Classroom Blogging

I checked out Kirsten Thompson's classroom blog because she is a first year teacher so I thought it would be cool to see what kind of blog she has been running. I thought it was great because she has posted science experiments that she has been doing with the class, some of the sweet Bill Nye videos they have showed, have expanded the blog using Facebook or twitter and talked about their PLN networks (something we have recently talked about). Her blog acts as a resource for other teachers and is a way for teachers to help keep up to date with her classroom activities. 

You can find her blog at http://mrstsclassroom.blogspot.ca

Online Video in the Classroom

Thought i'd share these two great channels that I subscribe to on my YouTube account.

One is PhysEdGames. A channel that is split into 4 categories. One is dealing with major sports like football and basketball. Another is dealing with low organized games, classroom curricular content and cross-curricular content such as math and literacy. The last two are dealing with warm ups, dodgeball and random games.

Here is an example video from the PhsyEdGames channel. 

The other channel I wanted to share is called Sick Science!

It is not one of my teachables but they have some very quick and interesting science experiments that you could show to a class as a way of getting students settled at the beginning of class. It also gives students an idea of something they can try at home. One of my ct's used this strategy and it worked great. Here is an example video 

Reinventing the Encyclopedia Game <-- Take a Listen

I can't believe how many interesting facts I just heard in 10 minutes after listening to a podcast by TED talks.

I opened up my iTunes, searched TED talks under the podcasts tab, found the education category and began my search. Turns out there are over 100 different podcasts in the education category alone so I filtered my search by looking at the popularity of the posts. After clicking a couple at random I stumbled across a podcast titled "Reinventing the Encyclopedia Game" by Rives.

"Reinventing the Encyclopedia Game" starts out by talking about the Britannica ending its print editions. The speaker used to play a game where he would flip open a page, find a fact on that page and from that fact go to a new page and start the game over until the string of facts leads you back to your original topic. The game has changed from print version to online version so the speed of the game has almost become instant (depending on the strength of your internet).

I think this would be a great podcast to show students because it shows students the power of the internet, it exposes them to information and interesting facts (obviously would have to check reliability or validity) and also because this can be a lead in presentation to a teaching strategy called hyperlinked writing.

Hyperlinked writing is where students research a topic and create a document. In the document they hyperlink key words or ideas to the websites where they found the information, from that they can find other information that is related to the original topic.

I am really glad I watched it and I suggest anyone who is remotely interested to do the same!

Piktochart = Succes

If anyone is interested in making an infographic I highly suggest using Piktochart. It was so easy to use, I think it looks pretty good and I wouldn't be afraid to use this to create posters for my own classroom. 

I created a team handball poster below which also involves the use of a QR code. It was so easy to upload all the images I needed, organize it the way I wanted it organized and it had a great selection of templates and icons to start out with. I also found that it was so easy to share and download compared to some other sites I tried. Short story short, use Piktochart if you ever want to make an infographic! 

Fellow Classmates...(Mainly Ones Interested in Math But Not Limited to)

So for our edublogger tech task I decided to follow Tanis Thiessen and well to cut straight to the point I am glad I did. The week I started following her, she had started a 1 of a 3 part series of posts dealing with incorporating aboriginal perspective into math. This immediately caught my eye because we had taken a full course on aboriginal studies but never really got any answers on how to actually incorporate aboriginal material into our classrooms. The reason this caught my eye because when it came to thinking of ways to incorporate aboriginal material into my lessons I drew a blank, so now I at least have a start. The best part is that she introduces 2 resources in math and another cross-curriculuar resource.

She also has a weekly post called "Marvelous #Math Monday" which is beneficial for any math fanatic!

I highly recommend you give this blog a read and if you do wish to do so you can find it at 

http://joyofeducation.wordpress.com

Personal Learning Networks and The Connected Student

When I created my Personal Learning Network, I struggled at first trying to come up with ideas of what to put on it. I then thought of my day to day life and realized how connected it actually was. So much of my life is now done online or done using a device. Whether is talking with friends via Facebook or communicating with profs via email. Now instead of taking notes using pen and paper, I am using Evernote, a web based app that automatically syncs whatever information I type in as long as I am connected to wifi. Also instead of flipping through the actual curriculum document, I can reach the framework document or any SLO with a few clicks of a button. 

Once I was able to figure out my own PLN, making a mind map for the connected student came easy because I feel that many apps that today's student is using, I am too. The one advantage the 21st century will have is that they may learn of newer apps or social networks first but I would not be far behind. 

BYOD Panel Discussion

BYOD, not quite the finish to the acronym most expect after reading the first 3 letters but that may not be the case for high school students of the near future because certain school divisions are paving the way in our new high tech school systems. 

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) or 1:1 computing is starting to make waves in Manitoba because some schools are nearing the end of a five year pilot program where students have access to laptops or iPads all day and almost replace the traditional paper and pencil. 

