Surviving the 1st Day of Placement

I can honestly say that I had an awesome day today.  The staff and students at the school are very welcoming making the transition from student to teacher much more enjoyable.  The grade 9 class I observed 1st period was a lively bunch for 8am, but enjoyable  They remained relatively engaged throughout the lesson as well as when they were given time to work on an assignment.  Both grade 11 classes I observed were much of the same, although they are a chatty bunch. The students seem interested to learn, making the task of teaching them myself seem muh less daunting.

Over the course of this placement I hope to gain knowledge in classroom management strategies and work on keeping the students engaged with the material.  To do this I will try my best to make the content relevant to their lives as much as possible.  I will also use this palcement to get into teh routine of comleting lesson plans and keeping my daybook up to date, to ensure that I remain organized.   I am lookign forward to upcoming weeks and starting my unit plan.

Learning to make a google site

Today was less stressful than I thought it would be.  Learning how to use the remotes for the entertainment centre used to be a challenge, today I created a website.  This is leaps and bounds from where I ever thought I would be in my ability to use technology, especially professionally.  I am looking forward to modifiying it and making it more advanced as i progress through my tech. education course. I may even make another site for my upcoming wedding.

I am most excited because this is something I can actually see myself using in my own classroom, or during placements.  This would be an effective way for me to relay information to students and parents.  It will eliminate the exuse that they didn't know about something.  The only fear I have in this is that if I am in a school with vvarying socio-economic statuses, all students may not have access to a computer.  None the less, there are computers at school, and the information that would be placed on the site would also be available to them in class.  I wonder if parents would appreciate the extra information?

New Sharing Technology

I have recently been introduced to a new technology by a collegue and friend.  Dropbox (http://www.dropbox.com/) allows you to access any files from your home computer on any other computer as long as you have an internet connection.  You can also share folders with friends around the world.  This works similar to google but you do not have to have a goole account, you can access it with any email account.  I am so excited to be able to share projects and files with peers without having to worry about attachign to emails, bringing USB's everywhere and the always nerve racking forgetfulness of leaving assignments at home.  Now if this were to happen I could just pull it up on a computer at school and print, no harm no foul. 

To sign up you go to http://www.dropbox.com/ and set up an account.  All you need is an email address.  The download doesn't take very long.  Once it is installed you will have an icon on your desktop.  You can copy/move any file you liek from your computer and place in this folder, giving you access to it through the web.  You can take a tour of dropbox to figure otu your way around the site and its tools. although, I didn't find this necessary and caught on very quickly (which says something because I generally don't).  There are tabs toorganize your folders, share with other people (must also have dropbox), see when things have been modified, etc.

I am looking forward to collaborating using this technology when getting out into placements.  My peers and I can share lesson plans and resources without the hassel we used to face.  I also am excited to know when my computer infamously crashes in the middle of a major project I have the piece of mind to know that my files are safe.  I would suggest this to anybody who has friends who they want to share materials with, or just want a place to back up thier files.  As as educator I am excited to know that my materials are handy and can be shared with other faculty, students, parents, etc.

Bullying Still a Huge Problem

A grade 12 student at a Hamilton high school has recently committed suicide because he was tormented by his peers at school.  A as a person and a future teach this truly diturbs me.  I was bullied through out my grade school and high school years and know the pain it can cause.  Even though not always overt, being ostracized and left out in a group of your peers and cause great blows to the reflection a person sees when they look in the mirror.  I learned to let it roll over my shoulder but she have to be that way.  Teachers and administration need to step in when they encounter these situations and DO something about it, not pretend that  its just kids being kids.  When myself and my mother brought the bullying in my school to their attention, it didn't change much, instead it gave the bully another reason to throow darts my way.

I want to challenge all teachers, administration, support staff, and anyone working or living with children to discuss bullying with them and the effects it can have on people.  I also challenge you to make a difference in a students life who may be going through a tough time because of bullying and be there for them.  The worst thing for theses students is to feel liek they have no where to turn.  Don't allow bullying in your classrooms and make sure you yourself dont become a bully.  Some of you may think that it wont happen, but it does and it shouldn't.  Let's not let another student take a life because of the bullying in what is supposed to be a safe and nurturing environment.

Taking a Technology in Education Course

Althroughout my school life teachers have beenteachnign my science the same old way.  Ether on the overhead projector, the chalkboard, or if I was so lucky a powerpoitn slideshow i was taught scientific information lecture style.  This is the reason I am taking this class,  I want to be able to introduce my students to scientific information without them realizing it.  I believe it is much more fun to learn by doing and interacting with the information than i is to memorize from a lecture.  I believe all types of technology have a place int he classroom, and will be increasingly more important as our students become experts on diferent devices.  Saying this, tyou wouldnt expect that I ambasically a technology newbie. 

I am excited to be inhis class becuase it will allow me to become familiar with the current social networking devices people are using these days.  I didn'think twitter, blogs and other such devices would ever be interesting to me because my life isnt that exciting.  I have now realized that using these devices will give me an opportnity to correpsond with teachers from around the world and how they are engaging their students.  I attended the Queen's Conference on Education in 2009 and was told "if your not stealing, your not teachign effectively".  I am excited to learn what other people are doing and implement them in myown classroom.