K-12 Online Conference Reviews

The first presentation that I listened to/watched was a presentation entitled “At-Risk Students in Our Virtual High School”, which was made by Katie Logan on October 30, 2006.

http://www.blogger.com/profile/12112726549560107957

“Katie Logan is the technology director for the Wyoming e-Academy of Virtual Education. The Academy is located in rural Wyoming on the Wind River Indian Reservation, and serves mainly Native American students from the reservation as well as some other students from other high schools across the state.”

from http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=60

The presentation focuses on the difficulties/issues/obstacles/successes and failures of the online school.

I found this presentation fairly interesting actually, as I did not realize a school like this exsisted. I can imagine that (in the area that she is in) this is a somewhat difficult task to accomplish. Actually, it probably is considering the amount of obstacles that she does list. Because the school is in an ‘at-risk’ area, the faculty has had to make a number of changes to the ‘normal’ school system. For instance, attendance is not mandatory; as long as the students log in once (even for only one minute) every 10 days, then they will not be ‘kicked out of school’. I find it interesting that this online school is in fact on a reservation (to be honest I’m not sure why I find that so interesting though). That being said, obviously the majority (90%) of the students are in fact Native-American (or First Nations, or Indian, or whichever we would like to go with).

Again, I found this presentation to be fairly interesting and, I am probably going to add her blog to my Google Reader, so that I can find out more.

 

 

http://www.dreamstime.com/high-school-classroom-image4749501

The second presentation I watched was entitled “If All My Classes Did This”, it was presented by Wendy Wolfe on October 19th, 2007.

This presentation focused on cartoon creation for the classroom (ToonDoo and Read, Write, Think) as well as Gliffy, Zoho and GCast.

 

I found ToonDoo rather exciting actually. I don’t know if I would use it in my future classroom, but you never know. ToonDoo (unlike Read, Write, Think) allows you to publish the cartoon to the web.

Gliffy is also a great program. You can use pictures and text (in any language). In Gliffy, you can do different things, like create floor plans and flow charts. Gliffy also allows for collaboration (like Google Docs).

Zoho, also seems like a great program, especially for those who do not have  a powerpoint program. It does not, however, allow for sounds or animation (like a regular powerpoint program) but, it is completely web based and therefore there is no need to carry around a jumpdrive with your presentation.

 GCast, is a podcasting site that would most likely come in handy in any circumstance. It would be great for making presentations both in class and out of class for both students and teachers.

I learnt a lot by watching this podcast, and I will most likely begin to use at least a few of these tools, in the near future.

 

The third presentation I viewed is entitled “What Did You Do in School Yesterday, Today, and Three Years Ago?”, it was presented by H Songhai on October 24, 2008.

I think it was a great presentation, very well planned and presented. The presentation focused on what  H Songhai does in his (paperless of more than three years) classroom. Also, he talks about a trip (to look at Universities) that he (along with some co-workers) and 13 students went on; he talks about how at the end of the trip none of them had even taken a picture and therefore had nothing to say “I was here”, even though the majority of them had a number of different pieces of technology.

I find it neat that he has had a paperless classroom for more than three years now. His class uses blogs and Wikis, among other things. He also encourages his students to take pictures of notes, rather than writing them down. Personally, I don’t think I would go to quite that extent.

 

All in all, I think I have learned a lot from these three presentations, and I may just go back and view some more of them. Just from the few podcasts that I have seen, I am already looking forward to viewing podcasts from the next conference.

 

Re: Final Project Update #1

I have sent e-mails out to everyone who commented on my previous post, and was interested in filling out the survey for me. If you left me a comment, I e-mailed you the same day you commented. So, if you have not received an e-mail from me, then please comment on this post and I will get another e-mail sent out to you.

Thank you to all of you for responding (and so quickly to), and a big thank you to those of you who passed along the survey to other teachers in your network.

 

assessor.co.douglas.nv.us/images/thank-you.jpg

Final Project Update #1

So, I figured I would take some time to blog about my final project.

I am very interested to see how classroom teachers of all subject areas are incorporating technology into their  classrooms. Obviously there are teachers who use class websites and blogs which is great, but I want to know waht else teachers are using in the ‘real world’. Don’t get me wrong, it is great to talk about how we want to use technology in our future classrooms but it is even better if we can actually learn what current teachers (old and new) are doing in their classrooms. I am interested in finding out about teachers who have to deal with a very small budget (or no budget) as well as teachers who have a massive budget.

