On Mondays I share a different ed tech quote on our Thompson Classroom social media pages for our staff to consider. As we approach the final month of our school year that means that it is also time to discuss final/summative assessments. I am a strong believer that student choice is key when it comes to demonstrating understanding and that a learner should not be hindered by an assessment style if it is not a component of what is being assessed (ex: a student should not fail an exam because they cannot effectively write about their science understanding if they are able… Read More
WOW Wednesday – MMS eSports Team
On Wednesdays I highlight some of our amazing MVSD staff on our social media pages. Everyday our staff are using tech in new and exciting ways, are learning new skills, and are sharing ways in which ed tech is assisting them in their practice. Did you know?? Manitoba serves as a national leader in the area of esport (online gaming) with competitive leagues starting for learners in Grade 6-12. Esports not only provide additional extracurricular options to learners but they assist in the development of skills in the areas of: – global competencies in the “5Cs” – cross-curricular STEM content… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Dall E 2
On Tuesdays I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. If you have worked with students on any type of summative project it usually involves the inclusion of images to aid in understanding of the topic. I know when I was in the classroom this could mean anything from included images within PowerPoint and blog-embedded graphics to printed off images for posters and hand-drawn student recreations from online inspirations. With these types of media-inclusions comes the following questions: how do we find appropriate imagery that… Read More
MVSD People of Dance
On Thursdays I usually use our social media platforms to share using the #ThrowbackThursday trend where users participate by sharing a memory (recent or distant). These posts don’t usually make it to the blog but when a memory popped up today I was surprised to see I hadn’t placed it as a feature on the blog in the past. Given the Covid-19 pandemic, we wanted to find a way to offer technology-related professional development to staff while having fun and staying safe during the 2020/2021 year. This project saw staff practice their understanding of collaborative documents and cloud-based storage systems… Read More
WOW Wednesday – Megan Porter
On Wednesdays I highlight some of our amazing MVSD staff on our social media pages. Everyday our staff are using tech in new and exciting ways, are learning new skills, and are sharing ways in which ed tech is assisting them in their practice. Megan Porter, who teaches Gr 3/4 at Gilbert Plains Elementary (GPES), reached out this week to share her classes’ recent adventure: QR codes! QR codes are an accessible way for students to document their learning experiences and then share them with their families and friends outside of the classroom as the end-user does not need a… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Sketch
On Tuesdays I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. Digital content creation, including digital art and animation, is a popular activity across our division. In fact, our Tech Kits related to digital creation are some of our most popular loans from the PD Resource Center. I recently stumbled across the website, Sketch, via TikTok, which uses AI to animate drawings and thought that this could be the perfect introduction to digital creation for elementary students. Students create their own hand-drawn images, have them uploaded… Read More
MAETL President!
Last week the provincial organization, MAETL, held their annual AGM and vendor fair. Usually held in collaboration with the Riding the Wave conference in Gimli, this year’s event was virtual as it continued to be the most reliable option given the ever-changing public safety guidelines that were present during the planning stage of the event. While this is always a fun event, this year was even more exciting as I moved into the role of President for the 2022/23 school year! (If you’d like to learn more about our group you can check out a previous Follow Friday post HERE).… Read More
WOW Wednesday – Kelsey Foote
On Wednesdays I highlight some of our amazing MVSD staff on our social media pages. Everyday our staff are using tech in new and exciting ways, are learning new skills, and are sharing ways in which ed tech is assisting them in their practice. This week I would like to highlight Kelsey Foote out of Gilbert Plains Collegiate Institute (GCPI) who has implemented augmented reality (AR) into his physical education programming. For various reasons, I don’t see as much tech integration into these classes so these opportunities are always very exciting for me! If you are unfamiliar with the community… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – SmartArt for Charts
On Tuesdays I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. Charts are something that teachers create and use ALL the time! This can be for: their own personal organization task lists for student completion seating charts committee/group participant organization sports brackets the list goes on and on! If creating these digitally you can be tempted to spend the extra time aligning shapes to create the perfect look, or searching for that perfect template. Did you know, that SmartArt within PowerPoint can take your text data… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Edit YouTube Captions
On Tuesdays I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. Captions can be a great tool for accessibility but, sometimes, YouTube captions are too small/big or block the content of the video (depending on how it is filmed). But did you know that these captions can be edited and moved around the screen!? Thank you to Catherine Coyle at @classroomcreations for putting together a great tutorial via TikTok that I will embed below: