July 19, 2013 · 7:54 pm

URL for Future Vision Project and some other things

My Class website was created to reflect the aspects of my vision for the future of my own teaching practice, as it stands at this minute. It is changing as I am learning and transforming myself. It is unclear if I will be able to use this site or if I am going to be trying to adapt my district provided SharePoint sites to reflect my new understandings of education, and ICT. Major portion of what I would like to continue to develop in this website is my own classroom policies regarding digital literacy BYOB blogging and using Edmodo. One of the biggest takeaways iPod from the school course is to look at the Y why are we choosing the directions were choosing an education what is the pedagogical Rationale behind the decisions that are booked by me and my classroom but also by the school and by the district. For my own personal policy I really do think that a BYOB direction is where we should be headed, because I believe that teachers need to encourage students to learn through and with technology rather than focusing on learning about technology. The rapid changes in terms of availability and capability of devices means that no educator can really keep up with everything that is happening. Students are capable of keeping track of that kind of thing on their own using a wide variety of resources. What we need to do is to show students that these devices that we all have serve purposes both in the educational context as well as the individual entertainment context. Not only that I strongly feel that by analyzing students to make choices about what kind of technology; the particular devices, the apps and programs that they use to complete tasks means that they will develop greater facility with those chosen mediums. This familiarity and facility will make it easier for students to achieve academic success. Students should be able to switch back-and-forth between academic and nonacademic purposes using the devices with which they are familiar. Not to mention that this may increase the likelihood that students will extend their learning beyond the classroom.

So here is my new site:

Class website

URL: http://www.sandilandsclass.weebly.com

I’ve also tried to create a movie containing my plan. It’s really an experiment trying to teach myself how to use iMovie on my iPad. So please excuse the total amateur video.
Final Vision that isn't final
having embedding problems!!!
http://youtu.be/efn18Xkcasw
http://youtu.be/efn18Xkcasw
http://youtu.be/efn18Xkcasw

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· 10:19 am

Summative 10 minutes

Then:
 
I was an emailer
I had accounts to things like Twitter and so many more that I got for my first course in the Diploma program but had not made any attempt to integrate into my life. At all.
I didn’t really think I had an online presence.

I have realized that I need to rethink my own attitude to ICT.
Now:

One of the many things that has struck me during this course was the idea of learning with about and through digital technologies.
I am questioning things and ideas more and thinking more about my audience and the origin of ideas (like who can up with this 21st century skills idea anyway) I have spent more time actually looking into the corporate affiliation of various proponents of educational reform that I have done in the past. I have also spent more time looking into some of the hidden curriculums on the Ministry of educations wesite.

I am still processing many of the concepts and ideas that have been introduced through this course. No doubt this process will continue in the weeks to come.

I have developed part of a vision for the continued integration of technology into my teaching practice, and ideas for collaboration with my new teacher librarian. I am looking into my new school and the culture that it seems to have around technology (se post about my post). I am thinking about ways that I can pursue my own learning goals beyond the boundaries of the diploma program.

I have some platforms and projects that I am eager to try out on real students, oh those lucky gineau pigs!

THings I would like to use:

www.sandilandsclass.weebly.com

Discussion forms
Genius hour

BYOD

and many specific web 2.0 applications to which I have been introduced….

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July 18, 2013 · 11:43 pm

Thursday- Big ideas

In class we did inquiry on the following terms:
1. blind spot
2. blind sight
My synthesis:
We have biases of which we are unaware (blind spots) and yet we act. Our actions are affected by these biases which we do not know about (blindsight).

All of this reminded me of a video by one of my favourite Vloggers:

There are many cognitive biases listed here and I think I am guilty of a number them such as ‘hostile media effect’ and ‘blind spot bias’ of course which is why I am sure that some of the decision makers in the eduction system are afflicted with ‘Semmelweis reflex’, “the tendency to reject new evidence that contradicts a paradigm” and anchoring bias “the tendency to rely too heavily, or “anchor,” on one trait or piece of information when making decisions”, and also pro-innovation bias – ‘the tendency to reflect a personal bias towards an invention/innovation, while often failing to identify limitations and weaknesses or address the possibility of failure.’

