Week 10: My Final Reflection

These past 10 weeks have gone by so fast and I cannot believe how much I was able to learn from the technology course! There are so many new technology resources that I have gained from this course that I really want to use in my own teaching practice. To name a few that I really enjoyed Socrative, Kahoot, plickers, and class Dojo are all really great technology resources that I can see myself using in my own lessons. I always wanted to be able to incorporate a lot of technology in my class because I know students are really interested and motivated when technology is involved, however I didn't always know exactly how to do it. After this class it has shown me so many different and easy ways that you can incorporate technology into your everyday routines. Using class Dojo is a great tool for classroom management, while plickers is a really great way to use technology to gain assessment.

Fryer, S. (January 30, 2015) Classroom [Image]. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2eTWzGG

In addition to these different resources I learned a lot more about Genius Hour! I have always been interested in Genius Hour and wanted to use it in my own classroom. After getting the opportunity to create my own Genius Hour project it gives me a much better understanding of Genius Hour and how great it can be to get students engaged. I found myself so engaged in the Genius Hour project that I did and therefore I know that it will do the same for my students. I also love how Genius Hour can motivate all students because they get to choose what they want to research about and learn about. When doing my own Genius Hour projects with my future students I definitely want to share my own experiences with making my own Genius Hour project to get them really interested in doing their own. Also, depending on the grade you are teaching Genius Hour can incorporate a lot of different types of technology like getting students to make their own videos just like we did. I really appreciate the knowledge that this course gave me and I know it will make my future classes so much better because I will be able to incorporate many different types of technology!!

Week 8: It's Almost Ted Talks time!

Preparing for my genius hour I am beginning to consider what I will need for my video of Ted Talks. I am planning on video taping in my bedroom at my desk with my laptop camera. I will wear something professional to make my video seem more profession because my topic is serious. Also, I want to make my video interesting and exciting so I want to incorporate photos and video clips of animals in captivity to keep my audiences attention. I am not sure what I will use to make my video, but I think I will attempt to use iMovie because I really enjoyed it while making my genius hour trailer.

As for my feelings towards using educational technology is that I really love it because it enhances learning by grabbing the attention of students. Throughout this class I have really enjoyed learning all about the different tools that you can use in class. I feel as though I have learned very useful things from this class because I can use all of the different technology tools that I have learned about. I have already began thinking about how I could use Plickers or Story bird in my own lessons! I really believe that the tools that I have learned about from this class will help me become a better teacher because my lessons will never be boring if I use this interesting technology.

Jourde, F. (March 14, 2014). Plickers. [Image]. Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/2faoouS

Week 7: My Genius Hour Book!

Today in class we got to explore some really cool resources online! One that I really loved and connected with was Storybird, which is a site that allows you to make your own books. As a kid growing up I used to love making my own books and I really wish I had this tool back then to use. I can definitely see myself using this in my own classroom. I especially like how other classmates can go on and read each others books and make comments on them. This is a great way to have students edit and review each others works. Also, teachers can add their own comments on students books and even grade them right on the site!

Here is my story that I created with Storybird.

Strategies to motivate Students

In the article "20 Strategies for Motivating Reluctant Learners" written by Katrina Schwartz she talks about a workshop she went to where the speaker, Kathy Perez, discussed 20 strategies to motivate students. I found this article specifically interesting because for another class (EDUC 8P16) I am doing my project on students in my placement who are disengaged in reading. I felt like this article that is about motivating disengaged learners could help me with my project to come up with strategies that I could potentially use myself.

Perez states 20 strategies to engage students and many of them are very interesting. She promotes a lot of brain breaks to give students time to digest what they are learning. Perez also puts a lot of importance on allowing students to discuss things with each other and work in groups to really get engaged and interested in learning. Another strategy that I particularly liked was something Perez called "Guessing Game" where students would be given an opportunity to debate and predict an answer to a question before you tell them the answer. By allowing students to make predictions it gets them more invested in the answer, and therefore more engaged!

