Category: Reflections (Page 3 of 3)

What a great experience we had today learning about the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry.  Jeff Hopkins, the founder, principle and teacher of the school gave us a glimpse of what the school is about and how they help students generate questions for good, deep inquiry that becomes the foundation of the student’s curriculum.  The students meet all the requirements expected of any high school student in BC, but they do it on their own terms with their own interests.     This is the 7th year that the school has been open and Jeff explained how successful this type of learning can be by giving examples of what the students have been creating.  He told how one student has produced and published a novel and how another has produced research  about brain activity and ballet dancing while using either point or flat shoes, which will be published.  Another student is learning math and physics by incorporating  different formulas into a video game that he is making.  The school is very accommodating and can work with students and their busy schedules.  For example, if a student is heavily into dance, they can incorporate this into their curriculum.  This flexibility allows grade 11 and 12 students to explore first year courses at UVic and use these credits toward their grade 12 and for furthering their education in university.   While the students are taking courses at UVic, the teachers at PSII are there to help and support their learning in university classes that do not use the inquiry based method that this school provides.

As I become more educated about inquiry I begin to question the education system that spoon feeds information to students.  I think that eventually all schools will adapt some form of inquiry as it seems to be the way of the future.  It is inspiring to see the opportunities that the students at PSII are creating for themselves through deep inquiry.

Today we had a great speaker named Jesse Miller come in and speak to us about social media awareness and what an eye opener this was.  I had no idea to what extent our digital footprint goes out into the world without even being aware of it.  He spoke to use about digital identity,   digital rights, and digital literacy which are all very important topics especially since all of us are entering into the teaching career.  We must be aware of our presence on the internet and how we must be accountable in our social channels, especially in connection to our work and our professionalism.

One of the topics Jesse spoke to us about is privacy and how teachers must be aware of the use of personal phones in the classroom for documenting and representing students and their work.  A point that I took home today is the importance of using a camera that is not part of the school network or hooked up to the internet in any way for uploading images to applications such as FreshGrade.   We must be accountable and realize that the parents may not have given us permission as a teacher to upload that students photograph to Icloud, even though your intention was only to put it on to  FreshGrade.  We must also asks ourselves if the students name is in the photograph of the artwork and how that can also be a breach of privacy, especially if the school address is disclosed with the photograph.

Technology for kids provides opportunities for success and conflict.  This is an on going conversation, but at the end of the day we must realize that technology is a part of our future.  Jesse asks us to question our thoughts of addiction around screen time, and whether or not it is an addiction or a comfort.  Technologies provides a platform for opportunities that would not exist without it.  Schools can connect with low income families via social networks available online, where as without it those connections would be lost.

We must be aware that anything we do online is accessible, and can be tracked.  If we delete a photo on Facebook, it isn’t really gone.  If we look up someone on Facebook or Instragram it can be tracked.  Our digital footprint follows us where ever we go and as a teacher we must be willing to look at ourselves and be accountable for what our presence is online because parents and employers, or even creepers will look us up and try to find out what ever they can about us for good or for worse.

Today we learned how to work with imovie through MAC computers. I have had very little experience on this subject so it was a slow process for me. In the beginning I was overwhelmed trying to figure out what to do, but after some time I became a little more comfortable.  I loved seeing the other videos that students have produced in the past, and seeing how creative and humourous Jamie was in class today with his goat movie.  Thankfully Jamie showed me a few tips which gave me more confidence to play around and see what I can come up with on my own, so thanks for that Jamie!!

I can see how using different types of videos can be a huge asset for teaching.  For example slow motion video can allow us to see what we can’t see with our own eyes such as a horse and how it runs, or it can speed up what we are seeing so that we can understand the process more easily such as a caterpillar making a cocoon.  For my own art instruction I can see that video would be an asset for demonstrations of art projects and making it accessible for students all around the world.

You can find the resources from Rich available at the following links:

• Video Editing with iMovie
• Audio Editing with Audacity
• Screen Capture with Screencastify (this activity is optional because of the requirement to use a Google account for Screencastify, Google Drive, and YouTube).

Here are the slides from this week found here: https://edtechuvic.ca/edci336/2019/10/01/slides-from-week-four/

During this class we reviewed Twitter and Twitter Deck.  This week I went on to my Twitter account and I was blown away by the information and connections I can make through this tool.  During our seminar class  on Wednesday this week Kristin Holland came and spoke and talked about story workshops, which I was very curious about.  I saw a tweet come up, so I clicked on it and was able to learn more about how to work with watercolours in story workshops! Wow, it look so interesting.  Here it is:

NEW OPAL SCHOOL VIDEO!
How do we set the table for learning with watercolors?https://t.co/LN0iUS1riI

— Opal School (@OpalSchool) September 18, 2019

Today links were created by Michael as signing up tool for our inquiry project.  Again, I had not thought of this as a teaching tool, but all of the students in the room were able to type on to the document at the same time as it was projected on to the big screen.  There are pros and cons to this method as everyone can change everything in the document, but I think it is an exciting tool to know about.

Open Educational Resources were reviewed and the options are endless for teachers to use these free teaching tools to build curriculum and support learning, but I must say it is overwhelming to know everything that is available and how to use it.

Copyright has always been something that I care about as an artist so it was interesting to review it in class.  It was interesting to me that copyright now has other options that weren’t available even a few years ago, like creative commons.  These options allow me to really think deeply about the images I put online and how I will present them for the public to use or not use.

Here are the slides from this class: https://edtechuvic.ca/edci336/2019/09/24/slides-from-week-three/