Waiting for Superman

This was a great documentary and was surprised teachers in the United States got paid while they were waiting for their law cases to be settled.

I understand why parents are choosing these charter schools and understand that college is huge but I didn't realize how far parents would go to get their kids in certain schools. Also students would have to take certain schools to fill out a certain requirement for the college they wanted to attend.

Here is a screen shot that from the film that explains that putting children in private school is cheaper then putting them through jail.

BYTE

http://www.danbuckley.net/

Dan has a great website for understanding personalized learning.

I enjoyed BYTE and listening to Dan the guest speaker however I found some of the sessions I went to more Early years focused but for the price and the information I received it was definitely a great experience. I met some of my fellow teachers and chatted with them and I am figuring out that these sessions are for meeting old colleagues. I also find that a teachers personality is one of a kind and filling Crocus's gym up with these teachers got extremely loud.

The most useful resource I found a BYTE were the ESRI Story Maps and seeing them used outside of Geography.

I think some highschool teachers should hold some more sessions next year. I found with the sessions this year, our teacher introduced them all in out class and we should credit these sessions for a PD.

My First Podcast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ5hQTeRgZo&feature=youtu.be

Tech Task 12

So I think the bring your own devices and policies are going to be the biggest features in the future of education. The student is going to have a lot more responsibility with their 400 dollar device then their 10 dollar binder and pencil. If the kid forgets their device then they may actually not get the lesson unless everything is saved on a cloud and there are extra devices to work on. It is not like the old days where a teacher can just give them paper and a pencil.

The second major factor is Policies and of the schools I went to there is only one school division that has struck down on the policies and blocking everything. This is hard when you are a new teacher and used to doing whatever you want and letting the students use multiple apps and websites. I think the future is going to have more policies and protecting students from trolls and other internet creatures. I also seen where the provincial math is going and they are wanting students to use their devices on the provincial exam. This brings up a new topic but I know the teacher's age was a big factor in these discussions.

Tech Task 11

So for the geography teachers out there, I would like to share with you some ESRI products. ESRI products such as Arcmap is bought by the province and you can install this software on the computer. There is a mobile app for this but really it is just a fancy Google Map and I wouldn't suggest it unless you are using the software. Another ESRI product is the story map and this is where any classroom can use this map and it is pretty cool. So you need to have your GPS on for this application to work. This story map will reference the pictures you take from your for using the GPS coordinates and then you can type stuff behind the pictures. There is a teacher using this in her English class and getting the kids to tell a story. This can also be used to take before and after pictures and make a story.

Another cool app is Microsoft Photosynth, I used this in my practicum and it creates a 3-d model from still images. So you can take millions of pictures around a certain object and put the images into Photosynth and create a 3-d model.

Tech Task 10

We were not suppose to blog about this but when reading through the essentials 40, Physics 40 and psychology 40 I came across some questions.
Do you get to pick a teacher that works with you through these activities? Or is the teacher already picked and you do not get to see them often.

The reason I am bringing this up is because the physics and essentials are hard to follow I find and looks pretty dry. But maybe this is how these courses and I know you won't get the feedback like a normal course but I thought they would have at least tried to be interactive. The psychology course would be easy to do the course over the web but the other two would be hard. Especially when in the question they refer to module icon, whatever that means :/. I also found that the courses are not up to date with the curriculum.

Tech Task 9

We were lucky enough to have Mr. Bolton from a Manitoba High School come in and show us how he uses technology and other cool resources in math. For starters he has his own website which I will provide the link below and has plenty of resources on there to share. He uses recording technology with a blue tooth and Smartboard to record his lessons. He posts the lessons on the website which are downloadable for the students. He also posts the notes that go along with the class as well so if you weren't in class that day you wouldn't miss out.
I think this is a clever way to teach and when we are going to that 1 to 1 classroom, students can listen to the video and answer their own questions. We still need the teacher though for the most part in the classroom but these videos will help. Mr. Bolton said to have a site counter on the page and to watch the numbers double or triple during exams.

Mr. Bolton and another teacher who presented in our class also showed us students making a video on solving math questions and teaching themselves and their peers. This is where I would like to go on formative and possible summative assessment with my students. The problem is I need a group of guinea pigs to do it and perfect this style. I am glad though that these videos are being used in the classroom and being successful.
https://brianbolton.wordpress.com/mad20s-grade-10-applied-math-course-outline/