Week 12 Final Post

So I just finished my final week of classes. It's been a wild ride these last 12 weeks, and it's kind of a bittersweet feeling. I'm glad that the work is done, but I'm also sad that I won't see people until February after our praticum. I've definitely learned a lot in this class. I've met lots of great people, and found lots of fun activities that I'd love to use in my classroom. Unfortunately, I am in a Core French classroom, so I won't be teaching math. It kind of feels like a waste, since I spent 12 weeks learning about how to teach J/I math, and now I don't even get to use my knowledge. Maybe in my next practicum I will be teaching math, so hopefully I retain this information. At least I have this blog to refer back to to look at some of the strategies and activities to use in the classroom. 

Oral Communication

Resource 

I chose a podcast called Nerdy Cast to listen to this week. It's an educational podcast that links education to 'nerdy' things. I listen to Season 3 Episode 9, which talked about homework, Star Wars, and the value of pop culture when raising kids. It talks about how kids shouldn't have as much busy work for homework, but they should have something that highlights their creativity. The speaker talked about his son coming home and playing with his Legos, which is just like writing a story or script because he created characters, dialogue, and a narrative while playing. We should have more hands on and creative activities for kids to do, rather than just have boring worksheets for homework. It also talks about using speech to text apps to complete homework, instead of constantly writing everything.

Micah Elizabeth Scott. (2010, May 29). A Lego minifigure on a skateboard [photograph]. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lego_minifigure#/media/File:LEGO_Minifigure_skating_through_town.jpg 

Ontario Curriculum 

The second Overall Expectation in the Oral Communication strand applies to these strategies, "Students will use speaking skills and strategies appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes." This resource would be useful for teachers of literacy because they need to be aware that there are other methods of getting their students to participate in literacy, other than filling in worksheets. It gives good strategies to engage students with fun, creative, and interesting ways to communicate their ideas. 

Howard Lake. (2011, March). Speak Up, Make Your Voice Heard [Image]. Retrieved from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/howardlake/5540462170 

What now?

Since I am in a French classroom, the main focus is on Oral Communication. One of the biggest challenges is getting the students to speak in French. We are starting a Unit in Pop Culture, so this resource will actually be really useful for when I get to teach. I can use these ideas to get students to talk about something they are passionate about. I can get them to choose their favourite show or movie to recreate a scene, or create a script or trailer to present in front of an audience. I can get my students to use some fun apps to present their work, as the visual component of their oral presentations. I think using technology to present would be more fun for students, instead of a traditional presentation where students stand in front of the class and read off of cue cards. Using these apps to communicate their learning will allow students to produce more authentic speech, because they have time to prepare for what they will say. It will also relieve some of the stress from traditional presentations, which will reduce stress and anxiety. Below are some of the apps that I think will be good for oral communication. 

Tellagami 
I used this app in my French class at Brock, so I know that it will be useful in my placement. Students can create a character and choose a background to create a story. They can then record their voice and the avatar will look like he/she is speaking. This is a fun way to present short scenes, because you can only record up to 30 seconds (unless you buy the full version). I can get my students to prepare short speech or advertisement that their character will present to the class. This way students can produce oral communication, but without the pressure of standing in front of an audience. 

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Sock Puppet
This is a fun app that I would use to present my Minds On section for younger students, because it would appeal more to them, than younger students. It allows you to create a sock puppet show on the iPad. Students can choose up to 4 characters to use, a background, and any props they want. I would also have older students create their own stories using this app. I think it would be fun, (and not considered too childish) for older students. Again, students can record their voices and have their characters talk and move around in the scene. This would be good for my students to create a script for a story and work individually or in small groups. I could have my students create an ad for a product, or a short story and have them present it through this app.     

iMovie trailer 
A much bigger project I could have my students do is use iMovie (or another program like Telestory). I would have to teach my student the aspects of a movie trailer before expecting them to create their own. I would also have to show my students how to use programs like iMovie, because they can be confusing. I would have my students create their own movie trailer for a movie or their own, or recreate a trailer for a movie of their choosing. They would have to work in groups to write a script, film, and edit their trailers. Below is a trailer I created in my Tech class using iMovie. Unlike my example, I would have my students either voiceover or film themselves speaking, to show their participation in oral communication. 

