Lovin’ the Blogging Mentorship

I just wanted to say how much I am enjoying blogging with Eldon German’s grade 10 classes and Maria Knee’s Kindergarten class! I love reading about what they are learning about in school or what is going on in their community. I especially loved the Kinderkids personal Voki’s. Each child picked an animal which they used to represent themselves and then they talked about what they love and like to do. They are adorable!!! I am very excited to do a skype chat with Maria’s kinderkids. I am not too familiar with skype so this will give me some good experience with the program.

Changing Disabilities

This presentation by Beth Lloyd from the K-12 Online Conference 2008 answered one of the many questions I have about integrating technology into the classroom: How do teachers integrate students with disabilites into technology? Beth said that teachers should use the “McGyver approach” when dealing with students with disabilities, in that the tool needs to be simple and flexible. The one tool she focused on was Voice Thread. She said that Voice thread is both easy and flexible for many different types of learners.

She goes on to give examples of students, she has worked with, who have benefited from using Voice Thread. She talks about a student, Lindsey, who was overly sensitive to noises in school, which in turn affected her learning because her teacher could not evaluate her on her reading. She would not talk in school which also affected her relationship with teachers, other students. Beth came up with the idea of scanning pages from books and putting them on voice thread, where Lindsey could read the books, either at school or at home, and record her voice. This way the teacher could evaluate her reading skills and Lindsey could also enjoy reading books. Lindsey is now more comfortable with small groups at school and her communication skills have improved greatly.

I have never thought of using voice thread in this way, especially for students with disabilities. This is a great tool to use in the classroom and for personal use.

She also talked about Chris, a kindergartner with language delays from seizures, who had difficulties saying certain words such as how to greet someone. The teacher posted pictures of teachers on voice thread with their voice recording saying hello to Chris, and he would say hello back. After a few weeks he was using these words in the hallway! He was a very visual learner, so this idea helped him out greatly.

She also talked about another student who had motor diificulties which affected her writing and vision. It would take her a very long time to write out her sentences for spelling and she had problems seeing the words. So, using voice thread, she would orally record her sentences which saved alot of time in the end.

After watching this presentation I am now aware of the many ways that I can use Voice Thread in the classroom for every student. There are so many students with disabilities in the world today that any tool that we can use to help benefit them is an advantage for the teacher and all students involved.

What Did you Learn in School Today?

I watched H Songhai’s presentation from the K-12 Online Conference, on using every day technology in the classroom such as cell phones, MP3 players, video cameras and digital cameras. He talks about a trip to Virginia he took with a group of grade 11 students, to visit colleges, who were constantly text messaging and listening to their mp3 players. He then encouraged the students to use their cell phones and digital cameras to take pictures of campus and use the voice recording on their cell phones to document important information such as admission requirements. I thought that this was such a good idea. Whenever I am out somewhere and I need to remember something, I automatically am searching for a pen and paper. The voice recording option on cell phones is a great idea and I will definitely use it more often now!

Another point he brings up which I thought was important was he says to not use paper in the classroom and to just blog. At first I did not agree with this statement, but the more points he gave, the more sense it makes. He says when he was a teacher and he handed out paper, half of the sheets would be laying on the floor or left on the desks. If the information is on an educational blog, the information can never be lost and the students cannot make up excuses at to why they are unaware of the assignment. Also, an educational blog showcases the students work that is produced all through their schooling years. This information can then be read and commented on by teachers, fellow students, parents and people all over the world, which encourages the students to want to blog more.

Another strong point he makes towards technology in the classroom is how the students will have their personal work with them forever. Most of the time, paper just gets thrown out which is a loss of their hard work. He said that he allowed his students to make voice recordings, from their cell phones, of his lectures, and take pictures of notes that they wanted. They then could save these files and use them in the future for studying purposes. I totally agree with this. Looking back on my high school years I do not have many significant assignments with me now, as they probably got lost or were thrown out. It would have been nice to have all of these memories in one spot to look back on.

He gives a few tools at the end that he believes every teacher and student should be using such as delicious, audacity, skype, twitter, wikispaces and many more. I agree that delicious is a very good tool to use for personal use and in the classroom. I am not too familiar with skype but will hopefully become more familiar with it when I do a video chat with Mrs. Knee and her kinderkids! I have played around with audacity a bit and think its a pretty cool program that could be used in school.

