Monthly Archives: November 2022

Infographic- Habitats

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Our challenge was to make an infographic that we could present in a split-grade classroom.

Arts Education Grade 3

CP3.8 Create artworks using a variety of visual art concepts (e.g., contour lines), forms (e.g., drawing, sculpture), and media (e.g., pencils, pastels, found objects).

a) Observe visual details, and include details to enhance depictions of animals, people, and objects.

f) Recognize circles, squares, triangles, and rectangles as geometric shapes and apply this knowledge to artwork.

Using the concept of contour lines, students will work with different geometric animals. Students will identify the different geometric shapes and work with lines in different positions and different colour combinations in order to differentiate each geometric shape they find in the animals.

Science Grade 4

HC4.2: Analyze the structures and behaviours of plants and animals that enable them to exist in various habitats.

(b) Recognize that each plant and animal depends on a specific habitat to meet its needs.

(c) Identify factors (e.g., availability of food, water, and shelter, weather conditions, and available living space) that influence the ability of plants and animals to meet their needs within a specific habitat.

Students will work in groups to hang up different animals (including the ones made in art) in the different habitats posted around the classroom.

Physical Education Grade 3

PE3.6: Apply movement variables of:

  • extensions in space,
  • a focus on effort (time/ speed, force, flow),
  • relationships with objects and others

to increase complex movement skills and sequences while participating in body management activities (including dance and educational gymnastics, and others such as yoga, skipping, aerobics, and track and field).

(d) Demonstrate the ability to change directions, pathways, and body positions quickly and appropriately by participating in chasing, fleeing, and deking activities.

(h) Design and demonstrate, with a partner, a variety of statues (balances) of different shapes, with one person bearing some or all of the weight of the partner, while focusing on being as stable as possible.

Students will be put into separate groups of 3-4. Music will be played as students move around the gym like different animals (previously assigned). When the music stops, the students must find their group members and build a habitat with their group members. The group members will also need one or two students to act as animals that belong in the habitat. The groups can choose any habitat and animal they like and display it in whichever form they choose.

Social Studies Grade 4

RW4.1– Analyze the strategies Saskatchewan people have developed to meet the challenges presented by the natural environment.

(a) – List the challenges and opportunities climate presents for residents of Saskatchewan.

(b)- Determine safety measures necessary for living in the Saskatchewan climate (e.g., clothing; safety package for vehicle; never leave vehicle when stranded in winter; checking highway hotline; not licking frozen metal).

Art 3 Outcome- CR3.2- Respond to arts expressions that use the environment (natural, constructed, imagined) as inspiration.

The students will draw a picture of their habitat. This can be a picture of Canada, of their home, of their room, or anything that the student views as their habitat. Then using the think, pair, share technique the students will share their drawings and answer the question “What do you need to survive in your habitat”. If their picture is of Canada they might need winter clothes, their house would need a heater and their room would need a bed.

English Language Arts Grade 4

CR4.1 Comprehend and respond to a variety of grade-level texts (including contemporary and traditional visual, oral, written, and multimedia texts) that address:

  • identity (e.g., Expressing Myself)
  • community (e.g., Building Community)
  • social responsibility (e.g., Preserving a Habitat) and support response with evidence from text and from own experiences.

View, listen to, and read a variety of texts related to theme or topic of study and show comprehension by:

  • retelling and explaining the ideas and information presented in texts
  • recognizing and understanding the text structures (e.g., narrative, informational, poetry) and features (e.g., description, figurative language, graphics)
  • responding to and interpreting the texts, and explaining and supporting response with evidence from the texts.

(c) Connect the insights of an individual or individuals in texts to personal experiences.

Introduction to the term community- Ask students questions such as “What are some places in our community?” “Who is in your community?” Ask questions such as “How is our home/community our personal habitat?” “What animals do you think could live in your habitat?” What animal habitat do you think you could live in? Next, have the students fill out a “My Habitat” worksheet. Each section will be titled “I Live” I Eat” and “I Drink” and have a space for students to write a paragraph and draw a picture. This worksheet will allow students to make comparisons between animal habitats and their own personal habitats and see the similarities and differences between the two.

Our infographic! It’s extremely blurry, so please find the information above!

Exciting New Learnings 5

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In class, we talked about language and gender. I did not realize how passionate I was about this topic until I listened to the podcast by Lexicon Valley. The podcast had a lot of interesting information but also had some negative drawbacks.

