Multimedia Presentation

For the final assignement in Ecmp 355 class, we were asked to make a multimedia presentation on what we have learned during the class. I decided to create a prezi for my presentation. Here it is! Hope you enjoy!

My Prezi

I love my job!

As i've mentioned, I am working for the Summer Sports School in the science portion for the summer. The job is so fun. Yesterday we went to Mother Teresa school in Regina and did two experiements with the grade 6 and 7 students.

We first tried an experiement to do with density using water, salt and food coloriung. Each color of water had a different amount of salt in it and when added together slowly with an eye dropper, it was meant to layer the colors due to the different density levels. It didnt work the best when the children did it but when I tried it somewhat worked. I think the kids were rushing, as was I so it didnt work the best. This is what it looked like.

After this we made lava in a cup. We did this by putting water with food coloring on the bottom and then oil on top. After this you sprinkle salt on the top which makes some of the oil fall, creating a lava lamp effect. The kids really loved this experiment. Although this picture isn't done while the oil is moving this is what it looks like.

Lastly, today I got to make a poster explaining circuits a little becuase we will be working with the students on making their own circuit. It was pretty fun and I feel the poster turned out great!

Stressing

Being in Education has the perk of not having to write very many final exams, if any at all. I've been fortunate enough that I haven't had to write any formal finals my third year at all and only had a couple in my second year. However, this semester I have to write a final for my other spring class and it is stressing me out. I feel I have completely forgotten how to study and feel unprepared for this final I have to write on Wednesday.

Most of the time I would say I love not having to write finals ever in Education, but at this time I'm wishing that I had  had at least a couple so that I could remember how to study effectively and feel confident that I was ready to write it.

Summer Fun

This week I started my new job at the Sumemr Sports School which is organized by and held at the University of Regina. I am working in the science portion of the camp and have been going over the planned lessons and activities the last couple days. I am so excited for all of them and can't wait to see the kids try them out.


Next week will be an awesome week at work! Myself and the other girl running the science portion will get to test out a bunch of the experiements to ensure they work. We wouldn't want them to fail while doing them with the campers!

Today we checked out one of them since we had all the equipment for it. It's called vibrobots and the students get to create their own miniture, moving robot using batteries, a mini motor and an LED light. The kids get to decorate and plan them how they want and have races to see which can move the farthest and quickest. How fun?!

I can't wait for July 2nd to come around so that we can do all these fun activities with the campers. This will be an awesome experience for me to have when it comes to teaching since I will be explaining the science behind each experiment, and also will have all these ideas when it comes to teaching my own class! This summer should be a blast!

Classroom Cooking

Something that I love to do with friends and family is cook. I think it would also be something that could be extremely fun to do within the classroom. There are so many different things that you could incorporate it into.

1. Math- While cooking students would get to practice their measuring and maybe even some conversion skills for different recipes.
2. English- You can have students practice their writing and reading skills by looking at recipes and having them write out their favorites to take home.
3. Health- In health you can teach students nutrition facts and how they can create and cook healthy recipes.

I'm sure their are other ways that you can incorporate cooking into school subjects and afterwards I think it would be fun for students to be put into partners and do some type of presentation about cooking a healthy recipe. It would be fun for them to do a recording or cooking video explaining what to do while cooking the recipe and then maybe explain some of the nutrition facts or whatever else they learned about. This way you can incorporate student use of technology as well. I feel like it would be something that students would enjoy doing as it might not be common for students to get to cook in class as well as make their own instructional video for others to learn from.

Any other ways you can think of to incorporate cooking?

Saving grading time

In this video, the speaker talks about ways to help save time when it comes to grading. This could be helpful when it comes to trying to keep grading at home to a minimum and keeping your evenings open for yourself.

I'm done. Now what?

Something that comes up daily for teachers is students who are done their work quicker than other students. Sometimes we don't know what to give them to do when they are done. Here are some ideas that could be used for students when they finish their work early and have some free time.

