The following post has been completed as part of my personal reflection as I work through the ISTE Summer Learning Academy #ISTEsla20 Any images, tables, or direct quotes (as indicated with the appropriate formatting) are provided from the specific course or webinar and can be credited to: ISTE Summer Learning Academy. (2020). https://summerlearningacademy.iste.org/ Week 1 – Day 3 includes a webinar that is vey applicable to the Canadian winters entitled “No More Snow Days”. It is facilitated by Mike Ribble and is described as follows: “Snow days that disrupted in-person learning used to give students a break from school, but now technology is changing the way we… Read More
Chart a New Course – #ISTEsla20 Wk 1 Day 2
The following post has been completed as part of my personal reflection as I work through the ISTE Summer Learning Academy #ISTEsla20 Any images, tables, or direct quotes (as indicated with the appropriate formatting) are provided from the specific course or webinar and can be credited to: ISTE Summer Learning Academy. (2020). https://summerlearningacademy.iste.org/ Week 1 – Day 2 includes a webinar entitled “Chart A New Course: Teaching Essential Skills for Tomorrow’s World”. It is facilitated by Rachelle Dene Poth and David Lockett and is described as follows: “How do we create the right spaces for our students to learn? Whether in our classrooms or learning… Read More
Online with Intention – #ISTEsla20 Wk 1 Day 1
The following post has been completed as part of my personal reflection as I work through the ISTE Summer Learning Academy #ISTEsla20 Any images, tables, or direct quotes (as indicated with the appropriate formatting) are provided from the specific course or webinar and can be credited to: ISTE Summer Learning Academy. (2020). https://summerlearningacademy.iste.org/ Today kicks off the ISTE Summer Learning Academy and I’m looking forward to learning more about online instruction; specifically a focus on pedagogy, content delivery, assessment, and relationships in the online space. I am lucky to have 3 MVSD colleagues (and 15K other educators) also participating in… Read More
New Steps
After much debate, and a lot of anxiety, I have started the transition of updating this blog through a shift from Blogger to WordPress (including having my own domain). Bear in mind that this journey is 8 years (and almost 700 posts) in the making so this transition, thus far, has not been super smooth. I have been quickly reminded of how much trial-and-error I undertook when I first began this journey; including a brief stint on Weebly and a mid-journey “rebrand“. Chances are you may notice some formatting glitches, layout inconsistencies, theme changes, and more over the summer a… Read More
Tech Tips for Attending an Online Conference – #ISTEsla20 Prep
At the start of June I posted about this summer’s ISTE Summer Learning Academy being held from July 13-31. The countdown is now on and with the sessions starting next week I wanted to share some of my tips and tricks for attending an online conference. ISTE Summer Learning Academy Social Media Graphic. (2020). Uploaded by Kirsten Thompson. Available online at: http://fishbowlteaching.blogspot.com/ My first expeirence with online conferences was 8 years ago when I began tuning into EduCon that streamed out of Philadelphia. I attended via their virtual options for two years and later became even more… Read More
ICT Team Overview
Today marks the formal completion of my first year as Coordinator of ICT in Mountain View School Division. What year to make this shift! I had A LOT of hesitancy about leaving the classroom environment as I loved my Ste Rose family and was already missing “my kids” (Grs 7-12) while on maternity leave. With that being said, this is easily my dream position and couldn’t be happier with this stage in my career. Much of this positivity has stemmed from the fact that my ICT Team is amazing, like utterly fantastic. Any question I had… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Off For The Summer
Every Tuesday 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. Summer Holiday Tips. (2020). Uploaded by Kirsten Thompson. Available online at: http://fishbowlteaching.blogspot.com/ Today is the LAST day of the 2019/2020 school year in Manitoba and it was one for the history books! As we wrap up the year, and I wrap up our regularly scheduled posting calendar on our social media pages, I wanted to focus our last “Tech Tip” on summer holidays. Teachers tend to have their “teacher brain” on non-stop but if… Read More
#MantraMonday
Every Monday I share a different ed tech quote on our Thompson Classroom social media pages for our staff to consider. This week’s Mantra is: Ed Tech Quote. (2020). Uploaded by Kirsten Thompson. Available online at: http://fishbowlteaching.blogspot.com/ Through the month of June I have been encouraging all staff to reflect on the learning opportunities awarded to them through the experience of Covid-19. (Some tools to facilitate this reflection include the Year End Tech Checklist & the Self-Reflection rubric). This increase in tech usage has fast-tracked the use of educational technology for many of our staff; our direct Office 365 stats show just how big… Read More
Covid-19 Podcast Discussions
While the past four months have drastically cut down on my meeting and conference plans (still mourning the loss of ConnectED and Riding the Wave face-to-face events) it did signicantly increase my ability to converse with some amazing educators from across Manitoba and Saskatchewan. I consider myself pretty lucky to have some wonderfully creative educators in my social circle who are using podcasts to share, connect, and educate. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and resulting suspension of classes, there has been a lot of conversations to be had when it comes to the impact… Read More
Follow Friday
Every Friday I share what I believe to be a notable person/organization/school on our social media pages to assist our staff in the development of their online Personal Learning Network. This week I would like to highlight Brittany Washburn, an M.Ed graudate with a focus on technology education. As someone who has a middle school and high school background I appreciate Brittany’s perspective on introducing early years learners to technology. Her social media feeds also share several tech tips that are designed to make the use of technology easier and more accessible to both students and teachers. Follow… Read More