Zoe (my tech ed teacher) was nice enough to get Alan Levine the "guru" or digitial storytelling talk to our class today about what he does. The conept of storytelling is a cultural phenomenon that has been present for many generations. Being able to create/tell stories with the tools and technology that the students are interested in, would be a great way for students to engage in the material. To many times students are just copy the informatio to be learned at home while studying and regurgitated on a test just to be forgotten 10 minutes later. Telling stories would give students a sense of ownership to the material and help them understand it. I was trying to explain how ionic compounds dissolve it water and my students weren't getting the conept. To explain it I told a story about Justin Bieber being in a mall. He will be immediately surrounded by the opposite charge (female) and be pulled into the crowd so he i indistingisable.
Alan gave us a good method of determining how to tell your story. To make it easier ont he storyteller he suggested having the story laid out ahead of time so you have a basis before beginning to use a tool. You can then pick a tool and make you digital story. I am a big sotryteller and it would be interesting to try out some of the tools Alan talks about and make digital stories that can be shared with freinds and family worldwide. It was great that Alan was able to learn how to use each of the tools and tell the story of Dominoe. This gives me hope that I would be able to use the tools without a tremendous amount of difficulty being that I am not very techie.
I think these tools would be very applicable in science classrooms. In classrooms in general, digital sotrytelling, as Alan expressed, would be a great way for teachers to get to know their students. I think it is extremely important for teachers to get to know their students, and teach to their interests. Without knowing your students you can't differentiate your instruction and you are more than liekly to leave a few students behind. All the scientific facts we know today were discovered by someone or a group of people and told to others using a story of some sort. So why as sicence teachers are we just telling the facts and having our students "learn" it? I think that storytelling would be a great way to teach scientfic concepts. Have the students research a topic and have them teach the class using a story. I was given an assignment in grade 12 science to research a chemist and write a paper about their contribution to science. This would have been way more fun if I were able to tell a story from the persepctive of my scientist about how they contributed to science on a personal level.
Alan's presentation reall opened my eyes to the way we can use storytelling in our classrooms to help engage students. Being able to tell these stories using the the digital media that students are so familiar with will help them engage in the material. I know the things I remember best from my days as a student are the things I learned from my teachers stories. Lets use technology to tlel these stories and get students engaged. I am looking forward to investigating some of these tools.
Tuesday 22 November 2011
Survived 1st Placement
Well I made it. I was a little bit of a struggle for the last week but I made it through. After school on Thursday my trip to the walk-in clinic confirmed that I had strep throat. Clearly my immune system wasn't prepared for the the 1200 germ ridden students. I am now on antibiotics and recovering nicely.
As a whole palcement was awseome. I have to thank the two grade 11 classes for being kind and allowing me to jump into their class nicely. The studentswere very responsive to me and seemed to be learning a lot. The students really enjoyed my demonstration of sodium thiosulfate crystalization and their solubility labs. They got a taste of how other people live in relation to their accessibility to water treatment. I used to jigsaw method to teach the students about 6 different aspects of water (drinking water, waste water, cost, pollutants, health, environment). Using a video as an intro my students were able to get a better understanding of how lucky they are to live where they do with the access to clean water. It was nice to see students looking at the information and posing questions and really thinking about the information, and not just lookign for a mark.
This had to have been the most striking surprise I came across on block. My students are so focused on marks that it is hindering their ability to learn. They were getting so stressed out about the marks they would get if they did an assigment a certain way they couldn't focus on the actual material. The day we did the jigsaw on water treatment the first question they asked was are we going to get marked on this? Once they found out that this was a learning opportunity and not a marking session, the students fully engaged wth the material and got a lot out of it. I think this was exasperated because I was teaching a grade 11 university prep chemistry class and they know that the marks will affect their future. I hope I can find a way to help my students in the future to decrease this stress and make it easier for them to engage in the material. If anyone has an suggestions on how to do this I would be very open to hearing them.
As a whole palcement was awseome. I have to thank the two grade 11 classes for being kind and allowing me to jump into their class nicely. The studentswere very responsive to me and seemed to be learning a lot. The students really enjoyed my demonstration of sodium thiosulfate crystalization and their solubility labs. They got a taste of how other people live in relation to their accessibility to water treatment. I used to jigsaw method to teach the students about 6 different aspects of water (drinking water, waste water, cost, pollutants, health, environment). Using a video as an intro my students were able to get a better understanding of how lucky they are to live where they do with the access to clean water. It was nice to see students looking at the information and posing questions and really thinking about the information, and not just lookign for a mark.
This had to have been the most striking surprise I came across on block. My students are so focused on marks that it is hindering their ability to learn. They were getting so stressed out about the marks they would get if they did an assigment a certain way they couldn't focus on the actual material. The day we did the jigsaw on water treatment the first question they asked was are we going to get marked on this? Once they found out that this was a learning opportunity and not a marking session, the students fully engaged wth the material and got a lot out of it. I think this was exasperated because I was teaching a grade 11 university prep chemistry class and they know that the marks will affect their future. I hope I can find a way to help my students in the future to decrease this stress and make it easier for them to engage in the material. If anyone has an suggestions on how to do this I would be very open to hearing them.
Saturday 29 October 2011
First week of placement
Well I survived. Not that I had many doubts, but I'm glad the first week went off without too much problem. The first of teaching my 3U chemistry class wasn't as nerve racking as I thought it may be. The student's seem to have taken to me well, they respond to my teaching and feel comfortable asking questions. I will determine how to get them to write without opening their mouths eventually. I don't think you could expect much less of a room full of thirty 16 year olds.
Not only did I survive my first week of teaching, but I also survived observation by my faculty advisor. He liked what he saw and only had minor comments to make. Now I can confidently move into week two and keep building my teachign skills without havign to worry about being evaluated. I have been using a very low tech approach to teaching thus far, as this is what the students are used to and seemto respond well too. I hope to introduce more technology as I move into the next topic of study. Wish me luck.
Not only did I survive my first week of teaching, but I also survived observation by my faculty advisor. He liked what he saw and only had minor comments to make. Now I can confidently move into week two and keep building my teachign skills without havign to worry about being evaluated. I have been using a very low tech approach to teaching thus far, as this is what the students are used to and seemto respond well too. I hope to introduce more technology as I move into the next topic of study. Wish me luck.
Tuesday 18 October 2011
Digital Footprint
The amount of stuff we can find on the internet always amazes me. Simply googling a word can give you millions of items to look at. With all the different social media sites out there now, you can find almost anyone somewhere on the web. It makes me wonder how much of yourself is available online. Whether it be good things or bad, you wonder how this will effct your lie now and in the future. As we invetigated digital footprints today, I was made aware of the parts of me that are online. Using http://www.pipl.com/ alows you to investigate you personal digital footprint, as well as people you know. To know surprise the first thing that popped up for me is my facebook. Although, this is a little disheartening because I have made a concious decision to make myself hard to find.
I was a little surpised by the other things you could find out about me. As you scroll through the lists of people who share the same as me, but are indeed not me, you come across things from high school. Iwas a track and cross-country athelete and was fairly good at it. Since they poseted results of meets online you can investigate how I did in these meets. It's not a big deal to me that you ca find out these things, it was a big part of my life and It made me who I am today. What concerns me is how I can control the availability of information about myself that is not posted by me. I don't know if you can. The best you can do is ensure that there is nothing incriminating about yourself that is online. I know I will be concious of the future digital footprints I create, ensuring that the me on the internet truly represents who I am.
I was a little surpised by the other things you could find out about me. As you scroll through the lists of people who share the same as me, but are indeed not me, you come across things from high school. Iwas a track and cross-country athelete and was fairly good at it. Since they poseted results of meets online you can investigate how I did in these meets. It's not a big deal to me that you ca find out these things, it was a big part of my life and It made me who I am today. What concerns me is how I can control the availability of information about myself that is not posted by me. I don't know if you can. The best you can do is ensure that there is nothing incriminating about yourself that is online. I know I will be concious of the future digital footprints I create, ensuring that the me on the internet truly represents who I am.
Tuesday 11 October 2011
Creative Commons
I was lucky enough to have Rodd Lucier give a presentation to my Tech. Education class about creatie commons. For anyone who doesn't know, creative commons is a form of copyrighting, but allows people to use your work, edit it, publish it, etc. depending on your own personal preferences. As a teacher I think it is important to know about things like this because we pull resources from a variety of places, and not actually ahve the permission to do so. Google images was a topic that came up often, and the rights to the pictures. If it is on the internet is it fair game? Surprisingly no. You still have to ensure that you have legal rights to use the picture, and provide proper acknowledgement to the original owner of the work.
This is an interestign concept but I don't know how effective it is. By taking a picture and putting it in a powerpoint say, without referencing it is nto allowed. But who will know? Are our students going to check where we got it and see what the copyright, creative commons rights are? As an educator I think I will set an example by making sure to reference images and resources, acting as a model for my students. I don't know if I will ever use creative commons personally because I dont tend to put personal things online, and if it is, i feel that it is at everyone's disposal to do what they want with it.
This is an interestign concept but I don't know how effective it is. By taking a picture and putting it in a powerpoint say, without referencing it is nto allowed. But who will know? Are our students going to check where we got it and see what the copyright, creative commons rights are? As an educator I think I will set an example by making sure to reference images and resources, acting as a model for my students. I don't know if I will ever use creative commons personally because I dont tend to put personal things online, and if it is, i feel that it is at everyone's disposal to do what they want with it.
Tuesday 4 October 2011
Smart Technology
Zoe's tech class has got to be the shortest two hours I have ever seen. Every week the hands on the clock seem to fly around until 3 pm. Today, was very fascinating, as we got to play/learn some of the technologies SMART offers. Once my computer (it's getting old and is a little bit stubborn) decided to download the notebook, I was able to play with the various resources Smart has to offer. I really like the idea of usign smart boards in the classrooms becuase it allows kids to get up and moving and fully interact with their learning. I know as a student I would have loved to be able to work through things on a board like that. As a teacher I think it is great becuase we allow students to interact with information from the internet without them having to stare at their individual computer screens all the time.
Smart offers many of the simple resources that the average word processor or presentation maker has to offer. you can change backgrounds, font, colours, etc. What is great about it, is that it incorporates some of the things you can do with old technology that you cannot do with a power point presentation. For instance, there is a screen shield that you can use to hide part of the screen, just as many teachers do on an overhead. You can also highlight and write on the presentation as if it were just written on a whiteboard. No more are the days where a lesson is lost in a teachers inability to draw a regular shape. The shape tool on Smart will convert your not so perfect shape into what it should look like. If you are like me, and cannot draw a circle to save their life, this is a relief.
The most exciting tool we learned about today was the ability to look at things that have already been created for smartboard users. This includes simulations, pictures, interactive games, and most exciting LESSON PLANS. For me, the thought of making lesson plans for all my classes 5 days a week for the rest of my career is a little daunting. To be able to look and see wat people have already created and be able to use it is amazing. I learned at an education conference that "if you're not stealing, you're not teaching effectively," smart technology allows to to do this with high quality resources. Smart exchange just may be my new best friend.
Maybe the other most important benefit of this software is that you don't actually have to have a smartboard to be able to use it. You can use the tools and resources place them in a presentation and project just as you would a powerpoint. This gives you more flexibility with what you can show your students. Although the use of the smartboard is great because students can interact more freely, the software can also be usefl for those without access. I thoroughly enjoyed learnign about this software and I think I will most likely use it in classroom settings to keep students engaged if nothing else.
Smart offers many of the simple resources that the average word processor or presentation maker has to offer. you can change backgrounds, font, colours, etc. What is great about it, is that it incorporates some of the things you can do with old technology that you cannot do with a power point presentation. For instance, there is a screen shield that you can use to hide part of the screen, just as many teachers do on an overhead. You can also highlight and write on the presentation as if it were just written on a whiteboard. No more are the days where a lesson is lost in a teachers inability to draw a regular shape. The shape tool on Smart will convert your not so perfect shape into what it should look like. If you are like me, and cannot draw a circle to save their life, this is a relief.
The most exciting tool we learned about today was the ability to look at things that have already been created for smartboard users. This includes simulations, pictures, interactive games, and most exciting LESSON PLANS. For me, the thought of making lesson plans for all my classes 5 days a week for the rest of my career is a little daunting. To be able to look and see wat people have already created and be able to use it is amazing. I learned at an education conference that "if you're not stealing, you're not teaching effectively," smart technology allows to to do this with high quality resources. Smart exchange just may be my new best friend.
Maybe the other most important benefit of this software is that you don't actually have to have a smartboard to be able to use it. You can use the tools and resources place them in a presentation and project just as you would a powerpoint. This gives you more flexibility with what you can show your students. Although the use of the smartboard is great because students can interact more freely, the software can also be usefl for those without access. I thoroughly enjoyed learnign about this software and I think I will most likely use it in classroom settings to keep students engaged if nothing else.
Saturday 1 October 2011
alternative to power point
I have come across yet another technology that can be used in the classroom. I am surprised by how easy it is to find new resources and how frequently it keeps happening. I went to ask my roommate a question and she showed me her prezi presentation she was working on for another class. I was very interested in how it worked and figured I would check it out.
Prezi is an online presentation maker that can be viewed online or off. You must sign up, but it only takes a few seconds. With the free version you have 100MB of memory to create presentations in. Once you sign up ther is a tutorial that explains the stes of creating a prezi presentation, although the software is very easy to use. I was able to pic it up very quickly. Check out the quick presentation I was able to make it just a few minutes (http://prezi.com/u-41cvlbhdhr/becoming-a-21st-century-teacher/). This is a technology I can see using in a classroom, especially when working on brainstorming activities or concept maps. personally I think powerpoint is more versatile in what can be done, but prezi is interesting and I am willing to give it a shot.
Prezi is an online presentation maker that can be viewed online or off. You must sign up, but it only takes a few seconds. With the free version you have 100MB of memory to create presentations in. Once you sign up ther is a tutorial that explains the stes of creating a prezi presentation, although the software is very easy to use. I was able to pic it up very quickly. Check out the quick presentation I was able to make it just a few minutes (http://prezi.com/u-41cvlbhdhr/becoming-a-21st-century-teacher/). This is a technology I can see using in a classroom, especially when working on brainstorming activities or concept maps. personally I think powerpoint is more versatile in what can be done, but prezi is interesting and I am willing to give it a shot.
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