Hi everyone!
Feel free to watch summary of learning for the class EDTC 300, where I go through what I have learned through out the course.
Month: June 2020
On the first day of class, Katia told us the importance of this blog post. Through actively interacting with my classmates, I have found a great group of people who share great resources, have who have supported me, made new friends, I am forever grateful for this class and how much this class has made me connect more than any of my other classes.
I believe I have become a better student by actively being more engaged through making better connections and actively all working together. Twitter has been a huge step in creating this last connection and has caused me to break out and talk to more of my fellow classmates rather than sitting in the same seat with the same classmates. This led to me sharing in Zoom alone, as a group, helping lead the group through actively volunteering to speak, finding research, or fill out the document.
I have commented on every classmate’s blog at least once, sometimes twice. My blog posts often end with open questions where students can decide to answer. I have also shared a few classmates’ blogs in my blog post. (Cassie, Julia, Lydia and Morgan), I go to twitter for advice and I often get a handful of comments and compliments.
I have participated in three other twitter chats from the Sasked Chat, and hope to continue to participate in more once all three of my summer classes are complete.
Commenting on blogs: I tried to find one thing to compliment and one question to learn. If my classmate responded to the question I would read it!
April made some awesome donuts. (Making them on June 20)
Celine’s & Jordan’s Cooking
Hailey’s Embroidery
Brianne & Hannah ASL
Learning from Lydia
There are many more of my classmates blogs who I did not show our conversion.
Seeking help/advice for another class
I have connected and will continue to stay connected. Thank you to everyone who has made this an unforgettable experience. See you on Twitter!!
First I did background research on cleaning, types of paint and colour schemes. I wanted to learn how to refurbish items to give them a more modern look.. It took me a while to start, as I felt I needed to buy the perfect item to paint!
The first week, I traveled half an hour one way to pick up a dresser I had purchased. I then left the dresser for a while to learn about painting. I knew I had to find which cleaner would be best to use. I saw this video called “Cleaning Furniture With TSP Antique Restoration” so I checked out the cleaning supplies in our house and found some. TSP stands for Trisodium Phosphate. I looked into what I should know/the dangers of using TSP; my investigation led me to find out I only needed a certain amount of TSP, mixed with warm water and then wiped with warm water to remove any excess. This cleaning took me a whole TWO HOURS as I needed to clean the dresser very thoroughly and multiple times inside and out.
The next two weeks I learned about types of paint and colour schemes.
I learned more about types of paint and which would be best for me to use on the dresser that I was refinishing. I have learned that there are the following types of paint:
- Latex paint has multiple finishes including satin, semi-gloss, or glossy finishes.
- Chalk Paint is water-based paint typically has latex as its base, but delivers a thicker, buildable texture.
- Milk paint for furniture is popular for its eco-friendly ingredients with no chemicals or added fumes.
Later, I seeked some guidance from my local Home Hardware where I talked to the staff about what I was painting and asked their advice. I even asked them about what colour they liked! They suggested I use a different type of paint specially designed for furniture and cabinets. My common sense agreed with this since they have had many customers use it and the staff member even had a positive experience with it as well!
Prior to buying paint, I thought I was going to make a risky move and use bold colour so I thought it was best to learn about colour schemes to help me make a better decision.
I learned…
- Complementary colors are any two colors opposite each other on the wheel. For example, blue and orange, or red and green.
- Analogous colors are any three colors next to each other on the wheel. For example, orange, yellow-orange, and yellow.
- Triadic colors are any three colors that are equally apart on the color wheel. For example, red, yellow and blue.
- Split complementary colors use three colors. The scheme takes one color and matches it with the two colors adjacent to its complementary color. For example, blue, yellow-orange and red-orange.
- Tetradic or double complementary colors use four colors together, in the form of two sets of complementary colors. For example, blue and orange is paired with yellow and violet.
After learning more about colour schemes and asking my twitter followers what their thoughts were. I thought I better keep it simple and go with a neutral colour; I decided on classic white. White is neutral, matches all colours, and may allow me to accessorize more and explore colours with the drawer handles.
Finally, the fourth week I actually started painting. This was a huge relief. I was really starting to doubt my thinking that this project was not for me.
I started with sanding, wiping the dust off from sanding and then introduced my mom with the stick it paint. My mom really pushed me to try and explore this project more with painting. She really motivated me to keep trying, by staying positive and helping me see the end result. This is part of the reason why, I wanted to include her in my process with a video.
Videoing the process was not for me, I enjoyed learning and showing my classmates what I was doing and learning. However, I found it disappointing as I could not see much progress happening in a timelapse. I decided I would be happier doing my learning project by posting more on twitter to gain support and engagement from other students and to take progress pictures. I almost wanted to quit when I had spilled almost a whole can of paint. Most of all, I have learned to stick with it and that my mom, and my classmates have helped me and supported (way more than any other semester) me so much this semester creating a positive environment full of excitement and people who believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself.
Week five, I was still painting and finally in week six the dresser was complete and I was happy with the results.
