Tech Task #11 - A Peek Inside Your Classroom

This weeks tech task asks us to think about our future classrooms. To think what it will be like, the must haves, the pedagogy and the overall learning environment. To be honest, this is something that I have been thinking about for the last four years since the beginning of my journey through becoming a teacher. Although I have been constantly thinking about it, my ideas are constantly changing. There are always new ideas and teaching 'must haves' popping up that I know I would enjoy using. If there is one thing that is for sure, my future classroom will be very tech friendly. I've always imagined having a well connected classroom and using technology in my teaching and ECMP355 has given me many resources and tools to work with to achieve that goal. I want to lay out what I have learned in this semester to paint a picture of what my future classrooms may look like. 

BLOGGING - I hope that blogging will be a big part of my future classroom. Through this class I have been able to explore many classroom and student blogs and have really enjoyed it. The process for students is so engaging to having their own blog as well as it lets parents explore their child's learning process. Sue Waters did a wonderful ETMOOC presentation on Student Blogging. I would highly recommend anyone wanting to start student and classroom blogs to check out the session.

This semester in ECMP355, I myself, have learned the importance of blogging and staying connected. The benefits I have experienced would be the same for student blogging. Some benefits I have noticed are that I've grown my personal learning network and it keeps growing! Things like reading other blogs, commenting, receiving comments and making connections through Twitter all have expanded my learning network. Genuine writing experiences are created through blogging. My blog allows me to write whatever I want to write and student blogs will allow them the same opportunities, it's also a great way to get students writing who don't like using a pencil and paper. They also have an audience to read their writing which makes the experience motivating! 

GOOGLE - This semester I have really learned more about Google- that it is more than just a search engine. I've gone from using it only as a search engine every now and then to using it daily on my phone and computer on Google Drive, using Google Hangouts to connect with others, keep track of the blogs I follow with Google Reader and much much more. I've been able to use Google Drive everyday whether it was taking quick notes of things I need to remember to essays to major projects. What I like most is that it saves without me having to remember to hit save and that it syncs immediately to my phone and other devices.  I will definitely be using Google Drive in my future classroom with students. One tool in Google Drive that I will find myself using often is the Google Forms because there is so much I could do with the forms for my students, parents and staff. Also Google Docs is a great way to have student collaborate on any project or assignment.

TWITTER - I enjoy using Twitter, it's a great way to stay connected. I struggled at the beginning of this class thinking of how I would use it in a classroom because I felt that it wasn't particularly beneficial for young children. My opinion was completely changed after listening to one of our sessions #6 Technology in the Primary Classroom, where some wonderful teachers (@techieang, @kathycassidy and @KLirenman) who explained how they used Twitter DAILY in their classroom. They were using Twitter in creative ways which I wouldn't have even thought of before! One mentioned that they would read tweet each day and do grammar and spelling checks on the tweets. Now that I have followed classroom tweeters, I feel like it is something I would want to bring into the classroom. 

These three things, blogging, google and twitter, will form the base of my classroom. My classroom will be emerged into technology and be well connected. The possibilities are endless, which is very exciting!

Tech Task #10 - Best Ideas

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this session live, however I watched the recording and found three wonderful presenters who I learned a lot from. I enjoyed the session on Technology in the Middle Years because they provided lots of valuable to resources and ideas that I can use, not only if I were a middle years teacher but also ideas that are relevant to the primary grades as well! The following are some of the ideas from the presenters that I liked best and feel like I would use.

Heather Durin
@hdurin 
heatherdurin.com
One thing I thought was so interesting that Heather talked about what the online radio station, 105theHive. I've never heard of this kind of thing before so I think that is why I found it interesting. This is a place where students and teachers can connect! This is a tool that allows students to broadcast their learning and be excited about it! I am so excited about this tool right now that I can't wait to use it. I have actually been listening the last half hour and it is wonderful! This would be great for students to show off their work, also for those band and music students to provide some entertainment live as well! This would also be great for primary grades because there are so many things that could broadcast: poems, songs, a journal entry, etc.