Many of these 20 strategies I can see myself using in my own classroom because I think truly getting students motivated and engaged in lessons is a key aspect of education. Students learn much more when they are interested and want to learn. These strategies will also come in use for me as I work on my project to try and motivate students in my placement classroom who are disengaged in reading. I could use the guessing game strategy by having students predict what will happen in books to get them invested in reading what actually happens in the end.

Here is a link to the article.

Week 6: Zoochosis

This week I was able to put together my Genius Hour Trailer. I used iMovie for this and through making it actually gained new insight into my topic. While making my video I came across a term that I haven't yet seen in my research thus far. The term is Zoochosis , which is the abnormal or stereotypical behaviours that animals exhibit while in captivity. Some examples of these behaviours include walking in circles, nodding their heads, self-harm, and many more. It seems that zoochosis is a major issue that animals face within zoo's and will be an important aspect to my research moving forward.

 Here is a short video that demonstrates zoochosis.

Peta2TV. (December 12, 2014). What No One Told You About Zoos [Video]. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2diZ09F

Going forward in my research I need to look more into HOW to stop zoochosis. Through my research I am starting to wonder is animals can ever live in captivity and not suffer in some way? It seems like the only way animals do not suffer is when they are in a type of sanctuary that mimics their natural habitat more closely. Maybe all zoo's need to be closed and animals need to be left in their natural habits or placed in sanctuaries? These are all questions that I need to do more research into and consider.

As a side note I wanted to discuss a little about my experience actually using iMovie for the first time to make my Genius Hour trailer. At first it was a little frustrating to figure it out and get it to work, but afterwards I was thrilled with how good the trailer turned out. From this activity it really gave me the idea to make a trailer with iMovie to use when teaching a class a new topic. I would use the trailer as a type of "Minds on" beginning activity to really get them interested in the topic we are about to learn about! I think it is a great way to use technology in the class and a way to get your students really engaged and interested to learn.

Week 5: Documentary and How I would use Genius Hour

This week for my research into Genius Hour I watched a documentary called Blackfish, which illustrates the mistreatment of animals in aquariums. The documentary focuses on killer whales and Tilikum a famous whale that lived and preformed at SeaWorld. It is a truly saddening documentary that shows a lot of the truth behind these large aquariums. I learned a lot of facts about whales in captivity like killer whales suffer extreme psychological damage due to life in captivity. Tilikum, the whale focused on in this documentary, lived in captivity all his life and was significantly psychologically harmed, which lead to him killing three people. This documentary shows how damaging captivity can be to these large animals. Below is a trailer for the documentary.

Movieclips Trailers. (June 3, 2013). Blackfish Official Trailer [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLOeH-Oq_1Y 

Besides my own Genius Hour research I want to reflect on Genius Hour and how I would use it in my own classroom. I really like Genius Hour because it gives students something to research that truly interests them. With my own Genius Hour I am way more interested when working on it than other school activities because I was able to pick a topic that I knew I would be interested in. Through Genius Hour students will be able to explore their interests and passions. As a teacher I would use Genius Hour by having my students learn about what a good question to research might be and then choosing their own. Afterwards they would get a set amount of time each day to do research on their topic. Once their research is done the students will present their findings to the class so that we all learn about the cool and interesting topics that everyone has been researching. In my own experience I have seen a grade 2 class do a type of Genius Hour called "I Wonder" where students research a topic they are interested in for a period of time each day and then present it to their peers. While observing this class going "I Wonder" it was amazing how focused and engaged the students were in their own research. I think that the way the students were engaged in their research shows how powerful Genius Hour can be to motivate students through their passions, and this is exactly why I will use Genius Hour in my own classroom as a teacher! 

Week Four: Here's a Video!

This week I decided to put my research into my Genius Hour topic about animals in captivity into a Powtoon video. I wanted to be able to show what I have learned about using a tool like Powtoon, but also show all the interesting things I am finding out about animals in captivity.

Enjoy and thanks or watching!

Week 3: PowToon and Starting to Research

In class today we got to use a new tool called PowToon. I still don't fully understand all the things you can do with this tool, but I really enjoy it so far and will definitely use it for future projects and even as a teacher. I love how you can customize so many parts of it from the different images you have on it or the music you have in the background. I can't wait to continue playing with this tool and think I might use it for a Language Arts project this semester where we have to create some type of video to explain a personal story about reading or writing!