One of the positives from the podcast is the way that the hosts speak about the different ways your voice can change the meaning of what you say. I’ve always been interested in this idea. For example, the words “excuse me” can have so many different meanings. First, if you don’t understand what someone said you can say “excuse me” with the intonation at the end posing it as a question, this is also known as uptalking. You could say the words with more syllables than necessary portraying an insulted feeling. You can also say excuse me in a more apologetic way with a regular voice if you need to move past someone. The podcast did give us important information about what is called vocal fry or creaking. One study mentioned in the podcast was done by Ikuko Yuasa who found that American women creak twice as much as American men. This is interesting because before I listened to this podcast I had never heard of vocal fry, and I don’t think I really noticed anyone use it. Altogether it was a very informational podcast but there were some negative sides to it as well.

To begin I think I was most noticeably upset when listening to this podcast when one of the hosts spoke about how revolting it is to hear a woman’s voice creak. I was upset by this because of his mere lack of empathy and hatred towards how many people in this generation speak, not just women. My biggest takeaway for people who make fun of how someone speaks is that they need to listen to what words are coming out of someone’s mouth not just the way they are sounding. I was also upset to hear that many women creak their voices “possibly in an attempt to be like [men]” (Barry Pennock-Speck, as cited in Lexicon Valley, 2012). I feel I might be taking this a little bit hard. But I don’t agree with this information as men do the vocal fry as well. If women were the only people who had a vocal fry, and it was more than just mainly American women, I might believe that there is a connection. But if men with low voices creak, then I think that this debunks that theory.

Finally, something else I found interesting in the podcast was the connections to women in movies. The hosts brought up a clip from Reece Witherspoon in the movie “Legally Blonde”. It is really interesting how we can hear the vocal fry in the clip that was played however the clip from Movieclips (2015) tells an entirely different story.

The clip that is linked is at the end of the movie. Reece Witherspoon’s character Elle Woods is questioning a witness at a murder trial. I think it is interesting that at the beginning of the clip Elle is somewhat unsure of herself, you can hear her voice creak especially at (0:49). But as the clip goes on Elle becomes more and more confident and powerful, I found it hard to find any creaking near the end of the clip. I also think it is important to note that Witherspoon is playing a bubbly sorority girl in the movie, so I think that it is safe to say that she might be raising the amount that she creaks to portray the “valley girl” image.

Something else we talked about in class was the use of the word “like”. It was funny when we were aware of our habits in saying this word. My group was very observant of the word “like” and how much we used it in our conversations. I feel like I say this word too often. But it was interesting when Rubina explained that it is nothing to be embarrassed about because this is the way our language has evolved. My group figured that the reason we all say “like” so often is because it is a filler word. Instead of making the sound “um” when we are taking a break in a sentence, we use the word “like”. I think that as a person that uses this filler word, I need to be more forgiving of people who use different filler words that I am not used to.

In class we had some L2L students come to our zoom classroom. It was so fun to have a discussion with them. Because of COVID-19 and quarantine, I had not been able to go in a classroom and interact with students before today. In the zoom class today, my group of L2L students had some struggles when it came to their confidence. It took some time to connect with the students enough for them to feel somewhat comfortable speaking. Once I found out the students enjoyed drawing, we drew pictures together on a word document. I was excited when another classmate of mine came into the breakout room and we were able to bounce ideas off each other. That way, if I said something that the students didn’t understand she could say it in a different way. Another reason a partner was helpful was when the students said something that I didn’t understand, my classmate might be able to catch what they were saying. I’ve included images below of the pictures we drew, it was a lot of fun and really cool that the students were also able to draw on the word document. The students were able to talk about their own dogs and choose funny colors to make their own dog together. I had one student who didn’t want to speak but she was able to write in the chat. It was difficult to talk with the students and write back to this student in the chat. However, when this student became more comfortable, she started drawing the dog with us. I had the best time when the students were laughing and enjoying themselves. They were even able to do things on the document that I did not know, like putting in the stars.