I later refurbished more items but chose to post on twitter with pictures rather than blogging. I completed two side tables/end tables.
In week six, my sister purchased a house and my family spent some time moving her in. This was when my mom thought it would be nice to refinish her room and then I could move into her bigger room. (I thought to myself finally being the youngest has somehow paid off!!) With the help of my parents through buying supplies, helping pick colours and outlining the room with paint (cutting in) we got the room done.
My mom and I picked out a neutral colour, grey to paint the walls. Once we were done painting the walls, my parents had decided that the ceiling was more filthy than we expected, so we decided it would best do paint the ceiling as well. (Yes, we should have done the ceiling first, but we didn’t.) Prior to painting the ceiling, I saw on Twitter with some tips about painting a ceiling better. So, I wore an old shirt, tied my hair up and put a shower cap on and made sure I had my glasses on similar to the tip on Twitter. After painting the ceiling, my parents and I saw a drastic change in the colour and this even made the room even brighter than it was before. We picked out some flooring and paid someone to come in and install it later that week.
Painting and moving to a new room has helped me decorate differently with a different colour scheme, has taught me new skills, and helped me value the hard work put into creating this space.
My last project, that I have not shared with anyone besides my parents is making some blanket ladders. I had my parents help with cutting, and measuring, we took the time to work together and bond. (Group Effort) We bought some eight foot tall pieces of wood to make my gift for my sister for her housewarming and birthday gift. Her house is modern with the majority of the interior of the house being white. I have not posted online about this because her birthday is coming up right away here in June and did not want to spoil the present by posting online where she may see my posts. I have even had to hide the ladders on multiple occasions. There are two options for her to pick from: a dark stained ladder and white painted ladder.
I have loved creating and exploring. Please watch my video to see my projects that include some progress photos. Thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way.
This week’s blog is about coding. I’ve done a little bit of coding in grade six, where my class had to build a website on whatever we wanted as long as it was school appropriate. This was not a great experience at the time, because we were given a booklet of keyboard letters and characteristics and were instructed to type out exactly as the book showed for the hour we were in class. Everyone would always be making mistakes, and being at different stages of skill development, as most of us were new to typing regularly on a computer, made it harder for the teachers to work with the class as one.
Flashforward almost ten years, and again we are on the subject of coding. In class we were given two sites to experiment with, Hour of Code or Scratch. At first I was hesitant because of the difficulty of the last experience, but was relieved that these sites were easily accessible and great for all learners. I’m glad to have had this class reintroduce me to a subject I had felt so uncomfortable with.
There are many great resources and apps to use in the classroom. I decided the hour of code would be best for me as a beginner, as it was filled with images to enhance my learning.
Another thing I noticed right away was that it catered to a wide variety of different ages, with many different choices of themes such as Frozen. That one was called “Coding with Anna & Elsa,” and I decided that would be my first reentry into coding. I found it fairly simple and well explained, and very smoothly got more difficult and in depth throughout each step.
I have learned in our lectures coding can be described as another language. I see how coding is such an amazing opportunity to tie different learning elements together as well. Things such as problem solving, divergent & creative thinking, planning and sequencing, spatial reasoning, and many mathematical and other subject concepts.
I hope to continue to learn about more resources to enhance my future classroom. The more I read and learn about coding, the better I can help my students adapt to a more technological world.
Here are some of the reasons I have come across as to why every child should learn to code.
On Twitter I posted more resources.
Fake news is a form of news consisting of deliberate disinformation or hoaxes spread via traditional news media or online social media.As technology advances, so does the means to create more realistic fake news. It was once so easy to distinguish fake news, with the ridiculously fabricated images and giant fonts, but as Alec Couros and Katia Hildebrandt point out, that may no longer be the case.
“Why is fake news so much harder to deal with today? One of the major changes is the prevalence of easily accessible digital tools that allow anyone to create realistic but false messages, videos, and voice recordings.” With this new age of online learning, it is especially important that we are teaching our students how to filter out the fake news. I learned that our search engines filter to our interest making us see very similar posts to interact with. Being aware of our personal platform and newsfeed can help us decipher the fake news from the real.
Not everything we read online is real. I often find myself in similar situations and believe what I see on the internet, as I expect most people to be truthful/honest. I’ve slowly begun to distinguish clues of bias that may show what the form of media is trying to get you to believe. It is important to question your research and findings, as we should strive to find accurate information. EDTC 300 has been extremely beneficial with improving my online learning and will make me a better learner for future classes and in my classroom.
Do you think you can spot fake news? Try these three places.
- Can you spot the fake news headline?
- Factitious – A game about identifying fake news
- Weekly News Quiz from the NY Times
Use this great teacher tool to help guide your students in determining Fake and Real News. Worksheet: Bias in the news (Created by Katherine Koskie)
Learn More:
Group Digital Sleuthing Exercise
In EDTC 300, I have been learning about the importance of my online presence that the world can see and how to convey our life as educators on social media platforms. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. are Internet-based services that provide individuals a way to interact with each other online. Some organizations and workplaces may use your digital identity to assist in the hiring process as our digital identity can provide insight on your life.
