As Genius Hour Comes to a Close

Genius Hour is coming to a close soon and I am very sad! This means that within the next week I will be preparing for my TedTalk style video. This 5-8 minute video will demonstrate what I have learned in American Sign Language (ASL) over my Genius Hour time as well as difficulties that arose and implications for my research. Over the next week, I will have to compile my research of what signs and sentences I have learned, and present them to my viewers! I already began to look up tips for giving TedTalk style presentations and this website outlines what makes a TedTalk unique. As Kaye (2016) states, TedTalks are different from other presentations because they arise from something that is personal, a passion or something someone really cares about. This fits perfectly with Genius Hour because it is also personal and passion based! Another characteristic that defines a TedTalk is that it takes the viewers on a journey, where they started and the process that brought them to where they are now. These few points have helped me conceptualize what my TedTalk video will look like and it will help me formulate it when I get to the stage of making it. I feel confident that I have gained the skills from Tech class to successfully complete this video.

urban_data (2013, April 2). TED talk [photograph].
Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2eV6HQC

My views surrounding the use of educational technology have definitely improved as a result of taking this course. I learned new mediums through which to educate through, as well as online resources and tools that will assist with education. As a teacher, immersing yourself in technology is one of the best preparations that one can take. As children grow up in an increasingly technological world, teachers must adapt and transform their pedagogy to foster curiosity and safe use of technology. Not using technology in a present-day classroom would only hinder the students' learning. My development throughout the course has been mostly positive...there were some times where I got stuck or did not know how to do something but I tried different ways, asked my colleagues and eventually made it through! I have learned that I am capable of being technological savvy, it just takes time and effort, but I know that I am able to do it now. This course has provided me with the tools and resources to continue my professional development with technology in the classroom. 

Each day that passes as a Teacher Candidate I am both more prepared and definitely more nervous to begin my Placement Block #1 and continue on as a teacher into the 'real world'! Nothing like some teaching humour to make you laugh! 

http://memes.com/15-memes-that-perfectly-sum-up-the-nightmare-of-being-a-teacher

References

Kaye, J. (2016). Giving a Ted Style Talk? Here's how they differ from business presentations [web log comment]. Retreived from http://speakupforsuccess.com/how-are-ted-talks-and-business-presentations-different/

Genius Hour Progress

Words & Sentences from: Vicars, W. (n.d.). ASL: 1 Lesson: 3. Retrieved from http://www.lifeprint.com/index.htm *

I am only three lessons into my ASL journey, and Genius Hour is coming to a close very soon! I will still continue to learn ASL and continue with the lessons when Genius Hour is over. Genius Hour provided me with the time and foundation to learn a great new language, which I am very excited to continue working at.

As I have expressed through my last progress posts, I still have a long way to go. Although I find myself slightly improving each week, I still need to practice on refining my hand shapes. This means that after I learn a set of words or sentences, I need to ensure that I am going back and reviewing them. Having someone to practice signing with would definitely be helpful! Another difficulty that I have encountered have been that it is easy to learn the signs however making the video is quite time consuming, however it does make it easier to see the progress I have made!

My goal for next week is to go over all the signs and sentences I have learned so far as well as to work on the fourth lesson! 

*Note: the purpose of this video is to demonstrate my progress of learning American Sign Language, not to serve as a lesson for learning ASL. Visit  ASL University to view the lessons that I learned from.

Educational Technologies

Today in Tech class we explored many new technological tools and resources that can be used and integrated in the classroom. We worked in jigsaw cooperative learning groups to be able to explore a large variety of resources, and highlight the ones with our groups that we really liked. I enjoyed this activity because we were able to explore resources on our own, share with our group what we liked, and then break off into separate groups where we highlighted the best resources that we found. Some resources that I found especially interesting were ToonDoo, Google Sites, Word Clouds, Coggle, Storybird, Padlet, Popplet and Easlly. Each of these resources are free, or have a good free component, which is something that I love! These tools are very versatile because they could be used by a teacher to aid in instruction or by students to demonstrate the learning and growth that they have experienced in the form of diagnostic, formative or summative tasks.