References

Lexicon Valley #24: Get Your Creak On from Spectacular Vernacular | Podcast Episode on Podbay. (2012). Podbay. https://podbay.fm/p/lexicon-valley/e/1356931800

Exciting New Learnings 4

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In our group discussion, we talked about the meaning of the word Pidgin. The Free Dictionary defines the word as “a simplified form of speech that is usually a mixture of two or more languages.” (2016) I found it so interesting that I didn’t know what the word meant as I have heard a form of Pidgin being spoken. Because my city has a large Filipino population it is common to hear Tagalog being spoken. Sometimes you could also hear English words interspersed when Tagalog is being spoken. My friend explained to me that they were speaking Tanglish, a combination between Tagalog and English. Tanglish is a Pidgin. My friend jokes that she speaks Tanglish because she is a bad Filipino. She says that some of the words in Tagalog are really deep and she finds it much easier to say them in English. It is interesting that she labels herself as a “bad Filipino” because she finds it easier to speak Tanglish rather than Tagalog. She feels as though she is “white-washed” and not involved with her culture enough. We as a city encourage English, especially in our high school. This is why I feel like we need more incorporation of the languages in my city like Tagalog. I think that our immigrant population should be encouraged to keep their language and traditions rather than encouraging English. I think there is a way to include both in our city, we just need to be more inclusive. Why don’t our schools bring in different language speakers more often, showing students that it is okay to speak your first language and even encouraging students to speak their language?

It is interesting that you can tell where people are from based on their dialect. People could be speaking the same language but not understand each other. For example, words like toque or toboggan are not used in the United States. An American understands a toque as a beanie and a toboggan as a sled. Another example is donut holes, I wouldn’t understand if someone talked about eating donut holes, but I would understand if someone talked about eating Timbits. We found this cool because even though we both speak the same language we still have our originality. I had an experience with a different language at a restaurant. I wanted to try something new and so I tried bangers and mash a dish from England. I was surprised to see that I got sausage and mashed potatoes. Canada also has different versions of English: the word bunny hug is only used in Saskatchewan while most others call it a hoodie. If someone says “I’m just going to go put on my bunny-hug” I would understand that they were just going to go put on their sweater, but someone from Ontario might not know that word. The article linked here by Laux, 2019 is a list of words you will only hear in Canada. It feels kind of cool that we as Canadians have words that are different than anyone else in the world.

I am reading the novel The Marrow Thieves by Dimaline (2017) in my Early Childhood Education class, and it focuses a lot on the loss of language. The novel is in a post-apocalyptic world (only 30-40 years in the future). The novel is about a world where only Indigenous peoples can dream. The focus is an Indigenous family running away from “recruiters” who are trying to steal their bone marrow because that contains the ability to dream. A turning point in the novel is when an Indigenous elder Minerva is captured, and the Recruiters try to extract her bone marrow. She started singing “words in the language that the conductors couldn’t process, word the Cardinals couldn’t bear, words the wires couldn’t transfer” (Dimaline, 2017, p. 172). This really shows the importance of language, and all that I as a white person do not understand. To the Indigenous children in the novel, language is everything they have lost. But by the end language was the key to saving the Indigenous peoples.

I had never heard of the words “Benevolent Racism” before this class. It took me some time to understand what it meant. Someone in class said that colonization and residential schools were benevolent racism. This makes so much sense when the settlers came into Canada with the idea that the Indigenous peoples needed to be saved, needed to learn English, and change the rest of themselves to survive in the world. They were already surviving but the settlers had the view that they were saving Indigenous peoples. I think another example of Benevolent Racism is an Instagram page called Barbie Saviour linked here. Barbie goes around posting pictures of herself volunteering in different countries and speaks about how much she is helping them. If someone were to do this, they would likely be looking for acknowledgment for being so helpful, rather than helping with no appreciation from their peers.

One question I have for the future is, if we ever get to a time when there are more people who speak Tagalog rather than French, would the national language change? I think that the national languages are in our constitution, but can that change? I think that it should, but would Canada choose a language that is not predominately spoken by white people to be one of their national languages? My group discussed the fear of change, and the “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” mentality in the government. We also thought that the government’s motivation to make people from other countries feel at home seems to be a lot of talk and no actions, so they wouldn’t change the language unless it was mandatory.