Royan Lee
@royanlee
The Spicy Learning Blog
Something that interested me about Royan was the fact that his classroom was paperless. I remember a while ago on the news there was a high school somewhere in Saskatchewan that was making the change to be a paperless school. While the idea seems a tad frightening it is also SO; exciting at the same time because it is bringing in today's technology along with being environmentally friendly for the most part. I'm not sure how well this would work with primary students because it is so important for them to be able to learn to draw and write and hold a writing tool properly. So for the younger grades, I do not see it being beneficial for being one hundred percent paperless but to for sure have technology be a big part of the classroom. (It IS awesome and beneficial for middle years, I bet they love it!)

Clarence Fisher
@glassbeed
Remote Access
I found it interesting that Clarence talked about differentiation and technology and said that students won't always be motivated by the same tools. This is something I never really had thought about before. Just like teachers differentiate learning all around the classroom, it is important to differentiate the tools the students use and how they use them. I am now aware of the differing technology needs for all students and have definitely put much more thought into this. 

The presenters were great and all shared many valuable ideas for us to use in our future classrooms! It's too bad I wasn't able to attend this session live and connect with them live as I was working. It is great that I am able to follow these educators on Twitter to be able to connect whenever I need.

Tech Task #9 - Are You Well Googled?

Here are the results of my name Googled. All the information that comes up is actually about me as I have a pretty uncommon last name. Most of the things that come up are about Pinterest, Prezi, and my blogs. I was surprised that Twitter and Facebook didn't come up in the search. In the next nine pages my name comes up a lot with more Pinterest, TeachersPayTeachers and Stampin' Up! pages that I am on as well as online obituaries. I found it interesting how Good Reads is the top thing that comes up on my search because its a book app I downloaded in December and haven't even used since then. Also, my Google+ account shows up but it isn't something I use regularly...or at all. 

I am pleased with the results although in the future I would like to see my blogs to one of the top search results. I am hoping to create classroom blogs in the future. All my results are really positive so I am happy with that.

Tech Task #8 - Blogging from Mobile Device

Hi everyone! I feel like I've been away from my blog for a while. I have to admit, the past few weeks have been tremendously busy! I can finally feel the end of the semester..but not the end of winter.

I am really hating the amount of snow that is still here. Last year at this time, it had all been melted. I watched a video last night of my friend ditch boarding (wakeboarding in waterfilled ditches) on St. Patricks Day last year. It's starting to get really sad because I cannot yet see the end of winter soon.

I am excited because next year, I will not see snow once! (Hopefully!) I found out last night that I have been offered a position to teach in Australia for a year. I've accepted the offer and I'm really quite anxious! Everything will happen pretty quick as I leave in July, so the next four months will be spent working as many shifts as I can, getting a VISA, an Australia Teaching License and a bunch of other paperwork and planning. I'm very excited and grateful that I have been given this fabulous opportunity.

This was a post from my phone using the Blogger app for iPhones!

Tech Task #7 - IFTTT Recipes

Tech Task #7 required us to set up an account and make recipes on IFTTT. IFTTT stands for "IF THIS THAN THAT" which allows you to create "recipes" or connections in a statement that will trigger your "ingredients" or channels/social media spaces. You can make your own recipes any way you choose! I've gotta say, this is probably one of the coolest and easiest ways to stay connected!

Here are two recipes I have already created. 

If BLOGGER then TWITTER: 

This is a recipe I linked to both my blogger account and twitter account. What this recipe will do is it will tweet a message that I specified to include that I made a new blog post, the name of the post, labels from the post, and a link to the post. We will test this out after I post this post! I love this because I usually always forget to tweet out my new blog posts. This requires NO thinking or remembering on my part, IFTTT does it all for me! 

