Monthly Archives: December 2023

Wrapping up my Learning Project – Au Revoir

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Hey Readers,

It’s that time of the semester – the bitter end.

So, I figured I would take this opportunity to reflect on my learning project experiences throughout the semester.

I chose to take the opportunity that the learning project presented me with to learn French. I hadn’t taken any French classes since I had been in grade 6, so needless to say I was very rusty going into the semester.

Luckily, with the use of technology I found some efficient and engaging ways to learn French, and have gained an understanding of the language which goes a lot further than I ever priorly had.

The main way which I did my learning project daily was through an app called DuoLingo. I mainly used DuoLingo on my phone, but it also works on the website.

I documented my progress in DuoLingo in pretty much every learning blog post that I made, but I also made videos which showed how the app works. The video I have linked was from quite a bit earlier in the semester, however it does a good job to show the user-friendly interface, as well as other features which I enjoyed about the app, for instance the streak-counter, which helps to keep track and ensure that the user is doing their lessons daily.

Side Note: I would also like to mention/recommend the app, Microsoft ClipChamp, which my learning project led me to familiarizing myself with. ClipChamp was the software I used to create the video I previously shared, and also my summary of learning video. I found it made the making of videos very simple, and although I am an amateur, I was satisfied with the end product of my videos.

Using DuoLingo every day throughout the semester, I managed to get through 5 units, which focused on a variety of different things.

The first unit was a very simple introductory unit, which focused on very simple phrases. I have included images taken from DuoLingo which highlight the types of phrases I would have been practicing.

Unit 2 got more into phrases which were centered around “introducing yourself”.

Unit 3, “Get around town”. This unit introducing terms related to travel. such as valise (suitcase), voiture (car), avion (plane). This makes sense, since I am sure a large portion of the users on DuoLingo are people who are about to travel somewhere and would like to learn the local language before going. I’d like to note that the units do a very nice job of “scaffolding”, and building off of the previous lessons. You are constantly applying the knowledge that you gain, and while it might be repetitive, I think learning a language is something that requires a lot of consistency.

Unit 4 got more into actions, “I am going to” or “I am _______” statements.

And the Unit I finished the semester on, Unit 5, focuses on using language describing the present tense.

Like I previously said, DuoLingo was definitely the main way I got my practice in. I liked that with DuoLingo I could test myself and was actually “doing” something. I tried referring to YouTube a couple times for resources, but I am just not as much of a visual learner… At least, not when it comes to the learning of a language. In a previous blog post, I reviewed my thoughts on some resources I found on YouTube over the reading week.

To wrap up this summary of my learning project, I just wanted to note that I feel like am definitely still at a beginner level in terms of my French skills, but I have become a lot more motivated to learn new skills in the wake of doing this learning project. I have really enjoyed learning French throughout this semester, and I want to continue with my learning even after this class has concluded. I might even try learning another language once I become more confident in my French skills. I would strongly recommend DuoLingo to anybody, as it is free to use and has an incredibly user-friendly interface.

Thanks for reading! And thanks to Katia for a great semester! Thanks everybody!

Darian.

About Me and My Educational Philosophies

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About Me:

Hi there! I am Darian Zadorozniak, and I am currently in my fourth year of my Secondary Education degree with a major in Social Studies and a minor in English. I am preparing for my internship in the winter 2024 semester, where I will be interning in Southey. I am very much looking forward to this experience!

Here are some fun facts about myself:

I love sports (playing them and watching them), and my favourites to partake in would have to be football, basketball, and bowling, although keep in mind I am definitely not the most gifted athlete…

I am originally from Weyburn – although I have lived in Regina for about 4 years. I have certainly grown to appreciate the quietness of Weyburn over the years!

I love video games! I’m a huge sucker for Nintendo games, and the GameCube has a special place in my heart. I don’t lose to anybody in Mario Kart.

My educational philosophies:

While my educational philosophies are something that I find are constantly changing, one thing which has remained the most consistent throughout my experiences is a firm belief in providing equitable education to my students.

To me, this means that as an educator, we should all be striving to treat all students in a manner that displays genuine care for their learning, and shows that we are genuinely invested in their success.

These are things that I find incredibly important in my young career as an educator. Taking an investment in the success of my students doesn’t mean that success will always look the same in every student that I will encounter, but it does mean that I will do my best to conform to the needs of the learners around me in trying to attain success for these students. I feel that this is highly attainable through a variety of teaching strategies, assessment strategies, and creative lesson planning. Equity is not just limited to these features of education and teaching, however, and I feel that the career of an educator is a career which relies heavily on providing equitable opportunities for all students.

 

 

My Final Networked Learning Post: “How Have You Contributed to the Learning of Others?”

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Hey readers,

I have compiled some of my comments from various points in the semester (I could not find a lot of them, and it was difficult to remember which blog posts I had commented on, but alas, I did find a few to share). There is also a contribution from the EDTC 300 Community Discord server shared in the document.

Here it is.

Aside from what I have shared, and other comments on my peers’ blogs that I just could not find, most of the other contributions that I made to learning were more so done in-class, through consistent contributions in both breakout rooms and class discussions.

Thanks for reading,

Darian

Lesson plans that I have made so far…

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Hey readers, here are some lesson plans and other resources I have compiled through internship experiences.

Most of these lesson plans are from my Pre-Internship at Balfour Collegiate in March of 2023, in this experience, I got to teach ELA 9, Mental Health and Addictions 10/20/30 (which is a very recently developed course, that was a cool experience), and History 30. I have google drive folders which include all of the lesson plans which I made in this time.

ELA 9

Mental Health and Addictions

History 30

Trying out an AI tool – Speechify

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Hey readers,

For this week’s assigned blog post, we have been assigned to try out an AI tool that was discussed in last week’s class. I checked out a few of them, but the one I enjoyed the most was an AI app called Speechify.

It took me a while to figure out how to get extensions working on my web browser, as I am not super familiar with them, but I managed to get Speechify to work and had it read out a google document for me! My first impression of it was that it is indeed kind of creepy for AI to be able to generate the voices of random people throughout the world.

It’s like a dream come true to hear people like Mr. Beast or Snoop Dogg reading my writing!!

Just kidding.

But all jokes aside, having features like this is a fun novelty… and having options like this could also improve student engagement with the app. I personally hate the robotic Microsoft text-to-speech voices, so I could definitely see myself using this program in instances where I am too busy to read but want to listen to a more human-like voice… Does that make sense? I generally struggle to engage when it’s Microsoft Mary reading a chapter of my textbook to me.

And that’s where I see the usefulness of this app in contexts of education. It’s a fairly simple app that can be usefully applied to pretty much any grade-level, and could be used to help elementary students who may struggle with their reading or high school students who just don’t enjoy reading, all the way up to post-secondary students who may just be trying to multi-task. I also think for students who are visually impaired, having a more human-like voice reading to them is a lot more engaging than the previously mentioned Microsoft text-to-speech voices.

Another nice thing about Speechify is the customizable speed of the text-to-speech. You can slow it down or speed it up to whatever speed is most conducive to your learning.

As an English minor, I admit that I am kind of biased against the use of AI, and am overall worried about its uses in the context of education. With tools like Speechify, I find that my stance on AI kind of softens, as it serves a purpose of providing further accessibility to students who may struggle with reading.