End of Course Reflection

   During the last 2 learning experiences, it really became clear how important it is for teachers to take initiative and step up to take leadership positions at school.  We do not have to do, we do not get paid for the extra work, but I do think we have an obligation to our profession and our students to challenge and inspire each other to constantly change and improve for the better.   
   If not for this course, I would have never had the confidence or even known where to start to plan things like staff training sessions, long range plans for staff development and parent nights.  It gives me the courage to try and implement some of these at my school, because if I do it will not be the first time I have done it, plus I have some really god templates and examples now to use as a starting point.

   There are very few chances to get insight into the classrooms of other teachers and we do not get enough opportunities to find out what other teachers are doing with their kids.The discussions connected me to many different teachers who inspired me and gave me a ton of new ideas that I can now implement in my own classroom. The fact that teachers are willing to engage actively in a course like this shows their commitment to students and student learning because it shows that they are dedicated educators who are always searching for new ways to engage their students and improve student success. It also shows that we are willing to share our ideas and so take leadership positions in learning communities.

LE 3 Reflection

The main focus of this unit for me was teacher collaboration and taking leadership positions at school to ensure teachers are up to date on how to integrate technology authentically in their classrooms.  It was useful to get a chance to actually create long range plans and specific lessons to train staff.  Doing these activities in the course means when we eventually have to it at school it would not be the first time we have done it and we have a little bit of experience in it.  It will definitely boost my confidence a little bit.  I specifically liked collaborating with my partner Scott using Google Hangouts and recording the whole thing with Screencastify.  I had never done this before and almost felt like we were doing a little podcast.  It made me realize that their are many convenient ways to collaborate with teaching partners and other colleagues.

Halfway Reflection

Describe one significant idea or issue that has arisen for you, as you were engaging in the topics during Learning Experiences #1 and #2.

I was surprised by the SAMR model.  I thought that I integrated technology pretty effectively in my classroom, but really I am only reaching the substitution and augmentation levels.  That means it's back to the drawing board for me and setting new goals for technology integration to try and get to that redefinition level.

Elaborate on how specific resources, ideas or experiences in the Learning Experiences have contributed to your learning. e.g. reading material, course activities etc.

The course activities in LE2 were cleverly organised.  Only after I finished all the tasks I realized that they were set up sequentially to show an order of how to start using ICT to differentiate for special needs students in my classroom.  Here are the steps I came up with:

1. I think a logical starting point for using technology to differentiate for special needs, is to first get to know your students.  You have to know what their strengths and need are if you are going to be successful at figuring out what technology will work best for them.
2. Find out about what technology and software is available that could help them reach their potential.  This is an ongoing process, because ICT develops constantly and new things are developed daily - especially in the field of technology.
3. Select tech and software that fits with their strengths and needs and provide learning tasks that they can successfully complete independently.  This will give them ownership of their own learning and build confidence
4. Deliberately plan to integrate technology in your long term plans and annual learning goals.  If you don't proactively decide how you will integrate, you might either not do it at all or forget about it untill las minute when it's too late to do it properly
5. Pass on the knowledge to other teachers who might benefit from everything you have learned and do it in a way that is easy to access like a screen cast perhaps.

Share how your participation in the discussion forums have contributed to your learning and connect this to your understanding of the Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession.

Participating in the discussion forums gives us an opportunity to learn from each other. Teachers are doing amazing things in their classroom, but we never find out about them if we don't go looking for it.  This is what 'Ongoing Professional Learning means to me - seeking out new learning opportunities individually.  One way of doing that is taking AQ courses because let's face it, sometimes being a teacher can feel a little like you are on an island.

Interacting with other teachers and sharing what we do also relates to 'Leadership in Learning Communities' because we take initiative by sharing our own strategies and looking critically at those of others to try and offer advice from our own experiences to try and improve their practice.

Finally, the reason we commit to extra professional learning in a schedule that is already jam packed (which often means late nights and weekends in front of the computer) is ultimately for the students.  If what we learn here can trickle into our classrooms and kids can benefit from it, it means that we do demonstrate 'Commitment to Students and Student Learning.'