References

Laux, S. (2019, October 24). 7 words you’ll only hear in Canada. Cottage Life. https://cottagelife.com/general/7-cottagey-words-youll-only-hear-in-canada/

Barbie Savior (@barbiesavior) • Instagram photos and videos. (2018). Instagram.com. https://www.instagram.com/barbiesavior/?hl=en

Dimaline, C. (2017). The marrow thieves. Dancing Cat Book

The Free Dictionary. (2016). pidgin. TheFreeDictionary.com. https://www.thefreedictionary.com/pidgin

Exciting New Learnings 3

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In class, we learned about LPP which is language policy and planning. It was an interesting topic to talk about in our groups. My group discussed the Canadian citizenship tests and how people need to write these tests in English or French. The tests also require you to have taken English classes before you even write the test. I think it shows Canada’s hypocrisy as we talk about the diverse amount of people here, but don’t talk about the ways they have to change to live here. On the other hand, I do understand that it would be really hard to communicate with someone if you didn’t speak English but moved to Canada. If I moved to Germany, I would not be able to communicate very well, as I don’t speak German. I have heard that it is easier to learn a language if you are immersed in the language. Moving to a new country and needing to speak a new language would be very stressful but you might be able to learn the language faster if you experience it.

In my group, we also talked about names. Someone mentioned a boy from China was in her class. His name was Harry but that wasn’t his name given at birth. He changed his name when he moved to Canada with his family to make Canadians feel comfortable saying his name. That is crazy, having to change your name to make others feel better. I can’t imagine growing up as Meghan Wright and then moving somewhere totally new where I have to make new friends, learn a new language, and find my identity as a new person. I had someone in my school choose their name to something they liked in elementary school but didn’t like it as she got older and more mature.

I think it’s interesting that Canada’s second language is French, but we have such a large population of other cultures that speak other languages. For example, where I live, we have a large Filipino population, but we don’t have any language classes that our Filipino population can feel represented in. We did have to take French up until grade 8. I just find this really interesting because the chances are that I will most likely need to communicate with someone in a Filipino language rather than in French. I am also very interested that our two national languages don’t include an Indigenous language. I can’t say I’m surprised as when Canada was created Indigenous peoples were not viewed as equals, but I am a little confused why we don’t celebrate indigenous language as much as we should. Many indigenous people lost their language through residential schools and 60’s scoop, so why don’t we do more to reincorporate their language. It needs to be clear that if we are incorporating an indigenous language into our country indigenous people need to have power over it. In feedback from Rubina, I learned that we need more indigenous language speakers. Because the language is diminishing we need more people to speak it and pass it on to others. The feedback also stated that it is a privilege not to take an Indigenous language course because you have the choice to learn the language or not. For example, as I stated above many people entering Canada are required to learn English or French to be able to take the citizenship test. It is not their choice if they want to live in Canada they have to learn this language, we get the choice. We have the opportunity to learn an Indigenous language if we want to but it is not a requirement

The reading by Coelho (2012) says that we as teachers should include our student’s languages in our classroom. One example they give is using the non-Englsih speaking student’s first language as a written reference (p. 237). This is a good way to include their language and help them learn without totally ignoring their language. For example, if a French student is learning to say English numbers you can write the French number and the English number so the student can have multilingual awareness.

The Coelho reading also talked about intonation (p. 241). I learned a little about intonation while I was in French 100, for example when you ask a question you say the last word in a higher pitch. I didn’t realize that we do this in English as well. The image by Danwyn (2019) linked here is how we use intonation in English. While looking at this image, I had to say all the examples out loud. It is funny how my brain just knows how to ask the question without needing to read the intonation. I cannot imagine how hard it would be to learn English as an alternative language. So many statements can be misconstrued by your tone. If someone were to say “nice shirt” there are so many ways you can take it. You might think: do they like my shirt, do I have something on my shirt, are they making fun of me? Some of these questions could be solved by the intonation of the person’s voice.

Finally, the Coelho reading speaks on the miscommunication that comes from speaking verbally with students, specifically EAL learners. The example given in the book is a teacher telling students to answer questions 1 to 6. Students might hear “Do questions 1,2,6” or “Do question 126” (Coelho, 2017, p.237). People learn differently, so some students may need to hear the assignment, some need to read it, and some may need both. It is fascinating that people just talk and expect others to understand them. For example, one day I was cleaning out our family trailer, I had a bucket with garbage in it. My mom told me to throw it all out, the whole thing. So that’s what I did, I threw the entire bucket into the dumpster. Funny enough, that is not what my mom wanted; she just wanted all the garbage in the bucket thrown out. We are both English speakers, but we thought two different things from the words that my mom said. This example shows me the importance of clarification and asking questions. As a teacher I will never turn down a question for being “a dumb question”, this can often result in students feeling isolated and might limit them in asking more questions.

