Community Involvement

It has officially been two months since I have moved to Medicine Hat, Alberta to pursue my teaching career. These months have absolutely flown by! Since my first call on the first day of school, I have been blessed with many more opportunities. I have been in a classroom every day for the past four weeks. I can account some of that to luck - I happened to press "accept" on the online database first.. But, I recognize that my hard work is paying off as I have received many requests and some schools have certainly become a regular visit for me. All is well for me in my life as a Substitute Teacher!

However positive my career has become, I do deeply miss my family. With this in mind, I knew it was important to immerse myself in the community here. I was excited to discover a new place, as I was a community member in Dundas, Ontario for 23 years before moving! 

I have continued my passion for connecting with youth in the Catholic community by volunteering with the Medicine Hat Youth Group. I have joined a team of amazing volunteers who share my passion. We have had 3 great meetings so far with youth that are timid at first... it is so great to see them become more and more engaged with their peers in their Church. I see a new generation of community growing.

I am also volunteering my time two nights a week with the Rangers basketball league. I am coaching a camp that is basically skill development. Basketball is another passion of mine , so it is amazing to be able to share it with kids here! Some of them are even students that I have taught, and it is very cool to have them see Miss Graham as an active community member.. something I hope to bring out in all of my students. 

Being involved feels good! 

Cross-Country Move

In previous posts, I've explained that I am so eager to begin my teaching career that I applied for positions out West. Well... I gladly joined two school boards in Alberta as a substitute teacher! A few weeks ago, I packed my car and drove 32 hours across the country! I have arrived in beautiful, sunny Medicine Hat.

MY FIRST CALL - On the first official day of school, I anxiously answered my phone and gladly accepted a substitute job for the morning. Was the regular classroom teacher sick? Or running late? Or on vacation? Who was to say.. all I knew was that I was absolutely thrilled to help out and take on grade 9 Social Studies! I knew instantly my journey was worth it as I feel my passion for teaching in full force already.

Here is to the 2013/2014 school year being full of exciting days like that, and more experiences in the classroom!

Engaging Math Program

In 2012 and 2013 , I taught a summer school program for grade 7 and 8 students. It was a technology, math, and literacy program. I had 23 students in my class that were eager to use technology, but truthfully, not so keen on spending two weeks of their summer in a classroom. I knew right off the bat that in order to engage these students, I would really have to use programs of interest. Fortunately, the board provided MANY resources to help do so. One program that really stood out is seen below. I was reminded of this program while browsing math tools for students. 



One of the Reflex Math programs that engaged students

* Reflex Math:  This program is built to help students develop instant recall of basic math facts. It is unique because it uses several fun, interactive games for students to "play" while building their math facts. It continuously monitors each users scores and results in their games and individualizes what will come next. I, the teacher, was able to monitor student progress for each student to see how far they've come.

Ideas for Writer's Workshop

One Teaching Strategy Tip  While Using Writer's Workshop 
Include technology wherever possible! When incorporated properly, technology can assist in the writing process!  


Here's How 

• Record student  ideas on the computer for quick notes and easy translation to other electronic tools
• Allow students to communicate with peers (and wider audiences) through a blog
• Research online databases for student to safely send & receive authentic, relevant, real-time messages 

More Resources

Ontario Ministry of Education - Language Curriculum 

Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers 

Creating Young Writers Wiki

Guide to Effective Instruction

Catching Up

My first post in 2013 - WOW, I have been busy!

Let me tell you what I've been up to these past few months.Firstly, I have been taking my work with the Before & After School program to new depths - cleaning, organizing, sorting, and finally IMPLEMENTING some of the amazing resources we have that have been hidden away for who knows how long!
It feels great to be using awesome items that we have access to - some staff did not even know these items were there! A tip for any educator entering a new work space is to always explore your environment - you just never know what you may find!

I have also been trying to get my Youth Group for St. Augustine Church in Dundas up and running. It has proven to be quite difficult. I have launched a Facebook Group and will continue to meet at the local high school. Next week we are going to really amp up our advertisements within the Church so I do hope to report back with amazing news soon!

