I have read through the brief bios/profiles that Cohort D, Ed Tech Teachers completed on Friday, Sept. 2 of Brock's "orientation day" to the 2011 -2012 teacher training year. I am very impressed with the eclectic range of skills and backgrounds that this group of 29 teacher candidates brings to our class. There has been an incredible variety of volunteerism garnered across a number of years. There are several who have taught in South Korea as well as in a private school setting. There are many who are interested in sports in a coaching capacity. Still, others have a passion for the arts in such areas as music, drama and puppetry. Amateur photography, martial arts, 'gamification", baking and cake decorating are also represented. Several have worked with children who have specific learning needs such as hearing and autism. Many have been involved in tutoring across all ages and subject areas.
With such rich backgrounds, these teacher candidates will be in an excellent position to hopefully share such skills in their respective internship schools when considering running interest groups or clubs.
We are off to a great start with incredible potential and a strong intent on making a difference in the lives of young learners.l
Monday, September 5, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
In sight!
Tomorrow, Barbara, Zoe and I are meeting to plan the fine details of Sept. 1 and 2, the two Opening Days for Brock's 2011-2012 school year for teacher candidates. How quickly this has come around! There is a great deal to put into place for this ed tech cohort, a wonderful and somewhat daunting challenge for this upcoming year. My hope is that I will do it justice. With Zoe and Camille's guidance, I know that I will really stretch my technology know-how. My processing of all of these new initiatives takes a bit longer but we will learn and grow together; we are a new community of learners. I am so very pleased that Barbara Williams has agreed to return for 4 months until Camille returns from her sabbatical in January. Barbara has a great deal to offer with her polished skills in cooperative learning.
Today, I read an email from a previous teacher candidate in Cohort D. He was in my group last year. He had his orientation day today at the HWDSB; he is so very excited to now officially be on the supply list. He is anxious to get started but needs to be patient because the need for supply teachers is minimal in early Sept. but then increases as the school year unfolds.
Another teacher candidate who was in my JI Lang. Arts class last year emailed today as well to inform me that she has landed a PERMANENT teaching position with the Peel Board. Although she is a certified JI teacher, she will now be teaching Grade 3. She is soooooo excited as I am for her.
These two positive news items just reinforce the notion that all is not doom and gloom out there. There are teaching slots to be filled and when keen teachers are in the right place at the right time and have done exceedingly well to "market themselves" professionally and positively, then success can be found.
I am also following the blog of another of my Cohort D members who is now teaching in South Korea. She has done an excellent job to post to her blog. I see many happy children in her class and Sabrina too seems to be totally enjoying her new profession and career at the other end of the globe.
Today, I read an email from a previous teacher candidate in Cohort D. He was in my group last year. He had his orientation day today at the HWDSB; he is so very excited to now officially be on the supply list. He is anxious to get started but needs to be patient because the need for supply teachers is minimal in early Sept. but then increases as the school year unfolds.
Another teacher candidate who was in my JI Lang. Arts class last year emailed today as well to inform me that she has landed a PERMANENT teaching position with the Peel Board. Although she is a certified JI teacher, she will now be teaching Grade 3. She is soooooo excited as I am for her.
These two positive news items just reinforce the notion that all is not doom and gloom out there. There are teaching slots to be filled and when keen teachers are in the right place at the right time and have done exceedingly well to "market themselves" professionally and positively, then success can be found.
I am also following the blog of another of my Cohort D members who is now teaching in South Korea. She has done an excellent job to post to her blog. I see many happy children in her class and Sabrina too seems to be totally enjoying her new profession and career at the other end of the globe.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Ed Tech Cohort
What an exciting school year lies ahead here at Brock, Hamilton Campus! The 2011-2012 designation of Cohort D as Ed Tech is a thrilling challenge for me - thrilling because of the new ground that we will be breaking with our cohort's new tech focus but at the same time challenging because of the new learnings and experiences on the horizon for me. I look forward to experiencing authentic and creative classroom applications for Livescribe, ipods, digital recorders, etc. in our cohort's teaching and learning. As always with the use of technology, there will be frustrations along the way but similar to a physical fitness regime, where there is no pain, there is likely no gain. I believe in the power of a learning community and feel confident that we will learn and grow together as a cohort community of emerging teachers ready to engage learners in 21st century learning.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Summary and reflection
I think that I would rate myself at a 7. This is the second time taking this Betty Blogger summer school. To be honest, I didn't do much with it after the first time but I found this set of tasks much more meaningful. I was already using Picasa for my pictures so felt more apt with this task. From amongst all of these tasks, I found Google Reader and Library Thing the most intriguing. And between these two, I would say that the latter grabbed my attention the most.
