George Couros

Today in class we heard from George Couros, Division Principal of Innovative Teaching and Learning from Alberta. I found a lot of what Alec had to say interesting and also found it to be very useful information that we can use in the future.

One of the first things he talked about was our digital footprint, which is always good to remember. Although I have heard many people talk about making sure that we don't have anything negative attached to our name when it's googled, I had never thought about making sure that I have positive educational attachments to my name when I am searched. I appreciate the point that he made and I will make sure now that I keep myself up to date with this so that when the time comes for an interview, a principal will see that I would be an asset to their school. 

"You don't need to be an expert on teaching, you need to be an expert on learning". My guess is that I 'm not the only one who will repost this quote that George gave us. I think this will be good to keep in mind- I want to make sure that I keep my students engaged and passionate about what they are learning in my classroom. We might all graduate and have all of the know-how's on grading and multi-level intelligences but if we don't help our students build and understand their passions then what is it all for?

It's also nice to hear first hand from a principal the "do's and don't" when we become teachers. I will make sure that I am a "school" teacher and not just a "classroom" teacher. Principals want to see that we are a valuable employee and that we care to build relationships with all students in our school, not just our own classrooms. 

I appreciate George taking the time to talk to us today- hopefully taking what he said into account will help me get my first job next year!

John Finch

This afternoon we heard from another presenter, John Finch, who talked about the dangers surrounding technology, but also around the myths. It was interesting to hear a different perspective on some of the topics, including cyber bullying. I know that, up until today, I felt that cyber bullying was an issue that has been on the rise with all of the technology that surrounds us. I was interested to hear that the data actually shows nothing of the sort. Now that I hear it from another perspective, it makes sense. Bullying has always been an issue- it is just being done in a different context these days.

One thing that stuck with me from the presentation was the information reported back from "Tell Them From Me". The website measures how engaged students are in school, school completion as well as how safe the student feels in school. The survey was done in over 80 new schools in the spring and fall of 2012 and found that on average about 25% of students are bullied physically, emotionally and verbally each week. Interestingly, cyber bullying was only reported 8-12% of the time. This surprised me- I would have assumed that the cyber bullying numbers would have been much higher. It makes me wonder if the cyber bullying topic is being blown out of proportion in the media? I had never thought of the Amanda Todd story as a blackmail story either, it has always been portrayed as cyber bullying and so I never thought any deeper about it.

I was heartbroken to hear that the highest percentage of bullies, as reported by students, were actually the teachers in the schools. The thought had never crossed my mind that after all of the thought and efforts we put into anti-bullying campaigns, the adults could actually be the biggest problem. Socio-economic status is apparently what a lot of kids feel bullied about, specifically the clothing that they wear. I would never purposely treat any student differently because of what they wear, but I will make sure to be mindful of it now.

I appreciated John's point that we need to keep parents in the loop when we are using social media in our classrooms. Letting them know our reasoning for a class website or any other media and getting informed consent from them is one measure that we need to take in order to use technology responsibly. It's a very important step to take in order to protect ourselves and also to be respectful of parents' wishes.

I was interested to hear what John had to say about referencing as well. One of the things that I worry about with using all of the technology out there is that I will unknowingly break some sort of copyright law or something similar. Clearly I understand that if you take someone's words, pictures or videos from print or from the web, you need to reference them. I just worry that with all of the small print involved with most things that I might accidentally teach my students or show my students something that is somehow unethical.

Overall I enjoyed listening to John today- he definitely gave me a lot to think about in terms of technology, copyright and other ethical issues.

Late Intro!

Hi again!

So I think I originally posted this in the wrong place I think- so here it is again! A quick intro about me!



On the off chance that any of my followers are not fellow BU Ed students, here's a quick "about me"! I'm in my first year of Education at BU- hoping to teach early or middle years when I graduate in 2014. 

I live in Brandon with my younger sister Jen, who is also an Ed student at BU. I just started working at the Keg this past September and am thoroughly enjoying it so far! 

I love to travel, usually with my sisters or a close group of friends, and am hoping to get back to Europe next or possibly Africa or South Asia to try something new!

I think that sums me up in a few quick lines- hopefully I can get the hang of this blogging and you will know more about me as time goes on!

Happy Blogging!

Guest Speaker Alec Couros

Last Thursday we had a guest speaker, Alec Couros, in our Internet for Educators class. Alec specializes in Education Technology and spoke to us about the rapidly changing technology that is sitting at our fingertips. There are many ways that we can incorporate technology into our classrooms as teachers and Alec spoke to us about the incredible influence that it can have if we take advantage of it. 

One thing that Alec talked about was the use of personal devices in classrooms; many devices are permitted but I think we need to expand this even further. I know for myself it was beneficial to be able to have a live screen in front of me while Alec was talking so that I was able to type out a question if I happened to have one. I think there are a lot of students that could benefit from this in classrooms as well- the ones that are perhaps too shy to have otherwise asked a question for themselves. I also found it interesting to be able to log into Twitter on my phone and follow Alec with the click of a button while he spoke to us. While he was introducing himself I was able to find out a little bit about him for myself just by looking at his Twitter account. I think it is a neat way to get more out of things such as presentations, and our students should be able to use these sources to compliment lessons given by us as well.

Understandably, with technology comes responsibility. As educators we need to be making sure that we are teaching our students the proper ways to utilize these resources as there are many ways that it can be misused. As Alec pointed out, however, technology is inevitably going to be a part of our classrooms, so we will need to take on these challenges. We need to teach our students how to connect, share and learn from each other with the technology that is available to us.

Twitter

I have had a Twitter account for a while, although I don't actually post much myself. I do enjoy following others and laughing at some hilarious one liners! I think it's cool that you can follow celebrities (yes- I'm a nerd!) and it kind of makes it feel like you know them! A few weeks ago when we were in Florida, my sisters ran into an old Bachelorette in one of the parks. We went back to the hotel and checked her Twitter and sure enough, her posts were all about the ride that we had all just been on! Kind of cool- makes the world seem a bit closer together!

Guest Speaker Dean Shareski

I thoroughly enjoyed Dean's presentation in class and appreciate many of the points that he had. I think that his opinion on sharing resources is one that I most agree with. Being able to share has never been so easy, and it leaves us with the time to create exciting unit plans of our own to use and share. This will make our first year with our first classrooms so much less stressful! 

While I am completely aware of the fact that I need to keep up to date with technology, the only part that worries me is that I might accidentally do something unethical without realizing it. I look forward to learning ethical issues alongside all of the new technological resources that we are introduced to this term!