TED talk video 
TED talk videos are becoming more and more popular, especially in the classroom. I find that teachers are showing their students these videos to introduce new ideas, and to inspire creativity. I think it's a great idea for a Minds On activity in the classroom. Below is one of my favourite TED talks. The speaker talks about how he impacted a girl, but didn't realize until she thanked him years later. I would definitely show it to my students to show them the impact one small act can have on another person, and to inspire them to be nice to others. I would have my students create their own video about something they are passionate about, or a time someone inspired them. They would have to plan out their script and edit it before they film. This would all be done in French, so I would need to revise their scripts before they start filming, to make sure their grammar is correct. 

Powtoons 

Finally, I would have my students create a video using Powtoons. This would be a good project for a Summative Assessment, because it should be used to summarize student's learning from the unit. In my class I would do an inquiry with my grade 8's on why they should be learning French. I have proved a good example of a presentation that was created through Powtoons for this assignment. Students would do research on the subject, and put their findings onto Powtoons. I would have them record their voices onto this program, instead of having them present a poster in from of the class. I think this use of technology is much better for this generation, and is much more engaging for the class audience.

Week 11 Reflection

This week we looked at quite a few online resources instead of the text book. This is because the focus was on using technology to teach math in the classroom. I think that this is a really useful topic, since we are being taught to use technology in most of our classes to make lessons fun for our students. A lot of our activities and resources in this class have been apps and videos to use in our classroom, but this week we went into a bit more depth about the resources we can use.

For one, we can use spreadsheet applications, which are interactive computer programs that allow information to be organized, analyzed, and displayed in the form of a table. I think that any interactive method is a good method, because it allows for differentiated instruction, and also tends to make learning more fun for students. Graphing scientific calculators can also be used, which is what I used when I was in school. I thought those were fun to use, but that was years ago, so I'm not sure in students nowadays would enjoy using them. We did a graphing activity, which was a graphing story about swinging. Graphing stories are short video stories that help students learn to graph on a plane. I like this activity, because it puts the problem into a visual, real-life context. For this particular problem, we had to find the height of the swinger's waist over 12 seconds. Watch the video below to see the problem and solutions:



Then we looked at another good program to use online, Desmos Graphing Calculator. We graphed equations like y = (x-2)^2 and played around with the graphing system. We changed the equation and talked about the transformations. This is a good resource to show examples to students, to explain graphing, and also a good manipulative for students to use themselves.

One activity that I really enjoyed was Prodigy Math Battle. Prodigy is an online game for students, where they are in a virtual world and they can battle opponents to win. However, to win the battles they must answer math questions correctly. What a fun and educational tool! Teachers can have their students log in and answer questions related to their unit that they are instructing. They have to go on the website, find the curriculum strand that they want and the specific topic. There are pre-loaded questions where you can select the test items that you want students to practise. This way teacher can create fun assignments that don't seem like homework. From there, the teachers can see their students' results and see where they need help.

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We went over how to do this with the whole class, because it is such a good task!
As a class we decided to see the demonstration of how to create a math battle for our own classroom. We chose probability for grade 8, with the specific topic of complementary events. Then, we went through the questions a as a class to see how to use this website.

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We also went over assessment of math assignments and tests/quizzes. This was extremely helpful, because in this class we have been focusing on how to teach math to students, but we have not yet talked about how to assess students' learning. Personally, I don't want to be a teacher who gives pop quizzes and tests every week. I want my students to actually enjoy learning, and want to come to class. I don't want to focus on grades, but on improving my students learning, and making math enjoyable for them. One of the resources I looked at before class was an audio file on Assessment strategies.

Another fun activity we tried in class was the finger counting challenge. The video below explains what this is. I like challenges like these because they require students to think about the solution and not just fill in numbers into a formula. Some student solutions can be found at this site.




Finally, we looked at another math challenge: Zombie Bridge Crossing
The video below describes the problem, and reveals the answer if you want to look at it. If not, I can briefly explain it, because I think it's an interesting problem to solve, and allows the students to use critical thinking.

Week 10 Reflection

We're nearing the end of the course. You can tell, because stress levels are high, as is the work load. However, I still manage to find time to write reflections of my math adventures. We focused on chapters 19, 20, and 21 from our textbook this week, which is a lot of reading. We mainly focused on data management and probability in our class. This is actually one of my favourite topics in math, which is really saying something, since (as I'm sure I've mentioned before) I do not really like math. 

Probability is almost always a hands on unit, using many fun manipulatives to model chance and probability. I think that this would be my favourite unit to teach, even if it is one of the hardest concepts to understand. Students need to understand the concept of odds, certain to, likely to, equal chance, not likely, and never. The least possible value of a probability is 0, which indicates that the event could never occur; the greatest is 1, which indicates that the event must always occur. If students do not understand value or fractions, they may not grasp this concept, so i must be sure that they understand this first.  