This week, I will attempt to look into a classmate’s digital Identity and be cybersleuthing. I will see if Cassie is classy or sassy online!
So, I started with a quick google search, Cassie with her last name, to see what I could find first fast. This is where I found her facebook account…I want to acknowledge Cassie’s choice of her privacy, she did not include her last name or any other information besides where she has lived and her current relationship. I then looked at her boyfriend’s profile and found limited information there as well. Seeing who people interact with can assist in showing someone’s character. Cassie and her boyfriend both practice privacy and have a great digital identity on facebook.
Overall Cassie is…classy along with:
C- Consistent and Conscious of her posting as her post are professional
A- Aware of current events and educational topics
S- Supportive of all people
S- Strong sense morality
I- Influential
E- Educates others, including myself!
Digital space isn’t just for employers to learn more about who they may want to hire, social media may be a personal platform that many people may use differently. Different generations may use social media differently and may use similar and different apps. As future teachers, I believe teachers should be aware of our student’s activity in and out of the classroom. Social media may enhance the classroom and a teacher may have many great lessons. In Jon Ronson’s TED talk he discussed that social media gave a voice to the voiceless, but how that same platform could dismantle a life, “piece by piece” after only one online mistake. Unfortunately, what we put online may last a lifetime and I believe no one should have to suffer after one choice they have made. This is where teachers may address social media and the harm and dangers of social media and the internet. This may include the story of Amanda Todd. (Part One)
I believe if teachers model good digital citizenship, students may learn and follow similar practices.
Modeling active citizenship is something that I believe that I have modeled from a young age and still do as a young adult age. Modeling active citizenship is not something new to me, but being vocal about social injustice topics on the internet is not something I do.
I already do not like to post on social media and I have grown to be more comfortable since starting a business with my mom, and sister, and from posting on twitter for the EDTC 300 class that I am currently taking.
The reason I tend not to share in digital spaces is because I like to be a private person and do not like to have everyone know everything I do.
Writing this post is a big step for myself. I used to think people who posted controversial topics were asking for people to agree and disagree. However, from learning about social injustice topics, it is important not only to post, it is important to speak and open the conversation up for those minorities who need the help to spread their message.
I feared being associated with harming someone by posting and fear that I would offend someone. This is ignorant of me.
This past week has taught me that it is very important for educators to speak out against injustice online and in the classroom. Teachers have the responsibility to show our students and anyone else who may be listening, what anti-oppression looks like and we have the power as future educators to be part of a change.
Being part of a change means educating yourself on what has happened in the past and what is happening currently. In a social injustice act of not understanding the lives of minorities, the black community are protesting after a disturbing video surfaced showing bystanders pleading with a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, a black man, as he gasped for breath. Floyd died during the incident, the latest in a string of deaths of black men and women at the hands of US police.
There is no room to be silent. Being silent teaches my students that I am silent and that they should be as well. Teachers are the leaders in the classroom, we hold the power to create change, one student at a time, some years making more change than others. Being open and communicating shows that we must help those minorities whose voices cannot be heard by others. “Be the person you need for your younger self” is a quote I often reflect on. Who did you need? What did you want for yourself or others?
Teachers Must Hold Themselves Accountable for Dismantling Racial Oppression.
Other Resources:
- Scaffolded Anti-Racist Resources
- Anti-racism resources for white people
- In online spaces, silence speaks as loudly as words
I have been working hard on my learning project and have created a few videos to help show my progress.
First Step: Finding an App:
I found two great ways to document my progress.
- First, I downloaded the app InShot on my ipad. This is a free app that can be found in the app store. InShot offers a video editor and video maker. You can upload videos and images to create your own original video. Within the app, you can also create collages if wanted.
- Second, I used the timelapse on my ipad. Time-lapse is a video recording mode that captures video at a very low frame meaning there is around one to two frames per second.
As intended, I plan to keep this blog short, it was fun making these videos and I can’t wait to share my learning project process with you. See the following videos below:
My Third Video: What is Stick It? (featuring my Mom!!)
My EDTC 300 classmate, Julia states the following about the InShot app, “ this app includes its extraordinary range of editing tools”, which I couldn’t agree more. From my EDTC class, I have learned that Julia has learned and has experimented more with the InShot app than I have. This gives me hope that I can show my growth even further by using some of the features on my final video – The Summary of Learning.
My biggest struggle was uploading to youtube, it took over a day to post. I had canceled uploading and finally got it uploaded on the third try! Overall, I had a great experience and am looking forward to learning more about the tools on this app to improve my editing skills!
I also HIGHLY recommend reading Julia’s blog and watching the video she posted that is an overview of the app InShot and how to use the app InShot. video…
Lydia also has a great blog that helps explain how to use iMovie. Check her blog.
Check out Morgan’s blog and how he created a tool called Loom, that I haven’t heard about, and learn about his business progression of Mojo Designs!!
I want to commend all my other classmates who have taken the time to learn a new tool to express/progress in their learning project. You have also done a great job at finding many resources!
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