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!