I have e-mailed out a survey to a number of contacts that have a very large network of teachers that they have access to but unfortunetely I am not seeing any return out of this. I gave people a number of ways of contacting me, and I understand that teachers are busy this time of year (and especially at the beginning of the year when I first sent out the survey) but I was still expecting some sort of response.

I am not completely empty handed though as I have recieved some feed back through a forum I joined (specifically for teachers). Most of the answers were very minimal and simplistic but I did get one that was very in depth (and believe me I appreciate it) that really set my mind thinking. Even though I am not completely empty handed I definetely don’t have a fistful of information. I have five responses, and am still hoping that some of the other people that have been contacted will respond.

If anyone is an educator (it doesn’t matter what level) and would like to respond to my questions please let me know and I will send out the survey to you (it is very short and does not take very long). As well, if anyone has any teachers that they believe would not mind answering questions I will gladly pass along the survey to you if you wouldn’t mind passing it along to them.

 

 

Places I’ve Been

 

I finally had an opportunity to sit down for an hour and a half and create the map that I wanted to for class. The map I have created shows all (or at least the places I can think of) that I have been to in the past 6 years. Also, I have drawn a line on the map on the highways that I take when I come back to Regina in the summer.

As you can see I have done a fair amount of travelling within Canada. Travelling your own country, in my opinion, is one of the most important things in life to do. You end up learning so much about yourself and your country (from the people and culture to the different languages in different parts of the country).

View Larger Map

SMC

So, I woke up at 4AM this morning, in time to dress in what seemed like a million layers so that I would stay warm for my ‘wonderful’ cold walk at 5AM over to the Northgate Mall. Why in the world was I walking to the NorthGate Mall at 5AM? Well, I was meeting two of my professors who were picking me up so that we could all head up to SMC (Saskatchewan Music Conference) in Saskatoon. The conference technically started last night (Thursday) but the three of us (plus one other student) were unable to make it up to Saskatoon for Thursday (it was only rehearsals anyway, so not a big problem).

The first session this morning (Friday) was at 8:30, unfortunetely we arrived 10 minutes late, due to to construction in Saskatoon. The first session I took in was working with a Jazz Ensemble; the person working with the group was Chase Sanborn. To be honest, I’m not sure if I really took much away fromt that session as Chase wasn’t working with the audience (what should have been happening) but was working with the ensemble (instead of just using them for examples like what usually happens in that situation). I think at the end of the session (slightly over time) he realized that he hadn’t paid much attention to the audience and asked if there were questions. I kind of thought “well, how are we going to have questions when you haven’t addressed us in any way what so ever”, needless to say, there were no questions.

The second session I took in was really good (besides the noise from the construction at the hotel ). Actually, it was better than really good, I took a lot away from that presentation. This session was geared towards band, but could be used for any sort of music really. The session was titled “Rehearsing and Practicing: Teaching Practice Skills in the Bandroom” and the presentor was Dr. Gillian MacKay out of the University of Toronto.

Gillian focused on how to get students to actually practice and how we as teachers can model good practice behaviours in class. She had four truths, followed by four principles, along with sixteen things to try. She emphasized the need of both a warm-up and a warm-down; actually she more stressed the always forgotten warm-down. One particular ‘thing to try’ that really sticks out in my mind is “Make it Obvious”, be blunt about what you want students to do. Don’t tell them to just practice, but tell them “practice measures 7-14, specifically the dotted quarter to eigth rhythm (etc)”. I really think that I took a lot of information away from that session that I know I will be putting into practice with my trumpet student. I learnt a lot about how to get students to practice (without having their parents ‘hound’ them about it).

The last session (besides the keynote address) that I took in was also a great session. This last session was actually the last of three (I didn’t know that) and the presenter had actually been building upon session after session for three hours (and some people had stayed with him that entire time). The session (s) was (were) titled “Three Dimensional Rehearsing” and were geared towards choral. The speaker was Geoffrey Boers.

The first thing Geoffrey did was hand out music to everyone in the room (they were the ‘good old music books’, you know, the ones that are completely falling apart, almost disintergrating). The majority of us had to share as there wasn’t enough (which is normal), and we all sang the pieces. I found it rather interesting that at the very first session (I found out) he started with the absolute basics. He began by working completely with breath, not worrying about words or notes, just breath. He then moved from there to the notes and eventually (in the last session) put it all together. But it wasn’t just “okay, sing!” no, we (in the last session) started at the end of the piece and worked our way backwards. He shared his reason for doing this, which I think is a great reason! When we go from beginning to end then we are constantly thinking about how we don’t know what is going to be next (because we haven’t done it yet). On the other hand, if we go backwards, then we know what is coming because we have already done it. I thought this was a very interesting philosophy, and the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.

