Here is our interview for ECMP 355.
I had the privilege of working with Russ Goerend over the past couple months - he has been an amazing mentor so i could not wait to get to pick his brain about all things technology! Here is our interview for ECMP 355. So a big THANK YOU to Russ for putting up with me and working with me this semester. I really appreciate you taking time our of your busy schedule to mentor a beginning teacher.
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Oh my goodness where do I even begin.... So of course I have been thinking a lot about what I want my future classroom to look like but there are just so many options and it really depends what grade I end up in and the needs of my students. But here are some things that I will be sure to include ENVIRONMENT So before I talk about technology I wanted to give a sense of what my classroom will look like/ feel like.... I want my classroom to be a safe, positive, encouraging and inclusive place where I can work WITH my students as co curriculum makers and focus on the things that THEY are interested in. I want it to be a place where learning, creating and dreaming can take place simultaneously. And most importantly a place that we can LEARN and have FUN side by side. TECHNOLOGY children are practically born with technology in their hands... so why not embrace it ! BLOGS - Because of this class I have been opened to the world of blogging, and how simple it is to get started. I have seen blogging used in various classrooms and I think it is an extremely useful tool. Not only to use as an outlet for students thoughts and Ideas but also as a way to connect easily with other classrooms, parents and people in the community. SKYPE - believe it or not I had never skyped before I took my ECMP 355 class. But I got the opportunity to try it out while being a guest in Russ Goerend's classroom in Waukee Iowa. How amazing is that? That you can be countless hours away but still be a guest in someones classroom and connect in real time, chatting and conversing with students. I think I will use this tool to have people as special guests in my classroom who otherwise may never have had the opportunity. EVERNOTE - I have also been introduced to evernote this year which is basically a place where you can store everything you have ! Emails, photos, documents, etc. I think this will be a key aspect to keeping organized in my classroom where so many things will be so hectic and crazy all of the time I love the elephant logo... because elephants never forget .. get it? hahaha. MIMIO - Another tool I used constantly in my classroom during internship was the Mimio ... it is basically like a smartboard except it can be projected onto just about any surface. It was so great for really allowing students to visually see what was going on. I put almost everything up there and created lessons for all subject areas where students could interact with the board in a hands on learning experience. I am a huge fan of anything that makes learning more fun and interactive. Obviously there are TONS more things I can use in technology alone .... let alone all of the other things I want to incorporate into my classroom. But i think i better leave it here for now, because it would take FAR too much time. Hopefully I can revisit this post sometime in the future when I have a classroom of my own, and show some real examples of how I have set up my class, and integrated technology.
Some people think these two words are interchangeable but clearly they are not. Thinking that you want everything to be equal sounds like a really great idea until you think about what that would really mean. Equal means everybody gets the same... justice means everybody gets what they need. In our classrooms we need to make sure we are fighting and advocating not necessarily for equality... but for justice.
This little poem reminded me of my little Grade 1's and how much trouble they had with some of english's ridiculous concepts. Imagine how much more difficult this must be for our EAL students.
SO i was on Facebook and I saw this "chain letter" story is you will. You know the ones that say "repost this for good luck" "repost this if you care about babies" "repost this or you will die" etc. WELL usually i just zoom past them because lets be honest... no thank you. But this one caught my eye. (Make sure you read all the way through) " Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It's time we put thing in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit! We can get that for minimum wage. That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That ...would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to......... 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan-- that equals 6 1/2 hours). Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations. LET'S SEE.... That's $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year. Wait a minute -- there's something wrong here! There sure is! The average teacher's salary (nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student--a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!! Make a teacher smile; re-post this to show appreciation ♥ all you out there!" Now im not exactly sure where this originated... but its one that made me think ! I am certainly NOT a babysitter so at first this made me mad.. until i got to the end and realized the point of course. I get hassled all the time by family, friends and even strangers about what teachers make. Why is everyone so obsessed with what teachers make and how many holiday days we get (which we are NOT payed for by the way) reminded me of this video I watched in first year or university in a ECS 100 course. I make a difference - What about you?
For this weeks tech task we had to opportunity to listen to 3 fantastic presenters speak about technology in the middle years. (Roughly grade 6-9) Now this is an area I am not very familiar with since I am specialized in PreK-3 .. so quite a bit younger. BUT these presenters had some wonderful ideas that i think could transfer over easily to the younger grades. Below I have listed one of my favourite ideas from each presenter. Heather Durnin @hdurnin Heather presented us with a really really cool idea that she uses. It is like an online radio station called 105thehive. This is a website that any classroom can use and has absolutely no cost (always a bonus). It is meant to allow students the opportunity of a global audience. It is just another way for them to connect with the world. It is great for students who have a strength in oral speaking. Another cool part about it is that anyone can tune in and listen from anywhere in the world so it is a really easy way to get parents and communities involved in children learning. Royan Lee @royanlee Royan is the self proclaimed "education ninja" he talked about all kinds of useful things including having a paperless classroom. But my favourite thing he mentioned was the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) It is a way to allow students to use technology devices they are familiar with which i thought was really great. Each student gets to use the things that work for them and I am always advocating for getting to know students for their individual strengths so i think this works nicely. Clarence Fisher @glassbead
Clarence presented a number of ideas as well all kinds of things about ways to differentiate technology for individual students (again with playing on their strengths which i love) But the most useful & practical thing is this blog rubric he presented us with. Not only is it nice for students to be able to consciously measure how they are doing on their blogs but it is also useful for me when it comes time to evaluate my blog for my education computers course! So far I think I'm doing pretty well ! As the semester comes to a close there are so many last minute projects it is ca-razy. Now I think I am a pretty fluent reader but sometimes it feels like it just takes forever to read through all of the online articles that I need to get through for classes & papers. Then i got introduced to "Spreeder" by Erica over at misswilhelms.blogspot.com which is a free online website where you can copy and paste any text into the box and it basically helps you to speed read by showing you one word at a time. by clicking settings you can adjust at what wpm (words per minute) it shows you but it is honestly SO cool. Supposedly it is your own voice reading inside your head that slows you down and this sort of cuts it out by flashing you one word at a time so you get the just of the article. Seriously you will still understand everything you read just sooo much quicker. Its really interesting and fun to challenge yourself on how fast you can go (is that a teacher thing - that i think speed reading is fun?... maybe i need to get out more) but anyways if you have any readings to get through in the next couple weeks give it a try! It will save you a lot of time.
With only a few weeks left until I complete my B.Ed degree - I have been thinking about the things that I have learned in the past 4 years. Of course there are all the things that have shaped me as an Educator and prepared me for a life of teaching, transforming and inspiring young minds... but this photo also seems extremely accurate.
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Allysha CodyI am in my 4th year and last semester of University working to my Bachelor of Education Degree. I love working with children and cannot wait to start my teaching career and discover life as an Educator. Archives
April 2013
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