Theoretical probability can be confusing, because as the title suggests, it is based on theory. It is probability based on reasoning, written as a ratio of the number of favourable outcomes to the number of possible outcomes. To make it easier to see the possible outcomes, it is a good idea to model out all outcomes. You can use tree diagrams, which gives more details and maps out the probability of outcomes, or area models, which I find to be more confusing and harder to read. You can also graph out the possible outcomes, to find the chances or the outcomes like we did with our prof. He challenged us to pick a die to roll against his and see how many times we could roll a higher number. He had already calculated which particular die would have the highest outcome, so naturally we lost, because we just chose a die randomly. I think this was a good lesson because it proved that the theoretical probability matched the actual outcomes. 

We had a lot of fun activities this week, lots that I would use in my own classroom. Some were simple, and others were a bit more complex, but still lots of fun. For one, we had a spinner with numbers 1-4. We spun 10 times and calculated the outcomes based on our spins: 

Woolley, E. © 2015 

Another activity involved cards, as many probability activities do. Out of a standard deck of 52 cards, we had to write out the odds of various cards. For example, what are the odds of pulling a red card (26/52). We also did the same for a spinner and for rolling a die.

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 We got to create our own survey and collect data. I think this is a great activity for students to use their own ideas to collect data. My group chose "how do you get to school" and used a pictograph to collect information. We asked our peers to select their answer and use a picture to response. An awesome, hands on activity for students! 

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 Finally, we played a horse racing game, which was a lot of fun. We rolled two die and recorded the number rolled on the graph below. We rolled 52 times before we found the winner, which was #5. It was fun to see how chances worked. We had predicted that 7 would win because there are more variants of 7, but as chance and probability prove, the theoretical outcomes are not always what happens in practise. This was a fun way to play with students and show them theory vs. practise, and also a good way to teach students not to gamble! 

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Week 9 Reflection

This week we discussed Measurement, which was covered in chapters 17 and 18 of the textbook. This was also the week that I got to present my Learning Activity Presentation.

First we talked about time, which I think is a fairly difficult topic to teach. The concept of time as a measurement is hard to understand, so it is a good thing that we reviewed strategies for teaching it. I think that the person who presented this topic did a great job. He made lots of jokes and really captured our attention, which in my opinion is a really good way to engage students. When I become more comfortable with math, I think I will try to incorporate this strategy into my own teaching. I think humour really shows students that you are comfortable being in front of the class and know the material well. It is also comforting for students to hear jokes because it eases the tension and reduces stress that students have with math.

I got to do my presentation, which was kind of nerve-wracking because I'm not the best at math. I think it went fairly well, I don't think I messed up at all. I went over perimeter, and using different manipulatives for measuring length. I think this was a really good experience, because it gave me the opportunity to practice teaching math in front of people. It really got me out of my comfort zone and ready to start teaching math, which I think was a great assignment. I talked about using nonstandard and standard units to measure length and perimeter. I had no idea that there was such thing as nonstandard units, but i think its a really neat concept to teach. It helps students understand the concept of measuring length without attaching it to a standard unit of measurement. Some of my favourite nonstandard and standard units of measurement are pictured below:

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Straws, linking blocks, toothpicks, centimetre cubes/ten blocks, string, measuring tape, and a ruler.

 I think that I was well prepared and had an interesting activity planned. I didn't get it from the textbook, because there were no activities planned for teaching perimeter. I found it at this site which listed a few hands-on activities for students. Students had to write their name in block letters onto centimetre grid paper, and then measure the perimeter of each letter and full name using nonstandard and standard units. I liked this activity because students got to be creative and also to practice measuring with different manipulatives. Below is my example that I did with my name:

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The other two presenters talked about area and volume respectively. They both had good activities that helped to highlight the concepts of area and volume. We went over some more good hands on activities that I hope to use in my classroom. The one I liked was a real-life activity for calculating volume. We got an empty Kraft Dinner box and centimetre blocks. We used these standard units to measure and calculate the volume of the box. I liked this activity because it was visual and hands-on, unlike the worksheets and questions I had to do when I learned volume. This is better because students can actually see how volume works.

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We did some more fun activities after the presentations. We read a short story about the Pythagorean Theorem, and did an estimating activity. We had to estimate how far we could jump, and then measure it. It was surprising how much fun we had jumping and competing, so I can only imagine that students would have just as much fun with this activity.