We recently had a five person panel, from three different school divisions come in and talk to us about the process and steps taken to implement a 1:1 computing program, where there is one device per one student. I enjoyed hearing all the necessary steps that were taking and how their different programs compared with one another. It was also nice to hear that something that was part of everyones program was teacher training, where they took the first year of the program mainly to train teachers and prepare for the year where the devices were actually introduced. The reason it was nice to hear is because as much as I use it technology is still fairly intimidating for me, well for me as a teacher. When I want to incorporate technology I want to make sure that I am using it effectively and still cover specific student learning outcomes at the same time so it was nice to hear that divisions were thinking ahead and prepared their teachers ahead of time. I am also a bit of a worrier so I feel if I was given time to actually make a year plan or course outline that a 1:1 or BYOD would not be as intimidating as it is now. 

Kids are being given these devices or laptops as gifts at younger and younger ages so having a BYOD program in your school may not be so far away. In fact, with the success of the three pilot programs, there is now a model for schools to use when implementing the program in their own schools. They know what kind of results to expect, what challenges to face and have answers to parents who haven't even asked a question yet.

It's exciting to see our school system change and it'll be interesting what school divisions are going to follow in the footsteps of the schools who are already 5 years ahead of them. What also may be even more interesting is where are those initial pilot programs going to be five years from now? How much farther ahead than the rest of the pack?

One last thing I want to leave you with is something one of the speakers said. It was along the lines of  "Technology should be like oxygen, it should always be there but never noticed." Now those were not his exact words but something very similar. I like it because it is true, technology is always going to be here and we should incorporate it into our day to day lives to the point where it is no longer a big deal that we are using it. 

Twitter! The Resource and Teaching Tool

I love twitter. I think it's great. The information you can get in 140 characters or less is actually quite surprising and having such limited space to construct your thoughts make going through your timeline quick and easy.

Twitter has an extremely wide variety of accounts. There are news, sports, humour, factual, personal, business accounts and then some. In fact, there are twitter accounts for the most random things. One that rings a bell has the handle @Sochi_Goalpost, where it was created after the United States hit a goal post on an empty net in the gold medal game against Canada.

The past two years that I have had twitter, it has been for social reasons. Many of the people I followed were friends, sportscasters, factual accounts and humour accounts. It wasn't until this year that I realized that twitter could be used as a resource and teaching tool, so I created a teacher account (@mrSKaskiw) where I'd follow other teachers, people in similar fields and factual or informative accounts. The biggest worry I have as a soon to be certified teacher is not having enough resources or ways of building my resources up and twitter is actually a great way to share information and new ideas. It's easy to copy a link from a website or blog to a tweet and the 140 characters acts as a sale pitch to what you are tweeting about. One thing you have to be careful about is that accounts can be made by anyone so it is just like anything else you find on the internet, you have to make sure it is from a viable source.

Twitter as a teaching tool is becoming more and more common because it is still interesting for the students and the fact that it is limited to 140 characters makes it short, easy to track by the teacher through the use of hashtags and to the point for the student. I have only really heard of using Twitter in an ELA classroom but with just a little creativity I think it could be used in any class.

Looking forward to trying it in a classroom of my own!

Organizing My Online Life

I can't tell you how many times I have registered to some cool website or application on an impulse and completely forget to use it from that day on. Part of the problem is that I use my iPhone for keeping up to date with my social networking so I use my laptop less and am less likely to recall a website I joined if I don't use my laptop for a couple days. Another part of the problem is that I usually just enjoy looking up sport scores or stories on my laptop and even that is not daily. Finally, the last use of my laptop is obviously homework.

Throughout the courses we have taken with Mike the past two years, he has introduced many organizational websites and apps and I am finally putting them to use. My new homepage is now symbaloo, where you are just on click away from opening up your favourite websites in other tabs. This one was big for me because I can just click on everything I want/should read. Once I read it, I can close it and just move on to the next tab.

Another way I organized my online life is by adding the links of my fellow classmates blogs to my own so I am able to see who has updated theirs and what they wrote about all by just entering my own site. I am actually hoping that they continue to blog because I have enjoyed reading what they had to say!

My goal is to use these resources as effectively as possible.

Web Based Courses

Web based courses. This topic is new to me but I find it pretty intriguing. Anything new always seems scary to try at first but I think this is one thing that would be a beneficial experience. 

These web based courses allow students to continue their development with technology and various online programs, they allow students access to courses that they may not normally have access to and they instructed by a trained teacher where as compared to other distance courses which may be independent study courses. 

I like how these courses still allow for teacher-student interaction even if there is a considerable distance between the two. I also think that participating in these courses will benefit the teacher and student. For the teacher, it may force them to re-think their teaching style or try out new teaching strategies that they may end up using in the regular classroom setting. I also think this will benefit the students because it exposes them to online programs that they may not usually use, such as google hangout when they are communicating with the teacher or creating a wiki when completing group projects with students from other schools. 

