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!
Monday, September 30, 2013
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Monday, September 23, 2013
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.
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.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
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.
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.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
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!
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
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.
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