I want to show off this great app that I found. It's called "Starlight" and it is great for the grade 6 Science unit on the Solar System.
Basically how it works is you go outside with it, point it up at the sky, and it tells you which stars, constellations, and planets are in that direction. On a clear night you'll be able match up the screen with the sky, and maybe even see the planets.
This is a great app as students learn about constellations and planets, and it gives them the opportunity to track the changes in the night sky. It would obviously work best if students had access to devices while at home so they could see this at night, whether it was their own, or a device given to them for 1:1 computing purposes from the school division.
It's currently selling for $1.19 on the app store, but every once in a while it is available for free, so check it out!
Viewing videos can be a great way to introduce a subject or reinforce learning, and the creation of videos can be a great way to show what students have learned.
I have used video when teaching grade 7/8 Social Studies on the Medieval period. I found that the students were much more attentive to the video with it's pictures and reenactments than just me talking about the subject. I also gave my students the option of creating a video as their final project, which many of them did.
YouTube can be a great place to find videos, but you can also run into some terrible videos there too, along with many ads. One website that is really great for finding reliable educational videos on YouTube, TED, or other locations is watchknowlearn.org
Here's a video I found introducing the Greek gods:
I would use this video as an introduction to Greek mythology. Students would view this video in order to learn the different Greek gods. There's also a video on the goddesses, that would go well either right after, or possibly the next day so students are not overwhelmed with all the new information.
After learning about the gods and goddesses, students would be able to learn some of the myths and understand the characters more. This understanding of characters and myths would introduce students to Ancient Greek culture.
I would also love to be able to do a culminating assignment where students create a video of their own that reflects their learning. It would be great if they were able to post it on YouTube as well so their learning could be shared with other classrooms.
watchknowlearn.org has a lot more videos as well that would be great for different lessons in math, science, language arts, and Phys Ed. It's a great resource for all teachers.
Today we had Kelli Boklaschuk from the Brandon School Division come and do a presentation for our class. She is the Communications and IT person for the division, and had a lot to tell us about technology in the division.
She was challenged with the task of bringing the Brandon School Division to a 1:1 computing state, and discussed with us the challenges that come with that. The budget is obviously the most challenging aspect, as it takes a lot of money to purchase computing devices for students, and it also takes training of the teachers. There is no point in having devices for all students if the teachers don't know how to use them in the classroom. Teachers need to be trained on how to use devices, how to incorporate technology into their lessons, and what is appropriate digital citizenship.
She showed us a site called Popplet were we created an online bulletin board with connected points about digital citizenship vs. general citizenship. We talked about modelling good digital citizenship and being respectful, both online and offline. Popplet itself seems like a great program to use, and it has great educational value.
She also told us about the policies in the Brandon School Division regarding showing student work, photographing students, having students participate in digital activities, and other policies. Social media is a big one, since most teachers are on some kind of social media, or store their files in the cloud. It is important for any teacher working in the division to understand the policies that are in place.
All in all, it was very informative and helped me as I will be heading to the BSD in 4 weeks!
Infographics have become increasingly popular in the last few years. Basically they are information graphics (hence the name infographics?) where information is shown through the pictures. Infographics are a great way to find out information quickly, or to see quick facts about a topic.
Here's an example of a couple that would be useful in the classroom:
These infographics would be great to have posted in the classroom, as the one above talks about technology safety, and the one to the left talks about user activity of popular social media sites. Both are really important for students to know, and they can be helpful in teaching different things in the classroom.
I started thinking: what kind of infographic could I make that would be useful in the classroom?
Since ELA is my main teachable subject, and I am working in a student literacy intervention program this semester, here is an infographic I created on literacy:
I made this on Piktochart, and you can make one too for free! Check it out!
I've recently begun listening to a Podcast entitled "The Plus One Show - Educational Technology". It's put out by LevelUpTeaching.com and it is hosted by Chip Dolce who goes through some great tips for instructional technology and the latest things available for classroom teachers.
It's pretty entertaining, and Chip is great to listen to! He encourages teachers to think outside the box, and he discusses what kinds of things are available, like Google classroom and Google labs. He interviews other experts who discuss what kinds of technology they use, including Chromebooks and Google Drive.
Chip also takes questions from listeners and tries to answer them on the air. It's a great way to have your questions answered, as well as help others who might have the same questions as you. All in all, it's a great informational podcast about Ed Tech.
I think podcasts can be a great way to encourage learning in the classroom. It could easily be used as a social studies project, having students discuss current events or historical events in a podcast for their peers to hear, or to summarize learning in a presentation format in a podcast. It would be great to be able to post this publicly as well so that the students' learning could be shared with others.
Podcasts could also be used as an ELA project, and it could really be on any subject at all. I'm looking forward to finding new ways to incorporate podcasts into my teaching!
I didn't think I was all that connected until I started listing all the ways I am!
I use Twitter to communicate with others, mostly in the Educational world. I use Facebook to communicate with friends and family, but also with informational pages. I use blogger to communicate my own thoughts, and Skype to communicate with others. I use Ning and Moodle to communicate with others in BU's Education department.
For photo and videos, I use YouTube and Netflix to view video content and Flickr and Instagram for photos.
I use Itunes to listen to my own music, Songza to listen to playlists (mostly ones I've favourited), YouTube when I'm looking for new music or something specific, and Shazam to connect with music on the radio to find out the name of the song I hear.
For storage I use both Dropbox and Google Drive; Dropbox for files I want stored for later or that I am finished with for now, and Google Drive for my current files and files that I share with others.
For bookmarking, I have a few different things that I use; Symbaloo for educational sites I want saved, Feedly for educational blogs that I follow, Etsy for bookmarking things I like, and Pinterest for bookmarking all kinds of things from lesson plans to recipes.
All in all, I am way more connected than I thought! Check out the mind map I made on Mind Meister:
Today we had a presentation with Martin Ingenmey and Bryce Ridgen from Minnedosa Collegiate on One to One Computing, where each student has access to a device in the classroom. We also discussed the opportunities available for classes that implement 1:1.
Bryce Ridgen teaches high school Social Studies and Math and regularity has his students participate in Social Studies Twitter chats. His students each have a student Twitter account (for school purposes only) where they can routinely participate in chats with experts, ask questions, post selfies and descriptions that summarize what they learned about a specific topic, along with many other things.
Along with being a great way to assess learning (formative assessment), there are many opportunities to teach online etiquette and generally how to have an online presence. This is something that I firmly believe in - teaching students how to have an appropriate online presence. What better way than to actually have them participate online in a somewhat "controlled" environment with the teacher as a moderator?
One of the really important things about using 1:1 is giving students choice on researching topics and showing what was learned. This helps to foster creativity in the students, as well as makes it easier to differentiate to different levels or abilities of learning.
Using videos, vines, and applications like storify, popcorn maker, thinglink, and chatterpix are things students can create to show learning, and applications like padlet and schoology are ways for students to contribute to discussions, post their ideas online, and gain feedback from other students and from the teacher.
All in all, having a classroom with a 1:1 ratio for students and computing devices opens the door for so many possibilities for the teacher and students. As long as technology is used as a tool, not an event, the students will benefit from it. I hope to be able to use technology in this regard in my classroom.
I'll leave you with a great video made by one of Bryce's students:
