My final ICT blog!!

Well the semester is nearing the end, its been fun, but I'm glad its almost done. Its one step closer to me graduating and starting my future career. I learned a lot in the first semester, especially in ICT. I had used technology a lot in my life already but i learned how many uses there are for it in education. In fact i learned so much i made a prezi about it!!So here is everything I learnt in ICT

Technology is now a part of every student’s life whether it is in the classroom or at home. Technology is here to stay, and I believe rather than being afraid of all the negatives we focus on the positives. The biggest negative in my opinion is all the bullying that occurs. Bullying has always been around and now with the use of technology it happens so often and there is no way for us to prevent it. All we can do is try and teach our students how to properly use technology. There are negative impacts for teachers as well. Anything we post online can be used against us so we need to make sure we are very careful with what we post online. There are always positives and negatives and I just feel we put too much emphasis on the negatives. There are lots of positives to technology such as more accessible information and the ability to communicate with others. During my placement we used technology in many different ways. I used my iPad and phone to project videos and music onto the projector in the gym. I used the iPad for attendance and inserting grades. We even used the iPad as a scoreboard during volleyball games. These are just a few examples of the positive impacts technology can have. Technology is changing the education world therefore I believe our role as a teacher should now be to help students learn the strengths of technology as well as how to appropriately use technology. 

I think the future for ICT in education looks promising. I am a believer that technolgoy needs to be used in the classroom. I believe there are many positives in using technology and i think withing the next few years we are going to see it become a more prominent part of education. 

I have learned a lot in a short period of time in this class, and i look forward to using what i have learned here in my future endeavors as a teacher!

Weeks 6 & 7

Well its been a little while since my last blog, I've been slacking i know! so i figured it was about time i updated it again. Most of our classes are wrapping up now and we are getting near the end of our first semester as education students. We have been doing a lot of group projects and presentations which is fine but it can be difficult to get together at the same time. So for our ICT project our group found a way to avoid this problem and the answer was simple! Google Docs. Google docs is a fantastic tool that i have used in the past but this year in Education i have realized how useful it really is. Our group decided instead of having to get together all the time, we just created a power point and shared it with everyone. We could all work on it at the same on three different computers instead of sharing one and taking turns. We got the work done twice as fast and it was far more convenient. If we need to make any changes all we have to do is go on Google drive and bam! its on our computer and we can do whatever we need to. It is a tool i think can be used a lot more often than it is, and it is something i will definitely encourage my future students to use. Google Docs is just another prime example of how we can use ICT in education.

Back to school!

Well my first placement is in the books and now its back to being the student. The first week back in class was a good one, the first day was mostly spent debriefing and then we got back right into the swing of things. During my placement I used a lot of technology. Things as simple as using the iPad to take attendance and insert grades, to more complex things like using apple tv to make the whole gym wireless.

When i first got to my school, my CT was talking to me about how another teacher had set up his gym wireless and he want to do the same. So we set up the apple tv and ran a cable from the apple tv to the gyms stereo system. So we could play music over the sound system through our phones and we could control the volume and what songs played all through our phone. It was great because before that we always had to go into the office and now we could do it from anywhere! The other awesome thing was we could play videos off the iPad from YouTube and project them on to the wall with the projector. It was something i used a lot with workout routines and warm up videos. Another great use for that was we set up a scoreboard with the iPad. We downloaded a scoreboard app and it worked great. So instead of having to spend a few hundred dollars on a new scoreboard, we bought an 8 dollar app that did all the same things.

I used a lot of technology during my placement, and it was great to see all the different ways it could be used in the classroom. One day when i have my own classroom i definitely want to emphasize the use of technology, it makes things easier and much more efficient and for the most part it is very easy to use.

My student teaching experience

When i first went out to my placement 5 weeks ago, i was a little nervous. It was a school i had never been in aside from the time i had met my CT. But it did not take long and those nerves were gone and i was excited to be there. I had a great experience, my CT was great, the school was fantastic and overall the students were great. I was in a grade 11/12 phys.ed class, a great 10 phys.ed class, a grade 9 ICT class, and gym supervision was also one of my "classes." Basically we just supervised the gym and it was the period when we ran all the intramural programs.

The first week i observed my CT and got myself familiar with the students and the way the classes were run. The second week, i took over all the classes and started teaching but for these weeks i taught my CT's lessons. Weeks 3-5 were all my own lessons and i had full control of the classes. I ran a basketball unit, a floor hockey unit, and the final week i taught health. For the ICT class i just taught my CT's units, i mainly taught how to use publisher while i was there. I had the students create a few different projects like a menu, a magazine cover, and i had them create their own product and they had to market it.

I got the full teacher experience while i was out on my placement and i couldn't have asked for a better first experience. I learned a lot over the five weeks and i cant wait for my next placement to begin and even more than that, I cant wait until I am a full time teacher with my own classroom.

Week 5: The last week!

Well this last week was a bit of a crazy one, we had two tests and a presentation, plus I had two pd sessions and a few volleyball games mixed on. Needless to say I was more than ready for the long weekend. It's almost time for us to finally get out there to student teach and I am excited to do so. We have learnt a lot over these past 5 weeks especially a lot of new tech toys to use in the classroom.  Things like digital story telling and picture editing are great little activities. The most helpful thing I have learned so far is definitely the web site creation. It isn something I will use a lot during student teaching, but once I finally have my own classroom I will use it for sure.

Good luck student teaching everyone!

Week 4: ICT in my classroom!

This past Friday i met my cooperating teacher for my fall placement. I'm teaching in Elton and i knew i was teaching phys.ed but i was surprised when he told me i would also be teaching the grade 9 ICT class. At first i was hesitant about the idea of teaching an ICT class, and then i thought about all the great different exercises we have done in our class, and i thought i could use some of them in my class!

I started thinking of the different things we have done and i decided on which i would use and which i wouldn't. I definitely want to have them make a wordle, because its an easy thing to create and they are fun to make.I also want to use the animoto because its another fun and easy one to use. Once my students all make one i can put them all together and show them to everyone.

I cant decide if i want them to make a blog or not. I'm leaning towards no because i don't think they would keep up with it once I'm done student teaching. I guess if they liked blogging they might I think websites like weebly and blogger are easy enough for students to figure out, but i think it would be better to save blogging and website creation for when i have my own classroom.

If you have any suggestions for what i should teach during my placement leave a comment!

My Travels!

Here's my digital story I created in class. 

My Travels!

Week 3: My Own Website!

These past few days we have been working on our own personal websites. It has been an interesting project that's for sure. I never imagined I would be able to create my own functional website. It is a ton of work to make a quality functional website, thankfully the website I have been using (weebly) is very user friendly.

I decided to make my website a classroom website. Obviously i don't have my own classroom yet, hopefully in a few years i will, but for now I'm just making a site for an imaginary classroom. So far I have completed my about me page, and added a calender, and created most of the pages i want on my site. Now i just have to go in and add all the content i want. Like i said before i never imagined i would make my own site, or blog for that matter, so the ICT class has really helped. Before this class i never would have known how to add html to sites, and to add permalinks into my posts. The things i have learned in ICT have been great because everything i learnt, i can use in the future.This class has definitely helped me out and i feel a lot more confident already in my technology skills. One of the main reasons why i want to use technology in my classroom is because it is fun, and it is different then the same old boring pen and paper note taking. When kids get to actually do things like write a blog they have so much more fun in class and they learn more because they are having fun.

I don't have a lot of material on my blog, or website right now, so if you have any suggestions of what i should add or anything i should change, feel free to leave a comment.

Second Week

Well the second week of classes is over and done with and I think it was a pretty solid week. This week in our instructional methods class we focused on group presentations. We all paired up with a fellow student and we presented on a topic of our choice. They were brief presentations, only 5 minutes in length.

My partner was Jeff, and the topic we chose was homework. I thought it was a great topic because it provided a lot of opportunities for discussion. We created a power point presentation, and of course the smart board would not connect with Jeff's laptop, but we managed to get it done without the board. So we set up our presentation with the positives of homework, the negatives, and ended with our own personal opinions.We kind of ran short of time at the end so I didn't get to fully explain my own personal view on homework, so I figured what better place to explain it then on my blog!

I personally do not feel like homework should be a main part of teaching. I'm not saying I think there should be zero homework because obviously there will need to be projects, assignments, and readings that have to be done for class. But I am saying homework should not be useless busy work. The one thing i hate is when teachers will make homework worth a certain percentage of your grade. Kids are busy! Whether it be with sports, or part time work, or extra curriculurs some kids don't have time to do an extra 100 math questions. I don't think homework assignments like math assignments for example should be for marks. I think they should be used to supplement the material. What is the point in giving a students a 100 questions to do, if after 10 questions they know it? why should they then have to do the remaining 90 questions. My view is the homework should be for the student if they want extra help, if they get the problems then no need for the work. But if they are struggling it is a great way for them to practice. I always struggled in math and i know for me personally there were times when i didn't understand the homework so i didn't do it, and then the next day i had to ask the teacher for help anyway. So for me i think the time is better spent teaching the kids what they need to know, and then giving them a worksheet, and give them the last ten minutes or whatever the amount you think is necessary at the end of class to work on it, so if they have questions they can ask me right away and i can help them. Then they can take the rest of the work home and practice if they need it, and if they get it then they don't need to do it.

So basically what I am trying to say is, I think homework should be used appropriately. Obviously for some classes like history and English you need to give homework, like readings and essays, because you cant give them class time for all that or you will have no time to actually teach them anything. The thing i disagree with is giving homework just for the sake of giving homework. Like we said in our presentation there are many positives and negatives to homework, the key is to make sure to use homework right and to make sure that it is benefiting your students.

Football Sunday!

I have spent a better part of the day watching NFL football. Unfortunately my Vikings blew it again, I really shouldn't be surprised but its still disappointing. I was watching the FOX pre-game show before the game started, and I noticed one of my favourite Vikings Randy Moss is now an analyst on the show. It reminded me of one of his best clips which I thought I would share with you. Enjoy the video!

My First Blog Post

Well it has been a wild couple years of school, but I finally ended up in the faculty of education. The first few weeks have been pretty hectic, getting used to the new classes but its been fun. The first week of orientation was last week already and it was pretty long so it was nice actually being in the classrooms this week. So far I have been enjoying all of my classes and getting to know all my fellow students. The one big difference I have already noticed about the faculty of education is they get right into it right away. With my undergrad degree the first few days and even weeks were pretty slow getting going, but in Education you get right into it which can be a bit overwhelming at times but for the most part everything has been great. I might come back to edit this some more, or maybe ill just make a new post, but for now I'm gonna try and figure out this blogging thing and see what else I can do on this site.