Finally, we watched a funny video featuring John Green, one of my favourite authors, explaining 36 unusual units of measure. It was funny, and educational. I would show this video to my class, have them take notes on their favourite obscure units of measurement, and then measure objects as a fun activity.

Dessinez-moi

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Pour cette activité la classe est divisée en deux groupes, et chaque groupe doit choisir quelqu’un pour dessiner. Chaque groupe doit décrire l’image au dessinateur. Il faut donner les mots de vocabulaire pour qu’ils puissent l’utiliser.  Dans cette photo on a décrit un visage, mais on peut changer l’image, selon le sujet pour pratiquer le vocabulaire et pour pratiquer parler. Par exemple, pour un module d’environnement on peut décrire une image de paysage. Je peux faire cette activité avec les tous les niveaux de français cadre et changer le vocabulaire et l’image pour les différents modules que j’enseignerai.

Poser des questions

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Pour ce jeu, il faut écrire les questions qu’on peut répondre par « oui » ou « non » sur une balle. Un élève commence avec la balle et pose une question à un autre élève. L’élève doit répondre à la question par « oui, j’aime » ou « non, je n’aime pas ». La première personne passe la balle à l’élève qui a répondu à la question. C’est sa tourne pour lire une question à quelqu’un. C’est un bon jeu pour lire le français à l'oral et répondre aux questions. On peut changer les questions, selon le niveau des élèves (les questions plus compliquer pour l’immersion) ou selon le sujet. Dans ma classe de stage je suis dans une classe de 7e et 8e année française cadre. Je peux poser les questions de culture populaire, le module qu’on va commencer. Par exemple, quelle est ton émission de télévision préférée ?

Week 8 Reflection

This week the topic we focused on was Geometry, which chapters 15 and 16 of our textbook covered. In class we looked more closely at 2-Dimensional shapes, 3-Dimensional shapes, and symmetry. We got to play around with a lot of manipulatives, activities, and apps that furthered our understanding of geometry.

One of the things that I found the most interesting regarding 2-D geometric shapes were tangrams. Tangrams are created by dissecting a square into 7 smaller shapes. These 7 shapes can then be used to either recreate the square or a variety of different shapes. Below is an example of a tangram that we worked on in class:

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I found tangrams to be really fun and interesting because we were presented with the 7 shapes (2 large triangles, 1 medium triangle, 2 small triangles, a small square, and a small parallelogram) and had to try and create the bigger square. I found it rather challenging trying to fit all these pieces together, but I thought it was an interesting concept, and really demonstrated how geometric shapes can make other shapes.

We also talked about 3-D geometric shapes. This was a fun topic because of the manipulatives we got to play with. We talked about the skeleton of 3D shapes and then we used clay and toothpicks to construct these skeletons. I made a cube, a triangle-based prism, and a square-based prism:

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This was a great activity for students to get to see all sides of a 3D shape, and be able to count the edges (counting toothpicks) and vertices (count the red clay). I plan to use this activity in my class, because its a good hands on activity. We also discussed geometric nets, which we could build if we had more class time, and face maps (draw out all the faces of a 3-D shapes. i.e. 6 squares for a cube). These two manipulatives are a good way to show students which 2D shapes make up these 3D shapes. 

We talked about symmetry and the two types of symmetry in geometry: reflective symmetry and rotational symmetry. Reflective symmetry when a shape mirrors its other half, and rotational symmetry is when you turn the shape over itself to see if it is symmetric. We went over plane Symmetry - when one half of a 3D shape reflects onto the other half across a plane. A fun manipulative we used to draw symmetrical shapes was a mira, which mirrors an image so a student can trace it to create a symmetrical shape. Below is a picture of a mira reflecting the other half of the shape:

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We were shown various apps this week, but the one I like best was called Symmetry artist. I played around with it after class, because it was a lot of fun. The way it works is you draw on one side of the line of symmetry and the app mirrors your drawing to create a symmetric shape. It is a good example of reflective symmetry because it mirrors the shape that you draw as you are drawing it. This app is fun because you can draw anything (as long as it fits on the drawing area) and you can add details like colour. I could use this as an activity for students to draw their own symmetric shapes by adding lots of detail and using their imaginations.

One of the sites that I explored this week explored the properties of shapes. This site would be good for my students to better understand geometry and gives good examples for creating and constructing shapes on an online sketchpad. I would consider using this as a manipulative for my students because it is a fun, interactive activity to get students to create shapes. It is very in depth with the instructions for creating shapes online, but I would definitely go over how to create shapes on this site with my students so they would know what to do.

