Encorporating Technology into the classroom

Hello, an happy Thursday bloggers!


Technology is a game changer in education, both in terms of teaching and learning. My experience interacting with technology, and the opportunity to embed technology into my teaching during my time in Teacher's College has taught be any avenues of teaching with technology. Most importantly, I have seen the engagement that technology can bring out in my students.

I have been exposed to, and experimented with countless resources online for different purposes, from creating podcasts, to making interactive PowerPoint presentations to representing information in different ways, such as through the use of timelines, gallery walks or word clouds. I have learned that there are so many possibilities out there, and that making lessons and presenting information to students can be unique every time.

I have also been learning more about coding, primarily through use of my blog. I have also seen some interesting programs to get students coding, some of which are themed - my favourite: Elsa and Anna skating program - to expose students to coding. Coding has quickly been added to the list of important 21st century skills that I wish to instill in my students.

The following video posted by SMART classrooms summarized the power of using technology in the classroom so well!




Looking forward to learning more!

Take care for now.

A

Fun with Prezi

Hello there!

With Remembrance Day fast approaching, I have been looking for fun, educational activities that I can do with my class.

Technology is something that I have recently been learning A LOT about, and I am beginning to consider myself more and more proficient at it every day.

So, I thought that finding a cool, interactive way of incorporating technology into my lesson is one way of doing something a little bit different with my class.

With the generous, (and patient!) help of Dave Potts, I created my own Prezi of the book: " A Poppy is to Remember". I added pictures of the illustrations, created a voice-over using Audacity, and put the whole thing together in what I think is a pretty cool presentation.

Here is what the final product looks like:




The learning process continues...

Until next time,

Ana

Collaborative Lesson Planning

Hello!

My lesson plan is growing, and I'm so excited to share this new integrated lesson plan that I have been working on with a group of my peers. Using Prezi, Emaze, Popplet and Google Forms, we addressed the overall Ontario Curriculum expectation 1: analyse the impact of human activities and technological innovations on human health. We collaboratively co-created a lesson plan using lesson planning document organization to address this curriculum expectation.

Guiding Questions

One of the main benefits of assessment for learning is that it can set an appropriate pace for all classroom learning activities. It allows teachers to determine when to modify or differentiate activities in order to keep students engaged and motivated.

The following guiding questions for implementation of appropriate assessment tools has been derived from  the learning for all government document:

Guiding questions:

1.  On the basis of early assessment data, which of my students require more time and/or support in specific areas of learning? 
2. What would be the most effective interventions and types of support for these students? 
3.  What tracking tools could I use to monitor these students’ progress? Do the assessment data give me an idea of the kinds of adjustments I could make in the type, intensity, and duration of support and interventions? 
4.  When assessment indicates that further support is required, what specific information will the in-school team need to help decide on the most appropriate further interventions? 
5.  What are the accessible resources 

Assessment as learning, also referred to as metacognition, Involving students in the process of creating assessment criteria provides the students with an opportunity to anticipate what they are working towards.

The following simple reflection strategies are derived from Office of Learning and Teaching, DE&T  

Simple Reflection Strategies:

Learning Logs 

Learning logs, or learning journals, and other simple devices for students to reflect on their recent work (perhaps at the end of their work with you each week). There may be regular prompts to respond to (make a poster?) such as: 

a) This week I have learned… 

b) For next week I am focussing on… 

c) I will know I am getting better when…

 60-second Think

Even more simply, you can use a “60-second Think”, spontaneously, in your classroom at any time as no equipment is required. Just ask students to stop, and “have a 60-second Think about how your learning is going right now”. The important thing for you to do is to accurately “time” the 60-seconds to allow quiet thinking time. 

Concept Circle 

• Ask students to quickly sketch a concept circle like this image (noting that any number of spikes can be drawn). 

• Students then do an “individual brainstorm”, trying to recall the key concepts (or ideas for younger students) that are related to the work they are doing now.

• Students then highlight, or draw a box around, any concept (or idea) that they are having trouble understanding. 

• These ideas are then recorded by the student in their learning logs for further examination - or they can be discussed with the teacher next time there is an opportunity to do so. 

