Okay everyone, this may have been my favourite class of all time! Not only were we able to connect with students from the other cohort, but we were able to have extremely rich conversations about topics that interest us. EdCamp is such a cool way to connect and discuss ideas about things we actually WANT to discuss. In a way, it reminded me of socratic seminars, but with more autonomy to choose topics to discuss. I have a feeling that this kind of idea could work well with middle school students, especially if they are the ones bringing up the topics that they want to discuss. I also like that it doesn’t put students on the spot, and that all ideas are considered for discussions.
This is where the whiteboard notes took our discussion!
Fortunately, one of my topics was chosen to be a discussion piece. I was curious to have discussions regarding parent communication (which I have discovered through conversation that a more appropriate title would be ‘Home Team Communication’. Check out my video below for some key takeaways I had from the discussion! As I wrote on the whiteboard, some lovely humans took notes on this google doc that should be accessible to view!
What a cool way to learn! It reminded me of the film we watched early on in the semester called ‘Most Likely to Succeed’. It really demonstrated how different ways of learning can be so effective and engaging for students! Talking to each other and sharing ideas is so incredibly valuable, and it is definitely a technique I would like to include as much as possible in my future classroom.
Thank you!
Thank you for stopping by! Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts!
Hello! Welcome back to another week of learning ASL. I’m not going to lie… I have been slacking a little bit with practicing my introductions from last week and have a bit of catch up to do. Fortunately, we have a whole week off next week with lots of time to practice what I have been learning! For this week, I refreshed my memory by rewatching the 20+ Basic Sign Language Phrases for Beginners. A lot of what I learned actually came back pretty quickly, which gives me hope! I think this is going to be a video I will be watching pretty regularly-it is so useful!
So, as I have been exploring around, I have discovered some amazing ASL GIFs! Even though this week’s topic are learning: who, what, where, when, why, and how, I just had to share the most adorable ASL sign I saw as a GIF (see below).
I mean come on… is this not the cutest sign ever??? Source: Sign with Robert
This week, my goal was to learn WH questions in sign, and I did! Below, I am going to put a very helpful info video to show where I learned how to do these signs. I found Meredith to be super helpful because she shows the signs from various angles and she also shows different variations of the same sign. She describes how some signs are older, and some just have different variations. Meredith also explains how in ASL, sometimes these question words don’t even need to be included because the facial expressions does it for you!
This was a really helpful video! Youtube Channel: ASL Meredith
In my video below, you can see some of the progress I have made with the WH questions and even a couple example questions! I am hoping that I will be able to put some of these questions with other words to convey more meaning. At the end of the video with Meredith, she signs example questions, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was able to accurately guess some of the question she was signing before she revealed what the question was!
Honestly these blog posts are pretty great because I feel like they hold me accountable for keeping up with my inquiry and goals. Even though I fell a bit behind this week, I was able to learn some new content to share, and it is a constant reminder that I really do love learning ASL! While learning the WH questions, I also picked up some new vocabulary that I will try to share next time including: teacher, see you later, who is that, why are you sad, and more! Next week I am moving into some SEL, and I have a feeling that these question signs will be helpful in practicing how I can ask students how they are feeling or why they are feeling a certain way.
Thank you for stopping by! Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts!
This week we learned all about two theories to have as resources when choosing technologies to use in our future classrooms. I found this to be really helpful to evaluate a resource and reflect on the objective of using a technological resource. We also learned all about Sketchnote and Canva. It was a great reminder of how useful drawing and taking notes simultaneously are for memory and comprehension. It has made me think that I should probably start bringing a blank notebook to class!
How can the SAMR theory of technology adoption help you evaluate technologies that you might consider using in your classroom?
This theory helps with generally reflecting on what the true use of the technology is for. Is it acting as a substitute where hand-drawing or doing it another way would yield the same result? Will it improve upon the function of the activity or assignment?
This model helps to think about different components of usefulness such as equity, prior skills needed to use the technology introduced, and whether it is age-appropriate (for example, we talked as a class how making a WordPress blog probably wouldn’t be appropriate for a Kindergarten class). It really made me think critically about what the technology I introduce to students is for and what the pros and cons to using the technology might be.
Helpful graphic of the SAMR model.
How could the SECTIONS model help you select the most appropriate tool or technology to help meet your learning objectives for your class?
The sections model gets into a lot more detail of what needs to be considered when choosing to integrate a technological tool into your classroom. How might certain technologies fit the needs of your students or not fit the needs of your students? What about equitability? Do students have access to this technology at home? This theory also addresses questions that I hadn’t thought of. For example, I never really considered the cost of time for a teacher to learn how to use the technology (I feel like this is common among teachers who just want to bring great things to the classroom without thinking of the extra work it is for them). Another important consideration brought up is the privacy and security issue and if it is a technology that can be used by the school. I imagine that many incoming teachers (myself included) could be tempted to integrate all kinds of technology, but it all needs to be cross-checked with what the school allows. This model truly demonstrates the complex considerations when introducing technology to the classroom.
Helpful graphic of the sections model
Could sketchnoting benefit learners in the grade level you hope to teach at? If so how?
I am hoping to teach upper elementary or middle school and I can definitely envision Sketchnoting being a useful tool for students at those grade levels. When I was observing grade 6 last semester, students were constantly doodling and drawing, so why not encourage students to turn some of that doodling into a productive way to pay attention in class?
Something I wonder is if this is a technique that should be explicitly taught to students in order for it to be used effectively? Or do you verbally encourage drawings in notes? I assume explicitly teaching could be helpful…
Here is an image of my Sketchnote from class today! I used an article describing ways to have students draw a feeling or emotion. So cool!
This is a snipped of an infographic I made on Canva which should be getting published by the UVic history department soon!
Overall, I found this to be really useful in making sure I keep being mindful about technology use and whether or not it is actually appropriate for certain lessons or activities. I also found comparing Canva and Sketchnote to be interesting because I think there are benefits to using both. Sketchnote is cool because of the pen to paper technique and having it be a productive way to take notes for personal use. I do think that Canva might be a more useful tool for creating items to share with a broader community, as it is a clear and organized way to share information with lots of colour and other graphic design elements that can draw a reader’s attention!
Thank you for stopping by! Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts!
So far, things with my inquiry are going really well! I have been practicing my alphabet everyday, and I have even shown/taught some friends and my partner. I am pretty proud of how speedy I can do the alphabet now and usually do it while singing the song (I will put a video clip below). It is really nice, I truly look forward to the time block I set aside on Sundays to learn some new skills, and then practice them throughout the week. This week, we are onto introductions!
My progress on the ASL alphabet since last week! **I tried to do a green screen and struggled so we are back to normal!
I think the alphabet is such a useful tool to have in my tool belt, and the next most important step to me is how to introduce myself in ASL as well as some greetings. To me, greetings and introductions are such an effective way for people to feel more comfortable around someone new, and I would like to be prepared to do that for anyone who his deaf that I come across. Not only do I want to learn how to introduce myself, but I would like to introduce myself as a teacher as if I am welcoming a deaf student into my classroom. So here we go for week 2!
Some new knowledge!
This week, I learned how to introduce myself and do so much more! I learned helpful phrases and words (like ‘yes’ and ‘no’), and even started learning how to ask questions. I have noticed how many patterns there are in ASL phrases and the alphabet. For example, ‘water’ uses the letter ‘w’ and ‘restroom’ uses the letter ‘r’. So many signs are intuitive and have helpful tricks to remind me of what the sign looks like. In the video below, Victoria explains that the word ‘learn’ is like taking information from a book and bringing it to your forehead. Amazing! I didn’t quite get through the entire video (it is amazing how full my brain gets after only 5-10 minutes of learning new signs), but I am excited to finish it this week!
Thank you, Victoria, for helping me learn some good introductions and useful phrases!
Lately I have been reflecting on how useful ASL can be in the classroom.I found the awesome video below tailored to using ASL int he classroom. I feel like this is such a useful place to start, and this teacher has so many more vlogs! A true gem of a resource if I ever saw one. One thing I have noticed is that when I spell my name J-A-M-I-E, when I sign ‘I’ I immediately want to sign ‘J’ (that is from all my alphabet practicing this week). I am going to start trying to spell different things in my downtime so I can begin feeling comfortable with spelling and using different letter combinations as I sign.
I am so excited I found this series! It just shows so many ways that ASL can be integrated into the classroom!
Well, I have a lot of new content to try out this week! This week I am going to start trying to extend from introductions and move into asking questions (I already have a bit of a start on this)! I do want to learn all the w’s and the best questions in everyday use. After all, one prof last semester told us that the average teacher asks 400 questions a day, so I better get to it!
Thank you for stopping by! Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts!
WOW! Today’s guest lecturer, Jesse Miller, gave me a lot to think about when it comes to my online presence and digital footprint. Fortunately I grew up with my Dad in tech who gave me the low-down of what to post/not to post etc. My Mom was always iffy on me being introduced to social media, but my Dad was all for it, and we used the argument that I could connect with my extended family more easily around Canada-which was true! Although I absolutely recollect becoming mildly addicted and being limited on my time at our family desktop computer, over the years I feel as though I have developed a healthier relationship with the tech world and how to utilize it to my advantage.
After attending today’s lecture, I have never been more grateful that my Grandparents were my first Facebook friends. In hindsight, it almost provided a kind of auto-censor on what I posted online. Anything I posted in my middle-school angst that was at all deemed ‘inappropriate’ by my extended family was immediately reported to my parents. Fortunately my grandparents were pretty chill and I was a (mostly) well-behaved kid. The only thing that remains from those days are some pretty embarrassing quotes and music videos that my friends and I made. Luckily, to be a teacher you need to have thick skin, so that kind of embarrassment is doable.
Slightly unrelated to my blog, but here is my slo-mo video (science themed obviously). I feel like this is something that upper elementary or middle school students could have fun with! Video: Video by cottonbro from Pexels Audio: Internet Archive uploaded by chaos12135
Regardless of having a general idea of the permanency of a digital footprint and data storage by big companies, I (like many others) probably would have been more mindful with what I posted in the past. Was I too immature to have access to social media at such a young age? Probably. Do I regret it? Not really. My main love for the socials has been the ability to connect with family and friends, especially those I am not able to talk to everyday. Although I have pondered the negative aspects on social media and tech (especially on the influence of youth using photoshop and affecting body image etc.), I do think that this technology is an inevitable part of our social structure, so the focus should now be on how we use it and how we teach our children to use it. After Jesse Miller’s lecture, I did go through my Instagram and chose to delete a photo taken at an ABC party several years ago. My Instagram is private and the photo wasn’t anything particularly incriminating, but it is also not worth dealing with an aggravated parent or to have anyone question my credibility teaching kids. This was a good reminder; however, to integrate some more mindfulness into my social presence online.
So how can I help my future learners manage their digital footprints? I remember when I was in school, admin/educators used the fear-based approach where all they talked about were predators on the internet. Although this is incredibly important to raise awareness about, I don’t think this idea alone helps students develop a healthy relationship with technology. Students should not fear technology, but accompanying the positives, they should also be encouraged to question the things they see on the internet, and especially any strangers they come into contact with. Students should be made aware that having private accounts and security are important for their social media, which requires shifting the ideology that likes/followers/influencer culture is not all it’s cracked up to be. Not to mention that most of it is fake anyways. A good way I think this can be integrated is by teaching children how to critically think and analyze. In the past, questioning has been taboo because children were always supposed to believe adults, but that is not reality anymore! Students should be encourage to think critically and question things. Obtaining these skills will hopefully transfer to be used while using technology and social media.
This is a funny bit by John Mulaney about school assemblies instilling fear about predators (not necessarily online, but it does remind me of what I experienced in school. This animation is done by Ros Mo on Youtube, 2018.
Googling myself was a crazy interesting task to do. I have a common name, so searching just my name isn’t interesting. When I searched my name and added ‘UVic’ all of a sudden my work in a sustainable project done on campus in 2019 resurfaced. I had completely forgotten that ‘Break Up with your Paper Cup’ day made the news-pretty cool! Nothing else has really come up other than my high school alumni list, but I should have some factsheets being published with the UVic history department, so I might have some more academic things related to my googled name. I hope I can keep it that way!
Photo published on MY UVIC LIFE (that is me in the middle)!
Thank you for stopping by! Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts!
Can I just say once again, that this free inquiry project is an incredible idea and that it should be incorporated into classes of all ages/grade levels? It feels almost strange to schedule time out of my day to spend time learning ASL, something I have been wanting to learn for quite a while. I imagine this free inquiry process could be effective in elementary and middle schools, and could easily integrate the ELA curriculum!
I know what this means now! It is the letter ‘r’. Photo by cottonbro from Pexels
As I have been starting off on this learning journey, I have been brainstorming where I should start, and what goals I would like to work towards. I have also been pondering how I would like to document my work and how to best hold myself accountable for keeping up with my learning goals. Below, I outline some of my goals and my plan for sharing my process.
My Weekly Plan:
Week 1-Learn the alphabet
Week 2- Introductions
Week 3- Important Questions (W’s)
Week 4- Social Emotional Learning and Signs
Week 5- Research on Lesson Differentiation for the Deaf (and practice)
Week 6- ASL lesson using educational resources, what have I learned so far?
Week 7- Resources in education for deaf learners
Week 8-Make a video summarizing what I have learned using words and signs when I am able to do so.
How I plan to document my learning:
Weekly videos posted on this blog through my Youtube channel to document my learning and progress, if I learn enough I hope to introduce myself in sign language on a professional Youtube channel where I can post lessons, activities etc.
Trying out Trello to keep my goals in check! I have always had trouble with online planners and calendars though, so most likely I will revert back to my good ‘ol paper planner!
Week 1- The Alphabet
Here is my documentation and reflection on learning the alphabet! Maybe along this journey I can figure out how to make some more engaging videos using H5P/Screencast!
Thank you to Fireese for helping me with the alphabet!
I am hoping that the farther I get into this inquiry, the more topics I can fit into the week. I am starting off slow to try and get this alphabet down, and will soon hopefully be able to communicate more, or even enroll in an ASL class! For next week when I start learning introductions, I have already begun compiling videos and resources to help me out. Not only do I want to learn the signs themselves, but I would really like to do some more research on deaf culture and how I can be as sensitive and respectful as possible while learning asl.
On another tangent, I have started getting ASL Tik Toks in my feed… so even when I am procrastinating/using the socials, maybe I will still be learning (haha). See you next week!
Thank you for stopping by! Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts!
Today in class we learned all about how to use Screencastify as a tool for recording your screen with a voice-over, or with your webcam video in the corner of the screen. This is an easy-to-use tool and definitely applicable to classroom use, especially in upper elementary and middle school. Not only can this be a cool tool for teachers to record tutorials and instructional videos, but this could be a unique way for students to create online presentations of their work. I imagine this could be particularly useful for students who do not feel comfortable immediately presenting in front of their class, but would feel more comfortable with recording themselves and presenting the video to the class.
Alongside Screencastify, we learned how to use H5P within’ WordPress to add interactive elements to our Screencastify video. In my video, I added posters that pause the videos and give instruction to the viewer. For mine, I recommend the viewer pause and create a Bitmoji account before continuing the tutorial. Another really cool element that I think would be useful for teachers is the periodic multiple-choice questions that pop up in the video. I feel like this could help by holding some accountability for the viewer (student) to pay attention to the content of the video. I imagine this content could be useful for both teacher-student communication/teaching for homework assignments etc., but also for parents if they need to help their child with any assignments etc. I could also see myself using this even as an instructional video to help navigate parents through my website, google classroom, etc. I used to use a lot of screenshots to help explain or give instruction to people, but screencasting could save so much time!
As my learning pod discussed these interfaces more, some important brainstorms and considerations appeared:
These could be a useful tool share with TTOCs to explain lesson plans, classroom content etc. in a more user-friendly way
Equity is an important consideration when considering designing any of this in an ‘at-home’ format. Students should always have access to these interfaces for projects/watching at school on the computers.
It is important that these recorded videos do not substitute the teaching that should be taking place and act more as an aide
For middle schoolers, if the instructions are recorded and posted on a google slides (or whatever format a teacher uses in their classroom), while still giving live instructions in the classroom, any students who are not paying attention (even after multiple explanations, can be directed to the google slides video rather than spending more time on repeating instructions)
I thought that learning about Multi-media learning theory was really useful because even though I find myself instinctively using some of the techniques we talked about, some of my slides still end up being too wordy and could probably be more useful if they were more image-based. I particularly found it useful that having the webcam video on while screen casting can actually be counterproductive and works best as a voiceover.
Thank you for stopping by! Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts!
Even before fully brainstorming for my inquiry, learning ASL came into the forefront of my mind. It was only after I chose my idea that I saw it also happened to be the first on the list of open topics/suggestions for our class. I have met a few people who learned a little bit of sign language growing up. I never had this experience. I have always been fascinated by sign language and found it to be such an important learning opportunity for communicating with anyone who is deaf or who uses sign to communicate.
Last semester, a couple classmates introduced a few sign symbols to our class and had a brief discussion on some of the differences between ASL and American or Canadian English. I remember being surprised to learn that ASL has grammar, syntax, and different ways to convey meaning. There is so much I do not know! As much as I feel ignorant and privileged to have not assumed ASL to have all of these complex aspects, it also made me feel more motivated to begin learning! According to the Canadian Association of the Deaf, “ASL is the third most widely-used language after English and Spanish [in the USA]” and “a number of Canadian provinces have formally recognized Sign as the language of Deaf people and/or as a language of instruction in the Deaf schools” (CAD, 2015).
Finally, as I enter this teaching career, how wonderful would it be if I could use sign language to communicate with my students when needed? If I learn enough to become proficient, perhaps I could even teach a few phrases to students in an effort to spread some knowledge about this amazing language? I have wanted to learn it for so long, I am so happy that I will be able to follow through!
Finally, I want to share a video that went viral of an ASL interpreter at a rap concert. It is inspiring to see more inclusivity and learn more about how concerts are enjoyed by the Deaf community through other senses. I am super excited to learn more!
Video from ABC13 Houston on Youtube
Thank you for stopping by! Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts!
Constantly reimagining education in our fast-paced and rapidly changing world is imperative for delivering high-quality education to our future generations. We cannot expect children to learn the same way and through the same processes we did while we were growing up. Even subjects as perceivably consistent as mathematics are evolving to focus on skill and character development, rather than merely getting the correct answer on a convoluted worksheet. In the fascinating film, Most Likely to Succeed, the standard pedagogy of how students learn is challenged through the demonstration of project based learning, socratic seminars, and freedom for teachers to instruct how they want and what they want as leading to highly achieving students in a standardized education system.
Most Likely to Succeed Trailer from Youtube.
So what is stopping teachers from implementing this model in their schools? The impression I get from talking to teachers and viewing teacher grievances on social media is a tug-of-war struggle between teachers, administration, and parents. I think an issue that is not often discussed is that although teachers do have a fair amount of control in how they run their classroom, they are also reporting to administration who have guidelines and rules for teachers to follow. Additionally, each individual parent has an idea of how they would like their child to be educated, and flipping a switch on pedagogy is much easier said than done. In this film, parents share their unease with trying to balance their children learning important skills while still getting standardized education that can get them into good Universities. Although this film is set with older students, this kind of input and involvement is consistent throughout all elementary and middle school education as well.
As much as I am excited to teach the new BC curriculum and can already see the improvements in moving toward a system based on true learning rather than rote memorization and a hierarchical model of instruction, the complex dynamic between teachers and other stakeholders does cause me some concern. A good friend of mine is an EA in Canada, and through this pandemic has communicated how defeated they feel by how their school’s administration has handled taking care of their staff during this pandemic. With an allotted amount of sick time to use during the year which hasn’t wavered in the face of rising cases, how does the increased pressure of attendance affect worried teachers and their students? That may be an issue to discuss in another blog post; however, my point remains that with the many obstacles educators are juggling, changing pedagogy seems to generally fall lower on the priority list. I hope that when I am teaching, I will have the capacity to effect meaningful change while still prioritizing my mental health.
**I would also like to note that this is not in any way a jab at school administration. I have beloved family members who are in admin positions and acknowledge the difficulty of managing this pandemic. I also acknowledge that each individual has different experiences and there is no one-size fits all when it comes to this topic
Setting up this first blog has been a reminder of all the possibilities that can be done on WordPress! I was the communications coordinator for an environmental non-profit called KIDS for the BAY and essentially taught myself how to use WordPress, so all of those memories are currently flooding back.
The Process
The process for setting up a blog post or website is relatively easy (registration-wise). Now that I have a general understanding of WordPress, I find the whole process much less intimidating. I know that for first time users, it can be quite the learning curve. I myself find that I have forgotten a lot of how to make it aesthetically pleasing and to coordinate the links and all the fancy tricks, so I am hoping that will start coming back to me.
Photo by: Jamie B.
The Product
I think blog pages are a fantastic way to document learning, projects, and experiences. Digital portfolios are so cool because you can really see where growth occurs. I would love to teach any grade in school, but lately have been drawn to middle school after my observations. I think that blogs can be a good use for students to document learning or experiences, and even for parent communication if they want to see what is happening in the classroom or what students are learning. For this to happen, there would clearly need to be some protection of privacy with passwords for certain pages or to have specific photo releases for a class. I also feel like developing blog pages and building these skills can be so valuable for the future of both teachers and students.