Jenny’s rays of hope: neuroplasticity and self-efficacy. Our brains continue to develop for the remainder of our lives, so we should not give up trying to teach an old dog new tricks. We are autopoetic, we will adapt and change. We can rely our PLNs to help us to see our experiences more clearly and to identify and combat our own biases.

This article in Time ‘The Brain: How The Brain Rewires Itself’ By Sharon Begley Friday, Jan. 19, 2007

provides some examples of experimentation done in adults which used Trans-magnetic stimulation to show how experiences such as the act of playing the piano or even thinking of playing the piano can have the effect of developing new neural pathways. Proving that we can teach old dogs new tricks is in fact a ray hope and a source of “crazy making” relief. I am still able to learn new things to change my way of thinking and embrace a paradigm shift. And even more so, colleagues are able to join me in this mind shift.

I wasn’t really sure exactly what self-efficacy meant so I decided to look it up using a website with as little psychobabble as possible and here is what I found out about.com:

According to Albert Bandura, self-efficacy is “the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations.” In other words, self-efficacy is a person’s belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation. Bandura described these beliefs as determinants of how people think, behave, and feel (1994).

I think self-efficacy is what I need to work on next, in the context of being in a new environment with a new group of colleagues. I think I was fairly confident to effect change in my previous position but I think I need to work on my ability to do so in a new context. So far my conclusion but I have to go softly into my new school get to know the culture, get to know the sociocultural forces at work while developing and furthering my own practice using ICT with my own students. Once I’ve gained a toe hold I can start working on effecting change, if change is needed.

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· 11:00 pm

And at 10:47PM I got this…

Here is the email that I received from the Principal:

Welcome aboard. Glad to hear you are excited to be joining us as we are excited to have you come over from the Citadel…I spent a couple years in your backyard as Principal of Hazel Tembath.

I see by Kathryn’s email below you have been briefly acquainted with Maillard, a great school. I am sure much of what we do here is similar to your experiences at Citadel as far as the middle school model goes.

I have been awaiting a few answers from HR before sending an email to staff updating on our staffing. This also delayed my response to you as I still needed to hear about a couple of leaves and placements to determine some best fits and be able to look at all possible scenarios. I will do my best to answer some of your questions and will likely have to provide some more detailed explanations by phone next week or in August when you return from Ontario.

We shook our teams up a bit last year creating teams of 5 that were all cross pollinated between our French and English classes.

We currently have two Gr 6/7 teams, Les Tornades and Les Rapides, and one Gr 8 Team, Les Flammes. (Our new names last year were somewhat elemental if you hadn’t noticed). Each team consists of 2 FRIM classes and 3 ENG classes.

The platooning varies from team to team. We are attempting to keep platooning to a minimum this year, especially in Gr 6/7. We want very strong connections with our core teachers, as with all of our teachers. All Grade 6/7 teachers are teaching math, and we have been known to split our 6s and 7s up. We may be trying a few weeks of straight core teacher to start the year. Those details are still being firmed up.

Our focus from last year is community building as we became a Community HUB school last year. (Those details I will share later, long story). We have also loosely held onto out several year long numeracy goal. This will be a constant moving forward as will some of our core academic competencies…all of which will be connected to our main goal of Social Emotional Learning. In particular our focus on self awareness and social awareness. Our big picture SEL goals will hopefully be connected directly to improved academic success. Lots of ideas percolating.

Technology. A big focus here at Maillard. They were part of the one to one laptop project about 6 years ago and we have kept some of that momentum up. As with any school we have staff at all ends of the spectrum when considering use of technology. Here are a few infrastructure and device info for starters.

1) we have two labs one just refurbished last year and used by our Teacher Librarian, Stan Yuen for technology Expo. Or downstairs lab’s computers are coming to end of life although we did get new monitors for both labs. Our downstairs lab will likely be repurposed as a learning lab hopefully with some mobile devices and one or two projection areas….this is a money item that may or Amy not happen this year.

2) our 1 to 1 laptops are also coming to end of life and I am considering purchasing a handful of new preowned laptops to keep this resource available on our cart. Again, big $$ ticket item.

3) we purchased 15 net books two years ago and they are used by classes daily on a sign out basis and occasionally for single students use to support learning adaptations or needs.