As a future teacher I would be excited to take on teaching a web-based course and hope the opportunity becomes available!

Digital Footprints

Anywhere we walk we leave footprints whether it be in the snow, sand, or even dust on the side walk. Every step we take we leave behind something. This is very similar in the virtual world. Each and every move we make online is tracked and can be easily traced with just a few clicks of the mouse.

It starts the moment you open your browser. Your computer starts tracking the websites you have visited and websites store cookies onto your hard drive to help identify users interests. If you ever fill out information on a website you may be asked if you want the website to remember this information or it may just store a cookie on your hard drive to help remember you the next time you log in. Some cookies only last as long as your browsing session and there are some that last until they expire.

There are also they websites that you register for such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or any type of messenger. There are many parameters that go with websites such as these:

• Anything you post usually becomes the property of the website. 
• Many of the profiles are public, meaning that anyone can view what you post unless you manually change your settings to private. 
• When it comes to instant messaging apps or snapchat, what you send may go through a variety of servers before it reaches its destination so there are many opportunities for those files to be compromised. 

As teachers it's going to be important for us to teach internet safety and etiquette to our students and it must be done so at a young age because today's youth are being introduced at younger and younger ages. 

I have a Facebook profile, a twitter account, an instagram account (rarely been used), a ShowMe account, an about.me page, a myspace account... I actually have too many to count or keep track of because it always seems that you have to register or login in to use any website that is part of a social network, used as an organizational tool or to just take part in some forum talking about the latest trades in the NHL so I am sure that I have missed quite a few. 

When it comes to posting online I always stick to this rule of thumb. "Don't post anything online that you wouldn't want on the front page of your local newspaper." because there always seems to be a chance that it can end up there, no matter how private you think your post may be. 

Olympics in Sochi? No Big Deal...

Well last week marked the beginning of the 22nd winter olympics being held in Sochi, Russia. Our athletes travelled across roughly 9 time zones (depends where they travelled from) to compete in this years olympics.

Sochi is 10 hours ahead of us so for this week's blog post I wanted to talk about how awesome it is for us to be able to get up to the second updates ANYWHERE YOU GO despite the huge time difference. In fact, with a simple twitter update this morning I was able to see that Charles Hamelin, a Canadian speed skater, won his first gold medal of these games in the 1500 m event. Canada has so much potential in these games and we have so many great athletes competing I actually find myself just skimming over the rest of my feed searching for the olympic updates. I use twitter to get all my updates because the updates are short so it makes going through my timeline so much easier.

They are many great twitter accounts to follow to stay up to date such as;

@CDNOlympicTeam
@TSN_Sports
@ABilodeau_ski (Alexander Bilodeau, Athlete)
@Speedskater01 (Charles Hamelin, Athlete)
@JayOnrait (Reporter, Hilarious)
@fs1otoole (Reporter, Also Hilarious)

It is also not just twitter that is great for staying up to date. I have seen updates on Facebook, various websites like www.tsn.ca and in fact, I used www.olympics.cbc.ca to air the opening ceremonies for a grade 6/7 class in their social studies class.

There are also many other apps to are able to give us the latest news and information. A simple search of "Olympics 2014" gives you a variety apps. The nice thing about it is that all you need is a smartphone, cell service and the swipe of a finger to get an update on all your favourite athletes.

Also here is a video to get all the hockey fans pumped up for some Olympic hockey!

Career Fairs, John Finch, Donuts annnd the Superbowl

What a week.  Actually more just thursday.

Last thursday the Faculty of Education program at Brandon University hosted it's annual career fair. This was a great chance for us meet with prospective employers and make some valuable first impressions. Reality then kind of set in when I realized that after we graduate we have to enter the competitive job hunt, which I sometimes view as something along the lines of the hunger games mixed with a pride of lions taking down a gazelle.

However, I did not have a great amount of time to reflect on the career fair because not soon after we had John Finch (a tech guru who works for Manitoba Education and Advanced Learning) come in to our Internet for Educators class and discuss various questions or concerns we as future teachers had when it comes to using technology. He literally just said "Ok, what do you guys want to talk about?" and it didn't take long to get the ball rolling and from there the 2 hours seemed to fly by. We talked about many concerns but the one that a lot of us seemed to agree with was using student inquiry as a regular method of teaching rather than lecturing and notes, so it was good to see Mike and John share a similar view.

For the sports fans out there, the Seattle Seahawks defence absolutely dominated the Denver Broncos number one offence. I was glad to see the Seahawks win but for the sake of it being the Superbowl I wish it was closer. What I think was lost in the score is that Peyton Manning actually set a Superbowl record by completing 33 passes, passing arguably two of the best QB's in the game today, Tom Brady and Drew Brees.  This stat would have to leave you wondering how he even had a chance to throw the ball in a blowout game like that, in fact I think this record went unnoticed by a lot of people.

That's it for this one!