I am going to steer clear of talking about the keynote address on the other hand as, after talking to a few people, I am not the only one who thought it was completely irrelevant and almost pointless.

Unfortunetely (well not really) I had to come home tonight (Friday) as my family is coming into town (hence why I am stil awake after being awake since 4AM) and of course I was not about to stay in Saskatoon until tomorrow night, while my family is in Regina.

All in all, I think that (from what I was able to partake in) it was and is going to continue to be a great conference! Some people from my class had never been to a conference before now, so it was very different for them. For myself, it was kind of nice being back at a conference (of some sort) as I enjoy being around people who you can relate to as you are all there for the same (or similar) reasons.

Calling all of YOU!

Hey everyone!

I know that there are people who read my blog so I am going to throw something out there for all of you.

Is there anyone in Regina (or close surrounding area that doesn’t mind coming into the city) who would be interested in gaining some experience with youth, ages 8-10 in particular?

Do you (or someone you know) want to gain some experience (or if you just enjoy) with the following things?

Adventure

Fun

Excitement

Leadership

Games and Activities

Fellowship

Meeting new people

The Outdoors

Camping

Outdoor Activities, such as hiking or canoeing

 

Well then do I ever have an opportunity for YOU!

TheRegina 80th Cub Pack is currently in desperate need of a few leaders. It doesn’t matter if you are male, female (or otherwise ), they are ready and waiting to make your acquaintance. I have to say, the youth are great kids and the 80th group is amazing!

Are you qualified? The answer is simply YES! As long as you love to work with kids and are within the guidelines of Scouts Canada leaders. You DO NOT have to be a parent or even have any relations in the group, you just need to be a great person who wants to volunteer and keep this group alive!

Why am I asking you, readers of my blog, to be a part of Scouts Canada? Well, yes it is true, I would like to open the opportunity up to you, but it’s more than that. The 80th group is a thriving group (in all of it’s sections) on it’s youth involvement front. Unfortunetely for this group it is struggling to find leaders who are available for meetings. Without leaders this group will be forced to turn kids away.

So, if you are interested, please leave me a comment with some way of getting in touch with you. I will be more than happy to talk to you about the opportunity that is waiting for you.

 

Mentoring

Well, I hate to admit it but I still have not been able to contact the one class I am supposed to be mentoring, so I am focusing on Sandi Kerney’s class. So far I am really enjoying it. It is great to be able to talk to the grade 6 students over in MooseJaw through their blogs!

I am enjoying asking students questions and getting them to elaborate on their blog posts. They have also been asking me questions when they are able to, which is great!

As some of us know, Ms. Kerney’s class has run into some trouble as they no longer have the computers in their classroom. But, nonetheless they are still blogging and responding to other peoples blogs when they are able to.

 

Long Time No Blog

I am afraid I haven’t had time to spend blogging lately, I do admit, I miss it a bit.

Well a few small things have changed in my life, so I figure I shall update everyone (even though it probably doesn’t matter to you).

First of all, this Tuesday I taught my very first trumpet lesson. It went better than I thought it would. I was paid for one lesson a week (each of them a half hour) up until the end of November. It might not be a lot of money but I know I will appreciate it! I can tell this is going to be a great experience for me!

The main reason I haven’t been blogging lately is I have been extremly busy. Why? Well that’s a good question. I have recently be added as staff to a website I now can say I officially work on. It is another one of my volunteer ‘gigs’ and so far, I love it! I currently hold three different volunteer positions on the site, all of which I put a lot of time into each and every day. For any of you who want to know more, you can either ask me in class (if you are in my ECMP class), or you can always send me an e-mail (if you have my e-mail).

The other new thing in my life, isn’t really new just different. The past two years I have been a Scout leader for the Glencarin 79th Scout group here in Regina; as of Monday I am now a part-time leader for the Regina 80th Cub Pack, which meets at George Lee School. I know that I am going to enjoy this group much, much more than the 79th, for a number of different reasons.

Of course I also have to mention that finally I have become an Ambassador at the U of R, so that has kept me very busy as well (especially last week with UR Connected).

