Back to school.... as a student

Well that was a swift change of pace!  In a mere 3 days I went from teaching a class to being a student in a class!  Boom... just like that.  I loved my time away student teaching, but man, did it ever identify things that I absolutely need to work on!  I'm very excited and thankful that I've got a full 4 months to continue to work on things before I head back to teach in another classroom.  I'll admit that I do miss my students though, of course :)

Back in the ICT world, we had the chance to hear a speaker in our class.  One speaker demonstrated how collaborative ICT projects could be complete relatively easily in a few short minutes.  Here's an image that I created based on his instructions....

This assignment took me maybe five minutes, which included downloading the app.  Its a great way to allow students to quickly see the fruits of their labours and also allows the teacher to have some insight into their students.  Happy photo editing!

ps.  the app I used to create the above image is called 'phonto', it was ridiculously easy to use and could prove to be lots of fun!

The Technological Dark Age

Hello Readers!

It's been a few weeks, but let's just say I've been a bit busy.  I've been working away during my student teaching placement here in Rural Manitoba  and I've been loving it.  The students, by and large, are engaged and excited learners and seem to be excited to be doing their class work.  Mostly.  But seriously, the students have mostly bought in to what I've been trying to teach them in their classes and have made me feel exceptionally welcome in their classroom.

During this placement, I've fully taken over the grade 9 English class.  My CT has even allowed me to come up with my own unit plan for my time here.  It's been quite a lot of work, but it has ultimately been extremely rewarding.  I've had to come up with daily lesson plans and have been responsible for all the assessment in the unit, with close supervision of course.  I'm really pleased with how everything has gone.  My only complaint is that I need more time!  But isn't this always the case?

I'm sure you're wondering how all this info applies to ICT in the classroom!!!  Well.  Here's the thing: mostly, it doesn't.  My school has zero smart boards, only 4 IPads (for 200 students), and no projectors affixed in any classrooms.  Thus, technology has not played a large role in what I've accomplished here.  I've had a few students use PowerPoint  (it was awful: their presentation was good, but, for some reason, they decided to set it up on a timer.... let's just say this was a better idea in theory...) but other than that, I haven't really used technology.  I've had to stick to more traditional types of presentations (*ahem* posters.  On paper.)  This hasn't been a problem at all, it's just rather disheartening for me because this is my semester for ICT and right now, I've got quite a few ideas would've liked to incorporate into the classroom.

It's been particularly frustrating in my grade 11 English class because I've been teaching essay writing.  I'd love to post up examples on the board quickly and easily, but I haven't been able to do so.  I'm not always able to access a projector, either, so typically we do notes on the board.  Again, I'm not complaining, but rather observing.  Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), the students don't know any differently so they aren't at all disappointed with my lack of tech in the classroom. 

All in all, it's been amazing.  I'm so thankful for such a wonderful first experience.  Hopefully I'll easily adjust to time back to being a student in the classroom! 

Thanks for checking in!