Adding to the teaching toolbox…

A short background story for you, I grew up in south-western Ontario speaking French at home. We had one television set in the living room and if you wanted to change the channel you had to get up and walk over to the set to change it. Well, there was a certain popular children’s television show that I would get to watch every weekday in those early formative years before the age of 6. It was educational for me and for my mother, and as the family joke goes it is how we both learned to speak English. 

I came to the presentation with no personal experience or knowledge of web-based classrooms(WBC). I thought that Shannon Magee and Donald Girouard had a presentation that explained well the possibilities of the web-based learning that Manitoba Education offers.

I started to hear about these opportunities for the first time from others in my cohort once I started classes here last fall. As for synchronous versus asynchronous learning, I think the correct answer to that is asynchronous in a synchronistic way? But seriously, the slide said asynchronous online distance learning is preferred by students with complicated schedules and lends itself well to students who can be more self-motivated. I would have to agree with this premise because of the accessibility of the instructor through message boards, email, pre-recorded video lectures and traditional mail correspondence. Whereas time is the flexible feature of asynchronous distance learning, in synchronous distance learning time is fixed. The teacher will interact with the students at a fixed time and can make the web-based course more of a community with the use of group chat opportunities, webinars, video conferencing and phone call-ins. Blended Learning seems the most compatible with who I will be as a teacher. One where face-to-face practices work in combination with web-based activities. Students will have some autonomy in regards to the pace, place, and direction of their learning. I can see how this will work in a high school setting because I have two sons that were voracious researchers on their interests in high school. They might have earned extra credit for all their extra-curricular research in a web-based course given the opportunity.  

I would like to plan the course I requested as a resource for English Language Learners(ELL) in my classroom. As part of my ELL toolkit, I could have a range of mini lesson plans that span the range of ages of the students I will work with over the years.

Sunny days in grade 2

To begin with, it would be a good idea to load lessons that the student can do in the classroom on devices at the school. These lessons would scaffold the learning going on in the classroom and expand on themes with cultural information and language cues that they might not be exposed to (voicethread.com comes to mind). By starting the WBC in this way, I would gain experience with how the students interact with the WBC style of learning and I can adjust the lessons accordingly. Once I am satisfied that I have created effective lessons, I would then be prepared to allow students to participate in the lessons from home.   

I would also like to seek advice from other ELL teachers in building a course of mini-lessons for students. If lessons for ELL students are accessed from home, I would perhaps ensure that the classes can be accessible to other family members such as the parents. To illustrate this, if I have an ELL student in my class, chances are that they have a parent or two or older siblings that can benefit from this additional language and culture support.

On a broader whole classroom scale than ELL, though, I think that I would prefer to try google classroom. As with any new must have tool, I like to do my research to find the right tool moving forward. Google classroom seems to have all the practical features in one place. It is user-friendly and covers all the C’s of integrating technology in the classroom. Curation, Communication, Collaboration, Citizenship, Critical Thinking, and Creativity. That’s what being a life-long learner is all about, being open to new possibilities but also being aware of others’ trials and errors and learning from them.  

Hmm, which character was the favorite...the feathery yellow bird, the smelly grumpy one that lived in a garbage can, the big brown mammoth with the long name or the bat-counting Dracula with an exotic accent…

The teaching toolbox. Be brave, take a risk, it's actually fun!

Just like that, the click of a button and I became a writer with my first post. That was a feeling I will always remember. It was like always having that one item on the list of things to do, trusting that it will happen someday, but when and more importantly how? Eureka!

This week's exploration of Curation and Collaborating has unleashed many more possibilities for me. I had preconceived ideas that Using ICT in the classroom would be dry, appeal to those who are self-proclaimed techies (not me), and that I would be forced to perform tasks just for the sake of being able to say that I know how to integrate technology in the classroom. The words personal and creative did not seem to fit here for me.

Boy, was I ever wrong! Instead, I have begun an online presence that is growing and growing. Among my family members near and far, I am now at the frontier and that is astonishing. I now know what RSS is and how to use it. I would not miss conversation and collaboration with class members on Thursdays where they share with me how they use various software applications and what excites them. Is 'Sphero' going to come out to play? I watched my son score the winning goal for the Bobcats on Twitter while I was working on assignments for my teachable subjects of french and English language arts. I am keeping up with classmates' progress on feedly.com. I checked out a site called VoiceThread.com, it attaches voice over threads to images, creating accessibility for students who can benefit from this visual application such as English language learners. At the coffee and conversation session, I attended with the Brandon School Division EAL specialist Joanna Ford, it was suggested that teachers have a survival kit on hand. Wouldn't it be great to have a google drive folder with suggestions for the kit to share among staff members?

I spent last Friday at my next placement getting to know my class of kindergarteners and as I was researching more suggested sites and information I had an idea for the class that will tie in nicely with what I will be doing. The smart board can be used as a dramatic play background that will get the kids talking and thinking of things outside of the classroom! How cool will that be?

When the opportunity presents itself to me to teach high school I will aim straight for the yearbook committee to see how to produce a yearbook. I produced yearbooks the old fashioned way for a couple of years when I was in high school. Furthur research is needed but I think I'll start by typing in the term eYearbook.

This has been a surprisingly creative and personal experience and one that I will document, curate and look forward to sharing with my future colleagues and students.

The hurdle that I have overcome is that I now have a rudimentary understanding of how what I do with my pens, notebooks, file folders, sticky notes etc can co-exist with the 'integrated' presence of online technology. Let me just reach into my 'pocket', there, the term for someone who likes paper, papryophile...

Practice Blog - #1: A Pause on the Diving Board

I will be honest. I am both excited and nervous about expressing my ideas in blog format on the internet. The process for me is like those summer days hanging out with friends by the poolside. While listening to the radio on the ghetto blaster attached to the extension cord at the back of the house, I am enjoying my frosty glass of iced tea with a wedge of lemon on the rim. Mother brings out a platter of cut-up watermelon for us to share and persuades us to take a dip…

Like-wise, I am at the edge and ready to jump into my role as an educator. My challenge as a teacher will be to educate myself on the benefits of using information and communication technology (ICT) in the classroom, but also to provide an understanding of the broader picture of ICT in the world. I pause before jumping. From the back of my mind rises the article in The Guardian newspaper: Extreme Surveillance Becomes UK Law with Barely a Whimper.

“A bill giving the UK intelligence agencies and police the most sweeping surveillance powers in the western world has passed into law with barely a whimper, meeting only token resistance over the past 12 months from inside parliament and barely any from outside.

The Investigatory Powers Act, passed on Thursday, legalizes a whole range of tools for snooping and hacking by the security services unmatched by any other country in western Europe or even the US.

The security agencies and police began the year braced for at least some opposition, rehearsing arguments for the debate. In the end, faced with public apathy and an opposition in disarray, the government did not have to make a single substantial concession to the privacy lobby.”

With swimwear on, and enough prodding and cajoling, I dive in with barely enough space on the low pool-side diving board to land my infamous jack-knife dive. Now, I can join in the fun swimming underwater and practicing crazy synchronized swimming moves.