techtechtech (week 3)

This week is week 1 in our Genius Hour projects. Unfortunately for me, that did not bring the best outcome. While searching for participants in the grade 3 class I work in, I came up very short. The class did not seem interesting in spending recess inside reading books, instead of outside playing. This will continue to be one of my greatest obstacles. I did try and talk to the grades 7/8's in my placement class about literature, and encouraged a student to read Lord of The Rings, after noticing he had just finished The Hobbit. He does not know it yet, but he will be my first participant from the class. I decided to try it with both the classes I work with in hopes that I can see the differences between younger students and older students. From this week, I have learned that I will have to start with the inspiration part (which I was hoping wouldn't come until later on). But I will definitely have to bribe kids to be interested, and encourage them with little hints and tricks. I don't know how many willing participants are going to join, and if that happens I will have to subtly track the project through my practicum. I also ventured to the library at the elementary school and tried to engage the librarian in the methods she uses to convince students to join the library programs. She did not provide me with any details. I see why the students have been avoiding that section of the school. Unfortunately the school lacks the funds to create engaging and interactive programs, but really all they need is good books and willing educators. I am hoping to try and propose some ways to the librarian that we could work together to create a book club. Before next genius hour I hope to find more students who will participate. I also am hoping to spend more time researching methods on how other people have encouraged their students in English class.

In a world.... full of technology ...

     I had to pick a Genius Hour topic, which was very hard. I decided to discuss helping students reengage with literacy. I am hoping to test this out with the grade 7/8 in my practicum, and also the grade 2/3’s a volunteer with. I have been trying to get some of the girls in the class I worked with last year to read more, but they are always hesitant. I am going to talk to them again this week and try and suggest a book club, where they can come stay in for one recess a day and I will talk to them about books. I don't know if I will get many volunteers, perhaps I will have to entice them with some good snacks. 

     

          I learned so many cool new resources this week. I loved all the links in the PBL badge, and am starting to save them so I can revisit them later on. I love all them mind map websites that make creating mind maps very simple. I also really enjoyed powtoon, and learning how to make cool videos. Google Slides was a very useful slideshow maker. I am seeing the true power of Google recently, I love how it is so reliable and saves everything always and is basically accessible no matter what computer you use. 

          I am also really hoping that I get to try to do a Genius hour with some of my students. I don't know if it would work well if I am not there all the time, because we are only in the classroom once a week right now, so I will have to wait and see what will work best. I think Genius Hour is a really great activity that encourages creativity. Tracking their progress through something like Google Slides would also be a really good idea. I look forward to working with that tool more. To do my own Genius Hour with the grades 7/8 I would have to get to know them all better, have the time to allow them to research, and consider what kind of students they are. I do not yet know how independent they are as students, so I cannot judge yet. I would consider doing a classroom project that was similar with the grade 2/3 but I think they are still too young. Perhaps on a smaller scale. 

          

           One of the resources I really want to use is the Trading Cards from Read Think Write, because it would be a very good way to check in after each chapter of any book. By asking the students to create new cards for each new character that was introduced, they would then have a whole stack by the end of the book, and could hand them in as a whole. I think the questions on thing are simple enough and easy enough to respond in that it would not be too much work to continuously do it on a weekly basis, and that way the students would have to keep on top of their readings. 

Overall, very excited about all the tools used this week in tech class, cannot wait to try some of them out ! 

Copyright

"Funny Hacker Stock Photo". [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/funniest-hacker-stock-photos-daniel-solove 

Inkles, Paul. (2011, September 25). "Business Baby Pointing"  [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/e2QMS5

            This week, we were required to learn how to properly cite photos! So the above photographs were my first attempt at citing and embedding photographs onto a blog. The first is a generalized stock photo, and the bottom was taken by an actual artist (so thanks for the use of the funny picture Paul Inkles)! 
Next Up is my thoughts on some pretty cool articles we read about copyright and citations .... 