4) we purchased 18 IPads last year, 4 of which were designated specifically for student services. The others are signed out similar to our net books. The IPads have been agrewt resource for us, and we are waiting on new Admin policy (AP) info coming this Fall to determine whether we can move forward on a few more IPad purchases

5) All teachers have a laptop and an LCD projector (we have had a few break ins and thefts so we need to replenish a couple), even or expo teachers for the most part.

7) Sharepoint is another big focus for us and will likely be renewed next year with e support of our Community HUB LST, Shane Ford. W have set up some new structure and processes through Sharepoint as well as entering into BCeSIS for marks and attendance next year. Classroom pages and blogs or up to date Sharepoint sites will be strongly recommended even for our neophytes!

6) we have considered SMARTboards and have not purchased any as of yet. I had piloted them in our district several years ago at Anmore Elementary then Hazel Trembath. We may consider this technology for our learning lab if I can find some money to set it up.

Bottom line for Maillard is we embrace technology in all forms. We encourage students to bring in their own personal devices and we do allow cell phones/ IPhones and other PODs to be used for learning throughout the school day. With this privilege we attach responsibility and like anything any misuse or digital irresponsibility, comes with consequences. (More on that in September).

We will have a few new staff members with us this year and it may well be that we have an orientation for our newbies…we do meet regularly as staff and will be doing so early over the first few days. We have a late start Wednesday to allow for staff collab time. More on that later as well.

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· 10:57 pm

Wednesday-big ideas

The article that we looked at one first reading made me feel Exactly what I feel that the writer intended me to feel. Indignant that the Board of Education in Los Angeles would spend this money on technology without thinking, at the cost of teachers jobs.

Looking at it more deeply in the class as we did focussing on the “hot button ” words and phrases reveals that I was biased to believe what the author said, and to think that the big bad bureaucratic board office is evil.

What I have come away with is a reminder to delve in to the etymology of ideas. where do the ideas come from what is the corporate or other affiliations of those whose ideas that I am reading. I have been reading many more blogs by teachers, many of them from the US and what strikes me is that even the teachers often are trying to sell their own products, their own materials through the Teachers Pay Teachers website so a lot of what they’re doing is motivated that with

The title itself iPods versus teachers sets up as Jenny pointed out a dichotomy in which the only two alternatives are iPads delivering content or teachers delivering content without technology. Among the many problems with this whole debate is the idea that technology merely enables traditional curriculum to be delivered in the traditional manner: directly to the students who are an empty vessel to receive this curriculum.

Things have got to change. I have first hand experience that that is not a reality. I cannot do everything on an IPad that I can do on a computer. There are things that I can do with it that I can’t do on a computer. It is not a substitute!

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· 11:21 am

Flexing and learning… new plan as of Wednesday

I am now assigned to a new position at another school. As a result my mind is whirling and the possibilities are again endless. so how to focus on what I want to do with my vision for my future. plan 2.0

  • in my teaching I would like to use Edmodo to share files, push notifications, organize communication, and connect with parents.
  • I would like to have a website and use blogging with students. I would like the blog to serve as a kind of electronic portfolio, and these blogs could be used for student reflection
  • I would like to do some kind of Genius Hour, a student driven inquiry project to use as a platform for teaching information and digital literacy skills.

http://www.sd43.bc.ca/Resources/DigitalCitizenship/PermissionLetters/Permission%20letter%20for%20using%20non-Canadian%20Internet%20services%20-%20Edmodo.pdf
Permission Form for Edmodo (PDF)

I am going to create a new class website using Weebly at www.sandilandsclass.weebly.com

The pages on this class website will each have a rational and resources for embracing each of these ideas: Edmodo, BYOD, Genius Hour. It will also link to a class blog and to students own blogs.

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July 16, 2013 · 7:45 pm

First news about my new Position

Here is the email trail surrounding my new position (I have pasted the text only):

My offer:

Hi Merrin,

 We would like to offer you posting #76 a 1.0 continuing contract at Maillard Middle teaching Grade 6/7.

 Please be advised that in accordance with the collective agreement, you have 48 hours to either accept or decline the offer.

 Thank you

My response:

Hello XXXXXX,

I would be happy to accept the grade 6/7 position at Maillard Middle.
This is the first position I have had at a new school in many years, and I am unsure of the next step. Should I contact the principal myself? How will I get more information about this position? Should I wait to be contacted? I realize you are busy but any info would be appreciated.

