Nearly every students now has a cellphone and many of them are using them in the classroom (even when they are not supposed to be). According to a 2008 Stats Canada report "Nearly three-quarters (74.3%) of Canadian households indicated they had a cellphones in 2008, up from (72.4%) in 2007." And I can only imagine that this number has continued to increase since 2008. So why not use this technology in a constructive way in the classroom? This is exactly what Liz Kolb suggests that we do!
For this Tech Task about mobile learning I decided to browse through Liz Kolb's blog From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning. There were so many great tools and ideas on how to use cell phones in the classroom that I sat and read through the many different posts on her blog for nearly an hour and still couldn't decide which technology intrigued me most as I found everything I read to be fascinating!
Eventually I clicked on the Resources tab at the top of her blog. This helped me to narrow down which tool that I wanted to choose to write about for my own blog as I found a list of all of the different tools and resources organized by their different functions on this page. I immediately bookmarked this page on my computer as I know I will be visiting it frequently in the future to gain new ideas and resources to integrate cell phones into my classroom.
After exploring many of these resource I finally decided that I would like to choose a resource called ExitTicket to write about and explore in greater detail. ExitTicket is an interactive student response system where students can answer questions and quizes on their cellphones, iPods, iPads, and computers. The program also collects and organizes the data so that you are able to see what all of your students are thinking and if they are understanding the desired concepts.
Here is a short video that can be found on the ExitTicket website that does a better job of explaining it that I can.
I think that ExitTicket is a great tool for formative assessment as it allows you too see exactly where every student it at and who needs more help with a certain concept. It could be used as an exit slip at the end of class, a short quiz, or even a homework assignment.
The only issue I have with ExitTicket is student access to technology. While most students have a smart phone or an iPod or iPad, there will still be students who do not have this technology. One solution to this problem is that ExitTicket can also be accessed from a computer or laptop. But the problem that I have with this is if you are in the middle of class and just want to do a short survey on ExitTicket and if two or three of your students do not have the technology, is it worth it to bring in laptops or drag your students to a computer lab?
I guess the success that you would have using ExitTicket in your classroom would depend on the group of students that you have and the access to the different technologies needed to use this tool.
Saturday, 8 June 2013
Friday, 7 June 2013
Wonky Blog!
My blog has decided to go all wonky on me today! The first post that I did todayworked just fine, but the next one that I tried to post, only 15 minutes or so later, went all crazy! I now have a background colour behind most of the text, and then text that you cannot see at the bottom of my post. I haven't changed any setting on my blog and I don't know how to fix this! Any ideas?
Tech Task 6: Storytelling/Story Making Part 2
For the second activity for this Tech Task I decided to try Five Card Flikr. Here you choose five different pictures, each from a different set of pictures, and then create a story out of the pictures that you have chosen.
Here are two examples that I did
Five Card Story: Nature Walk
flickr photo credits: (1) bionicteaching (2) Serenae (3) bionicteaching (4) bionicteaching (5) bionicteaching
I love to take nature walks through the trees! Luckily I found a great pathway that will take me to all kinds of great places. On my walks I love to stop and enjoy the pretty flowers. Sometimes I pick some to take back to my mom. Giving her flowers helps to make her less mad at me for splashing in all of the puddles that I find along the way. I love to look at the stuff growing on the bark of the trees. I pretend that I am a scientist as I examine it. I also found some pretty cool leaves with spots on them on my walk today! Maybe I could pick some of those too and make bouquet out of them and my flowers!
Five Card Story: My Battlefield Tour
Today I went on a tour of some of the Battlefields in France. The first picture is of one of the tunnels at Vimy Ridge that was used by the soldiers. Our tour guide, Frank, was very knowledgeable and taught me a lot! After looking at the tunnels we went out to look at the battlefield! I got to see the area that was no-mans land. It is hilly and uneven still from all of the shells that hit the ground here. After touring Vimy Ridge we went to Juno beach were the Canadian army landed on D-Day during the Second World War. I feel like a have gained a whole library of knowledge from my tour!