Lastly, I am on the job hunt! I have not had much luck in Ontario finding a position with a board - but am still actively trying. I recently applied to the Catholic board in Hamilton and have my fingers crossed that my passion for teaching came through in my application package! I am PLEASED to announce, however, that I have two interviews (one with the Catholic, and one with the Public board) in Medicine Hat, Alberta at the end of March. Can't believe I may actually break into a board and begin my professional journey. I am excited knowing that my teaching could take me across Canada! What an opportunity!

I came across this trailer for a film by Chris Jordan entitled Midway. It looks extremely touching and goes hand in hand with one of my biggest beliefs - we need to educate our students about pollution and it's extreme effects on our world, in hopes that they can make informed decisions and create change.

CHECK IT OUT! WHAT DO YOU THINK?!?

Consolidating Task

My past few posts have been related to the technology course I have been enrolled in. Well.. that is coming to a close this week. For our final task, we were asked to create a 15 slide presentation that showcased our ability to use digital tools effectively. I chose to use Sliderocket as my forum to create a digital story because I am most comfortable with it. From this assignment, I learned a great new consolidating task - have students create a digital demonstration of what they've learned in a unit! It is a fun and creative way to show what you know! 

This post is for everyone that took part in the AQ course! Enjoy :)  

Digital Audio Technology

Attached is a Sliderocket presentation that was created for my AQ course on technology. It is a visual representation of my written assignment on Digital Audio Technology, and includes an audio component. What better way to talk about this type of technology than to explore it for myself, and demonstrate what I've learned in the exact forum I am discussing! It is posted for my peers in the course, but as always welcome any viewers if they are willing to take the time to watch and listen!

Electronic Submissions - Using Computers for Assignments

I have recently been enrolled in an Additional Qualification course called "Computers in the Classroom". I signed up for the course because of my passion for incorporating technology into daily lessons, learning tasks, and projects. My first assignment for the course was to create a generic rubric that could be used to review and evaluate curriculum based educational software. I was motivated to complete this assignment because of the many educational programs I was fortunate enough to use with students while teaching summer school in a blended learning environment. I chose criteria that was important to me as a teacher to have in a program that I would be willing to use in the classroom.

I chose to post this assignment to my blog in an attempt to demonstrate the importance I see in using technology in the classroom. The course I am enrolled in is an online course. What better way to submit my assignment than on a blog? It welcomes feedback from other professionals. It is also a demonstration of how teachers could post rubrics for assignments in a classroom blog perhaps, and allow students to submit electronically as well. It makes for an easy submission and, of course, less paper piled up on my desk to take home and grade! It can be accessed ANYWHERE! For both students and teachers, the advantages to using an online forum to assign and submit projects are evident.

Back to School!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of a new school year for millions of students across Canada! For the first time in my life, I am not returning as a student! Yet, I still feel those back to school butterflies in my stomach. Tomorrow, I am beginning to work at a Before and After school program with the HWDSB. I am extremely excited to join the team and look forward to many new learning and teaching experiences!

I would like to wish everyone good luck on their return back to school, both students and dear friends of mine that are embarking on a journey teaching their first classrooms. May the 2012/2013 school year be full of positive memories and unforgettable accomplishments!!

Wordle

For the summer school program I recently taught, the last individual project was a book review. I encouraged my students to use technology to present their review. One bright student used "Worlde" to try and convince her peers to read her book. It was highly motivating to see her creativity shine in her creation. This inspired our class to create a Wordle to represent our experience in summer school. Here is what we came up with:

It's Been a While!

Hello to the world of online educators and teacher candidates!

It has been a while since I had inspiration to blog! During my 2nd teaching block in a grade 8 classroom, my life revolved around exploring tools and developing unique lesson plans to engage the learners. I was able to craft a hands-on language unit following Ontario Curriculum expectations on persuasive writing. Instead of "boring" (in the eyes of my students) writing tasks, students explored the art of persuasion in the media and were able to create their own commercials using techniques they have found to persuade them, and finally wrote an essay trying to persuade myself and my associate teacher on the topic of their choice. Without going too much into detail, it became extremely obvious to me that integrating relevant issues and media to a unit and allowing space for student choice truly makes a difference in the depth of learning that goes on.

