Sara’s Weblog

How has social learning been in my life?

Well, to start off, having a social network has proven to be the most useful resourse I found at University. It is better than a library, a computer, or the gym membership. I have depended on my network to go over math assignments, share notes, and work through tech tasks. Being in person is my favourite way to socially learn, but I have found the web to be a great medium as well. Amber and I contacted each other, Dean, and Rushton about our final project and learned how things need to be done, how to do them that way, and why it is better to do them that way.  We discussed meeting times, plans, layouts, what the project looked like, how to make it better, and many other things via email.

Blogging has also been great for me. I’ve learned to read other people’s blogs and comment on them to build connections, see ideas, and converse on specific topics. I’ve also really enjoyed blogging and getting comments. On my blog about blogging, I had several replies from bloggers internationally with ideas on how to improve my blogging lifestyle and learned great tips and tricks to incorperate blogging into my life and make it a lot easier to do.

I’ve also learned through asking for help on my blogs, like when things aren’t working properly, like on my screen shot. I asked if anyone had any suggestions, and don’t you know, people replied with answers! It was great.

I also have learned that there are several sites, including youtube and nextvista, that are excellent resources to use that people have put up for me to watch and comment on. Having this in my life means that I can share my work with others and build great digital connections too.

I also have to say that I really really liked learning how to do the pechu kacha. I have sat through billions of presentations that were WAY TOO LONG and boring. With a pechu kacha, they are short, sweet, and to the point. No more messing around, so to speak. I liked also learning that I don’t have to write a novel on every slide and that a picture is way better than soooo much writing. This was very cool for me. I liked getting to go first as well because I was able to set the stage, and get over my nerves very quickly. Getting to present in front of my peers, who are also people I really respect and admire, was pretty cool. I learned so much from them this year that I was proud to show them what they helped me learn.

Finally, I think the biggest social learning thing for me was learning how to use elluminate. I loved having the chat box and throwing links in every now and then, having a white board, web tours, desktop sharing, and audio/video. Getting to have so many guest speakers in my classroom was amazing, mean while sipping tea in my PJs. I don’t know anyother class like that. I loved learning from so many other people world wide. It was great to get several perspectives on topics, other than one proffessor for 40 hours straight and only his or her ideas. This built up a way better basis for me to form opinions, make connections, and create new ideas.

If I had to mark myself, which apparently Dean thinks I do (that was a joke; you can laugh now!), I would give myself 13 or 14 out of 15. I think that I really embraced social learning. I always hated group projects and never really got into blogging. I think that my perspective has changed dramatically and I know I will continue to social learn, as well as promote it in all my classes.

Hey! We’re back… again. But this time with the QUOTIENT RULE! I personally like this video the best! Hope you like it!

Your favourite nerds are back with the PRODUCT RULE! Enjoy!

Well, we have our first video up and running! Let me know what you think!

I was blessed with the oppurtunity to mentor two classes, each with a different approach  to technology in the classroom. Firstly, I was able to blog with Chris Harbeck’s class. They had a daily scribe who wrote about what happened that day as well as the assignments. It was really well done. It was apparent that a lot of thought went into most of the posts. The students used colour, links, diagrams, explanations, and anything else they could think of to explain what the concepts were and how to tackle the problems. Each scribe assigned another scribe for the following day. This was exciting because I got to see the progression in student work as well as what they were doing. I really enjoyed commenting on the blogs. I got to play “cheerleader” leaving little messages in each classroom saying positive comments like “I really liked when you did this, and I thought it was interesting how you explained that. Good work and I really enjoyed how you made use of this. I also thought that that was really well done.” I love being able to say things like that to people. I know how much it means to me when I get comments like that (especially when they have a criticism attached), so I want to give that joy to other students (minus the criticisms, of course). I found that I learned a lot about interesting assignments (who knew that poetry and math went so well together?) and how the progression of a class goes.

I think I was helpful because I encouraged students to be creative and think out side of the box. Having someone there soley to say good work and keep it up is important because it provides the students with someone besides their teacher and parents who read the blog and take time to actually reflect on what they were doing and saying. I feel like I was contributing to the class, which was a really good feeling to have.