Merrin Sandilands

Sent from my iPad

 

 
Then I received this:

Merrin,
Welcome to Maillard! I am pleased to hear you have accepted the 6/7 position at Maillard. I am sure you have many questions and would be more than happy to help you. Perhaps e-mail is the best way to do this now? XXX, our principal and I will be in and out of the building all summer but we will be back to work full time on August 19th. If you would like to meet, we can let you know when we are going to be at the school. Or, I’d be more than happy to touch base with you in Port Moody where I live. I am around all summer but XXX will be away for much of the summer with his family.You mention that you have been at one school for some time. Where were your last teaching assignments? If you’ve never been at middle, it’s a great place to be, lots of high energy and wonderful magical things going on, regularly!             

I look forward to meeting you and to learning more about you in the months to come! Congratulations on accepting a change as I know it is not always easy to move.              

Enjoy the beautiful sunshine and your summer!

So I sent: this take note of the bolded line because that is the reason I have posted this entire thing)

Hello XXX,

Thank you for your welcome! I was very happy to receive your email, as I was busily trying to draft one myself.

I am very happy to be joining Maillard. I have been at Citadel Middle School for the last six years (though in different positions) so this will be my first experience with joining a new school at the beginning of a school year. Most recently I was teaching grade 8 humanities and math, but I have also taught grade six language arts, student services and library. Although I was sad to leave, I am excited to experience a new school, meet new people and try new things. I am very glad to have been given a Middle School Position, and am excited to be get started!

 I would welcome a chance to meet, though I will be in Ontario from July 30 until August 20. I am currently working on a diploma in teacher librarianship, and am at UBC completing a course entitled “Media and Technologies in the School Library Program”, and must be on campus during the day until Friday. I live in Vancouver but would be happy to come out to the school at your convenience.

Some initial questions include: what will my specific teaching position be? What are the configurations of teams at Maillard? Are there are any other new staff coming to Maillard? Do you have a new staff orientation? Because of the nature of my coursework I am also very curious about available technology and its use at Maillard. I am sure that there are many more questions as well, but I will start with those few.

I look forward to meeting you, Mr.XXX, and the rest of the staff!

 
And now I wait…

 

 

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· 7:32 pm

Considerations of Audience and where I am at today

Originally when thinking about my plan, my “Future Vision for encorporating ICT into my practice”, I was imagining presenting my plan to a group of colleagues at my former school where I knew there was a postioin that I may get. I envisioned trying to pursuade them to join with me to experiment with BYOD, Edmodo, and blogging. I imagined us then having had some results qnd being able to go to the wider staff group in order to encourage a greater adoption of ICT in the school. I felt that in order to reach the more technophobic member of staff it was important to present a limited number of new ICT resources so as not to overwhelm them and to provide real local examples of it in use in our school context so that those teachers could see the benefits of using ICT both for students and for themselves.

Now that my teaching position is settled however I am looking at another audience for a presentation of my own personal plan. I will create a plan for myself for the upcoming year in my new class and present it to our LIBE477 class, as well as my PLN for feedback and support. Perhaps a screen cast or movie with a demonstrations of how elements of my plan fit together? I could then post the that at my own personal blog to get feedback from others.

Looking for my Domain name on godaddy.com

I have yet to decide how I will present it, but my attempts to manipulate my public site are getting mixed results.  I am at the moment (as of 7pm) experimenting with Weebly for Education and have looked into purchasing my own domain name. I am using advice from thesitewizard which lists GoDaddy as the worlds largest Domain name registrar. In this picture it shows that sandilandsclass.ca is available as a domain name and that I could register it for $12.95/year. I am not quite ready for that level of commitment at the moment, though it is an idea. If I own my own domain name I can still use Weebly to build the site, for free. If I used Weebly to register the domain they charge a whole lot more.

One Benefit that I have encountered so far to creating student blogs using Weebly is that the student interface uses drag and drop just as the teacher site does. It will be much easier for the students to modify and customize their pages in comparison to SharePoint. It seemed like bulk adding student was very easy and I added two test students Student A and Student B. It appears that you are able to add unlimited student accounts, though to get full functionality (like letting student’s upload multimedia) requires an upgrade to Pro.  I am going to work now on content regarding BYOD, Edmodo, and blogging to encorporate into my site.

 

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· 4:55 pm

visual literacy and design based learning

what is design based learning?
“Design-based learning (DBL) is a form of project-based learning in which students learn what they need to learn in a just-in-time fashion while trying to design something” http://www.lrdc.pitt.edu/schunn/research/design.html
Here is an example of a school that is using this approach to teach a multidisciplinary program at the middle school level:

How does this apply to me? I am teaching myself to use an application with a URL that I can present as my final project. As I design this final product, I am learning the things I need to know as I go.

At this moment I am looking more deeply into SharePoint, so that I can decide if I want to continue to use it for my class website and to create class and student blogs. I was provided this link by our staff Development department “SharePoint Blogs” (I don’t think you can get in without a username and password).

So I have included several screen shots. They have provided examples templates, and How to Documents.

Example of Teacher Blog page

Example of the Student Blog

Both of the example templates shown here look very “SharePoint” and I am not sure that I am a fan of the layout or the possibilities for personalization for me or my students.  There is not the easy of use that other Blogging platforms have. Especially Weebly, which with its drag ang drop style, is my favourite  to set up so far. That being said, the page provided by the district has many useful document and links related to creating and using blogs including:How do I create a classroom Blog  ,    Connecting Blogs to Windows Live Writer XP, and perhaps most usefully of all Blog Rubrics.

There is also a link to a site called “Teachers First Blog ideas for the classroom“, which has some good ideas about how to use the blogs.

I may not be tied to the idea of SharePoint, but the idea of having the district supported platform does have some appeal both because there will be no FIOPPA related issues, but also because from my initial explorations into the digital world of my new school I can see that there are several teachers making use of their SharePoint websites and no evidence of links to any non SharePoint teacher/class sites. It may be best to start off here and then look into other possiblities when I have a chance to settle in. To this end I have put in an IT request to migrate my site to my new school and have put in a request to my new admin for more info.

A next step is to further investigate Edublogs, as that is the only blogging site for which a permission form exists on the  district’s “Cloud Tools” page.

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July 15, 2013 · 10:28 am

future vision project: Action plan for 2013/2014

I’m thinking the moment that my future vision project will encompass next year imagining that I am at my same school that I’ve been teaching grade 7 on a new team. I am thinking about this because I know there’s a job available and it’s possible that I’ll be recalled to this position, but I find it easier to plan
1. I’m going to create a virtual classroom and begin using Edmodo
2. I’m going to implement a BYOB program in my classroom.
3. I’m going to combine ICT teaching and learning with information literacy learning language arts and social studies curriculum incorporating genius hour.

In order to do this I’m going to enlist other members of my team and try to make this a team wide policy. I want to prepare a presentation to show my team. Provided that this goes well on the team level the presentation could also be given to the administration or the entire staff at a staff meeting in fact should be given to the administration in order to get permission to implement these programs.

In order to do the three things above I need to create the Edmodo environment
and figure out if I would need a class website in addition to the Edmodo interface. I think I need to provide blogs for students in order to support their own learning and sharing through the course of their genius hour projects. I will need to organize and personalize the permission forms for this.

I need to look into the necessary structures for BYOD within the school’s code of conduct, whether there is room to create an individual classroom policy.

Another new idea coming from someone’s 10 minutes of Fame: Genius Hour
I found this comment about Genius Hour:
“One thing that you probably thought about when you first heard of genius hour is that you don’t have time to do something like that in your classroom. I’m here to tell you that simply isn’t true. It’s human nature to challenge a new idea when it first enters your ears. We can’t help ourselves but try to poke holes in why something can’t be done. The path of least resistance is often the easiest route to take, because we don’t have to take any action.”

I would love to focus on collaborating with the TL to work on the Genius Hour project with advice from the MACC teachers who do this kind of projects already with the gifted students and why should they have all the fun?

During class today I learned that the position that I was dreaming of was giving to someone else. I am a bit at see, but am not changing the framework of my project unless I get an offer before the end of the week. I really find it easier to imagine a concrete situation.

I have been offered a grade 6/7 position at a different Middle School. Their APL says “This year, several of our grade 6/7 classes are participating in the 1 to 1 Wireless Writing Project, which provides each student, and their teachers, with a laptop computer.” This is all I know about the school and its technology I don’t know when I will be able to get more information.

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