I have never really agreed with using cell phones in the classroom, but after watching this presentation and learning more in my ECMP class I think that there are certain times and places that they could be incorporated into the classroom. On the other hand, what about schools that don’t have access to a computer for every student? What about students who cant’ afford cell phones or digital cameras? These are very good ideas for future students, but the availability may not be open to everyone. How can I, as a future teacher, incorporate these elements into the classroom without sufficient funding or accessibility?

A Question of Love

I came across this video through a friend’s facebook page and watched it and was absolutely amazed at how simple, yet informative Keith Obermann is in this video commentary. He talks about the voting results of same sex marriage in California and how the Supreme Court voted against it. I have a friend who is gay and I have nothing against him, and I don’t see why people have to judge others. Doesn’t everyone deserve to be happy? If they are not hurting themselves or anyone else in the process then they should not have to justify what makes them happy. With marriages having only a 50% survival rate, heterosexual people are not the ones to be judging gays and lesbians on what love is. This topic always gets me pretty fired up because people need to realize that if others are not affecting you in a negative way, then why does it matter?

Map

So here is a map we had to make for our class. Mine is all the places I went over the summer! I had no idea that you could do so many things with google maps. I only used google maps for when I needed directions somewhere, but now I know that this is a great tool to use in the classroom and for personal use!

View Larger Map

Kathy Cassidy’s blog

So I was going through Kathy’s classroom blog when I came across a posting she made in September, related to the K-12 conference and she was talking about the University of Regina. Herself and Patrick Lewis( who is also my professor for Early Childhood Education 205!) did a presentation together about University of Regina education students in his class blogging with a grade one class. I found this interesting to read about and watch the little video they made about it because Patrick is always telling us in class how if we take his Early Childhood Education course next semester then we will be able to blog with a grade one class and is encouraging us to take this course. It was just neat to see how so many people around the world are connected, and it can come back to your life, and you may not even realize it!

Learning

I am a very visual person, so when I am learning I need to have some sort of visual stimulus in order for me to understand the concept better. Pictures, videos and presentations all help me to learn better because those things stick in my mind and then I can remember and retain everything easier. I am also a hands on learner as I learn better when I am actually doing. I liked doing the lab component in Physics and Chemistry because it helped me to understand everything as I was seeing it happen and doing it at the same time. Math was always a hard class for me…and still is!…..as numbers and letters all jumbled together just confuses me! In the kindergarten class that I am mentoring, Mrs. Knee had the kids in a stacking Oero’s activity, along with other kids around the world. I love this idea and think it makes math fun for kids, and they will remember counting, graphing and comparing because it is in a way that they can understand and have fun at the same time! I think if I would have had these activities in my schooling years then I would enjoy math more now!

I really like to learn about different cultures and countries. Canada is such a diverse country and in order to understand and accept everyone, then we need to be aware of the many differences. I love learning anything about Africa. I would love to go there someday to experience everything about the country: the culture, the scenery, the animals…and no snow!!!

My learning network includes my family, friends, the internet, reading books, magazines, journals,etc, television and many more. As a future teacher, I will be learning new things everyday from students, parents colleagues, professors and many more. Thats the great thing about teaching, no one day is ever the same and you learn something new everyday!

Just thought I should put a pic up here cause I know its nice to put a face to a name for Eldon’s class and Maria’s kinderkids….so here I am!!!

Mentoring

So for ECMP 355 we have to mentor a couple of classes online.  I have already checked out these classes blogs which are Eldon Germann’s grade 10 class and Maria Knee’s Kindergarten class.  I am excited to get to know what these kids are up to in the classroom and what they are learning.  I think its a great idea that Eldon’s students each have their own blogs.  And its awesome that Maria is exposing her students to technology already because they are surrounded by it constantly in their life, whether they know it or not.  This would have been a neat experience in school!  But I get the opportunity to do it now!  I look forward to connecting with all of you!

The Great Global Warming Swindle

Just thought I would post this video that I came across regarding global warming. This needs to be watched with an open mind! Its over an hour long, but definetely worth the watch!  Let me know what you guys think!!!