Thank you so much, Mr. Harbeck. I really appreciated you letting me into your classrooms. Thank you to your students as well for being to so kind as to let me partake in your after hours classwork. I really appreciate it!

The other class that I got to mentor was Sophie Rosso’s class. They had a wiki. I found that it was cool to see how the class site was more kept up by Mrs. Rosso than the students, but it had lots of useful information for students. Had I been in her class, I would have found it great, but as a third party, I found it confusing and hard to use. I really didn’t know where I was supposed to comment, what to say, or how to say it. I didn’t want to start editting the wiki because I don’t want to mess up other people’s work. It scared me off a little bit because I found it really intimidating. I left a few posts, but nothing to in depth. I really found it difficult to connect to the students because everytime I went on, not a whole lot had changed, at least from what I could tell.  The stuff that was on the wiki, however, was really good and I really liked reading and learning about what the class was learning.

It was great to see the different styles of the websites for each classroom. It helped me think about how I want to run my class blog in the future. I want it to be something that is easy to use for parents, students, other teachers, as well as anyone else who wants to look at it.

Thank you, Mrs. Rosso for letting me into your wiki. I really appreciate your generousity.

Outside of physically being in a technologically “advanced” classroom, this was the best experience I could have asked for. Seeing the development was very important and getting to participate was more that great. I really loved this project.

As for my self-assessed grade, I would say I think 7 or 8/10. I think that I did a pretty good job with Mr. Harbeck’s classroom, but I feel like I let down Mrs. Rosso. Thanks Dean for organizing such a great experience!

Well, the time has come to really think about how I am going to use everything I learned. In my future classroom I want to have an entire corner dedicated to technology. I think that if technology isn’t physically in the classroom, I won’t be inclined to use it. I would like to have a carousel of computers, TV/DVD player, a projector, and a solid internet connection. A microphone and headphones would also be nice. I would also like to have all of my grades and marking on the computer. When I was in high school, the teachers were just shifting over to using the computer for their marks, and it seemed to be very helpful and handy.

I would really like to have at least one assignment using technology every week. I know that that may prove very hard in math, but if I get lucky enough to teach English or Psych, that is something I would really like to do. As wonderful as questions from the textbook or play are (can you hear the sarcasm?), I would like to expand on this by doing technology literature cirlces, such as going into small groups. Each member would be responsible for a certain “job” each week, such as character charter (using a program such as Smart Draw), plot diagramer, geographer/historian (google earth), and reflecter (thinks of questions that make you think and perhaps creates a podcast for the class to listen to with his/her ideas). I think that doing something like that would be really exciting and way better than reading and answering questions from a fuzzy overhead.

Environment-wise, I would like to have a very bright classroom, as well as a green classroom. I would like to have a semester long project for my students to present how to make the classroom more efficient and greener. For a math class, I would have them present their ideas in terms of cost break down, savings, etc.

I would like my classroom to have lots of lights and a lot of natural light. I know I really can’t control the windows, but I just love having the blinds open and the window open too, if possible. I hate working in dark rooms, so why would I put my students through that. I also hated my classrooms that didn’t have any windows or always had them closed, so if I can help it, I will make sure that natural light is always shining. I also would like to have some plants to help with oxygen and just a generally fresher scent in the classroom. I really am not too fond of stale air or the smell of “just in from minus forty” scent that a herd of small children all have after recess, so plants may help with that.

Instruction-wise, I am practically willing to pay just to get a SMART board in my classroom. I think that would be the most useful teaching tool I could ever have. Using this would make my life and the lives of my students much easier and would provide a lot more interest in the material being covered. Think about it–when your teacher turns on a computer and then puts something on a SMART Board, doesn’t everyone in the classroom immediately pay more attention? Well, I do at least.

I think that because students are growing up in a world (as am I) where technology is very prevalent, they need to learn what they need to know in order to survive the real world. School’s job is prepare students for the real world, and in the real world, there aren’t a whole lot of text books or worksheets filled with factoring problems. There are presentations, group work, public speaking, summary reports, project proposals, and a heck of a lot of technology to do these with. Why wouldn’t I teach my students how to creatively and effectively use these magnificent tools? Why would I give them a 10 page textbook assignment for their “Christmas present” instead of a podcast or proposal about how to reduce power on Christmas Day using actual numbers and rates of change? Why wouldn’t I do that?