I am motivated to continue my passion for teaching and learning as I am actively seeking employment in various boards in Ontario and Alberta!

Until next time..

From my grade 8 students at St. Augustine School in Dundas, Ontario

Kids in the Hall Workshop

Brock offered an optional professional development day called Kids in the Hall. There were rumours that this was arguably the most engaging PD offered all year. With such great reviews, I promptly signed up. One of the workshops that I chose to attend that day was The Grieving Child. I decided to attend this session because as a student, I myself dealt with issues at home and had a hard time separating them from my life at school. After growing since my struggles as a student and reflecting about them during my post-secondary education, I strive to be a compassionate and understanding teacher. I know that all students carry different baggage in their emotional backpacks, and it has been a personal goal of mine to be educated on assisting these students at school in order to optimize their education.  

The rumours were correct; the session was extremely beneficial to me as a teacher candidate. We were provided with many resources for our journeys as teachers and all the ‘backpacks’ we may see along the way. This session involved very little technology, but was naturally engaging based on the importance of the topic. I have learned from this session not only the information about grieving students, but also that technology is not always necessary for engaging students. Good conversation and opportunities for participation are useful tools for teachers in addition to the new technologies available.

Ebooks In The Classroom

I was recently introduced to the idea of "Ebooks". Basically, it is an opportunity to tell a story in a digital format. To explore this technological teaching strategy, I created my own Ebook using Sliderocket.

Through creating this Ebook, I have learned about the power of using pictures and a few words to tell a story. I would consider using this activity in the classroom for students to communicate a story to the class. It would be useful in a unit to stick with a theme, like the one I used for my Ebook; "Inspired". I would suggest that students add an audio track of them verbally narrating their Ebook, or it could be incorporated into an oral speech given in front of the class.

What a unique way to encourage students to tell stories!

Blogging In The Classroom

Creating a mock classroom blog has solidified my belief in incorporating technology into the classroom. By creating posts that relate to the Ontario Curriculum for a grade 8 class (my current placement grade), it has become clear how beneficial a classroom blog really is. I have learned that communicating to parents about the purpose of an activity can be easily accomplished through the use of a blog. It is a great way for students to actually show their parents what they are working on and the teacher can address the parents and explain why in the blog forum.

I plan to incorporate a classroom blog in my future practices as a teacher. Even in my current block, my associate teacher has been wanting to get a blog up and running but is unfamiliar with the process. We plan to take on the challenge of a creating and using the classroom blog together. What a great experience for both of us!

From my mock classroom blog, it has become clear that media literacy is the most obvious strand to address. By embedding videos and pictures, students can interpret and analyze from school or home, and develop their media literacy skills. Although I tended to stick with the Language curriculum for my mock blog, I can see the benefits of integrating science, music, and even mathematics.

This experience has motivated me to integrate technology as a teacher. I will keep you posted about my upcoming experience with an actual classroom blog!

There are many different blogs to choose from, such as EduBlog. Although for a particular website, this video shows the benefits of using blogs in general.

EDUBLOGS.ORG TO VIEW THIS VIDEO AND TO SIGN UP!

ECO-FRIENDLY SCHOOLS

For those that know me personally, I am a huge advocate for environmental literacy. It is my personal goal to assist staff and students at any school I find myself in to be more aware of how we can help our earth. For a class this year I created a mini guide to having a "Green" assembly. It includes various initatives to begin in your school, useful videos, and even resources to give you a hand.  I am in the process of turning this paper into a SlideRocket presentation that I will embed in this post when it is complete. If you would like the word document copy, message me on Twitter! @Miss_Graham

 Thanks to Steve Snodgrass for posting this picture on Flikr

Ontario College of Teachers - Professional Advisory

As I mentioned in my first blog, I was intimidated by all of the different social media sites and overwhelmed with the possibilities of using these sites as tools in the classroom. I am almost finished the technology course that introduced me to blogger, twitter, sliderocket, google+, pearltrees (the list goes on and on). I am now confident that integrating technology into the classroom has many benefits.

I am aware that educating students about social media and how to use it in a constructive way both in and outside of the classroom, is a relatable and valuable lesson. I think using technology in the classroom (for example, a classroom blog), is a unique way for students to share what they've learned. Not only will students be engaged, but also parents can be aware of classroom content.

Although there are many benefits to the integration of technology, I also am very aware of the potential for issues to arise. I recently watched a video that serves as a reminder about keeping the use of technology with your students professional in nature. I am confident that my education will allow me to use technology with my students in the most positive way possible.

For those who are interested, the video is below!

A special thanks to OCT for posting this video on youtube!

Project Based Learning

During this process of becoming a teacher, it has been important to me to reflect on my past as a student. The worst year ever for me as a student was in grade 5 when everyday my teacher put on the overhead projector and instructed us to copy pages and pages worth of social studies notes. Without any real teaching of the subject, we mindlessly copied information onto our pages. The worst part about this experience was that we were tested on the content. I did not do horribly in school that year however, because my memorization skills were quite good! Needless to say, I could not tell you what I learned that year... and at times I think “What a waste!”.

I watched a video on Project Based Learning ( PBL):

 What I really like about PBL is that it allows students to explore and understand content in a way similar to the real world. As adults in everyday life, and in many workplace environments, we are faced with challenges and projects.  Giving students projects to learn from rather than notes followed by a test is an excellent way for students to actually learn and demonstrate their understanding. An example from the video is students completing a group project about why and how people get sick. Not only did these students use critical thinking to ask questions, they collaborated with one another to create a presentation and a way to communicate what they came up with in the project. Critical thinking + collaboration + communication = PBL!

By reflecting on my days in elementary school, and thinking about my future as a teacher, it is clear to me that Project Based Learning will definitely play a large role in my classroom. Goodbye overhead projectors, endless notes, and sore hands!

Until next time...

To Quest or Not to Quest?

Throughout my education in the Concurrent program at Brock, I have been introduced to a lot of tools and resources. The first time I heard about Webquests, I was in my third year taking a course called "Children and Youth in the Digital Age". The professor was an advocate for Webquests, claiming that there are benefits of student exploration and the importance of diverse and technological learning tasks for students. I've never personally created one myself, but since that point have browsed quests online.

It was not until yesterday's discussion in my tech class that I looked at this tool from a new perspective. My instructor Zoe, (who will probably come up quite often in these blogs) had been wondering about the practical uses of Webquests. She posed a question to the world of Twitter... who uses standard Webquests in their classrooms? Responses varied, but most said they don't.

This caused me to create a very short list of pros and cons to using this tool. Take a look at what I came up with below:

Quest!	Don’t Quest!
-       Students enjoy the integration of technology in education, which can increase engagement with content -       At times, Webquests can have the same appeal as a game or challenge, which again (especially for boys according to research) will keep students engaged and on task while completing assignments	-      Webquests do not accommodate all learners/ learning styles -      They leave the exploring to students, which is a HUGE benefit, however, every student may not achieve the learning goals -       According to Zoe’s tweet, it is outdated... but what has replaced it?

* I would love to hear personal stories and experiences of educators using Webquests.
For now, I leave you with the question... to quest or not to quest?

First Time Blogger

It is my 5th and final year in the Concurrent Education program at Brock University and I'm finally facing two of my most recent fears related to technology; blogging and Twitter! These are online resources that I've heard can truly make a difference for learners in the 21st century, but have been too afraid to dive into.

I managed to have completed my first teaching block without even hearing about these two things.. but today I began the "Teaching and Learning with Technology" (a course at Brock). I've just signed up for multiple accounts including SlideRocket, Twitter, and of course Blogger! Look at me go! I'm getting more and more tech-savy by the minute! Although I'm overwhelmed, I am excited to learn the benefits of using these websites as educational tools! I will be uploading new discoveries and thoughts about the technology I will come across while taking the Tech course, with the hopes of sharing and comparing my thoughts with other educators and teacher candidates like myself!
     
Until next time on the grapevine.. B. Graham