I think that Five Card Flickr would be a great tool to use in an English classroom. It not only challenges students creatively, but it also prompts their writing in a fun and easy way without the students feeling the pressure of having to write a formal essay. It could be use as a daily or weekly challenge for the students to increase their creative writing and increase their comfort level with their writing. In my internship this fall I am going to be teaching grade 9 English and possible English A10 and I am very excited to try this out with my students. I hope they enjoy creating their own stories as much as I did!
Teachers Quitting! Should We Be Concerned?
I came across a link to an article on The Epoch Times on a friends Facebook page yesterday that I found concerning. The article, titled Overwhelmed Canadian Teacher Quitting in Droves caught my eye and once I had read the article I came to realize that it addressed many relevant concerned for both practicing teachers and pre-service teachers like me!
Pressure from parents, society, increasing workloads, stress, and issues with the government's educational policies are causing many teachers to leave to profession. Increasing workloads and expectations are also a major contributor to teachers leaving the profession.
While the article doesn't offer a solution to the problem it does raise many questions and concerns relevant to what lays ahead in my own teaching career.
Pressure from parents, society, increasing workloads, stress, and issues with the government's educational policies are causing many teachers to leave to profession. Increasing workloads and expectations are also a major contributor to teachers leaving the profession.
While the article doesn't offer a solution to the problem it does raise many questions and concerns relevant to what lays ahead in my own teaching career.
Thursday, 6 June 2013
Tech Task 6: Storytelling and Storymaking
Storytelling has always been something that interests me. As an avid reader I love to lose my self in a good story, where for a short time the characters in the book become my reality. Because of this passion I found Alan Levine's presentation in my ECMP 355 class extremely interesting and informative! He has shown me that there are so many more ways to tell stories and engage your students in storytelling than I had thought possible!
For the first part of this Tech Task I decided to check out DS 106 where I completed two different assignments.
The first assignment that I decided to try was Phake Tweets. With Phake Tweets you create a fake Twitter post from the voice of a famous person or historical figure.
Here are two that I created
I think that this is great tool to be used in the classroom. Many students are already familiar with Twitter and use it on a regular basis, so this is a great way to hook the students attention. It also asks the students to think from the point of view of someone else, in this case you could choose someone who is related to whatever you are doing in class. The best part is Phake Tweets could be used in any class! You could create tweets as a scientist, a mathematician, an author, artist, or historical figure.
The opportunity for inquiry is also here as the students can be given little to no information about a person before hand and they could research the person they are tweeting as to know what they might Tweet about or what they might use as a Twitter handle. On the other hand Phake Tweets could be used as formative assessment throughout and/or towards the end of a unit to see what the student's understanding of a particular person or events.
The Phake Tweet page is also extremely easy to use and is user friendly. All you have to do is fill in the blanks on the page with username, realname, tweet, and the date of the fake tweet that you are making.
It can be a lot of fun for students and allows them to express their creativity! I will be teaching a History 30 class in the fall and I am currently thinking of ways that I can incorporate this tool into my planning for this class!
The second assignment on DS 106 that I tried out was called Vocal Instrumental Mashup. For this assignment you have to take the vocals from one song and put it together with the instrumental version of another song. I had a lot of fun trying this out and came up with a couple different song mash ups in the end.
While this tool is not as easy to use as Phake Tweets it provides an opportunity for students to think outside of the box and experiment with new technology in the classroom. A short tutorial would probably be enough for most students to understand and be able to use this tool and create their masterpieces!
I think this would be a great tool in an art class, but I am still trying to come up with ideas as to how it could be used in other classes because I know that many students will enjoy trying to create their own mash-ups.
For the first part of this Tech Task I decided to check out DS 106 where I completed two different assignments.
The first assignment that I decided to try was Phake Tweets. With Phake Tweets you create a fake Twitter post from the voice of a famous person or historical figure.
