Category: Reflections

Photo by Thomas Park

With the current world situation many instructors have had to take their classrooms to the digital world. For myself I have not had troubles with it and do not see my grades being effected in any way. Mainly on this blog I want to just share how my experience throughout this semester has been, as well as give a few tips to students who may find themselves struggling in an online learning environment. Overall it was disappointing for me to have my first official year at university be online because I feel like I have missed out on the whole experience and excitement of my accomplishment. That said, I am extremely impressed with how much communication and collaboration can get done online.

Photo by Chris Montgomery

Zoom offers a variety of ways for students to engage in the class in personable way. For myself, I find it is a lot easier to get distracted just staring at a screen and it’s easy for your eyes to wander around the room! Keeping engage throughout the whole session can be very difficult but to help with that I encourage you turn your camera on! By having your camera on, you’re keeping yourself accountable to pay attention during the class because others can see you. I also think it is a good way to have your instructors recognize you and in some ways get to know you better. Coming from a student perspective I cannot believe what it would be like to just teach a bunch of black screens in hopes that everyone is listening attentively.  Something I am appreciating with online school is the amount of extra time I am gaining.  The time it takes to get to the school, find parking and then get to class would roughly take me a good hour. I easily have an extra 8-10 productive hours each week just from excluding the commute, I don’t have to going anywhere since all my resources are accessible with a click. I will say that any class longer than 90 minutes is extremely hard on me, especially my eyes. Even if I have gotten an appropriate amount of sleep, spending so much time on the screen makes me very tired. I usually have to take a short nap on days with multiple classes to refresh my brain, which is actually something I did just before writing this!

Synchronous and asynchronous classes can also impact student success with online learning. This semester I found that a lot of my instructors did a really great job of incorporating both of theses styles equally within the course. I think it’s good to have that structured time with a class to keep everyone relatively working at the same pace and on track. Giving students a week to review any asynchronous materials is completely doable, it all depends on an individual’s ability to time manage. My biggest advice, go into online learning with a positive attitude and be open to any new resources your instructors give you, they’re usually very helpful! Here’s a list of other things I have found to make my experience this far successful:

These are some of the checklists I have made over the semester!

• Make checklists, this can be a good way to keep track of weekly assignments especially if you are using multiple learning platforms.
• If possible have a separate working space away from your bedroom, this helps your brain associate school work and home as two different things.
• Get dressed!! Putting on “real clothes” example not just a hoodie and sweatpants can make you feel more motivated and energetic!
• Turn your camera on and participate in class discussions! Engage in your own learning, you’re only going to get out of the course what you put into it so actively participating in group discussions is very beneficial.
• Take breaks, make sure to take breaks between your classes or before you start working on other assignments. Getting out of the house and getting fresh air is always a great idea and it stimulates brain activity.

Something talked about frequently in the world of education and encouraged throughout BC’s curriculum is inclusion. This refers to a variety of things, but the key point to get across is that segregation of student’s based on their learning abilities in a classroom is not benefiting those students in the way they need to be. All students need to be welcomed into their classrooms, supported by their teacher and given access to the resources they need to succeed while in an environment amongst their peers. For this week’s class we had a guest speaker Chantelle, who works with BCedAcesss, which is a non-profit organization that “supports families of students with disabilities or who are complex learners reach their full potential in BC education.” A lot of the concepts she spoke to were similar to ideas that have been brought up throughout the semester in different courses, mostly in relation to adaptability and understanding that each student has different learning needs.

Photo by Bud Helisson

One of Chantelle’s main focuses was how technology can be used as an inclusive tool to ensure that all students can engage in their learning at the same level as others. Items such as glasses are considered to be a type of technology that are created for individuals who were not blessed with 20/20 vision, myself being one of them! Imagine sitting in a classroom and having all your peers answering questions and having conversations about the information on the board but, you are unable to see because you are not given glasses and therefore cannot participate in any classroom activities. In a similar way students with learning disabilities and distinctions who are not provided with the right tools/technology are being deprived of the opportunity to engage in their learning the same way as others. There is a lot of technology available to enhance student’s abilities. As a teacher you need to provide these resources to your students and be adaptable in your classroom to meet their needs. I am going to share few examples of learning disabilities I researched online and share one way that as I teacher I can help those students get the most out of their education.

• Auditory processing disorder (ADP), affects the way a student hears.  Provide them with a visual aid tool such as a tablet to use during class time with the layout of classwork and activates.
• Language processing disorder (LPD), makes it difficult for a student to communicate and organize their thoughts. Give clear instruction and provide them with extra resources to refer to when working through activities (such as specific criteria sheets and very detailed activity sheets that go step by step).
• Dysgraphia, affects writing abilities and can cause difficulties with spelling, poor handwriting and trouble putting thoughts on paper. I can give these students access to a computer where they can type and organize their thoughts better by having the ability to easily copy and paste. They could also use the speech-to-text feature.

The importance of IEP’s (individualized education plan) often came up in my discussion group. Part of creating an environment for your students to succeed in, is understanding their needs. Taking the time to read through IEP’s and possibly getting the students to fill out a survey at the beginning of the year reflecting on their own learning style can be very beneficial for both the students and the teacher. Communication with the student’s as well as with parents is crucial to determine what a child needs and is much easier they just making your own assumptions. Overall this guest speaker helped me to realize that communication and mutual respect are crucial for building relationships and setting up your students for success.