I do understand that the basics need to happen, which does mean that I may have to crack open a text book or assign a research paper, and definitely I need to have old fashioned tests, but not everything in my class has to be that way. Variety is what I am aiming for. I really don’t like doing weekly assignments by one month in because they are always the same and with in a month they become monotonous. Why would I give my students something I don’t even really like?

So, in conclusion, I don’t plan on running a paperless classroom, but I do plan on running a technologically dependant classroom with a variety of real life things that students will run into eventually. I don’t want students to even have to ask why they are are learning is important. I grew up with my peers asking “Mrs. Teacher, Why do we have to know this?” with a general response of “Because it’s on your test. Now do your work.” Well, what on earth will that do? Oh, because it is on my test I need to learn it? Well, if it doesn’t matter beyond a test, why am I even teaching it (sorry curriculum, I really do like you)? Even if the students may not run into derivatives ever again, the way I teach them or the way they demonstrate they know them will have some relevance to their lives eventually, if I can help it.

Finally, I really like what Chris Harbeck is doing in his classroom. He has a daily scribe who posts about what they do each day in class, along with the assignment and nice and colourful diagrams. I really want to do this in my classroom. It helps out students and parents to keep on track with what is going in the classroom, as well as for homework.

Finally, I used a classroom arranger tool to create a classroom (below). I really don’t want my desks all in perfect rows of five by five, if I can help it. I want a technology corner, lots of bulletin boards, windows, and board space as well as bookshelves and perhaps a filing cabinet. In my dream classroom, I would have the desks in a semi circle or some cool shape that allows all students to have a front row seat. 

If anyone has any suggestions or questions, please feel free to comment back! I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

I reviewed another podcast from the iTunes store called “Comedy Central Stand Up: Eddie Gosling – Math.” It is a brief podcast about how if you aren’t good at math, you can’t get good a job later in life.

I found this hilarious to watch. Math teachers are continually preaching about the need have math to get a good job, but Eddie Gosling pokes a little bit of fun at this principle, at the expense of NASA. I would definitely recommend watching this podcast if you love math or if you hate it, as both sides of the spectrum will find this clip incredibly funny.

My only complaint is that it is too short and there is a long commercial at the end.

Happy Watching! I hope you all give it a quick peek!

So I decided to review the podcast put out by the Discovery Chanel called ” Next World – Sim City .” It discussed how new technology is being built that crosses over from being distinguishably virtual to almost like a second reality.

I think that this was a great podcast because it posed a lot of good points. Firstly, games, such as Sim City, are more like toys because  they have “a more controllable” feel where the user can alter what ever they want really.

Secondly, technology like this is being used for high risk job training, such as security emergency responses and flight practice for pilots.

Thirdly, and most importantly, this lets people play out a scenario in their mind with out real consequences. People can easily build and create entire metropolises with out conquering the world. They can create their utopia and see what it would be like in reality, with out actually forcing people under their will.

In one sense, this builds a bit of a cult-leader mentality for the user because he or she can become a little bit over controlling which may transfer into his or her daily life, especially considering the games are trying to push the boundary of fantasy and reality to such extremes.

In another sense, however, this could be a very useful educational tool. To help learn about different social organizations and just how difficult it is to manage people, students could be assigned different scenarios that they must create (i.e. different building budgets to represent different degrees of poverty or wealth) and manage. They then could reflect on what they learned and what they would change given the opportunity to do it over again. They could also write a reflection on how their scenario is real in the world (i.e. where is this situation most prevalent, what is happening currently to change the problems they faced, etc.) to build a deeper meaning beyond the realms of the game.

Overall, I really enjoyed this podcast! If anyone has five minutes to themselves and wants to ponder technology, give this one a try!

Well, I’m not going to babble on for too long because I want you to listen to me, instead of read me. I did a podcast on the Power of Positivity using Audacity. It was really fun! I did it in a slightly unusual format where I interviewed myself.

I used the pitch changing tool in Audacity to change the pitch of my voice to sound like two different people. I naturally sound like a chipmunk, so getting my voice lower was a little weirder than I thought it might be!