Discuss any outstanding questions and the steps you may take to further explore your interests as part of your learning in the course.

I am very interested in introducing coding in my grade 6 classroom next year and my goal is to research some more to find out how to integrate the curriculum to make it worth spending the time on.  I think the kids will love it and find it very engaging.

I also want to keep fighting for more technology at my school, because as it stands, I can only book a class set of computers for a few periods a week.

ICT in the Classroom: "Necessary for some, good for all"

"Necessary for some, good for all." I love this saying because it means that while I can use technology to assist students with special needs, I can use the same technology to enrich the learning of everyone else in class and extend the learning for the students who need a challenge.  And if everyone is using technology to complete tasks, no one is feeling singled out.

Many of my special needs students in the past have been hesitant to start using technology if they were the only ones in class using it.  They already felt embarrassed that they could not do the same as all the others and getting a Chromebook or iPad to work on while everyone else was using pen and paper, made them feel even worse.  Once they see the benefits and become more independent, usually they stop caring so much, but it does make the initial sell tough.  However, if everyone uses it, nobody needs to feel excluded or singled out in anyway and all learners can become more independent in their learning.  By careful planning and giving students choice using technology, everyone can be successful at their own level.

Learning Experience 1 Reflection

  Sometimes I feel like I get a little lost in the day-to-day of teaching and it is such a hustle to get everything done that I forget - or just put off -  spending time to reflect on whether what I am doing is really helping students learn better.  This first unit in the IICT part 2 course pulled me back out of my gradual off-course spin and made me rethink my practices in the classroom.  It was great to connect to other teachers and find out what they are doing in their classroom.  I don't get enough chances to do that.  There were a few things that really stood out for me.

 Starting off with a look at appropriate tech usage policies for students and staff at our school was especially relevant for me as we are a new school and this has not yet been developed.  I did a little research on our school board website and found a policy that we can now use in creating our own school policy...which I think is very important.

  Another key learning for me was the SAMR model of integration of ICT in the classroom.  I was shocked to learn that many of the strategies I have been using with my students did not make it past the Augmentation stage.  It was useful to spend some time brainstorming ways to make the integration more meaningful and to try and move it up to the Redefinition stage.  It was also interesting to see how other people integrated in their ideas and their ideas on bumping up their integration strategies.

  Finally, I found the Skype and Web 2.0 activities very useful as they gave me specific example of how to engage students more through the use of ICT in the classroom.  I signed up for next year's Global Read Aloud and for Mystery Skype - I couldn't be more excited to give these a try and to experience how my students' engagement increases.  I do feel that I need to spend time fine tuning these to connect them to the curriculum and to make sure I implement them authentically and not just for the sake for trying something new.

  A question I still have and one that I hope will be answered later in the course, is around the issue of privacy.  I would love to use applications like Skype in my classroom, but definitely do not want to put my students at risk in any way...or get in some kind of trouble for not respecting student privacy.  I am not sure what the expectations/criteria are around this and would definitely like to find out before I use any of these in my class

Reflection Is Part Of Your Work

I am buying what George is selling and now I'm all excited to start blogging - and to try introducing it to my kids...  I do think that honest reflection is super important and that it makes us better teachers which, in turn, benefits our students.  I also think that teachers reflect even if they do not blog.  Teaching is probably one of the most reflective professions out there.  Think about it...we get to try a bunch of strategies for a whole year and then get to decide if we want to use those same strategies again the next year on a different set of students.  Every time we teach a lesson, we automatically run through the whole thing again afterwards and make decisions on what worked and what didn't, and on how we would change it in the future (or scrap it in totality).

Having said that, the thing that excites me about blogging is to force myself to be even more reflective.  Formalizing the process by putting pen to paper, or in this case, finger to key, means I can document my successes and failures and look them up later.  Successes can be repeated and tweaked to perfection while failures can be learned from to make me a better teacher.  Hopefully it will also help me be more organized.

Now if I can just figure out 'tags' and 'categories' I think I can make this work.