who is going to join me?

Flipped Classroom

In a flipped classroom, the content is delivered to students at home through videos posted on the internet.  While they are in class, students are working one on one with the teacher on assignments where they apply what they have learned the night before at home.
I have mixed feelings about this approach to education. First of all, let's start with the positives: students are responsible for their own learning, it prepares them for university, they can learn at their own pace, the teacher is able to answer student questions and assist with assignments, students have less work to do at home, it is a less stressful environment, and students can be learning at different paces. Here are the cons: students can't ask questions during the content delivery, some fall behind, it is a lot of extra work for the teacher to set up the lecture videos and to have students all working at different paces, what about students who lack time and resources to make this work?
Part of me thinks that these positives would outweigh any cons... but then I took some time to think about what my life was like when I was in high school.  I played a lot of sports growing up, and I was very involved in the community and in arts... there were nights that I would not get home until 10:00 or later because I had a hockey game out of town.  If I was unable to watch the lecture the night before, what would I do during the next class session? And I was a good student! I would be one of the ones that would watch the videos regardless of what time I got home.. but lots of my classmates wouldn't have! Is it practical to have some students watching videos during class while others are taking all of the teacher's attention? what about the kids that are shy? or unmotivated? or who do not have access to the internet to watch the videos at home? Would parents be supportive? I could see a teacher having to spend 30 minutes with one student who simply has a lot of questions and likes to be on top of things while the other 15 students slip through the cracks.

Let's face it, most of us that have five years of schooling and want to work as teachers are overachievers.  This model might have worked for us because we were/are the ones that do the extra work.  We take the time to learn on our own and we take responsibility for knowing the content.  Not everyone is like that! Think about the students that do not want to further their education after high school. We all know that students lie to us about what they have or have not done for homework. I am not knocking this idea of the flipped classroom. I think that it would work extremely well if you have a group of kids who LOVE learning and who are willing to make this work with the teacher. I'm just not sure how many classrooms will be like that... I'm open to considering other's ideas on this!!! Please convince me!!!

Glen Gatin Presentation

Gatin's presentation revolved around technology and changing learning theories. I thought that Glen's explanation of the "traditional" teaching style was excellent! He described the teacher as pouring information into students and then testing to see how much they had retained using a dip stick.  The image that I had in my mind about the cup and dip stick kept popping back into my head, and it made a lot of sense to me! The new way to do things involves co-operative learning and student-centred classrooms.  It is now the teacher's job to teach the kids how to teach themselves!
Students are most engaged when they are passionate about what they are doing, so we cannot ignore the informal learning that students do outside of the classroom. We have to get creative in finding ways to engage our students, and technology can be an excellent tool for creating engagement! Technology is always changing and we have to be flexible.  This class is a great place to start in finding tools to be flexible and effective in our classrooms.
On a side note, I loved the instant chat conversation that we had during the presentation. I thought this was an excellent tool, and something that I would love to use in my classroom at some point... i'm just not sure how yet! I am excited to see how the bring your own device theory plays out... the future looks very exciting to me!

Activating Websites

After our conversation this morning in Reading, Thinking, and Study Skills, I am wondering if anyone knows any useful websites/technology that would be useful for pre reading strategies? In particular, I would like to know of a website that creates crosswords or word searches. Any ideas?

Here are a few that I thought of:
~www.wordle.net for creating webs of vocabulary words
~www.glogster.com for creating a poster or KWL sheet online to show what you already know about a topic or to make a cover page for the new unit
~paint or SmartBoard for making a graphic organizer from a brainstorming session with your class to find out what they already know about a topic

The name of the game is... SHARING!

Its amazing how one hour can change your views. I will admit, I was feeling quite overwhelmed by the whole blogging and twitter thing... and I was beginning to think that no one would actually be reading my blog! I had even convinced myself that I would probably just delete my accounts after this class.  BUT, after listening to Dean speak on Thursday, I have done a complete turn around! What hit home the most for me was the concept of sharing. Its simple math, spend one weekend creating a lesson or unit and share it with six thousand people, or spend one weekend creating a lesson or unit and keep it all to yourself. When I considered it that way, I realized it was silly to keep everything to myself! My big lesson last week was that if you're going to teach, you should be able to share your work, because let's face it, two or more heads are always better than one! I am now committed to maintaining my blog and website so that I can share too. You never know what might be useful to someone else. So thank you Dean for taking me back to Kindergarten and reteaching me the "sharing" lesson.

www.freerice.com

I stumbled upon this website during my last student teaching placement.  This website is non profit and was created by the United Nations World Food Programme.  You visit this website and answer multiple choice questions arranged by school subject.  For each correct answer, ten grains of rice are donated to help end world hunger all over the world. This website is able to function because a sponsor's logo pops up for every questions, but I didn't find that it was distracting or annoying in any way.
My CT used www.freerice.com as a game at the end of a class.  Students were divided into two teams and took turns answering questions.  She kept track of points. This was a very basic use of the website, but it could also be used as a starting point or activating strategy to get students thinking about world hunger and humanitarian aid. They could do research into how non profit organizations work, and how they are funded. It could be useful for grade 7 S.S. when discussing NGO's and government funded organizations.  It would also be useful in a world issues class while studying world hunger.
You can also sign up for the website, and it will track your answers so you can see how much rice has been donated from your correct answers.  You can add students to your "classroom group" and track the entire class' progress. I could see this program being used the entire year, maybe to kill five or ten minutes at the end of a class. The bonus is that you can select your subject, and students answer progressively more difficult questions.  I would say it is a good "game" because students are still learning something while enjoying themselves.  Some kids will thrive on the competition of answering more questions correctly than their peers, but it doesn't have to be used in a competitive manner.
I don't really see any downside to the website, and I think it could be a useful tool in any classroom and for any subject! You and your students can feel good because you are doing something positive to end world hunger.
Seems like a win-win to me. Check it out!

My Inspiration / Better World Books

I feel like I should start with an explanation about what my blog will be about.  My brother recently started a new project in which he buys as little as possible new. He tries to buy products that are made locally and eats foods that are grown locally as much as possible.  For Christmas, we had to do extensive research into everything we bought for him and my nephew.  Any gifts we bought had to be used, made from organic products, or bought from a local producer! From him, I received goats milk soap made in Manitoba and organic fair trade tea from the Marquis project in BDN (both awesome products). We found my nephew used toys and books, and my brother received organic clothing and a certificate that I had bought a garden for a young mother in the developing world in his name. It was an interesting Christmas to say the least!
My brother is very stubborn, so I guess we all got tired of being questioned about the products we were buying and decided to give it a try and actually think about our habits. His conversion to being  "Green" has made me rethink some of my habits as a consumer, and a lot of my blog posts will be about environmental or social stewardship resources that I have found online. Social activism is not something I have had a chance to explore much, and it is something I would like to include in my social studies courses once i have a job!

www.betterworldbooks.com

I recently started using this website for ordering books online.  I have always been a reader, and I used to order all of my books from amazon.com. I heard about this website at a P.D. this past year, so I decided to check it out.  Turns out that for every book you order, the proceeds go towards literacy initiatives around the world.  This includes: restocking libraries, building schools in the developing world, and donating books to those that can't afford them. Most of the books are used and have been recycled by people/libraries/schools that no longer need them. Plus the shipping is all free and the prices are quite often cheaper than amazon.  Seems like a win-win situation to me, and something my brother can be proud of me for!
My first shipment is on its way and I can't wait to get my socially and environmentally conscious books. Check it out!