Category: EDCI 336 (Page 2 of 3)

February 18th

The Ed Camp class was a great way to network with students and work together to discuss topics pertaining to school and teaching. 

I checked out the parent communication group, Indigenous topics group and viewed 10 minutes of Hans’ Scratch demo- which was amazing!

For the parent communication group we talked about different ways to communicate with parents and how to keep communication positive with parents. Especially when many parents only hear from teachers when something has gone wrong or there are issues. We discussed making a weekly newsletter for parents so they could stay informed about what their child is doing in class. Further, we discussed how to handle aggressive conversations with parents and how to de-escalate/ avoid those types of conversations. Such as : parents should never be surprised by their child’s grades; as a teacher you should always be in communication with them about their child. Thus when report cards come out they are not surprised by what they see.

The Indigenous topics group, I joined into the group when they were discussing how to include indigenous education and principles in class. When I joined in the group was discussing how a teacher should not only rely on having an Elder come into the class to teach. As a teacher we should not always be relying on outside individuals to teach these topics. We have to take on that responsibility too, we may not be able to teach and explore all of the topics within Indigenous Education, but we must do our best to do what we can and learn. I had not thought of this before, because as a teacher we have to break out of our comfort zones and engage in other types of knowledge that are beyond our Western Education. I was given this website https://wsanec.com/learn-settlers/ for more information.

Friday 11th

Ever since I stopped using Microsoft Word (my subscription ran out) I have changed over to Google Documents and all of its other extensions. Personally I love how user friendly Google Docs is and that I can access the documents even if I do not have my laptop with me. One time during my undergrad I forgot to print off a paper before coming to school to hand it in. There was zero stress about it because I could open my google docs at school and print it from the school. Thus I love how accessible Google Docs is. 

Don’t get me started on how easy it is to work on group projects using Google Docs! It has made group assignments easier to manage and complete. It blows my mind that there hadn’t been an application before that allowed many people to work on a single document together -or maybe there is and I hadn’t heard of it before?

In class I enjoyed using photoshop to create our own image and then uploading those images to the slide deck. I loved this activity because :

1. Photoshop is an amazing tool to see  student creativity. – In our class it was great to see all the various images created by all the students, they were all so unique and hilarious. 
2. Every student got to collaborate on a larger project but still added a part of themselves. So even though it was a class slide deck of photoshop images, each student brought their own individual flare to the slide deck.
3. This activity was a fun way to incorporate technology in the class. I could see myself using the format of this activity in a classroom myself where students individually create something and add their part to a larger class tech project.

Moving forward: I am very interested in learning more about Google Classroom!

Here is my image I created during class

Our class with Jessie as our guest speaker was informative as it has made me aware of my social media accounts, my online presence and the use of technology in the classroom. His discussion about cell phones in class gave me a new perspective on how to deal in the future with cell phones in the classroom. I had always thought that cell phones should be taken away or not in the classroom at all. But hearing the story about the teacher who does 20 minutes of instruction and 2 minutes of cell phone time was a great alternative to the no cell phones. At this point technology is a part of our society and ignoring, or telling students they can not be on their phones, this will only create problems. It is better to adapt, and that is why I enjoyed the 20 minutes instruction and 2 minute phone time. 

Jessie brought up a question about social media that had me in some serious internal conflict. He said “If you had to pay to use Instagram or Facebook, would you continue to use them?”. If I had to pay to use Instagram, which is the social media site I use the most, I would NEVER pay to use it. And that was my gut reaction to his question. Afterwards, he says “if you wouldn’t pay to use it, then why do you have it? *Begin my internal conflict*. Why do I use Instagram? My initial thoughts were that Instagram is just to look at pictures, pictures that are about people who fake their lifestyle for “likes”. But the more I thought about it throughout the day I realized that that is not why I use Instagram. Thus, I started to make a list of the positive reasons why I use Instagram: I connect with friends and we send each other funny memes. I have found recipes and food ideas through Instagram. I can find workout plans and tips. Lastly, I have found travel destinations on Instagram and gone to them because I saw pictures of the place on Instagram. Therefore, my use of Social Media is a positive and healthy way. And that was what Jessie was saying throughout his presentation; It is how you use technology and there are benefits to using it if it is done in a positive way. Social Media is not this monster that will rot the minds of people (young and old) but that users must be aware of their Social Media use and use it in a healthy manner. I am glad he posed that question about paying for social media because it made me critically think about my social media use.

This week I created a screen record video on using Unsplash https://unsplash.com/ to create a About Me web using OneNote for windows.

Unsplash is great to find open sourced photos that can be used freely, without worrying about Copyright infringements. It is so easy to find photos that you are looking for that can be used for educational purposes when you are unable to provide a link to the direct source of the photo.

OneNote for Windows, I use this app for taking notes and doodling. It is great because you can upload images and PDF’s and write directly on the PDF .

I used RecForth for Windows 10 to screen record, I used this screen record app previously. I find it user friendly as it uploads all my videos to directly into my computer and easy to edit videos afterwards.

Check out my finished About Me Web that I started in my screen record video