1. Have an 'I'm done jar'. The jar can be filled with slips of paper that have different types of activities on it. The activities can be things that the students can do in the classroom either on their own or with a partner. It could be useful to have two jars for this- one for individual and one for group or partners. Some activities could be computer/ipad game, checkers, chess or other strategical or educational games. 
2. Another idea you could do is have a bin with sections or a rolling cabinet with drawers in it. For each drawer or cabinet you can have a different activity for kids to do. Have two variations for each activity, one for students doing it alone and one for students with a partner or group. Students can then pick one of the activities or have some fun way for it to be decided like rolling a dice and doing the activity with that number.
3. Another way to keep students busy when they are finished their homework is to have flashcards. Flashcards can be made to help students practice so many different things from various subjects alone or with a partner. Have flashcards for different things the students are currently learning in math or English and they can practice their skills whether it be adding, subtracting or grammar. 

I'm sure there are so many different options for students who have finished their work early. I feel like no matter what you have set up it should be educational for the students and be helpful when it comes to strengthening the skills they are learning. Anyone else have any thoughts or ideas on what can be done for those students who finish early?

Gardening in the Classroom

My step sister and I have been working on planting flowers and different vegetables this spring and it made me think of how fun it would be to do this with a class during the spring. I feel like you could incorporate their learning in different subject areas into this type of project.

• For science you can teach them about plants, their parts and what they need to survive.
• For health you can teach about different food groups and go into what foods are healthy and connecting this to the vegetables they are growing.
• For math you can discuss the space that plants need to grow by having students plan out how big to make the garden and how much of each plant can fit into that area. You could also figure out how much water to give each plant as well.
• For social you can discuss how different plants come from different parts of the world and teach them where each plant they planted come from.

There are probably so many different ideas that could taught when it comes to planting and gardening. Can anyone else think of any?

Tech Task # 7: Cellphones in the classroom

The other day we listened to a session given by Liz Kolb. She talked to us about using cellphones in the classroom and gave us examples of how people have been doing this of recently. She gave us amazing ideas and tools that would allow a teacher to incorporate the use of cellphones in the classroom at different grade levels. She gave us ideas such as radio podcasts, recording oneself for presentations, for texting in summaries  of lessons or readings, or texting in answers to polls or questions. She gave us different ways we can use texting during the school year as well as during summer break. Liz also provided us with various sites to help us with this task. Here are a few of the ones I really liked:

1. www.hipcast.com 
2. www.wiffiti.com 
3. www.remind101.com
4. www.ipadio.com
5. www.polltogo.com 

I think that the idea that I would like to try the most is the Qrcodes. I feel like this would be a fun way to incorporate the use of cellphones into every subject area, and it also gets students away from just reading textbooks. Some ideas that I would like to try with Qrcodes are:

1. English: For spelling I think it would be fun to have Qrcode on the spelling list that provided students with the verbal pronunciation of the word along with the definition and spelling of the word said out loud. This could be helpful for those students who are auditory learners while they are studying for tests.
2. Literature: A fun idea for this would be to have a Qrcode on the books you have in the classroom. For each book there could be a description of the book from a students point of view. This could help students find books more quickly. Another idea for Qrcodes on books could be comprehension questions verbally read to them. They could then either record their answers or write them down which would be a way of assessing whether or not students are understanding what they are reading and to what degree.
3. Math: For math class a Qrcode could be useful for test reviews. If you are giving students some type of review to do for a quiz or exam  to take home you can have a Qrcode at the bottom. This allows for the students to do the review then use the Qrocde to check their answers and the work that is needed to get the answer. They then know if they are doing it properly or not.
4. Social: For social,it would be cool to have a worksheet with Qcodes on it that will take the students to a site with extra information or even pictures or videos that help explain the concept that they are learning about.
5. Health: For this subject, you could have Qrcodes connected to different posters or sheets that take the students to sites about healthy food or the body. It could go to diagrams of the body and have videos of how the body works. It could also have videos on friendship or bullying when those topics are being discussed. 
6. Physed: This would work well for if a teacher wants to do a circuit during gym class to allow students to work on the skills they are learning. There could be a piece of paper with a Qrcode on it for each station. It can take them to a video that shows what they will do at each station and how to do it properly.
7. Science: This would be fun for showing students how different things work. It can be connected to different videos of experiments that are online or pictures. For example, when learning about lightning students could use the Qrcode on their homework sheet that shows them pictures and videos of lightning, then a video of an experiment that allows them to make their own lightning.

These are a few ideas I had for different subject areas. Anyone else have any ideas they can think of for certain subjects or topics?

