Show and Tell Blog

Pinterest is a site that I have recently discovered. I stumbled upon it when I was looking up bookmarking sites. While I haven’t really used any other bookmarking sites like Diigo or Del.icio.us, and I couldn’t really wrap my head around what a bookmarking site did, when I discovered Pinterest, it captured me immediately. I’m still kind of new to it though, and I will admit that I mainly used it to “re-pin” recipes that I wanted to try later, I am finding that there are so many resources on Pinterest that a teacher could use in a classroom. 

Screen shot of English Language Arts search on Pinterest.

Pinterest is like a virtual cork-board. Imagine you are sitting at home reading a magazine  or a newspaper and something caught your eye, be it an image or another article. In the interest of finishing your current article, you rip off the page that caught your interest and stick it onto your cork-board. This is what Pinterest is. But it’s so much better because you can organize and share your “pins”. Plus it really appeals to me because it’s so visual.

A “pin” is basically an image that you add to your board, and can be added from a website using the “pin it” button. Pins added this way will always link back to the website that you got it from. If I wanted to “pin” an edu-blogger, I would just add the “pin” using the URL.

Instead of having different pages, you can create different boards. For instance, i have one that  I devote specifically to food (because food is always good) and one board that I devote to eduction.

I will admit that I am still learning how to use this site, but I love that there are so many resources out there for teachers.  There are boards that are devoted to lesson plans, or craft ideas for the classroom. Boards for teaching drama, boards for strategies you can use in the classroom. It’s an awesome site!

One way I thought of using Pinterest in the classroom is that it would be a useful tool for students to organize resources for presentations, projects, essay and what have you. Pinterest would also work in collaborative groups as boards can be created to allow multiple users to pin to it. Students can also use Pinterest to create visual boards, kind of like a collage, of their favourite quotes, books, images, etc.

I've read somewhere that women are more likely to use pinterest, and while there are some men that use it, you don't really see to many of them. I wonder if maybe it's because the logo looks a little feminine? Or maybe guys become a little intimidated when they log on and see all the accessories and fashion related boards? 

Oh well, whatever the reason, Pinterest is an awesome site. You should check it out!

Wall-E Floaty people in the future?

Whenever we think of the future, we think of flying cars, robots and communication with distant galaxies. But do we ever really stop and think about how the future will be like in regards to Education? I know I haven’t really. Taking this course has really made me think about it a lot. Will we all be like the floaty people in Wall-E? Not with the bloated bodies and the flipper-like appendages. I mean will we all become so dependent on technology that all face-to-face interaction will be limited to interacting through computer or TV screens? Can you imagine what schools would be like if this was to become the norm? There would be no need for classrooms or schools. Recently there has been the development of a robot that plays hockey. Will there be robots that teach as well? The horror of it!

Anyway. That’s just me thinks going off on an extreme tangent. Can you tell I like science fiction?

Reading the 2012 Horizon Report, I grew increasingly alarmed as I got further and further into the “horizon”’s. While I do agree that technology is a great thing, it just makes me sad that more traditional approaches to teaching will become virtually extinct. Maybe it’s the old-fashioned in me, but I like the idea of a classroom filled with students who interact with each other and interact with their teacher. But then again, I’m a people-person who thrives off of interacting with real people so maybe it’s just me. While the tools and apps in the Horizon report are pretty awe-inspiring (I especially like the Gesture Based Computing idea because it reminds me of those spy-movies where they all have high-tech computers and just wave their hands around in the air to press buttons and such), it makes me sad. I think that in the near future, maybe in five years, technology will be at it’s peak in education. There will be a perfect balance of tech and traditional teaching in the classroom, the perfect combination so to say. After that, I’m afraid that it will be all about technology and learning, and not so much about the social and creative aspects of teaching.

All this technology isn’t bad, but will writing by hand become a lost art? Will it become obsolete to create art and music with your own hands? Will everything have a computer chip? Coffee mugs will record how much coffee you drink in a day, chairs will record how long you sit in a certain amount of time, beds will record your amount of sleeping time. Will we, as humans, forget how to use common sense?

I’m going off on a tangent again. I guess what I’m saying is will creativity be lost? Teachers have to be creative to think about ways to teach students in ways that will engage them. Even more so right now with the increase in technological tools in the classroom. But when will technology take over completely? Already, kids today spend more time on their phones, computers and playing games. Studies have shown that kids today are so over-stimulated by graphics that anything other than TVs or computers is not enough to keep kids interested and engaged for long periods of time.

Technology is wonderful, but it’s not everything.

Although, I love the tablets. I wish I had one (at least an e-reader), then I could download all my books and textbooks into it and lighten the load in my bag.

Skype, Edmodo and Facebook!

