Blog

Piercey vs. Lunenberg County District School Board

     The following is a presentation put together by myself and another education student from our, Educators & The Law course. It is not intended to be a stand-alone presentation and will be shared with our class during a lecture/discussion by the two of us. It includes:– Introduction of the Case– Terms of Reference (applicable to our case)– Legal Summary (what happened, court’s ruling)– Assessment of the Ruling (our opinion)– Implications (what this means for teacher’s in the field) * Slideshare changed the font so some of the formatting is a little wonky and the embed YouTube clip doesn’t… Read More

#ETMOOC Intro

       It took some peer pressure but I have decided to take the plunge and participate in #ETMOOC, a massive open online course on Educational Technology & Media. Here is the description provided on the course webpage,      #etmooc is a ‘Connectivist’ MOOC (‘cMOOC) this is designed around a      few key principles:      – The course is developed with a weak ‘centre’. While etmooc-org will provide      a level of aggregation, detail, and dirction, the majority of interactions are likely      to occur within groups & networks, facilitated through various online spaces… Read More

EduCon 2.5 Prep

     At the start of January I posted about this years upcoming EduCon professional development conference, held in Philadelphia. Well now the countdown is on and with only a few days until it begins, I wanted to share some of my tips and tricks for attending EduCon virtually! First off, if you want to learn more about EduCon you can:– Visit their website– Follow them on Twitter– Read some of my previous posts!     – EduCon 2.5     – EduCon 2.4     – My Thoughts on EduCon 2.4      Now I have only participated in EduCon once, so I am… Read More

Resources To Start Off Your Week 50

     Week 50! I am excited to have two great Resources To Start Off Your Week that I have found through my great PLN on Twitter! As always, I will be adding these to my lists of resources under the Fav Websites heading. 1 ) Blogging Prompts for Teacher Candidates– This collaborative Google Doc project features hundreds of writing   prompts for teacher candidates (and any person in the education   field).– Topics include issues related to ethical use of technology, pedagogy,  ed tech & cognition, personal tech habits, tech tools, issues with  access, future of education and more!– I will… Read More

Digital Storytelling in the Classroom

     On Wednesday I had an opportunity to attend a presentation by Darren Kuropatwa and Andy McKiel on Digital Storytelling. Both of these guys are doing some amazing things in regards to ed tech and I was happy to finally meet both of them after following their work online.      The entire session focused on digital storytelling as a way for our students to document and reflect on their learning. Not only were we introduced to some great ideas but we also were able to try them out for ourselves. This was the very first PD session I… Read More

Dean Shareski: The "Best Part" of the Internet

      This Tuesday we had an opportunity to Skype with Dean Shareski from Discovery Education Canada to discuss technology in education. There are so many technological tools out there that can be utilized in the classroom like interactive whiteboards, personal devices, and apps. While these tools can offer differentiated learning opportunities for our students, I believe that they are often under-utilized. By this I mean they are either used as a novelty project simply because they are available, they are not utilized in a regular basis and/or they are not used to their full potential. Why use your… Read More

Quick Law 3

     The following are the case studies that will be reviewed in my Educator and the Law course this week: Quick Law 3 Winans, Jay. (2004). “Broken leg in Football Game: School Supervision Adequate“ Overview:– Grade 4 student playing tackle football at recess with 15-20 students – Rough sports like tackle football were banned at the school – While participating, the student’s leg was broken – Parents charged the school, it was dismissed – Playground supervisor was responsible for acting as a reasonable   parent (in loco parentis)  – Supervisor was present, aware and capableCommentary/Opinion:– I am glad to see a… Read More

Resources To Start Off Your Week 49

     Term 2 is well underway and I am excited to be sharing some new Resource To Start Off Your Week! As always, I will be adding these to my lists of favourite resources under the Fav Websites heading. 1 ) Easy Moza– Easy Moza is an easy-to-use online tool that allows you to make photo  mosaics using hundreds of your own photographs. I think this is so neat  and you could use it to create interesting mosaics for any number of  projects or subjects!– Thank you to a fellow blogger, Mr. L, for introducing me to this  resource.*… Read More

Quick Law 2

     The following are the case studies that will be reviewed in my Educator and the Law course this week: Quick Law 2 Tannahill, Julie. (2008). “Sniffer Dog Violates Student’s Privacy”.Overview:– The school had a zero tolerance policy for drugs & alcohol, as such, the   principal invited the local police to search the school with use of “sniffer dogs”– While police searched the school, students & teachers were informed via the   PA system and were instructed in remain in the classroom during the search– A backpack in the gym was found to have bags of marijuana, other drugs and … Read More

John Evans: The PLN Mindset

     On Thursday we were lucky enough to have John Evans from Manitoba Education visit our classroom to discuss Professional Learning Networks (PLNs). Teacher’s engage in all types of professional development throughout a given school year and all divisions have a set number of days specifically labelled as Professional Development days. These might include:– In-school meetings that include all the teachers in your school or division   – In-service days   – New school tech systems (Maplewood, Edline, etc)– Out-of-town events that require you to drive to a larger center to meet up with other   teachers in your subject/interest area   –… Read More