digital stories, photo editing... the list goes on and on

This past week we were given some tasks that were fun, pushed my creative side and made me think a little deeper about how to use them effectively .

So we began the week with digital stories. A simple and unique way of creating a story with pictures and captions and a little bit of music to jazz it up even more. We were given a quick tour of different sites to create these stories on and we were off! I created mine on Animoto, I just took some pictures I had from a trip I went on, but them on a template and VOILA an interesting and unique way of sharing a story. There are plenty of sites and programs to create these unique stories.
You could use digital stories in the classroom for whatever purpose you wanted. It could help the students with their writing. You could create a digital portfolio of students work. You could also introduce a subject or topic this way. Your options are unlimted, and its fun and unique!
Here is my short animoto story!
http://animoto.com/play/JGnD20Sby7c31ViWsxmxnQ

Another short assignment we were given was to pick a photo and then an editing website and edit a photo in some way and play around with the various options. Again there are plenty of ways of integrating this idea into a class project as well as there are plenty of websites and apps to do this on. I chose picasa, but we also did one on pixlr.com.

The one with pixlr, we were given a statement "Learning is.." we were to finish the sentence, find a picture (www.compfight.com) that displayed how we finished the statement, and then we created a unique image. I made sure to give credit to the photo, and just added text. There are endless possibilities with photo editing! I found that I can play around for a long time with all of these apps. I prefer ones that are user friendly, as I am not a pro at this or anything. Easy to use and understand rank high on my list. If you have any other easy to use photo editing sites let me know!

Missing out and Reading up!

Unfortunately I missed a guest speaker (John Finch) we had in ICT last Thursday, January 30th. To catch up and get a summary of the talk I read a peers blog www.mrsduchart.blogspot.com. I found it an interesting read and an interesting topic.

Today students have unlimited to access to all types of information on the internet. The problem with this is that there is so much information that is false. It tricks students, and leads them to pages of often untrue facts and figures. As teachers we must guide students in the right direction. ICT in the classroom is how we will be teaching our students when my class of educators steps out into the field. As teachers we must create an environment where students use the internet with caution. John Finch suggested to the class that we teach the students to look at the internet and its vast array of information through three lenses;
Validity, Reliability and Currency. When we teach our students to use the information they gather using these three methods, we teach them to further there knowledge of the subject areas and ask deeper more meaningful questions after they find the information they are looking for. Hopefully this creates more well rounded, knowledgeable students.

As I was reading my peers blog I became quite interested in one in particular as well as I really liked the way he articulated his message. I had lots of the same feelings as him which include "How do I create a lesson that is unique and awe-inspiring for each class?" The answer being we should direct our students to learn and dig deeper into a subject on their own. One which gives them a desire to learn. What does this have to do with ICT in education you ask? Give Colin's blog a read and see what you think! (www.colinwollman.blogspot.com)

A Class Website- A Look into the Future

Our ICT class was given an assignment that had me really thinking about how my future classroom would run. We were asked to create a class website for the future and hopefully our classes for the 2014-2015 school year. (Cross your fingers)  As we browsed through some examples of classroom websites that are in use we discussed what each of them had, what was important and what made it a "good website." All I could think when looking at all the sites was "Yup that one is good. I'd have all of that on my site!" and "Yup, that looks awesome, that must have taken a lot of time." So now that I know that mine would never live up to those expectations I chose the simplest and most user friendly site which was a weebly and began creating and designing. I thought well it can't be that hard to create a skeleton website for my classroom, you chose a theme, add some headings and VOILA! PRESTO! a classroom website. BUT as it turns out you can change things a hundred times, and still things aren't quite right.

It turns out a good website is one that does take time. And after reading some articles about why a classroom website can be useful I came to the realization that you can use this website to make your life as a teacher a lot easier. If the students know the website you can send them there and have all your links available through one page. This also helps, so that parents can check out what was happening in the classroom that day. Students can post various items and parents know where to find it and it is user friendly for those parents who aren't as tech savvy as their offspring. A class website is a great idea! I am a promoter and I have seen it work in classroom.

As teachers we must be aware of what we can and cannot post, what is appropriate and what is not.This could be a lesson in itself to our students about online safety and using the web for its intended purpose. Websites and blogs are a great medium for teachers, students and parents. I am excited to use a website to its potential especially in the classroom setting.

PS. I am still polishing up my site, but I'll post a link of it in the coming days! ALSO I hope to post some links of my peers websites as well! Stay tuned!

ePortfolio- Do or Don't

This past week in class we discussed portfolio's (the binder and paper kind) and ePortfolios. We talked about the pros and cons of both types of portfolios on getting a job as a teacher. We then as a class discussed what types of things should be in a portfolio, and what types of things should not be, although mostly we just had fabulous ideas ;) I created a wordle to show you some of the things we thought should be included in this important (or not important to some) document.