All I can say is that I am very happy that I am not ‘working’ this year as I don’t think I would ever have time to actually be at work . I put working in quotations as, the amount of time I spend on volunteer work makes it feel like work; other than I love to volunteer much more than I like to work as it means something to me. Only those of you who have spent hours and hours volunteering each and every day will understand the feeling that I refer to.

I am afraid I have no links that I can think of to put into this blog post, so I had to go with a few pictures instead

 

I hope you are all well!

An Interesting Read

In the midst of my ‘wonderful’ (feel the sarcasm there) Thanksgiving I was doing a last minute e-mail check before shutting off my computer. In doing so, I went to the yahoo homepage where my main e-mail sits (as it is a yahoo e-mail). On this homepage I quickly scanned the news scrolling across the news screen. As you can probably tell (seeing as I am writing this post) I am no longer shutting off my computer (which has to do with the article ) but instead am writing a post. I wanted to draw your attention to this article as I found it interesting and in no way is it not telling the truth.

When I saw the headline I decided “hey, why not take a look”, as I was reading I was very surprised that every example I read I could relate it to someone I knew (or even worse, myself). While at my aunt’s for the Thanksgiving meal I encountered this ‘problem’.  The ‘whole’ extended family usually comes over to my aunt’s and we have a meal and then either we stay and talk or everyone goes home to do whatever it is that they need to do. This year, we all sat down and ate and after the meal we were all in the livingroom talking and ‘watching’ the Hamilton/Montreal game (the Rider game obviously wasn’t on yet). As we were all sitting there I looked around and realized that someone was missing. I then went to investigate where my cousin was and realized that instead of spending time with the family he was playing a game on his computer (the strange thing is he just said last Sunday at another Thanksgiving meal that ‘he isn’t into the game thing anymore’). Everytime his mother called him, he would come down and stay for maybe a minute or two and then go back up and play his game again. I thought this was absolutely ridiculous.

Anyways…

Then I continued reading the article and it mentioned WOW (World of Warcraft). I had to laugh at this one, but not as in the ‘that’s funny’ sense of laughing but in the ‘I know’ sense of laughing. I know a number of people who are addicted to this ‘wonderful’ online MORPG (Multi-player online role playing game). Most of them (like any addiction) have no idea that they are addicted to it. Some of them can spend hours and hours playing the game, completely ruining any schedule that they may have had. Everything in their lives revolves around this game. “Oh my god! Guess what?!? I just completed that quest that I died 6 times trying to do” becomes the answer to the everyday question of “What have you been up to” or “How are you”.

I also know a number of people who are addicted to things like facebook and games (on the computer) like solitare, freecell, hearts and tetris. I think the way in which the world is going is more than a little ridiculous. Sure it’s great that we have all of this technology at our fingertips but when addictions start taking over the majority of people’s lives (and I do not refer to the majority of their life but the number of people this is beginning to affect) I think we need to take a step back. Now, I am well aware that addictions have been around for… forever but now more and more people are becoming addicted (to technology of all things).

Now as you have been reading this (and I hope you have taken the time to read the article) I want you to realize the irony of what both you and I have just done. Here I am saying that technology is addicting and blah blah blah; though I did not turn off my computer like I was going to, only so I could write this blog post. You on the other hand, probably have a million other things you could (and probably should) be doing but instead here you are, reading my post.

I loved the last paragraph in the article, it really does say it all:

“Blanchard, the self-confessed technology addict, crafted his own solution. He has deleted work email and Twitter alerts from his iPhone and ceased scanning blog posts on Google Reader while at home or out with friends. But he hasn’t let go altogether. When Forbes.com contacted him for comment, he Twittered out a message: “Just got an email from Forbes.com wanting to mention one of my blog posts. Pretty cool!”"

A Small Piece of My Life

For Tech Task #12 we were given the task to show who we were in a few pictures, which could include text. This small bit of ourselves was supposed to intrigue people into learning more about us. Well here is my tech task #12. Unfortunetely I couldn’t find great colours for the text but it works.

To view the slide in full screen click Tech Task #12, this will open your power point program where you can view it as a slide show.

I was hoping that I would be able to put this directly onto my blog but I guess the link is the best I can do.

As you can see by looking at it, there is definetely one major part of my life, and that is volunteerism (through Scouts Canada and Rotary International), My family is also very important to me as is music. The last picture is a picture of what I referred to in my post “A Life Changing Moment” . This is a picture of me with two teachers and my ‘brother’ before I went to the last school.

I hope this small piece of my life intrigues you. If you want to know more, leave me comments and I will for sure answer your questions.