Mirror mirror on the wall.. Reflections continued

Hello hello! I LOVE learning about fun ways of exploring content material with students, and making this fun, innovative and relatable ! Using technology is one of the best ways to teach new material in a really creative way. For myself as a learner, I am very intrigued when I am presented with unique, innovative methods of presentation.

One tool that I explored today is called SCREENR. Technology can he hard to use, and walking through the steeps of a process can be hard to do with a group of people who are all at different levels or places in the process. This tool is a cool way of taking a screenshot, and adding audio to it! 

Logo from Screenr, 2012
(http://screenr.com/)

One really neat way of incorporation this into teaching is to provide students with feedback. Walking through a project or an essay and adding voice over comments can help students understand how to improve their work. How beneficial are actual, recorded comments, over marginal notes such as 'awkward'. This takes assessment to a whole other level! My thoughts so far...use of technology is endless. If you can conceive it, there's probably a tool for it! #TheresAnAppForThat

Reflection: Enjoying the little things

 

Life moves fast, and sometimes we brush over the little joyful things in our day trying to fast-track, and check things off of our to-do lists.

Lately, I have been actively reminding myself to slow down,  breathe, and enjoy the little things.

Aviva  Dunsiger wrote a thought provoking blog post about this idea, and about the importance of savoring the little things when life feels hectic, and exhausting.

Teacher's college has been a pretty big transition. Gone are the days of essay writing, theory consolidation and big lecture halls and seminar sessions. In their place, I find myself compelling 100x as many assignments. Granted, they are smaller assignments, more applicable projects and hands on learning, such as my Genius Hour project. The other big change is that instead of being enrolled in 5 classes, I am now enrolled in 8 with the added challenge of in-class placement observations. Completing my underground thesis in fourth year had me thinking that there was now way life could get any more hectic....an then you get hit with a curve ball.

I am enjoying many aspects of this change, but I constantly feel pulled in thirty directions, and as I sit down to complete one task, I am obsessing about the pile of other things that are competing for my attention.

Wile there are constantly many things to do, making time to spend with friends/family and doing things simply because they are fun has a huge role in keeping my sanity. One thing I have been  looking forward to for 6 months is coming up a this coming Saturday. My roommate and I, both of us being HUGE Taylor Swift fans, have purchased tickets to her upcoming concert. I cannot express how much I am looking forward to this night, when the reality of school will not be in the forefront of my mind, and I get a chance to spend time with my best friend, enjoying music we both love!

Picture to follow...

Ana

Process Reflection

Reflective Practice:

Learning new things can be scary and intimidating but also exhilarating. My experience learning about different technological tools to use for the purpose of gathering, synthesizing, and especially presenting information have had a transformative impact on my approach to technology. This realm that was overwhelming and intimidating for me in the past has shifted my thinking to seeing the benefits of making global professional connections with like-minded individuals. 

The image below is a useful visual representation of the different inquiry process that I have been learning to use on the online medium.

Plougmann, L.Anita Brooks Kirkland, Apr 12, 2012. The Discovery and Guided Inquiry Model Diagram. [Online Image] Retrieved from https://sites.google.com/site/titanicinquiry/lesson-plans

While there are still times when I feel overwhelmed and restricted in time to complete various technology related tasks, I feel like my learning is expanding my thinking of education processes.

Here are some tools that I have recently learned how to use, and some of the educational benefits of each:

1) Scoop-it: great source of information, and resources. In relation to my genius topic topic of assessment, a great place to find resources. Ways of assessing genius hour.

2) Google slides: fabulous resource for making PowerPoint presentations. Best part: being able to embed the final product onto Blogger.

3) PowToon: MIND BLOWING!!!! What a great tool to make presentations more interactive by adding animations and cool live features. The ability to manipulate the time frame for each animation allows for differentiation for students with special needs, such as processing delays. 

4) Bubbl.us: this web-based tool for making timeline representations. The possibilities for student use of this resource in the classroom across various curriculum areas are endless!  

I am excited to continue this learning process, as well as to implement some of these resources in my work with students! I am very curious about their feedback and response to some of these wonderful resources! I will continue to use my blog as a tool to communicate the roadmap of my learning process.

Ana