As I begin to create my portfolio and collect artifacts, update my resume and all that fun stuff, I wonder how crucial it is and how big of a difference it will make when heading into a job interview. As students in the education faculty we get mixed messages, some professors say it's good to have, others say its kind of a waste of time no administrator has time to look at it. Who knows!?! I guess we'll all make one, just to have, hopefully keep it updated, and maybe it will give us an edge when it comes to job interview time!

~L

Last Semester- Back in the ICT Classroom

Here it is, the beginning of my last semester of my University career. It is an exciting and VERY scary time, but I think mostly exciting. As we begin this second week of classes I already find myself counting down the weeks till our final student teaching placement! But first come the unit plans, the professional development sessions and of course, blogging.
After class yesterday (Monday) I found myself wanting to blog about something Mike (Education ICT master) mentioned in class.

We began by discussing how people often say this generation is getting to much "screen time." We sit in front of screens like laptops, iPads, iPhones, etc for too many hours. We think these kids (and maybe even adults) are losing the social aspect of growing up. We believe too much screen time means no socializing and perhaps lack of thinking on our own. Yet when we look at people reading books, we never make the same assumptions. We think they are learning, and expanding their vocabulary and views on the world, we never think "Those people are missing out on socializing and stunting their imagination and creativity." But chances may be that those who have a screen in front of them are expanding their creativity by blogging, or editing photos, or reading up on the latest news from an article that someone tweeted. This sparked a different way to look at the issue of screen time and its negative connotation. Just think about this for a minute and the next time you think to yourself, "those kids should get out and play." In this day and age things are changing a mile a minute, this is one way these "things" are changing. Technology is here to stay, think about it, grow and continue to adapt.

~Lindsey

It's been awhile....

Well since my last post I have completed a second student teaching placement, worked all summer, started my 5th and final year of my university career, and almost completed a third student teaching placement.
I decided I should start blogging again, I really enjoyed it when I started, but I  have just become preoccupied with "life."

Maybe to start I should talk about my second placement in a grade 7/8 multi-level classroom. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot from my cooperating teacher. She used so much technology in her classroom and really had the students engaged in everything she did in her class. I ended up teaching a social studies unit that I had created on Ancient Rome, which was fun, but after I completed it I found so many other things I would have loved to have done. I also did many science lessons, that my cooperating teacher and I created together, and I taught. The group of kids I had were also very smart and pushed me in my thinking, when asked many questions.
The class used the ipads on a regular basis as well as my cooperating teacher used the smart board everyday in her lessons. From this I learned so many things, and I have a list of awesome apps that fill up pages in a notebook. Student teaching in this class was an awesome experience, and I learned more in those 7 weeks then I had in the weeks prior of sitting in a classroom. The best experience is just to put yourself in front of a class and teach.

The summer flew by, and here we are. I have two weeks left in my fall placement, and am thinking about wrapping up the first semester.
I cannot say how much I am loving elementary school. I am teaching in a grade two class with 18 students and I feel like I have found where I want to be. I am planning like crazy, teaching full time and loving it. My cooperating teachers are extremely helpful and really letting me explore and take in the whole teaching experience.
I planned a whole unit on "Community" and the kids have really taken to the activities and I feel like they will just pick up whatever you throw at them.
My mornings consist of ELA, which is daily five, journaling, poem learning, brain breaks and plenty of fun. They love to do daily five and sometimes ask to do it. I try and mix things up a little bit, just so its not the same thing everyday, and they are always willing to do anything. In the afternoons we do math workshop, which again they are crazy about (anything that involves moving around and different activities they love) as well as social studies and art occasionally. I am just loving everything about grade two. :)

Anyway, my plan is to post some of the stuff we do in class, some of the resources I use etc. So stayed tuned, I will keep this blog going!!!

-LB

Things I Have Learned

Well folks, I have FINALLY completed my final project. I have learned so much throughout this course and I could have added a lot more now that I think of it. This project was a real challenge for me, not coming up with things I have learned but creating the powerpoint and adding audio and then syncing it together so it all fit. I guess that's another thing you can add to the "Things I have Learned." I really enjoyed being in this class and I learned a lot of valuable "stuff." I hope I can take another course like this again next year to help expand on the stuff I have taken away from this year.
So here is my final project. It took a lot out of me this past week....I'm glad I finally got it done!

#thingsihavelearned

-LB