Placement Blog Post

1.  Good @: Teaching teachers and students to learn technology and sofware
                     Learning New pieces of software

     Not-So-Good @: Developing innovate classroom lessons using technology

2.
1) Creativity- 6 I do have my moments, but those moments often take a while to come. Its not my strong suit but i can come up with good ideas

2)Responsibility- 9 I am very responsible. I dont abuse my power and i am able to stay within my assigned limits. I am also very trustworthy. Being responsible will not be an issue.

3)Web Design- 5 I made a cheesy website in Gr. 5 about Ancient Rome and that is all of my experience. I'm sure though that it is not that hard, and that I will be able to figure it out

4)Developing Action Plans- 9 I've done alot of working breaking down large projects and making sure that they will get done in time. I have successfull experience of creating action plans (Pink Day, SAC events, and other committies)

5)Teaching Other People- 9 I am good at teaching people, because I have patience and enough communication skills to make them understand.

6) Meeting Deadlines- 9 I am almost always ontime with my assignments and other various projects. It is rare for me to miss something, except for extenuating circumstances.

3. I am very comfortable leading students, I've already done it with the netbooks.

4. Team, then partner, then solo.

5. Most comfortable would be English, then Biology. All other things are fine, but those two would be most comfortable

Enriching Technology --> Should it happen????~!?!

I think that this a very realistic idea that can easily be pursued. I think that it might be handier to adapt it from not only an English class but to all classes in general who have large assignments, that need to be studied by the other students. Some of these classes could include History, Geography, Chemistry. I think that this idea could benefit alot of students. It may result in a lot of work in the short term but it should prove useful in the long term, especially exam time. I think that if we were to approach any teacher, regarding the original idea (English Seminar) we should approach Mr. Tebbutt (who teacher Gr. 12 ENG), I am on very good terms with him (SAC) and he has shown interest in the netbooks and has constantly been asking when they are ready to be used, while the netbook group was working on the cart. I think that Mr. Tebbutt would be anxious to start using this idea.

The Enriching Technology Blog Post

Whew, i'm finally touching technology for the first time this weekend. My blog post was late because i was in hamilton the entire weekend spending time with the family. It also gave me some time to think about how technology could be used at Mackenzie. I think that it goes without saying that technology is useful, but  its hard to find useful uses (if that makes any sense). I think that in order to do new things in new ways, we have to start off by making baby steps. Education is a system that will take ages to progess. Technology is the complete opposite, which is part of the reason why there have been so many issues trying to unite the two. The idea of a baby step, in my opinion would be starting to use technology with projects. One project that i think could benefit from the use of technology are the Grade 12 English seminars. I'll outline what the idea is in the format that was given to us on the class website.

Idea details:

The Grade 12 English seminar is a large group project that is worth about 10% of one's final mark in English. Groups of 4 students are to analyze a certain theme in 1984 or Brave New World and then in a sense "teach" the class about that theme. The idea being that, every group must present in order for the entire class to learn about the themes in the book. What I think would be effective is if we can apply the netbooks to the hour long seminar. Student will create a website, with links to either a prezi or Google docs etc for their main information and points. Within the seminar there are also certain discussion questions that must be addressed. These can be addressed in the form of an online survey where comments can be posted and where the results can be viewed on a common screen. In addition student will be able to study  the notes created and discuss things online and have interactive study sessions from home through programs like diigo, and google docs, etc. To sum up, students will create an interactive website that will teach the class about themes and motifs of the select study book that the english class is studying.

Technology Needed:

-Access to the Netbook Cart
-Website creation tool
-laptop projector kit

Pros:

-It allows for a more interactive presentation
-Makes sure that all students must participate and continue
-Ensures that a conversation/discussion can be started. (Results of the survey)
-A website can be acessed by everyone and can be used for future notes outside of the classroom (Most people didn't remember what the presentation was about: this solves that problem)
-People don't necessarily have to meet up to work on the project (a major problem i had last year)

Cons:

-Some people might have difficulties creating an engaging website
-The class using the netbooks can results in alot of distraction during the presentation
-Might be hard to coordinate so that all of the technology will be available for each presentation
-Depending on class sizes, not all students will have a netbook

What Needs to Happen to make the Idea Work- Who is Responsible

There is not actually alot of work that needs to happen in order for this to happen. It is an indepentdent project after all. Student will have to train themselves and learn how to create the websites. The teachers must outline what the students have to do and also ensure that they will have the netbooks and projector for each scheduled presentation.

eInstruction Video Submission

As cheesy as it sounds i think we should do a parody rap video. They are always the ones where one can say the most and still make sense. I think that we can kind of do the same idea i stated earlier for the future shop thing, except with more twists. Essentially have students rise up out of their seats and do short little rap testimonials about how all of this stuff would rock in our class rooms. The good thing about doing a rap video is that randomness is common, so having a placement for one of their products wouldn't be out of place. Not only one person can make up these ideas though, so i think that an additional group should be formed to brainstorm even more ideas and start making the fine details of the video and then pitch their ideas to the class and then we'll vote or something. I think that we have to show that we have character and a sense of comedy, but are also serious enough to be able to handle all of this technology. These are just my ideas though, i think that ideas are more effective if groups collaborate and create them.

And thats the last of my ideas :)

Future Shop #6

I think that this could be the hardest of the contests to win. Our school is not really in need of any new technologies, especially since we just got 30 new net books and library computers. If we do try it though i think we should try to take a comical look at it (for the video). Have kids looking confused with the confusing lesson that they are getting the board and then some magical future shop fairy comes in an flicks its magical wand and it then the shot goes to a classroom of people who are all now understanding things better because of the added technology. We could have things like testimonials, from students who would like to use technology to aid in the classroom (  A.K.A. us   ). I think it would be good to include important stats in our written letter about how technology helps kids in the classroom. ( We can use that ideas site that you showed us on the first day for more info). We should also emphasize how much we need new computers and more smartboards/ projectors in the upstairs classrooms. However, i dont think that this should be our main focus for a contest.

Cheers

That was Easy! (#5)

So, apparently its not that easy. 1 of us has to write a 500 word essay to win us $50 000. I think making everyone in the class to do an essay would be a little unrealistic, but putting the pressure on one kid is too much to handle. I think that the best solution would be to create a small group of lets say 3 or 4 people who will collaborate to create an essay. To make sure its up to all of our standards, we can display it on the smart board and leave it open to discussion from the entire class. The actual topics of the essay should include such things as our switch program, and also our recycling program that we did last year which won us the netbooks. We can also start making pledges or something to be more eco friendly.

Maybe it is that easy :P