Technology In My Class

Today I went and met my cooperating teacher for internship and had a tour of the school. The school is really small and the number of students is also very small. I will be teaching a grade 1 and 2 class with a total of 15 students in it. When I got to the classroom I will be teaching in I realized they are pretty up to pace with technology. The class I will be in has a t.v, computers and a smart board in it. I am really excited to use the smart board because I haven't had many chances to try them out yet. I feel like I will learn a lot about using them and plan on trying out a lot of new things on it.

I also realized that the school is very adaptive for students with various needs. They have a room with different materials or fidgets that can be taken to different classrooms or used in that room as well. They have different types of balls that can be used for seats and other gadgets that may help students focus or stay calm.

I am very excited to use and try out different things with the technology that is available to me as well as have the resources available for students who may need them.

Resources

I was looking through Pinterest today and found this site. The site seems like it is a similar idea to Pinterest, but this particular section has lots of tips and helpful articles/tools for educators on how to incorporate technology, such as ipads, into the classroom. It especially looks at using technology when teaching students with learning disabilities. Hope some of you get a chance to search through it and find some great tools too!

Teach Task 6, Part 2: ds106

The second tool I looked at after Alan Levine's session was ds106. I thought this was a fun site to use. It was pretty easy to navigate around and the assignments were interesting and fun to do as well.

The site would be fun to do with different grades, but it might not be as easy for younger students. The younger students may need more assistance, so either you need to do it with only a few students at once or have some older students in to help. Older students would easily be able to do these assignments on their own. It would be fun to do art projects and have students pick one of the visual assignments then have it printed. It would also be fun for them to experiment with the different types of assignments and the tools that they could use for them.

Here is the description for the first assignment I tried out.

• Have you ever heard and song and a particular lyric stood out to you right away?  I think all of us have had the feeling at least once.  For this assignment use one of those lyrics that stood out to you and make it into a visual.  Use some kind of background that represents the lyric and place the lyrics over it in some way.  Be creative! But make sure that your visual product evokes the same kind feeling that the lyric of the song does.

Here is what I came up with!

And the instructions for the second assignment:

• Color splash is a technique to emphasize details- you remove all color from a photo, and then restore original color to a single object, e.g. a green apple on a table. Think of the Girl in the red dress from Schindler's List.
  
  You can do this in a number of ways with photo editing software or using mobile apps. The answer lies in the Google

Here's what I came up with for this one!

Tech Task 6, Part 1: Five Card Flickr

After listening to Alan Levine's session from my Ecmp class on Wednesday, I took a look at some of the story telling/ story making devices he shared with us. The first site I looked at was Five Card Flickr. I though the site was really to use and pretty much any age could do this. It is very straight forward and allows for you to create a story in your own mind. The best part is that you can have so many different stories with the same five pictures.

This would be a great tool to use with any grade level. It would be fun to see what students would come up with for stories. You could either create the sequence of the pictures and allow each student to tell their own story or you could allow students to pick their own 5 pictures and create a story to them.

Here are the two links to the stories I created.

http://5card.cogdogblog.com//show.php?id=32086

http://5card.cogdogblog.com//show.php?id=32087

Stay tuned for part 2!

Fight against cancer

Last night was the Lumsden Relay for Life. So many people showed up from various towns and fundraising teams for the event. It was an awesome night full of great entertainment for an amazing reason. So much money was made to help find a cure for various kinds of cancer.

The Lumsden Elementary School teachers had their own team and area set up. I think it was a great idea for the school to put in a fundraising team and support the cause. Awesome job LES!

To Medicate or Not

picture taken from http://www.harvarddapa.org/drug-ipedia/study-prescription/ritalin/

The other night in my Epsy class we were discussing ADHD and voicing our opinions on whether or not we were for or against giving students medication for it. I feel like I am on the fence about this but could be leaning towards the side of against it. 

In my preinternship there were a couple boys in our class that had been on medication for ADHD. A lot of the time the students seemed like they had no energy and were like zombies in the classroom. I felt like it would have been more beneficial for the students to not be on the medication and maybe be more engaged in the lessons and more active. I felt like it was stopping them from fully learning. I believe that in the class students should be engaged and should be active in their learning. I want students to have hands-on experiences in the class and if they are on medication the experience may not always be as good as it could be. As well, I feel like the long term side effects of medication can be extremely harmful to the students in the future. I feel like these days it is over prescribed and could be harmful to the children who it is prescribed to.

On the other hand, I understand that some kids may need the medication and could benefit from it. Some students are so hyper or don't have any attention span and may need the medication to fully focus on the class and lessons. 

Does anyone else have any thoughts on this they would like to share?

Teach Task #5: All About Identity

Last night I watched a session with George Couros about online identity. It was really informing and I learned a lot. I realized that an online identity can either help you in ways or hinder you in ways, such as helping you get a job or not. It made me think about my own and how I can help create a good online identity for myself. It also helped me realize how important it is to help our future students create a good online identity for themselves from the start.

Part 2:

I googled my first and last name and this was the first few hits that came up.

I clicked on most of them to see where it went, and realized that none of the hits on the first page had anything to do with me. They were all on other people named Marley Riddell. Even on the second page of hits only 2 had to do with me, connecting to my blog and my google account.

It made me realize I don't have much of an online identity which is probably because I have my privacy settings really high. I think this is best for my personal accounts like facebook and realized that this will benefit me. I can now start creating a professional online identity and don't need to worry about my own personal stuff coming up first.

Part 3:

I have created an about.me page and linked my twitter, blog and google account to it.

So excited but so nervous

This week I received my letter for internship. I will be interning in Wapella Elementary school with their grade 1/2 class. I called the school and talked to the principal to set up a meeting. I will be heading there to meet him, my cooperating teacher and hopefully some of the students I will be teaching in June.

I am extremely excited for my internship, but at the same time I'm really nervous. I am extremely excited to meet my students and coop and talk to her about what we'll be doing for the semester and share some of our ideas for things we want to try out but I also keep thinking about all the what ifs. What if my students don't like me? What if I don't do a good job? What if my coop and I don't see eye to eye? and so on.. I know that once I meet my coop and get to the school, some of these nerves will go away but probably not all of them.

My question for everyone else, what are some of the things you're nervous about for internship?

Boy Mama Teacher Mama

Found this blog by a woman named Stephanie who is an elementary school teacher and a mother of two young boys. She posts about different activities for kids at home as well as about education. This is a post of hers that connects to our learning about technology and incorporating it into our classrooms.

http://boymamateachermama.com/2013/03/19/teacher-mama-5-ways-to-incorporate-technology-into-the-classroom/

Tech Task #4: Be a Better Blogger

After listening to Sue Water's session on becoming a better blogger I made some changes to both the setup of my blog as well as to my post Tech Task #3: Why School?.

Blog Setup

To try and make my blog more appealing and easier for others to read I changed a couple things.

1. Background: I changed the design of my background and made it so that it would be white behind my posts rather than being able to see the design. This made it easier to see what the post said. I also made it so that the size of the post was wider, making it so that the design was covering less of the page.
2. Text: I changed the text size of my posts bigger as well as changed them to a darker color on a white background. I also made the title of my blog and the separate posts bigger and bold so they stand out

Post Edits

I also changed some details about my last Tech Task post. 

1. Paragraphs: I separated my post into smaller paragraphs, making it more reader friendly. I also put an extra space between paragraphs so it was less crowded.
2. Headers: I put in headers to help readers follow where my thoughts were going.
3. Links: I added different links to my text. I put in links to our Ecmp page, Will Richardson's blog and video, Khanacademy, Knewton and Mark Klassen's twitter page as I discussed these people or sites in my post.
4. Images: I added an image in to catch readers attention and give it some more appeal.

I hope that these modifications help make my blog and posts more appealing and easier to read! I will definitely try to follow these tips in my future posts as well.

Equality

 

This goes along with calli6c's post about equality and justice. We need to teach our students that although some students may not do as much work or doesn't have to do the same things as the rest of the class or gets more assistance, they are working just as hard as everyone else. Some students can't do what others can and need modifications  and while that may not seem 'fair' in their minds, it is giving the other student an equal chance at learning and succeeding as much as the rest of the class. 

Tech Task #3: Why School?

After listening to my Ecmp 355 session with Will Richardson and watching his video Why School?, it is hard not to think about the role of technology in schools and learning today as well as the new role of teachers and schools. 