             One of the first things I learned from these readings was that everything has copyrights that are attached to it, and we have to be cautious of that in the tech world. That being said, that does not mean that one cannot use the material, just that the proper use of citations needs to be implemented. I remember my first lesson on citations in high school, they took us all down to the library and the librarian droned on for hours about MLA style citations and the official handbook and how we were all expected to use it perfectly thence forth. It was exhausting and impractical. I only properly learned how to cite once I got into university and was forced to teach myself, so I am really looking forward to learning tools on how to teach this effectively. 

Creative Commons is a concept I knew about but did not fully understand, just like citations. The video was a really cool summary of how easy it is to protect the content any artist creates. Everyone deserves to define the rights of how other people can share and manipulate their work. The other amazing thing is that it is completely free! That opens the Internet up to so many aspiring artists who want to share their work without risk or fear of it being stolen. It also made me wonder about things like memes, are they protected under the “fair use” that comedians often use when receive complaints about discussing other people? “Fair use” allows for copyrighted material to be used without obtaining permission from the own in specific circumstances such as parody, criticism, news reporting or research. That further complicates the ideas presented in the article. Content can be used without copyright, but only for certain reasons, but that still reinforces the need for citations to avoid the confusion over who actually owns the original work. Also, after further reading into the “Exploring Copyright” section in the “Copyright for Tech Enhanced Teaching” guide I realized it expands on the fair use law. Teaching is not protected under that law, which is another interesting revelation. Creative Commons is the answer to the public wanting to explore sharing content without losing ownership of creations, and allows teachers and students to have more freedom while exploring online. 

From reading and learning about all of this, I think it is most important to teach students about resources such as Creative Commons that they can use to protect themselves. That being said, the students would first need to have a comprehensive and complete guide to understanding why we cite and have copyrights associated to ideas and art. I would enjoy trying to plan a lesson around this topics, especially because of my aforementioned horrible past experience with learning about citations. I would definitely try and use interactive tech tools to guide my students to deeper understanding. 

Overall, this was a good lesson in copyright and copyright laws. Citing is extremely important and sometimes the lines get blurred, but the tech world has come up with some handy solutions such as the Creative Commons and different techniques of citing to allow people to continue to share media. 

Hi, Welcome to my blog! This is "my passion sunshine". It definitely still needs work! I will add more to it later.

We watched this really cool video today, check it out! It is a really interesting video about a child who was inspired by his passion and ran with it to create an interactive experience within his community. It definitely demonstrates the way positive reinforcement, a few tools, and complete creative freedom can inspire a student!  



We also learned about Genius Hour. It is a tool teachers are using to inspire creativity and include a portion of the day that allows them to explore their own passions. Check out this video to see the basis of Genius Hour...


I personally cannot wait to try something like this with the students. I volunteer with grade three students and they would absolutely love to try a project like this. I tried something similar last year, but had to incorporate the curriculum of social studies into it, so I do not think they had the same amount of freedom. I think allowing them to pick their own topic out of anything in the world like this teacher did would be super cool. The list of topics her students came up with was hilarious! The idea of really trying to encourage students to think about things all on their own, showing them the value of their own creativity and ideas is super inspiring. It could definitely do students well to be given the freedom to think freely, instead of being given strict curriculum and expectations for every assignment. I know some students when I tried this (without knowing about Genius Hour) really sought out more expectations, and when I had no answers to what was expected other then "just give it a try!" they were absolutely lost.


Another link provided to us was the "Bad Idea Project" Read this link to check out what this teacher did. I found this article super interesting. The idea of exploring "bad" ideas in the same way we always foster good ideas was really interesting. This class had some awesome "bad" ideas, and in the end, it seems like it could teach them some real life lessons. One of the students chose to write "Experience what it's like to be homeless for one day and make a documentary about it" as their "bad" idea, which the teacher then classified as an actual really good idea. If the student was required to research that idea more, they could learn some really important life lessons along the way.


That is about it as far as this week goes. We learned a lot of new stuff, and I'm excited to improve my tech skills!
Until next week....