I enjoyed Betty Blogger very much and looked forward to Mondays to discover new Google territories. The instructions were clearly laid out and easy to follow. Some of the actual web pages were not always self-explanatory and made navigating through them a bit problematic. For me, this was the challenging aspect of the course. I would put wikis in this category. With more exposure and time, I am sure that these would become easier to use. Another aspect for my consideration here is the practicality of some of these Google applications. There are some that are less helpful for me at this point so I was not as keen in getting to know them in more depth. Ones that I saw an immediate use for caught my attention right from the get go and these are the ones that I will pursue in the future.
The interest that this course generated in free Google applications motivated me to go to Chapters to see if there was a Dummies book about Google. There wasn't but what I did find was a well laid out book with visual steps called Google for Seniors. I like how it is laid out making it very user friendly. There are many topics covered but the ones from this course that are addressed are Blogger, Docs, YouTube and Picasa. These are likely the ones that I will continue to use along with the Reader and Library Thing.
Library Lady's email messages were fun to read. Your sense of humour added to the enjoyment of this on-line course. Very witty comments kept my attention right to the end. I was also impressed with the prompt comments posted on my blog. They were there the day after I had posted my tasks. Thank you for your immediate feedback. This helped tremendously to let me know that I was on track.
I like the self-directed working module. I have used this format before in other situations and find that it is a fun way of learning provided that the instructions are clear and that the step are broken down into manageable chunks.
If this program were to run again, I would definitely try it again. There were some different topics than last year such as Diigo, Picasa and Library Thing. With the repeated topics, it was a good review and reinforced what I had done last year. I have already mentioned this summer course to a few of my friends. Last year, I brought two others on board, one from St. Catharines.
Thank you Library Lady for organizing this so well, for your humourous approach in your emails and for your positive feedback. I look forward to the grand finale on the evening of Aug. 31.
I enjoyed Betty Blogger very much and looked forward to Mondays to discover new Google territories. The instructions were clearly laid out and easy to follow. Some of the actual web pages were not always self-explanatory and made navigating through them a bit problematic. For me, this was the challenging aspect of the course. I would put wikis in this category. With more exposure and time, I am sure that these would become easier to use. Another aspect for my consideration here is the practicality of some of these Google applications. There are some that are less helpful for me at this point so I was not as keen in getting to know them in more depth. Ones that I saw an immediate use for caught my attention right from the get go and these are the ones that I will pursue in the future.
The interest that this course generated in free Google applications motivated me to go to Chapters to see if there was a Dummies book about Google. There wasn't but what I did find was a well laid out book with visual steps called Google for Seniors. I like how it is laid out making it very user friendly. There are many topics covered but the ones from this course that are addressed are Blogger, Docs, YouTube and Picasa. These are likely the ones that I will continue to use along with the Reader and Library Thing.
Library Lady's email messages were fun to read. Your sense of humour added to the enjoyment of this on-line course. Very witty comments kept my attention right to the end. I was also impressed with the prompt comments posted on my blog. They were there the day after I had posted my tasks. Thank you for your immediate feedback. This helped tremendously to let me know that I was on track.
I like the self-directed working module. I have used this format before in other situations and find that it is a fun way of learning provided that the instructions are clear and that the step are broken down into manageable chunks.
If this program were to run again, I would definitely try it again. There were some different topics than last year such as Diigo, Picasa and Library Thing. With the repeated topics, it was a good review and reinforced what I had done last year. I have already mentioned this summer course to a few of my friends. Last year, I brought two others on board, one from St. Catharines.