As for my research I began by googling animals in captivity and the first thing that came up was Peta's website. From this website it mainly talks about zoos and how they can never replicate the wild habitat of animals no matter how great the zoo is. The animals in zoos are usually stopped from doing many things that are important to them in the wild such as running, climbing, and being around other animals of their kind.

A video that Peta showed to display how poorly animals are sometimes treated in zoos is about a Chimpanzee that was found in horrible conditions at a zoo and later rescued and placed in a sanctuary.

Peta. (March 27, 2015). Rescue of Iris the Chimpanzee. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcsE9WKYW6A

The video is a very touching look into the horrible conditions that some animals are put in captivity and the impacts that it has on them. Iris had under developed legs and was smearing her own feces on the walls out of boredom. From this research I am finding myself more and more interested in the aspect of zoo captivity and may choose to focus on this for my Genius Hour so I can go deeper into the topic. From this beginning research I think that some aspects that animals need in captivity to to support their emotional well-being is a environment that can resemble their natural habitat as closely as possible. Animals need adequate space to run and climb, opportunities to interact with animals of their own kind and pick a mate, and other things that are important to them in the wild. I am really interested to research more to see what could be done for animals living in captivity to make sure their emotional well-being is supported. 

The beginning of my Genius Hour Project

This week in class we had to come up with a starting question for our Genius Hour project. At first I was nervous at this task because I had no idea what type of question I would want to explore for the rest of the class. However, after watching a video in class it really helped me think of ideas of what I would want to research. In the video it shows a photo of plastic in the Ocean and for some reason this got me thinking about the well-being of animals and how captivity may impact them. This summer as a part of my job I had to go on a field trip to a Zoo and it was quite shocking how poorly the animals were treating. Therefore from this I came up with the question of "How do we support the emotional well-being of animals living in captivity?". I am so interested in this topic and am excited to look more deeply into it. My motivation for researching this topic is to gain a better understanding of how captivity impacts animals, and how their lives can be improved within captivity. Also, I am interesting to learn how different animals may have different needs while in captivity or if some animals are more affected than others. After doing a simple Google search on animal captivity I found that the definition is animals that are under the care of humans. I also found that captivity can be a general term for many different types of captivity such as zoos, farms, testing labs, or even peoples homes. My next step in this assignment is to start researching and collecting information on animal captivity. I may also want to single in on a certain type of captivity setting if I find myself more interested in one. 

Fieseler. (February 2, 2014). Monkey in Captivity. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2crmo32

Welcome to Teachers College

Hi everyone my name is Kaylene and I am in my 5th an final year at Brock University for Concurrent Education. That means I am in Teachers College this year and get to take really great classes that will give me practical knowledge and resources that will become useful to me in my practicum and future career! I am really glad we got to take a technology class because in today's classrooms technology is is very important. Students are surrounded by technology everyday and it is important that as teachers we know how to teach them in ways that are relevant and interesting to them. In this class I hope to gain more knowledge on how to take advantage of the technology we have to make lessons more engaging and interesting to all my students! A useful resource I was able to get from this course on Sakai already was about QR Codes and how they can be used for a variety of activities. I had heard of QR Codes before, but am glad that through this course I can learn more about how to actually use them to be effective in a classroom setting.

Thanks for reading!

Copy Right

As a teacher it is essential to set a good example for our students when it comes to copyright. Copyright notices are not required and any photo created is protected by copyright. It is important to know and follow the rules of copyright because people want to be able to protect their work. The most important thing to teach students would be to appreciate original ideas and to give credit where credit is due, making copyright important to teach. It is important to teach our students the importance of copyright and the basics of how it is done so that they can honour others work and that their work will also be given that same credit in the future.

Bradshaw. (June 11, 2014). Classroom Laptops Computers Boy. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2cSo6J4

Ribeiro. (June 30, 2008). Children at School. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Z#/media/File:Children_at_school_(8720604364).jpg