Another Day Another Definition

Posted on by
1

I have to say, today was a bit of a tough day for me. Almost at the half-way point, brain filled with new knowledge, revisiting old knowledge, and acknowledging that it is about to be bombarded with even more knowledge yet!

During the lecture today, I could physically feel my brow furrowing and my brain pumping. Jenny, it was so inspiring to see you so passionate about what you teach. Sometimes I get excited and jump and scream with the kids – especially when I find a super awesome new book or story to share with them. It is that kind of energy, passion, and true excitement about learning and education that carries our students along with us.

When I was hired for my 4 month library position at the beginning of March, I was told that although other candidates had more experience than me, none had the same passion and excitement for the job. This true passion and excitement for learning and teaching got me the job! I felt so amazing hearing that, because it proved to me that there are principals and teachers out there who value those things over simply looking at years of experience on a resume. And, for a starting teacher in a competitive job market, this added a shimmering ray of hope to my sometimes cloudy skied outlook when it comes to teaching jobs.

While on the job, I was observed three times by my vice-principal. Upon hearing her comments, I was surprised and pleased to hear her say that she had learned from me. She: a well seasoned and intelligent teacher had learned from me: a beginning teacher with less than five years under my belt. Hooray! The fact that she was even open to learning from someone so her junior was wonderful. And of course, it was a huge confidence booster for me. I hope that many teachers have that outlook (and I know that we all do in this class). For to learn from each other and teach each other is one of the greatest gifts we can give. Cheesy I know, but I really believe that.

Well, I think that’s all I have in me for today. I’ve never been so short-winded. Must be bedtime.

And in honour of bedtime, and books:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yu_g5x3ZoQ

(my favourite is the bowl of mush)

Mind Meister #2

Posted on by
1


Create your own mind maps at MindMeister

Here is the mindmeister that Tess and I were working on today…so far it is as it is when the clock chimed 1:00 and we were shuffled out of the room to our next adventures of the day. My next adventure led me right to the Education Library (woo hoo!) – but only after a 15 minute catnap in the grass outside. It was great to be able to share where my thoughts are headed for this class. Something I didn’t share was the second part to the question…what I am leaning towards in terms of a work in progress project. So, here it is in a nutshell so far:

1. To look at the balance between screen time and time in nature – what is the best way to encorporate both effectively
2. To look at the balance between online connections via social media etc, personal/face to face connections, and spiritual, emotional, etc connections with nature – the best way to do all of this effectively so that one is not getting left behind the others (because I feel all are important in their own ways)
3. And finally, looking at how to connect these different connections – phew! – essentially, how can we use technology and or social media to foster positive change in the environment, resulting in positive and impactful learning experiences for our students.

*Using technology to ENHANCE our learning and teaching rather than simply for the sake of using it.

What Jenny mentioned today about taking iPads out into nature – that was and idea I had that I included in my initial mindmeister (I used that for last Friday’s post). Taking picture of native species, finding out right then and there about those species, and posting findings to a class blog, twitter, instagram, etc. As Jenny reiterated today – this is covering so many concepts with just one project. Yay! I would love to look with more detail into ideas like this.

Again, I am rambling. Two final thoughts:

1. It was great to discuss my thoughts with a fellow student today – Thanks Tess for approaching me!
2. I was so so impressed by everyones’ ideas today – Jenny is right – what a smart bunch of students/teachers you all are!

Dreams

Posted on by
1

You know the teachings of a class are sinking in when they sink right into your dreams on a Saturday night. I had a dream last night that as a class we created an app for teachers in which they could categorize their computers into School, Work, or Play and then connect certain elements of each with a mindmeister-ish function. We were all very proud of ourselves! Just thought I’d share that. Well, I think it’s time for a brain break. Beach here I come.

Pearls, Hashtags, and Popplets – Oh My! – Concept Development as seen through Mindmeister

Posted on by
3

Well, how’s this for trying something new. Jenny I hope it’s okay! I decided to sign up for mindmeister. Liked it immediately. Starting mindmeister-ing. Realized it was turning into a super cool blog post. Hopefully I can share that with you now:

 

http://www.mindmeister.com/308017189

http://www.mindmeister.com/308017189/my-conceptual-development-libe-477

One of the two should work!

Posted on by
2

The term “connected self” has left me thinking/staring blankly at the ceiling although I know the answer isn’t up there, for a good ten minutes now. It is one of those terms that can be looked at in any number of overly confusing ways. Or, it can just be taken literally. As with our discussion today in class regarding the ‘social life’ of information, you are the only one in charge of yourself, and so ultimately, it is your own responsibility to either connect yourself or not.

To be a strong connected self when it comes to technology and information literacy, I feel that it is important to have a strong grasp of what those terms mean. In our group, we looked up a couple of definitions of info lit. Anne-Marie found one that rang true to all of us. We were surprised when we looked at the year of publication and found it to be from 1989: http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency#ildef
But, when we really thought about it, it isn’t information literacy that is new, it’s the way we use it in terms of technology that is changing minute by minute.

In terms of my professional development when it comes to technology and information literacy, I only really push the boundaries when I have someone to push them with me – whether it be a class, a teacher, a colleague, a student, or a friend. Although it is the connected self, couldn’t it also be the connected-self-in-connection-with-other-selves? This, after all, is the basis for social media – which brings me to my next point.