Technology's Role

I think that technology has a major role in children's learning and that as teachers we need to embrace it. We need to incorporate technology into our teaching and help students learn more than what we can teach them alone. Using technology can also help students see that as a teacher, we're still learning too. Use the internet to find facts that you don't know or find something that a student asked about. We need to show students what they can do with technology that is available to them and show them that they can learn so much from the internet.

Students need to realize that teachers don't necessarily have to be just in their school or classroom. They can have teachers from around the world by going online. They need to know where they can find sites such as Khanacademy or Knewton, that can help with topics or subjects they are struggling with. I think it is important for students to fully understand the opportunities that the internet and other technologies can provide for them.

A Teacher's Role

As teachers, I think that our role is to prepare our students for the real world and show them all their opportunities. We need to build relationships with our students and assist them in their learning, whether it be from a lesson we give or something they have found and learnt through the internet. I feel that our role is to help students with finding who they are and helping them form their morals as well as guiding them on how to use, and act within, the online world. We need to help them learn through their lived experiences and learn alongside them.

I think that we need to invite technology into our classrooms and use it to both ours and our students advantages so they can see it's true potential and know how to use it in a successful way. As Mark Klassen said in Will Richardson's video, "...those connections make it possible for me to gain a bigger audience which means more feedback and greater learning..." By bringing technology into our schools, and allowing students to use it in their learning process we are raising their number of resources and people to learn from and giving them a better chance for more of it.

ECMP

I decided to take this class because I needed and wanted to learn about different ways I could incorporate technology into my classroom in the future. So far I am really enjoying the class and feel like I have already learnt so much within the first 2 weeks. I really think that google drive will come in handy for both my last year of teaching as well as my future teaching careers. I will find so many different ways I can use them that will make life easier for me. 

I'm not very good at writing so the blog and twitter are new to me and I haven't done much with them, but maybe the longer I have it and throughout this course I will become more accustomed to them and feel more comfortable using them.I know that these could potentially become very handy for in the classroom as well.

I am looking forward to learning more ways to incorporate technology into my classroom throughout the course.

Tech Task #2, Part 2: Google Drive

I have only used Google Docs once before for another class. I was with a partner and we couldn't meet so thought we would try that out. I found that it had worked pretty well. It made it possible to work on it together from a distance. For this tech task I thought I would check out the spreadsheet and presentation apps on google drive as well, since I hadn't used them yet. I explored how to make them, and different features you can use while creating them. I feel like they would both be extremely useful when working in a school.
If you collaborate often with others or need to schedule out your week you could use a spreadsheet. They are easy to make and can  be used for both schooling and personally. The presentation app would be very useful if you and another teacher are working on a lesson or something together. Again, you can work on it together from a distance but then you would both also have it when you needed it. It would be good for when students are missing as well. If there are students who aren't there or a student who may have some type of serious illness and has to miss quite a bit of school you can communicate and have someway of showing what you did each day. It may not get them completely caught up but at least they would have an idea and can form questions to ask when they get back. There are so many uses that google can be used for and i'm looking forward to finding them and trying them out.

Tech Task #2, Part 1: Google form

This is my second attempt. Here is my google form. I've linked the URL to the word form. Hope it works this time!

Assessment Flaws

I love this quote and picture. It makes me think of the old schooling system, and even how some teachers still teach today. We need to change this way of teaching and teach in a way that allows everyone to strive in their own ways and allow students to be tested in different ways. Not everyone will be able to show what they have learnt in the same way. We need to find as many ways as possible to assess and evaluate our students.

Tech task #1- Who are you?

Hey everyone!
My name is Marley Riddell and I grew up on a farm in Bethune Saskatchewan. I have a large family consisting of a dad and step mom, a mom and step dad, 2 older sisters, a younger brother and 2 younger step brothers. I love spending time with my family and friends whenever possible, which can sometimes be hard with my busy schedule from work and school. Some things I enjoy doing in my free time are reading, playing volleyball and being outdoors.
I am currently living in Regina while going to university in the Prek-5 Education program (3rd year). I have always wanted to be a teacher and that has only increased since starting the program and doing my pre-internship this year.This summer I will be working at the University of Regina for the Summer Sports School program, I will be working with kids and teaching them how to play different sports both indoor and out.
I am looking forward to, but also very nervous for, this class and learning how I can include technology in my teaching to help enrich and make it better. I know very little about technology so it will be extremely helpful for my teaching in years to come.