Thank you Library Lady for organizing this so well, for your humourous approach in your emails and for your positive feedback. I look forward to the grand finale on the evening of Aug. 31.
Task 9: Cataloguing with The Library Thing
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/GiselleWhyte
Being a lover of books, this is a Google location that I anticipate using quite a bit. I still have to browse through this much more to get to know all of its features but I did like what I initially saw. It is interesting to check out what others are reading as well as some links to new titles and authors I have not heard of before. The list of author birthdays was cool! Clicking on my library titles and seeing the reviews was great! Very helpful especially if it is a book that I have not as yet read. This is a very comprehensive and practical Google application. It is a winner with me!
Being a lover of books, this is a Google location that I anticipate using quite a bit. I still have to browse through this much more to get to know all of its features but I did like what I initially saw. It is interesting to check out what others are reading as well as some links to new titles and authors I have not heard of before. The list of author birthdays was cool! Clicking on my library titles and seeing the reviews was great! Very helpful especially if it is a book that I have not as yet read. This is a very comprehensive and practical Google application. It is a winner with me!
Monday, August 16, 2010
RSS Feeds
Well, first of all, I really had to browse through all of the information that I was looking at on the Google Reader page. Initially, I found it overwhelming. I wasn't sure how the various parts fit together. The best orientation for me turned out to be some YouTube videoclips that clearly explained what an RSS feed was and how the Google Reader worked. The video "RSS in Plain English" was excellent as was "Google Reader in Plain English". While browsing through these sites, I also found "Introduction to Google Docs" that gave me a greater understanding and appreciation of what the various components were and how they were different from the traditional documents that we have been creating for ourselves. I highly recommend these YouTube tutorials; they are great. OK. I am digressing so back to the task at hand with these RSS feeds. I know now that RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Yipee! That clears that up for me. I subsribed to several but my favourites were:
1. Good Wines Under $20
2. The Goats do Roam Wine Company- South African Wines ( because I visited this winery in April 2009
3. BBC on this day - Front Page
4. Quote of the day
User friendliness I have already mentioned. The YouTube clips were much more helpful than the Reader site itself. The connection amongst the various sections of the page were clearly explained with visuals.
There is a whole lot here to browse through and enjoy. In fact, once I got into it, I found that time slipped away and before I knew it, it was 12:30 a.m. Yes, I will continue to use it but time is really needed to look through at all of the features. By having these set subscriptions coming in with updated posts on topics that I have selected will certainly save time but I will also need to spend time looking through them for whatever they have to offer.
1. Good Wines Under $20
2. The Goats do Roam Wine Company- South African Wines ( because I visited this winery in April 2009
3. BBC on this day - Front Page
4. Quote of the day
User friendliness I have already mentioned. The YouTube clips were much more helpful than the Reader site itself. The connection amongst the various sections of the page were clearly explained with visuals.
There is a whole lot here to browse through and enjoy. In fact, once I got into it, I found that time slipped away and before I knew it, it was 12:30 a.m. Yes, I will continue to use it but time is really needed to look through at all of the features. By having these set subscriptions coming in with updated posts on topics that I have selected will certainly save time but I will also need to spend time looking through them for whatever they have to offer.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Wikis - Potluck Picnic Feast: Task #7
I will bring the Apple and Quinoa Recipe that I created in my Google docs for Task #6. I am sure that It will be a hit because of its unique taste that varies with the ingredients placed into it. It is versatile and so much healthier than a potato salad.
Once I got into the wiki, it was easy to use. Also the instructions for this task were clear and user-friendly.
I can see a use for this kind of wiki tool in my course that I teach at Brock University. I will consider adding it as a means for students to add their comments on a certain topic. It has possibilities for sure.
Once I got into the wiki, it was easy to use. Also the instructions for this task were clear and user-friendly.
I can see a use for this kind of wiki tool in my course that I teach at Brock University. I will consider adding it as a means for students to add their comments on a certain topic. It has possibilities for sure.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)