(This post was written on March 12, 2012. I just forgot to come and post it into Blogger when I was done)
My oh my, you know that you're enjoying what you're doing when the day flies by.
Oh, and I was so excited last night that I couldn't sleep. I was still up at 3:30 trying to fall asleep, which, lets face it, is just a futile attempt because you know you're not going to fall asleep if you're trying to fall asleep.
So, even though I was going by on only three hours of sleep, I did not feel tired at all today.
The school I am in this placement is also the school where I did my first placement. I think it bookends quite nicely. I already know most of the staff, and only the grade nines are new students to me.
So since Sioux Valley has acquired the building for thier high school, there have been many changes since my first placement. Most of the walls have been painted, giving the rooms a nice, bright feel. The student lounge has a fooseball table and a flat-screen tv with cable. Most of the classrooms have been outfitted with SmartBoards or are in the process of having them installed. There is an actual wall dividing the two computer labs instead of a wall of bookcases.
It's a very exciting time at SVHS.
During my last slot, a tenth grader swallowed a quarter. Not on purpose. He claims he was going to stick it under his tongue and pretend that he swallowed it. My CT says that he had a very surprised look on his face when he said "Oh! It's gone!". This was 10 minutes before the bell rang and he did not want to go to a doctor.
I am just so glad that he didn't swallow the quarter while I was in that class. I was safetly tucked away in the Native Studies classroom :)
Until next blog...Sylvia bids thee fairwell :)
P.S.
An update on the quarter situation. The boys mother took him to the emergency room, where the doctor had to put him under general anesthesia and insert a tube into his stomach to get the offending quarter out.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Final summative video
Here is my summative video for Internet for Educators. I will admit that I am a little embarrassed to share it because it reveals how truly nerdy I am, but if you have ever watched "The Big Bang Theory" then you will know that nerds are awesome. I can only wish to be as nerdy as they are. There comes a point where you are so nerdy that you become cool. I'm afraid that I have not yet reached that point.
Anyway, I didn't watch any of the other videos that my classmates and colleagues have posted before me, just so it wouldn't influence how I did mine. I really did learn a lot in this course and combined with the ICT course last year, I feel that I am a lot more comfortable with technology than I was when I first started in the Bachelor of Education program.
I wish all my colleagues a wonderful placement, and if you've already completed your final placement (like Katrina) then I wish you a good rest.
Good luck and thanks to you all! A special thank you to Mr. N for teaching such a good course.
Monday, March 5, 2012
George Couros
George gave a presentation via Skype in our class last week, and I really enjoyed it. It was a little scary though. I did agree with most of his points regarding FB. Especially the one about friending your students. I would never friend a student. Even though I don’t have any risque pictures on my Facebook, I am known to share inappropriate pictures or comments that make me laugh.
However, one of the biggest concerns I had was regarding friending parents. I come from a small community, and have my closest and high-school friends on Facebook. Because I will be going back, I know that I will be teaching some of my friends’ students. It doesn’t really make sense to me to delete my friends. And when Couros made his point about it not being fair to other parents, I’m sure that if I sent a message back explaining the reason for my declining their add request, they would understand me and my reasons. An important point that I was thinking about during the Edmodo VS. Facebook presentation is that I would get an Edmodo to contact and stay in touch with parents. I would never discuss anything from my professional life on facebook, even if it’s just to let a friend know that there isn’t any school the next day. I am going to take great pains to keep my personal and professional life separate.
I did agree with Couros when he said that the relationships we make with kids are the most important relationships. This is something that I’ve had to work on because I used to feel intimidated by my students. However, my last placement couldn’t have come at a better time. I was teaching in an SDL classroom where I worked one-on-one with students. I was able to work on my student-teacher relationship skills and wow-ed my CT. She told me that in all the years that she had a student teacher, I was the first one who didn’t have any conflicts with any of the students. I can’t wait to start practicum next week and practise my new skills :)
WE TEACH KIDS FIRST AND CURRICULUM SECOND.
This particular quote has a personal meaning to me. Right now, my six-year-old is attending New Era school. When I say attending, what I really mean is sporadically attending. He is having behavioural issues and I am so thankful for the supportive staff and administration at the school. I came from a meeting there today and we discussed graduated reintegration for my baby (second time this year). He’s falling behind in reading and Math, but the principal said to me that they weren’t too concerned about his falling behind. They wanted to concentrate on helping my baby be able to stay in school without having an episode. This is what teaching kids first and curriculum second means to me. And I am so thankful for this.
