This week, we had 2 homegrown Manitoba teachers put on some great presentations on ways they include tech into their classrooms. The first presenter was Kirsten Thompson who is a senior years teacher in Ste Rose Mb. Kirsten shared with us how she uses ICT in and out of her classroom and I have to say, it was impressive. She maintains 2 twitter accounts, an online portfolio, a teachers pay teachers account, a YouTube channel, 2 general education blogs, and two classroom blogs. I can't believe how well she stays connected! She brought up some great points about the importance of developing a positive digital identity as well. First, she mentioned that by updating class blogs and twitter accounts, she can breach the gap between what parents think is going on in the classroom and what is actually going on. Parents can easily be updated on homework, material being covered, and teaching practices through these platforms. She also shared some of the digital assignments that she incorporates in class through blogging. For select classes, she assigns the students a task that they have to research and post about in the blog. Their work can be presented in various ways like through creating a word splash or in written form. I can see so many benefits to allowing students to present their material through this medium. The task is a great way to differentiate instruction, enhance student engagement, build digital citizenship, and deepen student comprehension. She also provided the resource package to us (and the world for that matter) for free! Thanks Kirsten!
The second presenter was Tyler Letkemen; a senior years Physics and ELA teacher at Vincent Massey Highschool in Brandon Mb. Tyler shared with us some great insights into the inner workings of Google Drive and demonstrated how to effectively use it as an educator. He also shared with us some amazing ideas on how he uses ICT in a teaching tool for his students. One of his assessments that he shared was the retelling of Romio and Juliet through instagram. I can see how students would get right into this! The students would have to know the story in order to be able to share it through a common app that they are engaged with. Talk about connecting to students through a way they would really enjoy.
Both these teachers/presenters are really on the forefront of ICT use in classrooms and I learned a lot from the short amount of time they spent with us!
The presenters were quite good that day. It is amazing how many teachers are using a digital relm to instruct their classes. Kristen and Tyler are both fairly young and engergized teachers which are wanting to create interesting lessons. A good example was Tyler when he talked about letting is students use snapchat and Twitter to complete assignments (personally I'd have a hard time doing that) but it seems to work if you have the respect of all your students.
ReplyDeleteThese presenters are full of info and I find that I have a hard time processing it all like an old MAC computer lol. It is going to take more than a couple years to incorporate all these interesting tools in the classroom. Just hopefully get into a division that supports advanced tech classrooms which most are doing now.
I totally agree with you Joe. Kirsten’s work for their students was really impressive. I like the idea of YouTube channel and blogs. Even I didn’t thing that I would use twitter to make connection with parents. And that was good idea because of that we can give information, performance of the students, class work to their parents. Also, idea of blog was useful for students as well as for teacher. Instead of paper and pen if we provide this kind of technology to the students then they might take more interest and can explore their thought and knowledge using blogs. Second presenter had also new things like Google drive, Instagram and also word challenge. I would like to learn more and more technology which I can connect with teaching.
ReplyDeleteI like what you said about parents knowing what is going on in the classroom. We talk about the connected student, today's parents are more connected than ever. Technology will be an important way to keep parents in the loop about their child's education. If it is as easy as checking their child's blog or viewing a class website or social media page. I think you will begin to see more parents take an interest in whats going in the class because it is so accessible for them.
ReplyDeleteHi Joe,
ReplyDeleteOnce again Mike has given us a great opportunity to listen to a couple teachers that have done some wonderful things. Both of these teachers have done great things in the small amount of time they have been in the field. I also think its amazing how well connected Kristen is online. I have one twitter account that I never use and some other social media accounts that I just use to browse and that seems like enough for me. I also really liked Tyler's Romeo and Juliet Instagram idea. You could use this concept for any book or any assignment and I think the students would be really into it.