Today was great. I had those ‘someones,’ as mentioned earlier, to push through the barriers of the unknown along with me. I had signed up for Twitter months ago, while my boyfriend and I were stuck in an hour-long traffic stand still on the way back from Whistler. About a week later, I got hacked, had to change my password, and never used Twitter again – until today. Since my friends and I have recently become avid Insta-grammers, the learning curve for Twitter was more like a flat Prairie field than the steep mountain slope of the Pearltree introduction.

But, steep learning curve or not, the best part of today was that we were all doing it together, and learning as a big group. I have always thought that the saying “two minds are better than one” is very true. Today we proved that saying exponentially – there were people helping people, learning, teaching, and discovering all over the classroom. As Jenny pointed out, there are now that many more teachers using these social media sites. Let’s get our voices out there loud and clear!

Why School?

Posted on by
1

Will Richardson’s Why School? was a great read. It managed to be thought provoking and inspiring at the same time as being overwhelming and scary. It did, however, spark some great discussion during class. While I always have lots going on in my head, I sometimes tend to be the student that sits back and let’s the others take over. Today though, I couldn’t help but contribute wholeheartedly throughout our discussion.

Our group was discussing Richardson’s main points in writing the book. We discussed both their merits and downfalls. For example, the teacher that handed his students a PLO and asked them how they wanted to learn about it. I can just imagine the great discussions and inspirations that could come from this type of self-directed learning. But, we considered, students need to be at a certain point academically already to participate in this type of learning. They can’t do their own inquiry based research project without some sort of firm knowledge base in reading, writing, etc. Or can they? Richardson’s got my head spinning here (in an absolute good way).

A couple of years ago I volunteered at a very small independent school in Vancouver. The tiny student population (8 at the time I think) was each working on their own unique and very interesting project – chosen of course by them. A couple of girls were working on a community fundraising initiative by selling handmade items. It was great – what a positive way to learn about community, empathy, and being proactive. It is with skills like this that our future citizens can help repair the shape of our earth. With community and student directed learning perhaps students will learn to foster a better sense of ownership over their learning, and therefore over their home and Mother Nature. Maybe? Hopefully.

But I digress. The point I was aiming to get to a while back was Richardson’s quote from the founder of High Tech High: “we have to stop delivering the curriculum to kids. We have to start discovering it with them.” He follows with “I wrote that down.” Me too, Will, me too. I love learning and am always thirsty for new knowledge and new learning experiences. I love learning right along with my students, so I found this quote exciting and hopeful.

If you haven’t done so already, check out the Ken Robinson videos discussed in our group post from today.

One of my teachers last summer compared us to lemmings, all of us about to blindly jump into the unknown together with the changes to teaching and teacher-librarian-ing taking place right now, especially when it comes to technology. So lets trust each other. Here we go!

Answers to Questions

Posted on by
1

1. What policies govern your uses of ICT in your school setting?

 Since I am a TOC and have no particular school to call home, this is difficult to answer. But, I did spend the last four months working as a TL in an elementary school in Surrey. To be honest, not much of anything went on in the way of ICT. Shortly after arriving, our entire iPad collection was stolen from the school. When I reserved time for my grade 4’s and 5’s to use the computer lab during library time (for reading ebooks and checking out other great websites I had highlighted for them), it nearly knocked their socks off. This was the first time they had used technology in the library, other than to look up information on the catalogue, or watch a movie on the projector.

2. What digital technological resources do you have available for teaching and learning in your school setting?

Again, no particular school to refer to. But, at my old school there was a class set of iPads (until it was stolen), smartboards in a few classrooms, projectors, and one of those camera things that can allow students to watch exactly what you are doing – I know I should know the name or more about it but I am drawing a blank.

 3. Please provide an example of an exemplary use of digital technologies for teaching and learning that you have observed or experienced personally.

While at the private school I worked at for the two years previous to this, I learned many things about integrating technology into the classroom. The TLs and I collaborated on a student led book making project. We followed the lead of Hanoc Piven’s My Best Friend is as Sharp as a Pencil. He has a great app to go along with the story. We then worked with similes, creating pictures on the computer through photographs, collages, and other mediums, and then put it all together into a published Apple book. It was a great adventure and learning experience for all involved. 

4. Please provide an example of a problematic use of digital technologies for teaching and learning that you have observed or experienced personally.

 I was helping out a class of grade 6/7s in the computer lab while they did research for their projects on extreme environments. The teacher had me walk around and check for students who were just copy-pasting from Wikipedia and the likes. Welcome to plagiarism city! They were using the computers for research, but were just blindly putting down information. It was a poor/problematic use of technology, teaching, and learning.

5. Please provide a brief history of how you learned to use digital technologies (personally and professionally).

 Working at the private school gave me plenty of opportunities to become quite competent with smartboards. My LIBE and LLED classes last summer were a great place to extend this knowledge. I learned about the “camera thingy” that I mentioned before, as well as many types of blogs and interesting sites and online resources I hadn’t heard of. I now use Prezi quite regularly and have created a number of blogs – most recently a summer reading blog for my old library. On my own as well, I have learnt about digital technologies simply through using them. I am currently in the market for an iPad, after having one with the library for the past four months. I also have an uncle who is a whiz of a techie, and a great teacher. He has taught me lots.

6. How would you rate your digital technological proficiency? 0 = low level of proficiency -> 10 = high level of proficiency? Why did you give yourself this rating?

 6. I feel that I am aware of many technologies out there, but am not necessarily a competent user of them. I would definitely like to me more confident in this area.

7. What do you hope to accomplish in this course?

It would be great to bump that 6 up to maybe an 8 – to be more confident with digital technologies, to broaden my knowledge base of good technological options and to learn how to use them correctly, competently, and so that the students can gain the most from their learning experiences with them.