Video in the classroom has come a long way...

It really is insane how far video use in the classroom has come in the past decade. You would think sending a couple students down to the library to pick up a television to watch a Bill Nye VHS is in the past...guess again. As of last year, the school where I was an EA at, still very much used television sets and VHS tapes. It's not a big deal that this is still happening, it's just sad that some teachers aren't taking the time to realize how useful and awesome smartboards can be.

Out with the old and in with the new! YOUTUBE has everything you need, for any subject. You as a teacher can stand and blab about god knows what all day long, and your visual learners will not get anything out of it. You need to keep your students engaged, and there's no better way to do that than a sweet video.

 

TeacherTube is an excellent website for all ages and educational areas. As a big history and geography nut, I took a good look at what this website provided for those areas. The video: http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?title=World_Population_Explosion&video_id=189453, I would use this video in a world population unit (gr.7), to give my students a better understanding of where the population is distributed throughout the world. They should also understand what areas are overpopulated now and what areas have always been overpopulated.

 

 

Another one would be: http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=47658 "If the World was a Village of 100 people." What percentage of each of those 100 people would be from each of the continents? (61 Asia) (14 Africa) (11 Europe) (9 South America) (5 North America) (0 Austrailia)...if you wanted to know... Then you could try it with your class, split the students into the continents. It really is a cool site, because a lot of students have made their own educational videos and put them on there and some very creative.

 

I would definitely encourage students to do their own videos, especially with the technology available nowadays, students can be quite creative once they get an idea in there head.

 



Edublogger Joe Bower: for the love of learning

Joe Bower is an educator from Red Deer Alberta that I have been following for the past few weeks. A one-time middle school teacher who is now working with people under the age of 18 with a wide range of mental health related difficulties.

Joe Bower is a committed educator who started his career by teaching by the book, disciplined students when need be and gave penalties to students who handed in late assignments. He makes it clear in his blog and website that's not how he does things anymore. Joe got tired of teaching the way he got taught to teach, and began to explore more "progressive ways of education."

Mr. Bower may have had an epiphany at one time, where he came to realize that it's okay to teach the way you want.

• Rethink discipline!
• Rethink Lesson Plans!
• Rethink Standardization!

These are just a few subjects in which he is constantly discussing and elaborating on in his posts. He is a teacher that is passionate about how some certain areas of education should be done. A few times a week Joe usually puts other people's posts or articles about education on his site, which are usually quite informative and worth taking the time to read.

"I believe students should experience their success and failure not as reward and punishment but as information." (Joe Bower)

Information on how to do better, know where they are right now and how to get to that A+, give them that information so they can become successful. I enjoy his approach to teaching, and thats why this edublogger caught my eye.

www.joebower.org

Digital Footprint

"Digital footprints provide data on what has been performed in the digital environment" (Reliable Wikipedia)

When I started this blog, I needed a refresher on what exactly a digital footprint was, through research I have come to realize that a lot of what we do shows up online. We need to be careful with how we use social media cites, as any average joe can google my name and find my facebook page...eventually. I say "eventually" because when I google my name a lot of Ben Affleck stuff pops up and not a whole lot of Tom Affleck. I just don't want employers to mistake me for Ben....just kidding.

By googling my name I found my facebook page, twitter, my blog, my senior baseball stats, and my contributions to the Souris School Newsletter the last couple years. I definitely found a lot more info on me when I typed "Souris Manitoba" beside my name. But it's crazy to think that with a simple search, someone may find where I grew up, what I do for a living, what my hobbies are, what I have coached, etc.

As my PLN gets larger over the years it's important to be aware of my "digital footprint." The interviewers of jobs I may pursue will google my name, so I must be alert of what my digital footprint displays.

Twitter

I am definitely struggling with getting into twitter. I am glad that I have signed up, but I am finding hard to tweet, except for when I am trying to connect with friends. I see it being very useful in connecting with other educators and I look forward to using it in that way in the future...but for now I am struggling to get tweeting.

It's fun to read classmates tweets about something they put together or resources they have tried. Some of the people I follow send out 30 tweets a day, I can't even imagine doing that...I am just not that interesting. But those people are showing me how easy it is to share awesome resources, educational websites, and interesting blog posts.

I really hope to keep at twitter in the future, and keep following my fellow classmates as most of you are graduating soon, I would love to see if ya'll keep with twitter in your first years of teaching.

I promise to start tweeting more, the more followers I have, the more pressure on me to share something...also, remember to read my blog.

Clarence Fisher's Brief/Informative Visit

An educator by the name of Clarence Fisher skyped in to our I4Ed class on Thursday, to discuss his views on the role of technology inside the classroom. Clarence is a grade 7 teacher up in Snow Lake Manitoba, where he has 28 students inside his homeroom. His visit was very brief because he could only Skype while his students were in phys-ed class, so it was nice that he was able to fit us in.

Clarence started his session by expressing that teachers in his first few years of teaching seemed afraid to change the way they should teach the curriculum. But in the last 10 years or so, it has been all about keeping the students engaged in lessons by trying all sorts of new things technology wise in the classroom. He explained that Manitoba has very high standards and outcomes, so it is important to get your students passionate about what they are learning throughout the school year.

Clarence feels that mobile learning plays a very important part in keeping the students engaged as much as possible, and so he welcomes lap tops into his room with open arms if it's going contribute in a positive way to their learning. "Kids should also create and not just consume," he feels that the ability to create in education has not been done well and so with more technology usage inside the class, this should help change that. Also, it will help make that connection to the "real world", which is becoming a bigger focus in many classrooms.

He went on to explain that school budgets in the province are getting quite smaller, so we must take advantage of the free resources that we have in front us. There are 1000 ways to get your hands on different kinds resources, so get out there and explore.

It was nice to hear from another educator who promotes exploring different ways of teaching and focuses on the importance of student engagement. Great Session.

George Couros

Our class had the pleasure of having George Couros Skype into our Internet for Educators class. George is from the Edmonton area, where he is the Division Principal of Innovative Teaching and Learning for Parkland School Division. From start to finish George had many useful tips on what to do and what not to do when beginning your career as an educator.
Some of those useful tips include:

• Parents will google you because they are dying to know as much as possible about their child's teacher. So think twice about posting your party pictures online for your facebook friends to see.
• You could be the best teacher in the world, but if you have a bunch of spelling/grammar errors on your resume then your teaching skills mean nothing.
• You may use twitter and blogs just for a few months while taking a course, but these ways to communicate and share can be very useful once you begin your life as a teacher.
• "Yon don't need to be an expert on teaching; you need to be an expert on learning." I think this particular quote really stood out for most of us. George feels we need to inspire our kids to follow their passions, while letting them inspire us to do the same. This I think is great moto to live by.
• "Kids before curriculum," we need to build relationships with our students, get to know each and everyone one of them. It will help in building respect of your students.

I appreciate George Couros taking time to speak to us and sharing great points that really stuck in my mind, as every single one of them have their importance. Also, take some time to visit George Couros website, his blogs, resume and list of presentations/projects are a few of many areas that are quite impressive. A True Professional at what he does.

http://georgecouros.ca/blog/

John Finch Visits Brandon University

This past week we had John Finch visit our Internet for Educators class to discuss an assortment of ideas/issues with education and technology. One of the topics that caught my attention was cyber bullying and how it is not increasing like most people think it is. John Finch mentioned "Tell them from me," which measures safety in school and how engaged students are in school. They conducted a survey that showed that 25% students were a victim of bullying at least twice a week, but only 12 percent or so reported incidents with cyber bullying. He went on to say that most principals and superintendents will say that cyber bullying is on the rise within their schools, according to Mr. Finch there is not any data that will prove that statement. It really makes you think whether cyber bullying isn't on the rise like everyone thinks it is.

Another topic he discussed that is somewhat related to my first paragraph is that teachers are reported by some to be the biggest bullies that exist inside a school environment. To hear that many teachers are bullying some students about the clothes they wear and the fact that their family is poor is absolutely sickening. If this is the case, something should be looked into and those teachers should pay the price.

John talked a lot about internet privacy and safety, and how you should be well aware of who can access your facebook and whether your students or parents of your students can see your profile. I have had teacher friends tell me about the endless amount of requests they get from students and parents throughout the year. They just don't understand that teachers want to keep their private life private, so John really stressed that there should a clear separation between professional and personal, so a professional facebook page or twitter page may be a good idea for parents and colleagues to connect with you through social media.

I enjoyed having John Finch visit our class today, as he gave us some great surprising info that kept me fully engaged throughout the session.