Month: February 2022

This week we had an EdCamp session with our class pod groups. My Pod discussed gaming in education, physical and mental health technology, assessment strategies, and UDL guidelines. Each of these topics were chosen by a different pod member based on their areas of interest. We discussed each topic and found some resources on them that could help us bring them into the classroom in the future.

Jessica’s topic for the week was gaming in education. Gaming in education is bringing video or computer games into the classroom for educational purposes. Including educational games, virtual reality technology, typing games, coding, or other types of gaming into the classroom can keep students engaged and deepen learning. Most students are already gaming at home, so bringing gaming into the classroom can add an interesting element to learning and assignments/projects. Jessica told us about an assignment where students built their own mining village in Minecraft as part of a social studies unit about gold mining towns. This is just one example of how gaming can be used to enhance student learning experiences!

Rachel’s topic for the week was mental health technology. In this discussion we mostly talked about resources teachers can use to implement physical and mental health practices in their classroom. We talked about apps, YouTube channels, and websites that can be used to guide yoga, meditation, brain breaks, or physical activity in the classroom. One resource that stood out the most was the Cosmic Kids YouTube channel. This channel features yoga, mindfulness, meditation, and relaxation videos for children. Using videos like this can make physical and mental health activities fun for students and help them develop healthy habits they can carry through their lives. Below, I attached a Cosmic Kids Frozen Yoga Adventure video. It is a great example of what is on the channel.

Alice’s topic for the week was UDL guidelines in the classroom. UDL guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any subject to ensure all learners can participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities. We spent most of this discussion time talking about the importance of incorporating the UDL guidelines into every lesson plan as you create it instead of adding them in as an afterthought. Incorporating the UDL guidelines into every lesson can be beneficial for all students and can make your lessons engaging and exciting for every student.

My topic for the week was assessment strategies. Assessment strategies give teachers information about their students learning and help them understand what students have learned, how well they have learned it, and where they may have struggled. In this discussion we talked a lot about the 3-2-1 assessment strategy. This a method of assessment where students record three things they learned, 2 things they found interesting (or two things they are going to continue to work on), and 1 new question they have. This assessment strategy can be used across subjects and can give teachers a lot of information on what their students have learned and what they may still be confused about. We also discussed using the proficiency scale, exit notes, daily journals, rubrics, self/peer assessment, teacher check ins, and the importance of ensuring students know exactly what is expected of them.

This weeks discussions were very informative and left me with a lot of new information! I am excited to have many new resources to look into and take with me into my teaching practice. I would love to do a larger scale EdCamp session with more of my peers to hear about more great ideas and teaching resources!

This week we talked about our personal learning networks and generation alpha. A personal learning network is a group of colleagues, mentors, and professionals that you can connect with to enhance your learning and professional development. We talked a lot about how we can use social media, such as Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok as platforms de develop our personal learning networks. Before class this week I was following lots of different educators on social media, but I realized I was not following any educators from BC. So, after class I decided to find some teachers and administrators from BC to follow to potentially deepen my personal learning network. We also talked a lot about generation alpha, born between 2010 and 2024. This generation is different from ours, so it is important to consider who they are and what type of world they will need to navigate when planning and teaching.

The last thing we touched on today was graphics and different platforms we can use to create them. To get a little bit of practice making graphics I decided to make a short video with Canva. Once I had created the video I had trouble getting it into my blog, but I eventually figured out how to do it. Then I wanted to have it autoplay and play on a loop so I had to search through the settings and find the ones that would allow me to do that. It was a little tricky, but I am glad I was able to add my first graphic into my blog!

This week we were fortunate enough to have Jesse Miller as a guest lecturer. He discussed social media as well as privacy, consent, digital footprints, and online professionalism. As soon as he started his lecture, Jesse had myself and my classmates thinking critically about the ways we use social media. I was totally unaware of the ways social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat keep our data and share it with other corporations. This is definitely something I plan on researching more, especially so I can make my students aware of it in the future. I would have loved if we learned about this sort of thing in my middle or high school technology classes.

Jesse also had us look up ‘Teacher fired social media’ to see what would come up. I can say that I was honestly shocked by some of the results. Lots of the things these teachers were doing on social media and being reprimanded for seemed like things that teachers obviously shouldn’t do. As I scrolled through news articles I thought to myself “they should have known better”. However, as Jesse’s lecture continued I realized that some of these teachers were probably not educated on online professionalism and the do’s and dont’s of social media for teachers. I think that is why it is so important for us, as future teachers, to have technology classes. We are going to be able to go into our teaching practice knowledgable about social media and how to conduct ourself on different social platforms online.

I found Jesse Miller’s lecture very informative and engaging, I am excited to explore his website and find out more about these important topics.