If INSTAGRAM then TWITTER:

Here is another recipe I created and linked to both my Instagram and Twitter accounts. Just like the one above, this recipe will tweet my new Instagram posts when I post pictures. I enjoy using Instagram but I rarely tweet out my images, mainly because I forget (I'm a forgetful person!). This will tweet out the caption and hashtags of of my post along with a link to the picture! This is so exciting, I will have to post a new Instagram to give this a go!


I will more than likely be creating more IFTTT recipes because I feel that they are just so handy! I like that you can specify and customize the actions and ingredients to make the recipe work for YOU!

If you haven't already, give it a go! 

Tech Task #5 - One Second Story

For the last part of Tech Task #5, I decided to do Video Assignment 213. I guess when I initially read the assignment, I read it wrong. So I ended up creating a compilation of one second snippets from my weekend. I just realized now that it was to only be just one second all together. So, first we have my 30 seconds of one second stories montage.



And lastly, we have the real purpose of the assignment. The power of one second. This video is of my little friends in South Africa. (Its actually 3 seconds long because YouTube wouldn't let me upload anything less than 3 seconds.)

(watch in 1080p for best quality)

Tech Task #5 - Lyric Typography Poster

I chose Design Assignment 259 where you make a lyric typography poster. You need to start by choosing a favourite line from a song and illustrate it using only typography!

Here is the one I made using Mumford & Sons lyrics from "Awake My Soul."

Tech Task #5 - A-Z Collage

For part one of Tech Task #5 I decided to do Visual Assignment 615 where you make a A-Z collage. I chose to do a collage on places I would like to travel to or places I've already travelled! 

A - Australia  B - Brazil  C - Cape Town, South Africa  D - Dubai, United Arab Emirates   E - Egypt  F - Fiji  G - Greenland  H - Hong Kong  I - India  J - Jamaica  K - Ko Tao, Thailand  L - London, England  M - Madagascar  N - New York  O - Oman  P - Panama City, Panama  Q - Queensland, New Zealand  R - Rome, Italy  S - Swaziland  T - Thailand  U - Uganda  V - Vancouver, BC  W - Whitehorse, Yukon  X - Xai Xai, Mozambique  Y - Yosemite National Park, US  Z - Zurich, Switzerland

Where are some places you would like to travel?

Tech Task #4- Bonus!

Here is the bonus activity I did for Tech Task #4. I used Google Maps to show how I got to school as a child. 

The final task for Tech Task #4 was to redo a previous post and add a relevant picture or video. I only had two posts which did not already have a picture or video in it, so I chose to update my post Tech Task #3 - Connecting Through Blogs. I added a picture for the new blogs I follow. I also linked the pictures right to the websites!

Tech Task #4 - Visual Literacy 2

This is my second posting for Tech Task #4. I've been having a lot of fun creating these six word stories. I can totally see how meaningful they can be. I can see myself using this activity as a teacher to see how creative the students can be. I'm also liking everyone else's six word stories that I have been seeing!

This is a close up I took of the tide coming in at Cape Vidal, a beach we went to in South Africa. It was probably one of the best places I've ever been to. It was an overcast day, but the beauty of the beach still was able to shine through. I remember sitting on the beach the entire day taking in all the beauty of my surroundings! It was a phenomenal place! WOW!

Just for fun, here is another picture I took..it's just so beautiful!

The Shore by Kaits is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Tech Task #4 - Visual Literacy

(click to enlarge)

This weeks assignment was to create two six word stories. Here is my first, which is more like a five word story. The picture is my own from my trip to South Africa this past May. I edited the picture and included the words. Happiness, for me, is making others happy and I believe those words compliment my picture well.

UPDATE!

I took Dean's wonderful suggestion to change the font colour and add a drop shadow! Look at what a different it makes! Thanks Dean!