Finally, we looked at a commercial for an app called Osmo. It is an interactive app for the iPad that also lets children play with physical manipulatives to better their problem-solving skills:

Writing

Resource:

I found this resource by searching through the hashtag #edtech on Twitter. It is a blog post that gives 7 strategies that teachers should teach their students on how to post on social media. It talks about what students should and shouldn’t write about or share online. It talks about how students need to think before they share their feelings online, because they may regret it later on. However, it also states that students can change the world with what they share (in a good way).

Geoff Livingston. (2010, March 2). Like and Dislike [Photograph]. Retrieved from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9397412@N06/6946516369

Ontario Curriculum:

I think the third overall expectation from the Ontario Curriculum: Language for the writing strand best applies to this resource. It states that students will: 3. use editing, proofreading, and publishing skills and strategies, and knowledge of language conventions, to correct errors, refine expression, and present their work effectively. Using this resource, students can practise editing and publishing their writing on social media to present their work online. This is a useful resource for literacy teachers because they can use it teach their students about their digital identity, while also improving their writing skills.

Gideon Burton. (2009, January 1). Online ID dog-tag [Image]. Retrieved from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wakingtiger/3157622308/ 

What now? 

I could use these strategies in my placement by having my students write and post something on social media. They could write an insightful tweet or blog post about something meaningful that they learning in class, but before they posted it online they would have to edit and reflect on it. I would also have them get a peer to review their work before publishing it online. 

My Associate Teacher just handed out a form to all her students to get signed by their parents, to give them permission to be posting online. This letter outlined the assignments that the students will be completing, and which media platforms they will be using. My Associate Teacher wants to keep the parents informed, and involved in their children's schoolwork. The parents are encouraged to read over everything their children post online (not just for class). In my own classroom I will use this form to communicate with my students' parents, and to get others to edit their work. 

Digital Identity

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I will teach my students about digital identity before they start sharing their work online. Above is an image I created to illustrate my digital identity; it is an avatar of myself. Students can create their own avatar using various sites to generate these images. This is a good method to protect students' identity, so they do not have to share a photo of themselves online. 

Next, I would go over Internet safety using the 6 Internet Safety Games To Help Kids Become Cyber Smart. I want my students to use social media, but I want them to be smart about it and be safe. This site also gives detailed information and provides good examples of interactive games that kids can play that talk about Internet safety, so that the students can learn, but still have fun. I would use the games provided from this site to explain to my students the importance of being smart and safe when using the Internet. It teaches ways to stay safe on the Internet, like keeping a password secure and how to keep personal information safe.  Before my students actually get to post online, I would have them write an initial blog post on what they have learned about Internet safety, that I would review before they posted it online. 

Paul Klintworth. (2008, June 4). Internet safety [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/27340884@N07/2550796119  

Netiquette

I would also teach my students the etiquette rules that everyone should follow when posting online. This is called Netiquette, and these unwritten rules are the acceptable ways of communicating on the Internet. Let’s look at a few major ones to know if you’re going to post on the Internet:

• If you wouldn’t say something to someone’s face, don’t say it online. Some things are better left unsaid, especially if it is something nasty.  
• It’s okay to disagree with other people’s opinions, but be respectful. You’re entitled to your own opinion, but there’s no need to be rude or offensive towards someone else
• Use proper spelling, grammar, and use appropriate language. Remember, everything on the Internet is there for the world to see, so be cautious of what you put out there. Future employers, teachers, and family members can see what you say, so be kind! 
• Never post someone else’s work/words without their permission. Give credit where it is due. If you like what someone else has said or have created, feel free to share it, but let everyone know who the creator is

These are the criteria students should know so that they can edit their work before they publish it. 

Classroom Practise 

Finally, I would get my students to start writing and publishing their work online. A few of the sites that they can post on includes, but are not limited to, are Twitter, Facebook, and Blogger. Using Twitter and Facebook my students will need to be concise with their texts, and be sure to edit their ideas based on the Netiquette criteria. I would have them post questions on these sites to see what their peers and other people have to say on their ideas. I could have them start an inquiry or short stories on these sites. On Blogger they can post much longer texts such as critical reflections or their own stories. 

Another fun way to get students to publish their work as a newspaper article. This site allows students to copy and paste their writing and it turns into a newspaper clipping. Below is an example of an assignment I made that I created in my Tech class a few weeks ago

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