My first field experience was so fun! It felt really good to look at the classroom with a teacher hat on instead of an EA hat. It was tricky for me at first as my first instinct is to help, but once I got settled into the role of observing the teacher I really enjoyed it. Click on the link below to view my observations.
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One of my field placement days fell on Halloween-I was nervous grade 1 on the afternoon of Halloween? This teacher had some cool things planned which made the afternoon fun and fly by! She started off by reading the book Boo, by Robert Munsch. After reading the story the students made a pretty cool Crazy Hair Art project.
These turned out so awesome, it was something that I didn’t want to forget about so I thought I would stick it in my resources page. I have also included pictures of the kids creations.
I finally feel like I have had some success on this braiding journey. I switched things up this time and I braided my daughters head instead of my mannequin head, I will say it was much easier to manipulate. I may have to convince her to sit down and let me do it more often during this learning process. I also switched up what platform I used this week, I found a blog that had a step by step tutorial. I liked this method, as I found last week it was easier for me to learn from pictures instead of videos.
The first step was to separate the hair in half, my kids don’t have a normal middle part so it gets a bit wavy looking when you look closely. My hairdresser gave me a tip this week: to hold my hands close together when braiding, so I tried really hard to follow that tip. I started on the right side of her head. I really struggled with this side and she eventually asked me to try the other side because her head hurt, lol.
I moved onto her left side, it went better but, still not very good, I didn’t do well with gathering hair from the sides which has been a struggle from the beginning. I had a couple restart times, but I didn’t want to redo it again so I left it looking a bit wonky and not the best.
I went back to her right side as I felt like I was a bit on a roll and I might actually be somewhat successful. This side went so much better! There were still some spots that I struggled to get hair gathered from the sides and middle, but overall its probably the best braid that I have done yet!
Next’s week mission to try to get to be a tighter braid and started more at the front of her head. Stay tuned to see if I have another successful try. Last picture is of a person who is super pumped that she finally had a successful post to write.
If we agree or not, let’s face it technology is becoming the new era of our classrooms and schools. Technology definitely has it perks and is a wonderful tool for educators to use, but how can we teach our students to use it purposely in our classrooms?
In Ohler’s article he questions if technology should completely taken out of our classrooms and become an out of school thing only. I do not agree with this-if we take it ban it completely the “want” to be on technology will take over children’s lives when they aren’t in school. I do think that this needs to be a collective understanding between school, student and families-we all have a responsibility when it comes to technology. Education and rules cannot only be set at school, parents need to do their part also to reinforce expectations. Open and honest communication is key, doing so will help students realize that they also need to be honest in what they are doing on technology instead of hiding their online activity.
I think there are many strategies we can use in relation to the nine elements of digital citizenship in our classrooms. I believe that every student should have the same opportunity to have technology in the classroom, as long as they can handle it. Some students really struggle with getting off of their iPad when “tech time” is over, this can then create undesired behaviours. I think that this when I would use a plan in my classroom so that both the student and staff know what the expectation of tech time is and what will happen if it continues. It is important to have both parties a part of this plan so that both students and teachers can have a say in the plan and agree on it together.
I really agree with Jurgenson when he talks how people are too connected to the “computer” in their pocket. I have been trying really hard to get better at not feeling like I need to be on my phone the minute there isn’t something going on, an example waiting at a Dr.’s office or standing in line at the grocery store. This has proven to be a difficult task as I have been so accustomed to having the world at my fingertips. If you look around a restaurant the next time you go out, how many people do you see on their phone? If you see me there I can guarantee that I am on mine-guilty as charged. We are losing the act of conversation with our family and friends. How does this relate to our classroom? We need to set the example in our classrooms, we need to stay off our devices during our school day-our students are watching us and they will follow along if we are proactive and monitor our own tech use.
Technology can be extremely useful in our classrooms to share resources and mixed work. We can set up safe and proper programs online to share missed assignments and notes for our students, such as Microsoft teams or google classrooms. Parents can also be added to these platforms and we can all work together to ensure we use these programs effectively and properly.
My biggest concern with an excess of tech time is the psychological effects that it has on both us as educators and students. Personally my son turns into a nightmare if he spends too much time on his devices, his listening skills lessen and he seems to be completely dazed. I feel like there are many other children like that out there and this can lead to other academic and social concerns in our classrooms. I think there can be a happy medium if we educate students on safe technology use.
I look forward to using all the wonderful apps and online platforms within my classroom. My hope is to create a digital citizenship agreement that would be signed by all involved parties: parents, students and staff to create an open technology relationship. I also hope that I am able to properly educate students so that they learn how to have an effective “combined technology world, not two separate worlds”. Technology isn’t going anywhere-in fact its blowing up in this new era and we need to jump on the train and help our children be safe and responsible citizens.
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Four pictures of spaes that mean something to me, some are new pictures, some are old but they all have a special meaning to me.
Sketch notes weren’t a new learning for me. A grade 8 teacher recently introduced me to sketch notes while listening to a podcast. I find them a neat alternative to regular note taking-not all kids are into copying or making notes the regular copying way. This teacher encouraged students to add colour and use things within their notes that would help them to remember what they meant.
I was excited to try sketch notes on my own. Mine do not have colour as I find this too busy for me, and mine have more words then pictures as I am not the best drawer and I find that I learn better by the use of words. I used quick jot notes instead of long passages and a few little drawings when I felt like it was important. I really like this task as I think it would be a great strategy for the classroom as students can have a little bit of choice how they make their notes.
Here is an example of my sketch notes on our Residential School learning
This week I decided to try a different way of learning. From the beginning of this project I have been finding a new “how to” video on youtube. This week I found a website that had the option to follow along with the pictures and writing, but there was also a video option if you would like to watch. I went with following along with the pictures this time, this was I could work along at my own pace and not feel like I was constantly rushing so that I could keep up with the video.
This first part of these instructions is to just do one solid braid first, I went back to the basics and worked on this, as they showed a different way to get the hair on the sides into the braid which is my downfall. I did pretty good with this task this week, I still struggled to make the sides look clean and finished. I think that I need to start using more water to keep the hair more damp, I try to avoid water as I wasn’t sure how my mannequin head would fair.
The next step was too split the hair into 2 sections-this is the way I need to make perfect as this is what I need to do for dance season. I am getting the task of the under hand braid perfected, but I find I get mixed up as I start to add more hair to the braid in a smaller section. I get the different sections mixed up and I find that I do a mixture of underhand braiding with some that are normal braiding so it looks clumpy and messy. I also didn’t go good with adding the sides at all…another fail.
I did learn something new about myself though, I definitely learned better reading and following along with the pictures than I have with watching videos. I am going to try and find some other resources that are laid out this way to see if it helps me finally figure out how to add more hair and for it to look clean and finished. Maybe this week I will be able to use my daughters hair to see if that is easier to braid than the mannequin head.
Thanks for following along with my braiding journey. I didn’t take any pictures this week of my progress, but I will bring them back next week. Whose hair do you think I will braid my mannequin or my daughters, check back to see if your guess was correct.