(click to enlarge)

Happiness by Kaits is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Tech Task #3 - Connecting through ETMOOC Webinar

The last portion of Tech Task #3 is to attend a webinar or twitter chat. I decided to attend an ETMOOC webinar, but failed horribly at it the first few times! I had some problems with the time differences and I actually wasn't able to attend a live one, so I found that they archive the webinar, so I watched it pretty well just after the session was over. 

I tuned into Student Blogging: Getting the most out of blogging with your students by @suewaters. I am glad I tuned into this sessions because it was one that I feel interested me the most! 

She began by speaking about edublogs.org. It is basically a blog hosting site where you can create blogs for your classroom and students. Here is her website, TheEduBlogger, where she talks about Educational Blogging and resources. A great website to subscribe to! 

She talked about getting the students  blogs set up when they are ready to have blog opposed to just throwing them into it. You also need to set up a scaffolding for them to become independent learners with their blogs. There also needs to be family involvement, creating connections with the rest of the world and connected to the curriculum. 

Sue went on to talk about Digital Footprints and talked about never using full names of students (which is important) and also to educate the family on it so that they are able to understand. Someone in the chat posted this video and gets you thinking about where your Digital Footprint comes from.



The session goes on with lots more wonderful information about student blogging, so I don't want to give it all away, but I encourage you all to watch the session yourself, especially if you are wanting to set up student blogs. Here is where you can watch it: T1S7 - Blogging with Students. You can also check out other sessions that have been recorded where there are also really good discussions. 

I enjoy the ETMOOC sessions as it gives me the opportunity to learn so much from others while sitting at home on the couch. They discuss many great topics that are important to educators. 

Tech Task #3 - Connecting through Blogs

This section of Tech Task #3 is to find three new educator blogs to subscribe to. My Google Reader has long been filled with wonderful educators who update their blogs regularly with content and updates from inside their classrooms. Some blogs that I am currently following enjoy are:

A Teacher's Plan
Fun in First
PS22 Chorus
The Teacher Wife
Rockin' Teacher Materials
Tales of a Teacherista
Stellar Students
Oceans of First Grade Fun
Lesson Plan SOS

If you are in Early Childhood Education, I would highly recommend adding these to you Google Reader subscriptions. 

I chose to follow three blogs that offered regular posting and are related to technology in Education, so here they are:

Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners - I like this blog because it has SO many different technology tools for teachers. It is filled with many gadgets I've never seen before and tells how you may be able to implement them into your classroom. 

Free Technology for Teachers - I really enjoy this blog, especially the page "Free Downloads." This page alone as so many great resources to use in the classroom. I quite liked the "Google Earth Across the Curriculum" article that they had as it got me thinking on so many ways to use Google Earth in different ways! So exciting!!

Ask A Tech Teacher -  I thought this blog would be a good one to subscribe to.  It has lists of great apps, websites, blogs, and resources for teachers. I found that this blog will be really helpful when I am out in the classrooms. 

Tech Task #3 - Connecting on Twitter

For Tech Task #3, one of the components is to follow 5-10 new people on Twitter. I decided to follow more educators and teacher communities. Here is the list of the most recent people I have decided to follow and why.

@SmartEdServices  This account tweets teacher tips, resources, and tricks to use in the classroom. They also link to their website where you can find teacher resources and other helpful links. 

@ecce1 I wanted to follow Barb Mathieson as she has some good tweets and participates in Educational twitter chats. I also like that she is passionate about ECE and Technology.

@KarenNemethEdM Karen Nemeth has a passion for technology and  early childhood education as well as dual language learners. She also participates in a #ECETechChat which I think would be a little controversial but interesting. 

@mpowers3 I followed Margaret Powers as I enjoyed scrolling through her tweets. She helps teachers integrate technology into their classrooms and also participates in different ECE and technology twitter chats.

@astrang I enjoyed reading Anita Strang's tweets as well as her blog. She is a Canadian Elementary Special Education teacher who uses Ed Tech to differentiate. She shares some great thoughts and links.

