Wednesday, February 25, 2009
MENTORSHIP INTRO VIDEO
I DID IT !!
I think I sound like a chipmunk, but who likes the sound of their own voice ??
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
My 4 Pictures (Tech Task 10)
I used an Open Office Drawing program to, it's like power point to create my picture. Then I couldn't get it to upload from that program so I did a Print Screen, and pasted it into Paint. Once I saved it in paint I could upload it onto my blog.
I wanted to use pictures that could let people see what kind of person I am. I love to travel, I love working with kids, and I love having fun. The first two pictures were taken in Malaysia, the middle picture is from summer camp in the US, these should show that I love experiencing new things, and going on adventures. The bottom picture is me with my family, Mom, Dad, Nicole, and Kylee. The idea behind my picture is that no matter where I go I will always remember where I'm from and the people who care about me.
YouTube SUCCESS !!!!
After many hours of uploading, and downloading, and uploading, and downloading, and uploading and downloading my little video has found its way onto YouTube.
Honestly though, adding a video to YouTube is extremely easy, much easier then I had originally thought it would be. I made an account, then clicked where it said upload in bright yellow (you can't miss it), then hit video file. The video I had created was right there in front of me to select. Then of coarse was the fun of waiting for it to upload, many games of spider solitaire were played.
I will definitely use YouTube again and would not hesitate to have students in my class create their own accounts to be able to upload their own videos.
Here is the link to my video on YouTube !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7UVz0p6wU8
Monday, February 23, 2009
My First School Visit
These are my friend Tiffany & Jainjing, two grade 6 students at an all girls school in Penang. I talked with the two girls for an hour this morning. The purpose of my visit was to collect data for a math assignment, but we talked about lots of stuff. The two girls were both very smart and math was their favourite subject. They are the oldest students in there school, and they will go to the secondary school next door for grade seven. They go to school from 7:30 until 1:05, along with the grades four and five. Grades one through three attend school in the afternoon from 1:30 until 5:00. They are taught by mostly female teachers, but they said there were five male teachers at the school (5 men & close to 50 women teachers). They don't mind wearing their school uniforms because they said they are used to them, and then they don't have to worry about what they are going to wear in the morning, there are just the two different uniforms. As I mentioned the girls were very smart, they were doing work equivalent to grade eight work at home. They said they are taught in a very structured format. Their lecturer will gives them notes and examples, then they use manipulative's to solve practice questions, and they have an assignment from a text book to wrap up the class. Classes are only 30 minutes long though, somedays they'll have two math classes in one day. They have no homeroom and travel from class to class similar to high school, they don't have the same classes with the same students.
I had a great time visiting the school, I met the head of the school, the principal, and saw the field, the cafeteria, and inside some classrooms.
Mentorship Blueprints and Success on Skype !
I guess it was over a week ago already, but I used Skype for the first time to talk to Carey Pohanka in Virginia. It worked great and I've used it since to talk to friends in Florida, Texas, New Brunswick, and Australia. I'm hoping my mom and dad can get it set up so I can talk to them too.
I've started playing with some ideas of what I hope to accomplish with Carey's grade 6 Geography class. She sent me a link to the online text book they use, which is awesome, and I found a chapter that focuses on culture and religion in Southeast Asia. Perfect. That's where I am right now.
So, I want to put a mini unit together, three or four lessons, and teach the unit to her class while I'm still in Malaysia. Maybe a little crazy, but we're both ready to give it a try and I'm pretty excited.
So far we've set up a shared account using Google Docs, I've visited the schools online website, and we've used Skype. (plus email, but I don't think that counts anymore)
I've started playing with some ideas of what I hope to accomplish with Carey's grade 6 Geography class. She sent me a link to the online text book they use, which is awesome, and I found a chapter that focuses on culture and religion in Southeast Asia. Perfect. That's where I am right now.
So, I want to put a mini unit together, three or four lessons, and teach the unit to her class while I'm still in Malaysia. Maybe a little crazy, but we're both ready to give it a try and I'm pretty excited.
So far we've set up a shared account using Google Docs, I've visited the schools online website, and we've used Skype. (plus email, but I don't think that counts anymore)
Frustrations.
After many hours of uploading I'm am sooooo happy to finally have "My First Video" on my blog. My next project is to create a video to introduce myself to the classes I'll be partnered up with, and for anyone else who visits my blog. I'll get to that in the morning, I think the beach might be a good place to film, well better then my dorm.
Frustration # 1. Right now YouTube is blocked everywhere on campus. So I need to hit the drawing board, and I might have a hike ahead of me tomorrow. Is there anyway around such censorship ?
Frustration # 2.I don't understand why some websites work so well and others, like the U of R site, work so poorly. It's like someone knows that I need to get on these sites and is preventing me from doing so. I have not been able to get onto Web CT since I've been here, but I can write and post this blog with ease. I don't get it..
Frustration # 1. Right now YouTube is blocked everywhere on campus. So I need to hit the drawing board, and I might have a hike ahead of me tomorrow. Is there anyway around such censorship ?
Frustration # 2.I don't understand why some websites work so well and others, like the U of R site, work so poorly. It's like someone knows that I need to get on these sites and is preventing me from doing so. I have not been able to get onto Web CT since I've been here, but I can write and post this blog with ease. I don't get it..
My First Video.
These are some of my greatest moments from the past two years. 1. Watching the Riders win the Grey Cup in Toronto with my best friends 2. Working at a summer camp in Maine, USA & making some great friends 3. Getting to see Elton John front row with my whole family 4. Traveling to Malaysia. Eating with my hands, and all the other things I tried for the first time
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Absailing
Here I am absailing, or repelling. I'm using my right hand, as a break to stop myself from falling. The right hand controls the speed you want to fall. After I felt more comfortable I started to kick myself off the wall as I dropped to the ground. Wish we could do this in Saskatchewan.
