Social Learning

During this class I felt that I contributed to the learning of others by sharing my own learning experiences on my blog, and I was even able to post at least three times every week! Any time I came across something that interested me and I wanted to learn more about I shared it on my blog.  Examples of these posts are Studentsand Social Media, Some Neat Ideas and No More Homework. In these posts I explored different aspects of using technology and how they could enhance not only my own teaching practice but my classmates as well.

I  posted about things that challenged my thinking or I struggled with in how I felt about the topic. A couple examples of these post are That's so … and Teachers Quitting! Should We Be Concerned?

And I also posted about great (well at least I thought they were great) ideas about different tools that I want to use in my classroom this fall such as Using Music To Create Awareness and Word A Day.

The  comments from my classmates on my blog posts have helped to further my learning as well as they helped to challenge me to think in new or different ways about what I had posted.

I hope that my classmates found these posts useful and I have contributed to their learning in some way as I know that I have learned a lot from these posts and exploring how and why the things I have posted about can be useful in the classroom.

I also tried to comment on several of my classmates’ blogs every week. (Unfortunately I did not keep a very detailed list of all of the blogs that I posted comments on every week L) I hope that I was able to contribute to the learning of others by asking questions and offering my own thoughts on what they had to say on their blogs. But this was also helpful for my own learning as my classmates were able to answer my questions to help me learn more about the particular topic of their blog post.

I have learned more from my classmates and guest speakers that we have had in the class than I had ever imagined. I loved being able to see the feed of all of the posts on the ECMP home page where I could daily scroll through and read everything that my classmates had to say about teaching and technology. I have gained so many great ideas and tools that to use that I don’t know where to begin because I just want to try everything.

One form of social media that I have been struggling with how to use in the most effective and professional manner is Twitter.  While I do not have all of the answers for how to use this tool in the best way for me, several post by my classmates have helped me through this struggle.  One post that I found very helpful was the Twitter Experiment by Swati

This has been a great class and I have loved the collaborative learning element through the blogs and the guest speakers. I feel that I have learned so much more by being able to read the blogs of my classmates and interact with them compared to having to sit in a classroom and listen to a professor lecture about the material.  Not only have I learned about how to use many different tools and forms of technology but, more importantly, I have learned how to best learn from it. I have learned so many things in this class that I am so excited to incorporate into my classroom this fall during my internship and in my own classroom in the future.

ECMP 355 Final Reflection!!!

Here is my Final Reflection  for ECMP 355! This reflection took me a long time to create as I struggle with how to make it.

 I originally thought about doing something like an RSA Animate, but I didn't really have the materials (like a whiteboard or chalkboard) where I could effectively create it. I then found a really neat website where I could make an animated cartoon. I started with this and really liked it until I found that it wouldn't let me do the things that I wanted, such as insert my own pictures and voice without buying the full version.

After playing around with several other ideas I decided that I would use the Adobe Premier Elements program that I already have on my computer to create my final reflection. Which turned out to be  a good things as I learned to do some new things with this program such as layering multiple photos and text in a single frame. (I had never experimented with more than two at once!). I enjoyed making this video and reflecting on my learning for this class and I hope that you enjoy it!

Teacher Humour

I came across this today and thought that everyone else would get a chuckle out of it too

http://pinterest.com/pin/207798970278143029/

"Don't let schooling interfere with your education."

The quote by Mark Twain that I chose to title this post never made sense to me when I was younger. I didn't understand how schooling and education could be two different things.
Now that I am just one year away from completing my Education degree I not only understand this quote, but ask myself "how can I change this and how can I be a teacher who allows students passion for learning to grow and flourish in my classroom?"

I saw this picture on a friends Facebook page and it has some very interesting points. After looking at/reading this I was left with the question "What can I do to change this?"  as I can see a lot of truth in each point listed.  Why is school the way it is and can it be changed, or better yet what would happen if it things were changed?

http://www.themindunleashed.org/2013/04/conscious-evolution-expanding-your-mind.html

Free Apps!

I found this great list of free apps today! There are many on here that I have never heard of before and I have only taken the time to check out a few of them so far, but it is a great resource and I thought that I would share it!

\
http://www.slideshare.net/gtoews/free-apps-list

That's So...?

I saw this poster on Pinterest today and I think it would be great to have in the classroom! Not only does it raise awareness about Homophobic bullying but it challenges students to think about the implications of what they are saying and expand their vocabulary!


http://alisonrowan.com/36805/405546/work/thats-so-not-gay

Word of the Day!

While doing my TechTask on mobile learning I stumbled across a great app for my iPhone called Word A Day. There are several versions of this app, but I chose the free one. Each day the app gives you a new word and its definition. It also has an audio feature where it says the word for you so that you know the correct pronunciation and uses the word in a sentence as well. Today's word is uxorious, which means to be excessively devoted or submissive to ones wife.

While this is not something that I would ask my students to download I think that it is a great app! In my English class this fall I am going to use this app to have a word of the day written on the board. I am hoping that this will promote student inquiry and spark their curiosity with the different words as well as expand their vocabulary, and my own as well! Right now the only thing I am still unsure of is if it would be more beneficial to include a definition with my word of the day, or if the students will be curious and ambitious enough to find the definition on their own?