*Part 1 of a 4-part series Presenting at teaching conferences and hosting PD sessions has always been a passion of mine. To me, teaching is teaching, whether my learners are school-age or adults. While this fills my cup, it often means that I am involved as a presenter and not a participant during school PD opportunities. As such, my personal PD comes in on my own time. My most recent PD endeavour is, The Complete Ed Tech Coach: An Organic Approach to Supporting Digital Learning, by Adam Juarez & Katherine Goyette. As always, I will be using the blog to… Read More
Tips for Successful Online Lessons
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed A LOT of things for everyone; coordinators included. To say the adjustment has been easy would be a lie… I’m shared between all 16 of our school buildings and last year I strived to visit every building at least once a month to support teachers, staff, and students with all things ed tech. Sometimes these visits were scheduled appointments but often they consisted of me stationing myself in the libary, common-area, or staff room and developing organic conversations as people saw me. We all know teachers are busy and this method was fantastic because, while… Read More
Mantra Monday
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: Monday is not only the start of a new month but also the start of a new set of Covid-19 restrictions across the province. Educators are currently working to accomplish their regular curricular goals ontop of: addressing the complex mental health needs resulting from the pandemic adjusting to new health guidelines designing and participating in blended learning completing assessments and writing report cards planning virtual Remembrance Services planning virtual Parent-teacher conferences and much, much more! While this… Read More
What I Learned As A Remote Student
On Friday 1000s of Manitoba teachers took part in #MTSPDDay which was primarily hosted via distance and online methods. It is my hope that we all use this opportunity to not only take back new content understanding to our practice but to also reflect on what it is like to be a distance student. I have personally been a distance student since September of 2013 when I started by M.Ed program through Brandon University. While this stage of my learning journey concluded with my graduation in 2018, I have continued to spend time as a distance student as I completed… Read More
Follow Friday – #MTSPDDay
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, as I do every year at this time, I’d like to bring recognition to the #MTSPDDay hashtag! To learn a bit more about what exactly MTS PD Day is and how it is being held during the Covid-19 pandemic, check out the video below from MTS President: James Bedford As educators take part in various professional development sessions across the province, many of them are choosing to share their learning… Read More
Assistive Learning Technologies
Yesterday I had the opportunity to share and learn with a fantastic group of clinicians to discuss assistive learning technologies. This group included speech-language pathologists, school psychologists, social workers, and physiotherapists who work to support learners and families within the Parkland-region: Mountain View School Division Frontier School Division Swan Valley School Division Turtle River School Division Parkwest School Division Prairie Mountain Health Manitoba Education As my background is as a classroom teacher, and my M.Ed focus was on educational technology, I developed a presentation based on my skill-set. Our Coordinator of Student Services, Jeane Mischuk, was then kind enough to… Read More
Lungs Are For Life – MB Curriculum Supplements
This morning our admin council had guest presenter, Hailey Coleman, the Youth Vaping Program Coordinator and Operations Assistant from the Manitoba Lung Association. She shared about the newly revamped “Lungs Are For Life” program which now includes more information on vaping. She shared that, in 2019, Manitoba Gr 7-12 use of vaping products has increased by 21.5% and it can be speculated that this statistic has increased in 2020 given the correlation between youth mental health and the prevalence of vaping. Lungs are for Life Program Overview “Lungs are for Life! is the vaping and smoking prevention program for students… Read More
Kids These Days : Chapters 1-3
Today is a divisional professional development day in MVSD. Although that looks different this year (no large gathering with all schools) the dedication to learning has not changed. This year we are focusing on the work of Dr. Jody Carrington through a guiding book study of, “Kids These Days“. We are starting today with Chapters 1-3 and will be progressing through the remaining 5 chapters through the school year. The following are my takeaways, reflections, and notes to guide my learning. (Re)connecting Back to the Beginning – Why You Chose This Holy Work of Educating Our Future Generations Main Takeaways… Read More
Tech Training for Parents/Guardians
When the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the suspension of in-person classes in March of 2020 we were all thrown into an emergency scenario that saw all stakeholders try their best to accomplish distance content delivery for their students. In all cases, educators relied heavily on the parents/guardians of their students to assist however they could. This included: picking up hard-copy packages from schools or via mail providing a device of some type assisting in whatever troubleshooting was needed learning alongside their child and answering questions as they arrived serving as a communication liason between children and teachers Six months later… Read More
MVSD MIE Expert – Judith Cooper
Its back-to-school in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. As tech integration increases as a strategy to meet our programming needs the teaching staff across MVSD have prepred some of their tips on how to make technology work for you. From August 31 – September 4 our teaching staff are taking over the ICT Social Media accounts sharing their tips, tutorials, words of support and more! MIE Expert Program – Judith Cooper View this post on Instagram Judith isn’t just using technology with her students, she’s been a leader for her colleagues as well & this summer was recognized as an MIE… Read More