Camping in Pangkor
I joined a group of after degree students for a four day camping trip from Feb. 17-20. This isn't an after degree student in the picture, it's the son of one of the lecturers who joined us. We were really busy. We kayaked, hiked, and repelled ourselves from a cliff (about 80 feet). We prepared all our own meals, lots of rice and fish. Our tents were pitched right beside the ocean, and the six of us (Canadians) gave swimming lessons to the locals. It's interesting that they live on an island, therefor surrounded by water, but most of them are very afraid of it. In Malaysia only wealthy families are able to afford swimming lessons.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Thaipusam, Feb. 9 / 09
Thaipusam is a holiday celebrated in Malaysia. Thaipusam honors Subrimaya, son of Shiva and an important deity in southern India. The three-day festival is held in the month of Magha according to when Pusam, a section of the lunar zodiac, is on the ascendant. They give thanks to the gods by giving offerings, and by making their own sacrifices.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Tech Task 8. TED (Technology. Entertainment and Design)
Reed Kroloff : Architecture, modern and romantic
Reed Kroloff describes architecture as the built form of our cultural ambitions. He wants us to think about architecture in a different way. He want us to see what we build as a sign of what we want and the ambitions we hold. An example he uses is making a custom house with all one of a kind pieces components and compare that to a cookie cutter house where an architect will manufacture 50 houses all the same. Why do we make 50 houses all the same ? Because it is cheaper to build 50 houses the same then 50 houses that are all different. We are capable of making 50 different houses, but we're lazy.
He also uses many examples from restaurants and explains that our surrounding's can make us feel good in places where we might not, therefore architecture provides us with feelings (ie. comfort) and entertainment.
Reed Kroloff describes architecture as the built form of our cultural ambitions. He wants us to think about architecture in a different way. He want us to see what we build as a sign of what we want and the ambitions we hold. An example he uses is making a custom house with all one of a kind pieces components and compare that to a cookie cutter house where an architect will manufacture 50 houses all the same. Why do we make 50 houses all the same ? Because it is cheaper to build 50 houses the same then 50 houses that are all different. We are capable of making 50 different houses, but we're lazy.
He also uses many examples from restaurants and explains that our surrounding's can make us feel good in places where we might not, therefore architecture provides us with feelings (ie. comfort) and entertainment.
Getting Started "Traveling Through the Dark"
http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=276
"This presentation examines how to get started using educational technology through metaphorical analysis of William Stafford’s poem, Traveling Through The Dark. He looks at the obstacles teacher’s face, the process of implementing technology into the classroom, and the role that others can play in the process." (K12 Conference)
This is a presentation by Steven Kimmi. Steven talks about his feelings after his students had completed their state tests (a standardized test). Even though the preliminary results showed all his students passing, he didn't feel good about the situation. He said his instruction lacked excitement, and he couldn't find ways to engage his students. He wasn't happy with himself as a teacher.
He knew he needed to make a change to his teaching, he needed to implement technology into his class, he had to light a fire in his students. He realized that the world is changing, and it's easy to pick the easy way and be a teacher who doesn't change with the times, but he later says if you don't change you'll be lost.
At the end of his presentation he realized that its not about the end point, it's about everything that happens along the way. The journey is when the learning takes place, and you can't teach to a test.
"The best teachers don't expect kids to learn the way they teach. The best teachers teach the way kids learn" Dr. Pedro Noguera
He also mentioned http://edtechtalk.com/
_____________________________________________________________________
I agree with Steven's presentation. As a teacher you need to keep up with the world around you, that's changing everyday. By using technology in your classroom you will find it easier to engage your students. Teachers need to use blogging, pod casts, and videos in their classrooms to support their teaching. Children get excited about using technology, I've seen it in classes I've worked in. Teacher's need to be more concerned about how their students learn, because every student learns differently, and they need to teach to the student not the test.
"This presentation examines how to get started using educational technology through metaphorical analysis of William Stafford’s poem, Traveling Through The Dark. He looks at the obstacles teacher’s face, the process of implementing technology into the classroom, and the role that others can play in the process." (K12 Conference)
This is a presentation by Steven Kimmi. Steven talks about his feelings after his students had completed their state tests (a standardized test). Even though the preliminary results showed all his students passing, he didn't feel good about the situation. He said his instruction lacked excitement, and he couldn't find ways to engage his students. He wasn't happy with himself as a teacher.
He knew he needed to make a change to his teaching, he needed to implement technology into his class, he had to light a fire in his students. He realized that the world is changing, and it's easy to pick the easy way and be a teacher who doesn't change with the times, but he later says if you don't change you'll be lost.
At the end of his presentation he realized that its not about the end point, it's about everything that happens along the way. The journey is when the learning takes place, and you can't teach to a test.
"The best teachers don't expect kids to learn the way they teach. The best teachers teach the way kids learn" Dr. Pedro Noguera
He also mentioned http://edtechtalk.com/
_____________________________________________________________________
I agree with Steven's presentation. As a teacher you need to keep up with the world around you, that's changing everyday. By using technology in your classroom you will find it easier to engage your students. Teachers need to use blogging, pod casts, and videos in their classrooms to support their teaching. Children get excited about using technology, I've seen it in classes I've worked in. Teacher's need to be more concerned about how their students learn, because every student learns differently, and they need to teach to the student not the test.
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