Okay, so I will admit that I mainly use the Internet for entertainment and social networking purposes, with some research thrown in for good measure (I am a student, right?). Currently I am embroiled in the saga of the bubble witches. It is so addicting, but it’s my guilty pleasure. Popping virtual bubbles is not as fun as popping bubble-wrap, but since I’m sitting in the library most of the time, it’s my only option.

Back to the topic(s) at hand. I loooooved the Skype presentation. I have never used Skype myself, mainly because none of my family back home have web cams (how is that possible in this day and age?). I have signed up for one after Dean Sharski’s Skype visit to our classroom, but so far, I haven’t been able to really use it or play with it.  I thought it was really interesting how Skype could be used in a classroom to visit other classrooms around the world. I especially think that this would be interesting in a classroom that’s set in a rural or isolated setting. Too often in these kind of places, there is a tendency to think that the whole world is located within the confines of that town or reserve only. It’s hard for the students to think beyond the lines of their community. I think that using Skype would help bring the realization of enormity of our world to these students, and they would be able to experience another culture without even having to leave their classroom. I really like the idea about having classroom debates within the same school (or even in another school). I especially liked the idea of using Skype in career preparation classes or Canadian Studies courses. It’s so amazing what can be done with technology in today’s classrooms. Teacher’s really have no reason to have boring classes anymore.

When talking about Edmodo vs. Facebook, I prefer Edmodo to communicate with parents and students. I think that Facebook is too personal, even if I did only use a Facebook group or page to when communicating with them. There needs to be a boundary between your personal and professional lives. I know that when I start teaching on my reserve, there is no doubt that I will already be Facebook friends with my students’ parents. But that doesn’t mean that I will be communicating to them on Facebook about matters regarding their children.

Awesome t-shirts by the way to the presenters. I loved it!

Let’s CYBER...

Learn that is.

Yesterday’s presentation was very interesting and valuable. Our presenters were Howard Griffith and Donald Girouard. Who says that only young people can be tech-savvy? These older (and very much wiser) men put on a very informative presentation that gave me hope for myself. If they started off with punch cards and programming on very obsolete systems and are still able to learn how to utilize (and PROGRAM) tools on the web, then I know that as overwhelmed as I feel sometimes, there is hope that if I keep at it and don’t give up, then I too will learn how to be tech savvy.

Anyhoo. The topic of today’s presentation is Online Courses. Having never taking any online or distance education courses myself, I thought it was quite interesting and wonder if I would have stayed in my French class in high school had we had the Internet and resources to do this. As it was, I quit taking the class because it was just me in the class (enrichment) and it was quite lonely and boring.

I did agree when they said that a combined approach to the different styles of Online Courses would be the best way to deliver them. And it’s like this in any classroom. In order for students to succeed, they need a variety of strategies and activities to keep them motivated and engaged.
One of the biggest pros that I can think of is that online courses provide flexibility and convenience.  When I got pregnant in my last year of high school, I had to take two months off (One month to go to Winnipeg for confinement, and another month to recover – my mom’s an old fashion sort). It would have been so nice to be able to communicate with my teachers while I was away. As it was, I had work, but I needed help to be able to do them. So what ended up happening is I came back to school in the middle of May and had two months of work to catch up on. It was hard, but I did it and was able to graduate the same year. But I look back now and think that I probably would have had higher grades if I had the Internet to help me out.

One of the biggest cons that I see for taking Online Courses is that the student needs to be very highly motivated and had great self-discipline. As you can see, I would probably be the worst student in an online course because I am a big procrastinator. You would think that I would have weaned myself of this habit since this is my 6th year of University, but nope. I’m awful that way. I need the interaction of the teacher and my classmates in order to be truly excited and engaged in a subject or a class.

So to sum up my blog post, I think that taking only exclusively online courses may be right for some people, they are not right for me. However, I believe a combination would be the most effective approach to teaching a successful course.

(PS. I wrote this blog entry on Google Docs the same week as the presentation,  and I thought I had posted it up. I guess I did not)

My Edublogger

I found this blog "Cogitations from Mr. Cockrum" when I was doing my research for flipped classrooms, and I was so intrigued by his blog that I started following him...even before I found out that we had to follow and edublogger.

Most of the content of his blog centers around integrating technology into the curriculum. He posts his own thoughts, pros and cons, on different tools or concepts.

All in all it is a very interesting read.

http://cogitationsofmrcockrum.blogspot.com/

I hope that I'm not the only one who is a little more than overwhelmed by this class.

It took me such a long time to get what web 2.0 meant that I kind of took one look at PLN's and just shut down.

I do not know why I was panicking so much because it really is quite simple. The videos we had to watch, plus the presentation done by John Evans was really helpful and helped me to calm down a bit.

PLN's stand for Personal Learning Networks. I think it's amazing how much wider this network is with all this technology we have today. Basically, with technology, educators can have a million other educators right at their virtual fingertips, and these million other educators are filled with advice and ideas. It's so good because educators are so big on sharing and don't mind if other teacher's use their ideas. In fact, they WANT other people to use their ideas. And they all know what they have tried in the past and what works and what doesn't work.

PLN's are like a virtual treasure box of resources.

And here's mine.

Sorry for the lackluster blog post today. I got a phone call this morning that kind of ruined my whole day.

Sylvia

Really, really long post (because I'm behind)

For this blog post, I will be talking about two different topics. The first will be about Landon White’s visit to our class.

I think the thing that stuck with me the most about Landon’s presentation to our class was about how he was trying to make his classroom as paperless as he could. I thought this was a fascinating idea. I think the only problem I would have with this is that there would be no permanent record to keep on file. But that can easily be solved by printing out the important completed assignments.  I really was intrigued by Edmodo.  I think this is a wonderful concept and I like how the students cannot message each other on the site.  However, you know you’re getting old when the thought of learning how to work and run a new site is a little more than overwhelming.  I really enjoyed all the presenters we’ve had to date, because they all have something new to show us. 

Paperless

The second topic of today’s post is the Cultivating Empathy/Cyber-bullying workshop.

When I signed up for the workshop, I had no idea how heavy the content of the workshop was going to be. I knew it was about bullying, but for some reason, I didn’t really think about it. So I was completely blown away by my reaction. I was okay for the first five minutes, but after that, it was a struggle to keep myself calm and composed.  

In grade 5, I had a bully. But we didn’t have the internet then, and I can’t imagine how much worse it would have been if the internet was around in those days. At least then, I could go home and forget about it. My bully was a boy who had failed a couple of times, so he was three years older than me (because I was promoted in the middle of my Grade 3 year, I was already a year younger than everyone else). Let’s call him “Moose”. 

When we watched the video about the young man who was being bullied by that girl, I could really relate. The reason that Moose hated me was because I was smart. While I wasn’t really a teacher’s pet (another boy in my class had that position) he would imply that our teacher was my boyfriend, and would just in general make my life miserable. I hated it. I did not want to go to school because he would get the other students in my class to tease me. The only good days I had were the days when he was absent, because then everyone would treat me normally. 

It’s scary when I think back on how much power he had over my classmates. I think he was mean to everyone, but for some reason, he just picked solely on me. It got to the point where he would shove me against the lockers and try to choke me in the hallway. I never let anyone know how far he was starting to go. Grade five was the worst year ever for me. But it got better because he left our community. He did come back in grade 8, and by then, I had my own little group of friends and was well-liked and accepted by everyone. However, when he came back, I remember the terror I felt when I saw him walk into my classroom. To make it worse, the teacher assigned him to my table, where he proceeded to talk about how much it was so fun to tease me when we were kids.  He seemed to talk about it as if it was something we both enjoyed and participated in. As if I had consented to and accepted his ridicule. My heart hammered in my chest the whole time he sat there, talking and laughing as if we were old friends. I wanted to lash out at him. I wanted to let all that pent up terror roar out of me. I wanted him to hurt for what he had made me endure. But I didn’t do anything. And I know now, that if I ever saw him again, the same feeling of terror and rage would return. If I ever get the chance to run into Moose again, I hope that I will confront him.

My bully, Moose, waiting in the shadows so he can charge me.

I really feel sorry for kids who are bullied today. My son was bullied a little a couple of years ago, and I chose not to interfere, just because I remembered how bad it got whenever my parents tried to intervene on my behalf. I’m glad I didn’t do anything, because my son stood up for himself (not fighting by the way. I never condoned fighting…except when he had to defend himself I told him) and he does have a healthy self-esteem now. I have no doubt that it was because he stood up for himself and got the bully to stay away from him. He’s got a good circle of friends, and he hasn’t yet had another case of bullying. Maybe the fact that he’s the same height as me now has something to do with it. If you didn’t know what a big teddy bear my 12-year-old was, you would be intimidated I think. I work with my kids all the time about accepting differences in others and seeing the good in everyone. Even when my son was being bullied, I would talk to my son about why he thought his bully was a bully. We would have talks about this all the time, and eventually, my son just stood up for himself. The bully has since then left him alone. 

I know that when I become a teacher, I will try to cultivate empathy in my students. There are so many ways that we can teach that bullying is not acceptable. And I was really truly amazed when during the presentation, we were told that it only takes a bully (when confronted) an average of 10 seconds to back down. We never quite know why people become bullies, and there can be a wide array of reasons, but the most important things we can do is to teach our students to become “upstanders” and not “bystanders”.

Photo Credits (In the order they appear): soilbedust, Grant Cochrane, & puttsk