I have experimented with a few of these tools and have found that they would be great additions in my classroom. Today I created an infographic on Easlly (see below) about my Genius Hour project. I used a template that they provided on the website and then changed the information and organization of it to suit what I wanted to depict. The information I used for this infographic came from The World Federation of the Deaf, pages Sign Language and FAQ. Infographics are a great way for students to represent the work they have completed in a simplistic form, such as depicting information found through research. A teacher can also use an infographic to highlight main facts to the class about a topic, or introduce them to something in a quick, easy way.

The World Federation of the Deaf: https://wfdeaf.org/

I have also used Word Clouds to create a sample of how it could be used in the classroom. A teacher could use this to introduce words for a unit that students would need to know; for example, I based my Word Cloud around temperature, and made it in the shape of a cloud to relate it to weather. Students can also use Word Clouds to make a list of new words that they found the definition of through research, or compile new words they learned by the end of a unit. A neat idea would be to compile all the word clouds from each unit into a binder so the student has a quick reference of the words they learned! Printing large word clouds for each unit and hanging them around the room would also be a creative substitution for the traditional word wall!

On a different note, my Genius Hour research is still going well, and I will be coming out with another video of my progress soon! Time is running out to work on this as classes will be coming to a close in a few weeks. Next steps include creating two more progress videos, as well as beginning to work on my Genius Hour Ted-Style Talk...stay tuned!

Should we Teach Technology?

Today in Tech class, we were exploring articles on The Best of Ontario-Educators, what a great, relevant resource! The article that caught my eye was about The 4 Stages of Edtech Disruption. This seemed interesting to me because it made me think about something that I had not thought about before; scaffolding students with the use of technology in classrooms. I think that many teachers use technology without considering this aspect. Integrating technology in the classroom should be meaningful and purposeful. As the article states, scaffolding the use of technology allows students to eventually become independent with technology, which is very important in a now technology-based world.

This article also caught my eye because of the language it used; it talked about traditional classroom learning being 'disrupted' by technology. Disrupted has a negative connotation to me however in this article, they see technology disrupting traditional education as a good thing. The closer to stage four that students get, the more traditional learning is disrupted. This is because technology use is self-directed and the students can now learn on their own. This is a radial way of thinking compared to the education I experienced, however it is the direction in which education is headed. This type of learning fosters inquiry, student-centred learning, critical analysis, curiosity and self-directed learning. Many of these are already present on the current educational landscape, making the need to scaffold technology use even more prevalent. Furthermore, children are immersed in technology so early on in their lives, that it is important to take the time to educate them on the proper ways to go about using this technology.

Heick, T. (2014, December 5). 4 Stages: The Integration of Technological Learning [image]. Retrieved from http://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/technology/4-stages-the-integration-of-technology-in-learning/

ASL Progress

Words & Sentences from: Vicars, W. (n.d.). ASL: 1 Lessson: 2. Retrieved from http://www.lifeprint.com/index.htm *

This past week I made another video of my Genius Hour project...learning American Sign Language (ASL)! I created both videos with iMovie on my Macbook Air; I have never used iMovie before so I am slowly getting better at navigating the app and figuring out how to get past the basic, as you can see between comparing the first and second video I made!

As far as the challenges I posed last week with video-taping my sign language, I think that I performed better this week. I was able to focus more on the body language and facial features of the sign language, however it still took me many tries to get the perfect one! I still need to work on refining my hand shapes with each sign, but this will come with more practice.

I have definitely learned a great deal about ASL so far; I know about 60 words and 40 sentences. I still need to work on grammar and fluidity of my sentences. Grammar is difficult because if you want to say "what is your dad's name" you have to sign "dad-name-what", which is difficult to think about in the moment when I am trying to sign. I originally had a misconception about ASL before I started learning it, that I would just speak English in my head and sign each word, however after I started learning ASL, I realized that this was not the case, and that it has a unique history, culture and grammar to it!

I have learned many things about myself throughout this process. I have learned that I am capable of learning sign language; at the beginning when I found out about ASL I was hesitant that I would not be able to accomplish it. I also learned that I need to make more time for something that I care about. Often, school work such as papers and tests take priority and I think that I don't have time for other work.

Overall, I am happy with my Genius Hour progress so far, and my next steps include continuing to learn more words and more sentences!

*Note: the purpose of this video is to demonstrate my progress of learning American Sign Language, not to serve as a lesson for learning ASL. Visit  ASL University to view the lessons that I learned from.

Making Progress!

My Genius Hour progress is still going fairly well! This week I explored a different way to demonstrate my progress; I decided to make a video of my Genius Hour project of learning sign language. However, I found a few difficulties with making a video. First, I noticed that when I was making the video, I was focused so much on remembering the sign, that I lost some important features of American Sign Language (ASL) such as some facial expressions as well as refined hand shapes. After watching the video back, I realized these issues and I can hopefully be able to address them in my next progress video and continue to improve the signs I already know. Another difficulty I have encountered while learning ASL is the different variations for each sign. For some particular signs, there could be from 1-3 variations. This is definitely confusing me as I'm not sure if I should be learning all of them or not!

Words & Sentences from: Vicars, W. (n.d.). ASL: 1 Lessson: 1. Retrieved from http://www.lifeprint.com/index.htm *

I see myself using Genius Hour in my classroom to emphasize my constructivist beliefs. Genius Hour is the finest example of student-centred learning! I love this quote from a high school student; the language she uses at the end...that the knowledge "takes root" really resonates with me because I want to provide learning for my students that is lifelong, and that's what I love about Genius Hour. 

Krebs, D. (2013, March 3). Genius Hour Quote [picture with quote].
Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsdkrebs/8525173755

Overall, my technological skills related to education are definitely growing everyday, most related to completing my Genius Hour project. I have become well versed with Blogging and being able to change and customize blog settings, making and editing videos to include text (which I taught myself how to do for the video above), use Google Forms, Google Draw, Google Slides, PowToon, and many more online tools. In the past 6 weeks I have learned all of these skills which makes me hopeful that in the next few years my skills will expand even more to help bring technology into my classroom in positive and productive ways! 

*note: the purpose of this video is to demonstrate my progress of learning American Sign Language, not to serve as a lesson for learning ASL. Visit  ASL University to view the lessons that I learned from.

Genius Hour Update

Another week has gone by in which I have had the opportunity to work on my Genius Hour project. I have learned many new basic signs which encompass the categories of family, places, time, temperature, food, clothes, health, feeling, requests, amounts, colours, money and animals. I have been using this great website that has everything from basic signs to sentences and grammar. It focuses on teaching individuals ASL and has been very helpful in my journey so far.

I recently discovered on the above website a self-study guide for those who are learning ASL, and I am now going to start using this. This has been a difficulty for me so far, often encountering questions such as "where do I start?" and "where do I go next". I am a person who likes plans and lists, so I believe no that I have found this resource, it will organize and speed up my learning of ASL.

In my last post, I said that I needed to continue practicing so I do not forget the new signs I learned, and over the past week I have both learned new signs and remembered ones from the previous week as well. This definitely makes me very excited in that I am retaining what I am learning...I hope this continues as my vocabulary starts to grow even more!

Thanks for continuing to follow along with my Genius Hour project, and feel free to leave any comments or questions that you may have!

Stone, D. (2004, December 18). American Sign Language alphabet [picture]. 
Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_manual_alphabet

My Technological Journey Continued

Another week, another awesome Tech class! This week we explored making PowToons. PowToon is another amazing tool on the Internet that can aid students in expressing their ideas. PowToons are also a treat tool for teachers to engage their students in what they are presenting. You can also use PowToon to enhance your flipped classroom, if that is something that you are experimenting with! Providing the information on PowToon for students to learn at home will really engage them, compared to a document with writing on it. I have had minimal difficulties with PowToon, most of them arose from no having enough experience using it! Now that I have used it a few times, I can correct my mistakes and hopefully use it with ease! Here is the PowToon that I made about Genius Hour:

We also had more time to work on Genius Hour this week (see my previous post about my Genius Hour topic). I learned that I definitely have a large task ahead of me. American Sign Language (ASL) is very different grammatically and syntactically from English, which I discovered is a hard mindset to get into after speaking English for my whole life. I have started to learn individual signs corresponding to English words (i.e. how to sign "dog" or "mother"). A question that arose from this weeks work is; should I re-evaluate my goals for my Genius Hour project? I think that I should focus more on words and basic sentences. I have picked up more words faster than I thought I would so I might need to adjust this now. I need to continue practicing signs that I have already learned so I do not forget them, and continue to learn more signs!

Talk to you soon! 

My First Genius Hour Project!

Today in Tech class, we began our 7 week Genius Hour projects! If you do not know what genius hour is is, or would like a refresher, check out this great video! 

My topic for my Genius Hour is learning American Sign Language (ASL). This has been of great interest to me recently however I had never quite found the time to pursue it...what better way than Genius Hour! My goals for this project are to become more proficient in conversational ASL. Seeing as I only have 7 weeks to complete my project, I have narrowed down my goals to learning 30 new words overall, and creating 5 new sentences with these words. 

I am very excited to incorporate a passion with school work, I think it is a really great way for students to engage with creativity and critical thinking which are two very important 21st century skills. This is definitely something that I can use with my future students. Seeing my colleagues get so excited about pursuing their Genius Hours project is really authentic and amazing! 

My experiences leaning sign language so far have been very positive. I seem to be picking it up fairly quickly so far, however I am nervous for understanding the grammar and syntax of the new language! My next steps are to begin learning new words, according to my timeline, and to continue considering how I will be recording my progress of learning ASL! 

Stay tuned for more updates on my Genius Hour project by checking out the different pages on my Blog for different types of information regarding my project!

Parhamr. (2007, September 17). “A-S-L” signed with American Sign Language. Retreived from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:American_Sign_Language_ASL.svg

Copyright & The Classroom

Copyright is an increasingly relevant issue as technology continues to envelop our homes, schools and world. Children are on technology such as laptops, tables, iPads and computers from very young ages, and therefore exposed to the complicated world of copyright without necessarily knowing it. Consequently, many of these children do not have knowledge surrounding proper use of Internet material and the matters regarding copyright, leading to possible issues and poor internet etiquette. Similarly, many parents may not have this knowledge to share with their children. Therefore, as teachers, it is important to model proper copyright standards and educate our students.

Plougmann, L. (2011, January 20). At the computer [photograph]. 

Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2c3jYad

Teachers are responsible for educating themselves on copyright laws, such as reading and understanding documents like Copyright Matters! Documents such as these make it easy to learn about copyright laws and demonstrate proper practice in the classroom.

Based on what I learned from the readings, I feel that there are three very important aspects of copyright that I would want to teach my students. 

1 First, making them aware that there are copyright laws in place and that they cannot just take anything, anywhere, from the Internet. This is important because as I previously mentioned, coming into school, most students will not be aware of this facet of the internet. 

2 Secondly, I believe that teaching students what they can and cannot use, and how to properly cite what they use is important. Knowing where to find pictures and videos they can use, identifying the copyright symbols and interpreting what they mean is very important to this process.

3 Lastly, I think that it is important to provide them with resources to create their own pictures and media. This will allow them to work more freely, as well as involve the creative process to create something, instead of just finding and citing from the Internet. For example, in the picture below, instead of creating comic strips with images from the Internet, these students took pictures of themselves, uploaded them and inserted text bubbles. This is a very creative and safe way to create a comic strip; there are also many important skills that can also be learned from this process, for example, technological, teamwork and creative skills. 

Flickinger, B. (2012, January 4). student_pad_school-164 [photograph]. 

Retrieved from  http://bit.ly/2ccpe9f 

Welcome to Tech Class !

Today was the first class of Teaching & Learning with Technology in the Primary/Junior Classroom in the Faculty of Education. I am very excited for what this class has to offer because technology is a very present aspect of a 21st century classroom, and learning how to integrate it as a teacher is extremely important. 

We completed "QR Bingo" which was a really novel and fun activity for me because I have never used QR codes before. With this one little activity, my brain started exploding with possibilities of how I could use this in my own future classroom. Different types of assessment, getting to know each other activities, scavenger hunts, and many other ideas flooded my thoughts. I was so excited that on the first day, I already learned something that could be so substantial and engaging for my future students. 

We also explored Genius Hour where we saw an awesome project by Caine, who pursued his passion of building an Arcade: 

Mullick, N. (2012, April 9). Caine’s Arcade [video]. 