@TWRCtankcom I followed Julie Niles Petersen because she has many good tweets and posts great, helpful links. She also has a wonderful blog dedicated to teaching reading with helpful resources.

@cubeforteachers Cube for Teachers tweets K-12 classroom resources that are free! They also tweet some interesting articles for teachers. 

Why I like Google Forms

After using Google Forms to create a survey and collect responses, I have found this tool to be very useful. I am thought of many ways that I would be able to successfully use it in the classroom. 

Why I like it
-Free
-Easy to use
-Quick results
-No need to 'Log In'
-It can be anonymous
-You can ask varrying questions in different formats (multiple choice, text, scale, etc..)
-Results are collected into an easy to follow spreadsheet
-Results are automatically transferred into results
-You can embed the survey or send it through email

How would I use this in the classroom
There are SO many different ways that Google Forms can be used in the classroom. Here are some that I think I would find useful and would be able to use.

-Pose questions to parents on classroom blog or school websites. It could be to get feedback on an event like Open House. This is a quick and simple way to ask parents what they liked, what would they change for next year, etc.. or you could have parents fill out information on your classroom blog as to if they would like to be a parent volunteer, what days, etc..

-Collecting data anonymously during staff meetings.

-Exit Slips. Before leaving class, students can fill out what they have learned or respond to a posed question.

-Letting students make decisions for example, which book would they like to read for a novel study, or where would they be interested in going on a field trip, etc.

-Answering questions. No need for paper and pencil, students can type their responses to question through a Google Form!

-Getting to know students or what they did over Christmas break.

-Peer assessments.

The list goes on and on. I can for sure see myself using Google Forms in my future classroom. Its a great way to collaborate, gather information, and assess students. I am amazing at how many different ways you can actually use this wonderful tool! I can see myself using it, even with young students!  

Check out more super awesome ways to use Google Forms in the classroom:
85 Interesting Ways to use Google Forms in the Classroom 
80+ Google Forms for the Classroom

Google Form Results

The Google form I created was about YouTube and how we use it in our lives. A fun fact for you all is that YouTube is the second largest search engine next to Google. That right there is fascinating! With my form, I wanted to understand how and why we use YouTube.

Here are the Results from 18 people:

Do you have a YouTube account? 

On average, how many YouTube videos do you watch in a day?

These results are pretty well what I expected with 1-5 videos being the majority.

What type of videos do you watch on YouTube?

How many subscriptions to other channels do you have?

 

I am very surprised with these results. I thought more people would be subscribers to channels but it looks like the majority do not subscribe to any at all! 

Why do you like YouTube?

It's a great tool to use in the classroom to help teach a lesson or show a video :)

There are tons of videos for personal use, educational use almost everything you can imagine is on you tube!

 Honestly, I like watching music videos and getting to know lyrics from songs. I also enjoy searching "How To" videos.

Lots of great communities!

The connectivity, the chance to put something out in the cyber space of youtube and have other connect with it.

I like that you can literally find out how to do anything.. it should be called the How To Tube. Also, it provides so many valuable resources not only in my personal life but also in the classroom. I find students love doing anything that relates to YouTube and like I said you can find almost anything relating to teaching.

Using it in the classroom

How easy and quick it is to find a fun video to share with students so they can understand a concept.

There is something for everything. No matter what type of video I want to watch it is there.

I like that it is essentially a visual representation of the wide variety of information that is available on the Internet.

It has a really user friendly search format and it has so much content! 

 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewanalytics?formkey=dDlQZWxxNk8xcF9GUHJmcVBESWpCMVE6MQ

Tech Task #2 - Google Forms

YouTube is probably on my list somewhere of the things I cannot live without! Watching YouTube has become part of my daily routine. I conducted this survey to find out how other use YouTube as I am interested in seeing the results!

Thanks for filling out my survey! 

Tech Task #1

Hey Everyone! It's been fun watching everyone's first Tech Task and getting to know you all a little bit more! Here is mine!