Hi Everyone!
My name is Trish Roffey and I am from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada! This term is exciting as I am completing my 8th and 9th MET course! I am one of those very geeky girls that loves to take risks and jump into the deep end to try anything and everything that could help to transform the learning experience of our students. Actually that is pretty much my job description as well! I am an Emerging Technology Consultant for my school district. I have 96 schools, 3500 teachers and 40,000 students that I work with! I work with a team of 4 other inspired educators who are also passionate about educational technology. My personal role on the team is to do what hasn’t been done before! I specialize in coding, robotics, makerspace, assistive technology, VR, AR, and all things Google! In a single day I can be found working with teachers and students in multiple schools to build a computer using a Raspberry Pi, code a poetry generator, developing flight simulator using recycled materials, create our own Mars Rovers, take a field trip to swim with the sharks in Virtual Reality, and hack a word wall to make it talk! I work with students from preschool to Grade 12 with a special focus on our most at risk students and how we can use technology to transform the learning experience and allow for tasks that would have previously been inconceivable for them.
I am really hoping that I can explore using technology to enhance mathematics and science for students who struggle in a way that does not simply digitize or replace a traditional learning task. So often technology is a simple substitution and I want to use this term to explore transformation of learning in a way that all students, especially those with special needs, can enjoy and explore both science and math again. These are courses where our fringe students fall behind or a locked out, and I hope to be able to use technology to help change that.
When I am not plugged in I am a girl who likes to be lost in nature with my three kids and two dogs experiencing the “real” world.
I am excited to get to know everyone in the course!
Trish
Nice to meet you, Trish! It sounds like you have a wonderful job description that allows you lots of creative risk taking! I’m fascinated by learning more about how technology can be used to support students who may struggle in traditional classrooms and how technology can be used to redefine learning tasks especially in math and science, which isn’t an area I had previously paid much attention to. Looking forward to learning with you!
Hi Trish,
Very cool! Curious though, what is a talking word wall?
I am hoping that this course will allow me to explore some new ways to integrate tech to support STEM courses too. I agree there are some pretty simple/traditional strategies that work well, but I am always on the hunt for new and effective.
Cheers,
Kari
Well if you have not yet played with a Makey Makey invention kit you definitely need to check it out. https://makeymakey.com/
We take a traditional word wall and then wire it up with copper tape, tin foil etc connected to a Makey Makey, then we code our voices using Scratch. When the kids touch a word on the wall they will hear their voice, see a picture etc. This was a tremendously exciting project for some ELL students I was working with and really helped their vocabulary development. So we extended the idea to make many more interactive bulletin boards for all kinds of curriculum areas.
Hi Trish,
Your job sounds filled with variety, challenge and fun! Many of the projects you mentioned are things that I am intrigued about and I just found myself googling ‘create your own mars rover’ and ‘virtual reality field trips!’ I love learning from other people in each course and I have a feeling I’ll be reading your posts with interest to gain inspiration for my grade 6 classroom! Thanks and good to meet you!
Hello Trish,
I have another Super Geeky “Chic” friend in Edmonton (EPSB), Sherry F. You know her? Do you know about the Chic Geek Summit in Calgary? https://www.thechicgeek.ca/geeky-summit
I am flabbergasted by your tech background and experienced and I am looking forward learning from you!
~Mary
I don’t think Sherry and I have ever met. I will perhaps try and cross paths with her this year. Thanks for the Chic Geek tip, I have never been and it sounds exciting!
SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU AGAIN TRISH!!! My heart is full! haha Is that too cheesy?
It seems like your “resume” has grown even since our time in ETEC565 back a-year-and-a-bit ago, which doesn’t surprise me at all as you’re clearly a real go-getter. I’m happy to hear about all your ventures, and how close you are to completing the program! Slow and steady wins the race… I’m in that boat as well 🙂
Really looking forward to working together again this term. Like you, I’m a little intimidated by the scope of this course, but I’m sure we’ll all survive… as usual… not too worse for wear!
All the best and see you around!
-Scott
My heart seriously skipped a beat when I saw your name too! haha geeky kindred spirits right!!
Great to see you again Trish!
You always amazed me with your tech-savvy. I have started a robotics club at school as well, but I don’t really know any of it, I just get the kids to figure it out (constructivism right?). Looking forward to collaborating and learning from you again.
Dave
Hi Trish,
Nice to see you in a course again:) I believe we took 565M together and I was always amazed at your innovative ideas and energy. I’m looking forward to learning with you again.
Nicole