Here are two that I created
The opportunity for inquiry is also here as the students can be given little to no information about a person before hand and they could research the person they are tweeting as to know what they might Tweet about or what they might use as a Twitter handle. On the other hand Phake Tweets could be used as formative assessment throughout and/or towards the end of a unit to see what the student's understanding of a particular person or events.
The Phake Tweet page is also extremely easy to use and is user friendly. All you have to do is fill in the blanks on the page with username, realname, tweet, and the date of the fake tweet that you are making.
It can be a lot of fun for students and allows them to express their creativity! I will be teaching a History 30 class in the fall and I am currently thinking of ways that I can incorporate this tool into my planning for this class!
The second assignment on DS 106 that I tried out was called Vocal Instrumental Mashup. For this assignment you have to take the vocals from one song and put it together with the instrumental version of another song. I had a lot of fun trying this out and came up with a couple different song mash ups in the end.
While this tool is not as easy to use as Phake Tweets it provides an opportunity for students to think outside of the box and experiment with new technology in the classroom. A short tutorial would probably be enough for most students to understand and be able to use this tool and create their masterpieces!
I think this would be a great tool in an art class, but I am still trying to come up with ideas as to how it could be used in other classes because I know that many students will enjoy trying to create their own mash-ups.
Monday, 3 June 2013
Internship Excitement!
Last week I received my letter in the mail from the University! I am going to be interning in Craik with the high school Social Studies teacher!
I am very excited to learn what classes I will be teaching so that I can start planning how to use all of the great tips and ideas I am learning in ECMP355
Saturday, 1 June 2013
Tech Task 5 Part 3: About Me
To help create my online identity I created an About Me page!
The only problem I had when created this page was deciding what apps to add to it. I added an app that linked to this blog, as well as my Google + account, but it was after that I ran into some difficulty.
I knew that I did not want to add an app for my Facebook as I use it as a personal page and have my security settings fairly high, so it would not be beneficial to have it linked to my About Me page.
Next I had to decide about my Twitter. I use my Twitter for a mix of both personal and professional and I am still having a hard time deciding what to do with it. My Twitter account has a large focus on music and following and interacting with different bands and musicians. While I don't post anything on my Twitter that would be deemed as "inappropriate" or something I wouldn't want my future students to see, I feel that it lacks professionalism.
I have debated about creating a second Twitter account (and I have created it, I just don't use it at the moment) to use for professional purposes. My only problem with creating a second account is taking the time to maintain it, and the question of whether or not it would be a true representation of me?
While I continue to struggle over how I want to use Twitter I have decided not to post an app for it on my About Me page. I hope that by continuing to read that blogs and hear the thoughts of my fellow ECMP 355 classmates I will be able to sort out my thoughts on Twitter and come to a decision on how I want to use it!
The only problem I had when created this page was deciding what apps to add to it. I added an app that linked to this blog, as well as my Google + account, but it was after that I ran into some difficulty.
I knew that I did not want to add an app for my Facebook as I use it as a personal page and have my security settings fairly high, so it would not be beneficial to have it linked to my About Me page.
Next I had to decide about my Twitter. I use my Twitter for a mix of both personal and professional and I am still having a hard time deciding what to do with it. My Twitter account has a large focus on music and following and interacting with different bands and musicians. While I don't post anything on my Twitter that would be deemed as "inappropriate" or something I wouldn't want my future students to see, I feel that it lacks professionalism.
I have debated about creating a second Twitter account (and I have created it, I just don't use it at the moment) to use for professional purposes. My only problem with creating a second account is taking the time to maintain it, and the question of whether or not it would be a true representation of me?
While I continue to struggle over how I want to use Twitter I have decided not to post an app for it on my About Me page. I hope that by continuing to read that blogs and hear the thoughts of my fellow ECMP 355 classmates I will be able to sort out my thoughts on Twitter and come to a decision on how I want to use it!
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