In this week’s class we explored different programs that can be used in elementary classrooms in regards to coding. I vaguely remember using one of these programs when I was in elementary school and never thought about it as coding when I was younger. I personally really like this program and I think it is a fun and easy way for young kids to start learning these types of concepts. For this post I have recorded a tutorial that I made for Scratch after spending some time watching some of the tutorials they provide on the program. I encourage you all to go check out Scratch!

Photo by Chris Montgomery

In this reflection I want to talk about EdCamps, something we discussed in class at the beginning of the week.  They are participant-driven conferences that are usually catered to k-12 educators although, I think EdCamps would be extremely beneficial for other careers besides education. Due to the circumstances we had to take this activity to the digital world and it was great! It was like being at a conference, there were a variety of workshops you could sign up for if that particular topic interests you. As a class we created different topics and started our own virtual EdCamp. These days collaboration is an essential part of the learning process. This activity is all driven by participant collaboration and engagement. When you have the choice, to pick something that interests you, you are much more engaged in the material which will be more beneficial for your learning overall. I appreciated being able to not only participate in one miniature seminar but several. By using technology I was literally able to float into other conversations and participate in their discussions with the click of a button.

Photo by Jo Szczepanska

I was quite excited to have an opportunity to discuss with other colleagues about different career options that are available to teachers. We mentioned how there are many places in Canada and all over the world that have a need for ESL teachers, lots of places would just take high school graduates so having a BED degree would make you quite desirable in most circumstances. We also discussed that there is a whole other side of administrative work that you could eventually progress to. This is something that really intrigues me because quite often I think about developing my career towards becoming a principle one day. During this class I felt that everyone was actively listening and participating, I thought it was such a great activity to do and I hope to do more!

This week I felt inspired to try out some screen casting of my own since I have found them so useful in other videos I have watched through this class. Screencasts allow you to view someone else screen while also listening to a voiceover, it would be a great way to record a slideshow presentation. I saw that one of my other colleagues posted a screencast about adding a page to their menu bar so I wanted to make sure I did something different that could be useful to my fellow blogger newbies! My screencast shows this awesome plugin I found and swear by when creating blogs. I would like to incorporate photos that I take myself into my blogs but I find instant images so easy to use and find high quality photos that fit perfectly with my different posts. Anyways that’s enough for this blog post, I want to save some fun for the screencast!

I have never been someone who does videography or even a more professional style of photography. A lot of times when editing photos or long video clips I use very generic apps that are highly rated on the app store. One problem with this, is that usually the picture quality suffers because some applications actually make a picture look worse and more blurred out.  They also are very limited in the range of actions you can complete unless you buy a subscription, to the extent that you can edit is very basic. One of the assignments for this upcoming week was to explore a few different programs to use when editing video clips.  I have a HP laptop that uses windows software so I made sure to download the programs  that were compatible for my device.  DaVinci video editing was the one recommended and some of my other instructors have encouraged that software as well. The file size was quite large for my computer and after having it for a couple days I noticed other functions on my device not working the same (camera and audio). I went through the coinciding workshop with the DaVinci video editing software and I found it to be very useful. It was the highest quality of editing tool that I have ever used and it was easy to navigate through because the workshop had very specific steps to follow. On other applications I have used, I’ve been able to do very minimalistic editing that included shortening and cutting out clips. DaVinci showed me slide transitions, ways to manage the sound and how to add titles to the clips.

Photo by Avel Chuklanov

After reading through other classmates posts, I noticed that a colleague of mine had also dealt with similar computer issues with the DaVinci software. They used an editing app called Inshot, which I found easily on the google play or apple store for free download. I took the app for a spin and found it extremely easy to use and the quality of the work it produced was very impressive for a free app. I definitely plan to use this again in the future! I hope you enjoy this compilation of my sweet boy Bentley.

Recently I watch the documentary most likely to succeed directed by Grey Whiteley. I found this film to be very interesting and eye opening. The documentary is focused on High Tech High which is a high school located in San Diego. At this school, teachers have full freedom to teach in their own style without following a strict curriculum. Their approach to teaching makes the student’s accountable for their own learning successes. Grades are not praised and standardized testing is not relevant.  A lot of educational history is provided and raises awareness that the educational system is not changing with the complex world around it. Students are learning for the desire to pass a test so they can achieve acceptance into a renowned post secondary institution.  Which makes me wonder if tests are really suitable for determining the intelligence and competence of an individual.

Photo by Chris Liverani

Tests are specific and often have questions where there is only one acceptable answer. Students will vigorously study their notes and textbooks to drill every last bit of information into their brain. That won’t help them to retain any information or enhance their knowledge. It will be information that is briefly remembered for a short period of time until the test is completed. I can speak from experience, if you ask me anything that was on my Pre Calculus 12 exam I bet that 9 times out of 10 I wouldn’t know the answer.  If students are so focused on getting into post secondary that they are truly not retaining anything in class how is that beneficial in the long run. High Tech High focuses more on developing each individual into a young, capable adult through project based learning.  Many employers these days are looking for critical thinkers who are creative, collaborative and successful in group environments. The education system isn’t geared to produce well-rounded thinkers. Instead the system can be proud of a high school graduate possibly being able to identify the atomic mass of an element.  Not every education system is flawed and I think universal education for primary age groups is important to build strong foundational skills. In higher level grades stepping back like the instructors at High Tech High and creating a more collaborative work environment will have a positive impact on the next generations of students.