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faIFNkdq96U 

Genius hour is a great way to incorporate students interests, and potentially technology as well. Giving students the opportunity to explore what they are truly passionate about is a very eye opening experience.

Overall, I am very excited for this Technology class, I am ready to learn the multitudes of skills that can help me become an effective teacher! 

The Gateway to all Literacies

Throughout this course, I have consistently viewed critical literacy as the ‘gateway to all literacies’. What I mean by this is that each literacy requires a critical lens and therefore, being critically literate provides a foundation for engaging in the rest of the literacies. For example, to engage with media literacy, one needs to be able to use a critical lens to examine the type of media and the message it is portraying. Furthermore, to engage in environmental literacy, having a critical literacy background aids in thinking of ways to act that do not harm the earth, about society's positive and negative impacts on the environment and of creative and critical ways to solve environmental issues such as global warming. Evidently, the majority of literacies are intertwined and interrelated, and can therefore not be taught in isolation. 

As Hardwood (2008) explains, infusing critical literacy into the pedagogy of elementary schools is essential to begin preparing students for the changing world that they will be entering. These children will be working and living in a world that is different from the one they are being educated in, therefore, they need to learn the skills that will allow them to adapt and thrive. Overall, critical literacy can be defined as the interrogation of any kind of text with the goal of promoting social change through looking at power relations, deconstructing norms, ideologies and social constructs (Wallowitz, 2008). Essentially, critical literacy is letting students see something in a new light. The increase in media and technology also brings forward the issue of critical and media literacy. Together, with these two skills, students will be able to examine and interpret what messages are in the media and how they influence our society.

Being critically literate in a continually changing world is one of the most valuable skills we can provide students with. The video below is not specific to critical literacy, but it does demonstrate how rapidly the world is changing, in which adapting a critical lens is a necessity. Educating children on how to live in a world that does not exist yet seems like a daunting task however with the proper skills provided to preservice teachers, such as this course on 21st century literacies, we can be better prepared to prepare our students for the changing world. I think that teacher adaption to the literacies is essential. Although a flipped classroom approach could work for something like technology, where students may know more than the teacher, teachers much also be able to embody these literacies to demonstrate their importance to students. Student-directed learning with teacher facilitation is a great way to encourage critical literacy because it is not something that can be taught, but rather something that needs to be discovered and understood.

Implementing critical literacy into the classroom seems like something that can only be done in junior or intermediate grades, however, as this video demonstrates, students of all ages have the capacity to critically engage with texts. I think that this is something that teachers must be cognizant of; students in kindergarten have the ability to be critical, and teachers need to foster it and provide the resources and space for them to do so. If teachers assume that young children cannot engage in critical literacy, then the students will be at a disadvantage. In terms of strategies to use in the classroom, Ontario Ministry of Education’s 'Capacity Building Series' outlines three key strategies to enhance critical literacy: 

Ontario Ministry of Education (2009)

These strategies are a great start to implementing critical literacy into the classroom because they can work with all ages, texts and subjects. This document regarding critical literacy explains the importance of it, as well as a few more specific techniques that can be used to teach critical literacy. It also includes a section about "Classroom Culture" which I think is very important; students need to be in an environment where critical thought and different opinions are encouraged. Providing a safe environment for students to be able to willingly express their point of view will allow for a better experience of engaging in critical literacy in the classroom. 

I feel as though my undergraduate degree has provided me with the critical thinking skills and knowledge for me to engage with this on a daily basis, as well as to comfortably implement it in my future classroom. I think that being critical is essential in today’s world based on the experiences I have had, and I want my future students to be able to look at the world in a different way as well. Overall, providing students with the necessary skills such as critical literacy, can help them not only interpret and be successful in using other literacies, but also thrive in the world they will be living and working in. 

References

Harwood, D. (2008). Deconstructing and reconstructing Cinderella: Theoretical defense of critical literacy for young children. 

      Language and Literacy, 10(2).

Ontario Ministry of Education. (2009). The literacy and numeracy secretariat: Capacity building series. Retrieved from 

      http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/Critical_Literacy.pdf

Wallowitz, L. (2008). Critical literacy as resistance: Teaching for social justice across the secondary curriculum (Vol. 326). NY: 

      Peter Lang Publishing.