Anyway. I think I shall leave my wordy blog-post now. I really enjoyed this skype presentation with George Couros.
Although, I will admit that I could not stop thinking about Ross Geller (from Friends) throughout the presentation.
Adios for now!
However, one of the biggest concerns I had was regarding friending parents. I come from a small community, and have my closest and high-school friends on Facebook. Because I will be going back, I know that I will be teaching some of my friends’ students. It doesn’t really make sense to me to delete my friends. And when Couros made his point about it not being fair to other parents, I’m sure that if I sent a message back explaining the reason for my declining their add request, they would understand me and my reasons. An important point that I was thinking about during the Edmodo VS. Facebook presentation is that I would get an Edmodo to contact and stay in touch with parents. I would never discuss anything from my professional life on facebook, even if it’s just to let a friend know that there isn’t any school the next day. I am going to take great pains to keep my personal and professional life separate.
I did agree with Couros when he said that the relationships we make with kids are the most important relationships. This is something that I’ve had to work on because I used to feel intimidated by my students. However, my last placement couldn’t have come at a better time. I was teaching in an SDL classroom where I worked one-on-one with students. I was able to work on my student-teacher relationship skills and wow-ed my CT. She told me that in all the years that she had a student teacher, I was the first one who didn’t have any conflicts with any of the students. I can’t wait to start practicum next week and practise my new skills :)
WE TEACH KIDS FIRST AND CURRICULUM SECOND.
This particular quote has a personal meaning to me. Right now, my six-year-old is attending New Era school. When I say attending, what I really mean is sporadically attending. He is having behavioural issues and I am so thankful for the supportive staff and administration at the school. I came from a meeting there today and we discussed graduated reintegration for my baby (second time this year). He’s falling behind in reading and Math, but the principal said to me that they weren’t too concerned about his falling behind. They wanted to concentrate on helping my baby be able to stay in school without having an episode. This is what teaching kids first and curriculum second means to me. And I am so thankful for this.
Anyway. I think I shall leave my wordy blog-post now. I really enjoyed this skype presentation with George Couros.
Although, I will admit that I could not stop thinking about Ross Geller (from Friends) throughout the presentation.
Adios for now!
Blackboard
Okay, so I wasn’t aware that we were supposed to actually sign up for some of the online courses on the Blackboard website until a couple of days ago. Haha. Which explains why I am just posting it now. I had to sign up and wait for the courses to be approved.
So I checked out ELA 10F, ELA 30S Literary Focus, and World Issues 40S. It’s actually very organized and I love it. These modules are very similar to the modules that we used in high school back at my school. I remember breezing through the ELA modules, and kind of stalling on the math modules. I loved being able to go at my own pace. However, I don’t really agree with the fact that doing online courses ONLY is the best way to go. It’s kind of like Sandra Bullock’s sad lonely character in “The Net”. She thought that she was content and had everything, but it was so easy for her to lose her identity because she interacted with people only ever on the internet, and through phone calls.
However, I could see how this would be beneficial to students who can’t regularly come to school. I had some students in my last-placement switch over to the CCPE, which stands for Crocus Continuing Education Program because they had jobs or babies to tend to. I can see how these online courses would be beneficial to students who are in schools or communities that have no Adult Education or Continuing Education programming.
Pros and Cons?
Indeed. But I still believe that a mixture of both online and face-to-face interaction would be most beneficial.
So I checked out ELA 10F, ELA 30S Literary Focus, and World Issues 40S. It’s actually very organized and I love it. These modules are very similar to the modules that we used in high school back at my school. I remember breezing through the ELA modules, and kind of stalling on the math modules. I loved being able to go at my own pace. However, I don’t really agree with the fact that doing online courses ONLY is the best way to go. It’s kind of like Sandra Bullock’s sad lonely character in “The Net”. She thought that she was content and had everything, but it was so easy for her to lose her identity because she interacted with people only ever on the internet, and through phone calls.
However, I could see how this would be beneficial to students who can’t regularly come to school. I had some students in my last-placement switch over to the CCPE, which stands for Crocus Continuing Education Program because they had jobs or babies to tend to. I can see how these online courses would be beneficial to students who are in schools or communities that have no Adult Education or Continuing Education programming.
Pros and Cons?
Indeed. But I still believe that a mixture of both online and face-to-face interaction would be most beneficial.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
The connected....student?
Okay, so I took a page out of Tammi's book and got my son to do a web for me. He was really into it at first, until I mentioned that he had to at least mention the educational part of it. As you can see, he barely touched on that part.
I thought it was really interesting to see how my 12-year-old sees his world and his network around him. It's so cute! He would probably kill me for saying that but I think all the things my boys do are cute.
I like how he added that math thing. Probably to get back at me for making him do something about education.
Alrighty then!
I thought it was really interesting to see how my 12-year-old sees his world and his network around him. It's so cute! He would probably kill me for saying that but I think all the things my boys do are cute.
Alrighty then!
Online Video
I haven’t really had a good opportunity to use videos in any of my placements yet. However, in my last placement, I kind of got around the school filters by downloading a youtube video at home, saving it on my flash drive, and showing it in class.
The video that I had showed the class was one of Rick Mercer’s Rant. I think that his rants are wonderful and could be used as an example of how to write and deliver a rant. This particular one I used to address two different things in the classroom. The first time I used it was to open up a discussion on Gay Bullying. The kids really seemed to enjoy it (grade 9-12 students) and it was amazing how much the video touched them and inspired them to speak out in class when they don’t even really want to talk at all. The second time I had a student watch it was when she was working on writing her own rant for an assignment.
The video is here:
Another online video that I used in the classroom was on the CBC website. It’s a documentary called “Reel Injun” and it examines the history of how Native Americans were, and still are, portrayed in the media. Other than the commercials (I don’t know how many times Chuck Norris approved the use of Era laundry detergent) I found that the classes that I showed this documentary were very engaged and interested in watching it.
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/passionateeyeshowcase/video.html?ID=1454400439
And last but not least, another gem from the CBC website, is the 8th Fire series. This is a must-watch for everyone in Canada. Not just the students, but EVERYONE.
http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/8thfire//2011/11/tv-series-8th-fire.html
Oh, and for all you who took the Aboriginal Perspectives course, you should definitely watch the Reel Injun documentary.
The video that I had showed the class was one of Rick Mercer’s Rant. I think that his rants are wonderful and could be used as an example of how to write and deliver a rant. This particular one I used to address two different things in the classroom. The first time I used it was to open up a discussion on Gay Bullying. The kids really seemed to enjoy it (grade 9-12 students) and it was amazing how much the video touched them and inspired them to speak out in class when they don’t even really want to talk at all. The second time I had a student watch it was when she was working on writing her own rant for an assignment.
The video is here:
Another online video that I used in the classroom was on the CBC website. It’s a documentary called “Reel Injun” and it examines the history of how Native Americans were, and still are, portrayed in the media. Other than the commercials (I don’t know how many times Chuck Norris approved the use of Era laundry detergent) I found that the classes that I showed this documentary were very engaged and interested in watching it.
http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/passionateeyeshowcase/video.html?ID=1454400439
And last but not least, another gem from the CBC website, is the 8th Fire series. This is a must-watch for everyone in Canada. Not just the students, but EVERYONE.
http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/8thfire//2011/11/tv-series-8th-fire.html
Oh, and for all you who took the Aboriginal Perspectives course, you should definitely watch the Reel Injun documentary.
I want to be a Tenacious Teacher
After doing my search for this blog post, I am feeling like I definitely want to invest in an iPod or an iPhone.
I can’t believe that I did not know about podcasts before. I thought that podcasts were radio-casts that were sent out into cyperspace and only there for a little while.
How wrong was I? There are so many FREE podcasts out there that can be utilized by a beginning teacher to help teaching or can be used in the classroom.
To hold me over until I can afford an iPhone or iPod, I think I’m going to download the iTunes library into my PC. The podcasts are well worth the space it will take up on my harddrive. When I do, I am definitely going to subscribe to “The Tenacious Teacher’s strategies for the Every day Teacher”. This podcast has strategies that can help you plan lessons, administer tests, and even strategies on how to answer irrelevant questions.
Happy podcasting to me!
I can’t believe that I did not know about podcasts before. I thought that podcasts were radio-casts that were sent out into cyperspace and only there for a little while.
How wrong was I? There are so many FREE podcasts out there that can be utilized by a beginning teacher to help teaching or can be used in the classroom.
To hold me over until I can afford an iPhone or iPod, I think I’m going to download the iTunes library into my PC. The podcasts are well worth the space it will take up on my harddrive. When I do, I am definitely going to subscribe to “The Tenacious Teacher’s strategies for the Every day Teacher”. This podcast has strategies that can help you plan lessons, administer tests, and even strategies on how to answer irrelevant questions.
Happy podcasting to me!
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