References

Danwyn. (2019, March 2). Rising and falling intonation- examples & exercises. AccentsU. Retrieved October 9th, 2021, from http://www.accentu.com.au/intonation/.

Coelho, E. (2012). Chapter 8. In Language and learning in multilingual classrooms: A practical approach (pp. 237–241). essay, Multilingual Matters.

Exciting New Learnings 2

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Something that I was glad that we discussed in class was the importance of names. My name doesn’t have a special meaning to it, my parents just liked the name. But many names have more important meanings. Someone in my high school had a Nigerian name that meant “Beloved”, it was a hard name to read, but once you heard it said aloud, you could easily pronounce it. Her teacher chose to call her “Sally” instead of her real name because it was “easier”. Coelho, 2012 states that we must “respect students’ names” (Coelho, 156) because their name is who they are, it is part of their identity. Overall, her teacher could have put in a little effort and tried to pronounce her name. Names have such important meanings, and you cannot just change someone’s name because it is easier for you. My city does not have many people that are not born in Canada. We have a large Filipino population, but we have a minuscule amount of Nigerian people. So, the fact that she wanted to assimilate this Nigerian student with the name Sally was very sad to hear. It is also important to note that the student gets the choice of what they want to be called, if their name given at birth is not what they identify with we have to respect what they want to be called.

Another subject we discussed in class is the need for diversity in the curriculum. My group figured that majority of the curriculum was made from the perspective of middle-aged white men. The curriculum needs to be diverse to show the different viewpoints of people who are minorities people of color, women, and the LGBTQQ2S community. We need everyone’s view to show what we think students need to know for their future.

When talking about the curriculum I thought about when I had to read “To Kill a Mockingbird” in grade eleven English. We can see the change in language from when that book was written to today’s standards. I think that the subject matter in that book, although important, is outdated. A new novel that students are reading is called “The Hate U Give” which deals with more modern issues, and with modern language. It is easier to understand the language that you speak every day rather than the language spoken in 1960. Another part of language is incorporated in “The Hate U Give” is new slang, if you look at the first letter of each word in the title it spells out the word “THUG”. A sticker by omgiavanna is posted below, it shows the work thug in the title.

omgiavanna. (n.d.). The hate U give sticker by Omgiavanna. Redbubble. Retrieved September 26, 2021, from https://www.redbubble.com/i/sticker/the-hate-u-give-by-omgiavanna/32885299.EJUG5

Language is a very important part of many people’s lives. The Coelho reading states that “children’s mother tongues are fragile and easily lost in the early years of school” (Cummins, 2001 as cited by Coelho, 140). As teachers, we must show our students that we support them and their language. School is a major part of our students’ lives, they are in the classroom for 6 hours a day, this is a long time that can “create a linguistic gap between parents and children” (Cummins, 2001 as cited by Coelho, 140). We need to celebrate our students and their language rather than diminish it because we don’t understand it. Students’ families are important in their lives. I really enjoyed the Ten Point Action Plan that ended with “find(ing) new ways to involve parents” (Coelho, 143). I hope that involving the parents/families of the students will create a way that the families can see their students in their school lives.

Another insert from Coelho, 2012 reading had a caution sign telling teachers to not make “students read aloud when reading something for the first time” (Coelho, 170). I think this is a good idea for all students but especially students who are learning English as an additional language. Reading aloud a passage that the students have not read before can cause embarrassment and can discourage students from reading aloud in front of the class. Coelho suggests that we as teachers allow the students to read a passage that they found interesting or described a character well.

Finally, I wonder if learning a language is a privilege. A classmate of mine was worried about taking Cree in university for a language credit because of the privilege that comes along with it. Many Indigenous Peoples lost their language because of residential schools. My classmate posed the following question: is it inappropriate for her as a non-Indigenous person to learn this language when some Indigenous peoples don’t have the opportunity to learn the language of their ancestors? I don’t know the answer to this question, I see both sides. On the one hand, I do understand her point of view because she understands her privilege, but on the other hand, I wonder if learning this language helps celebrate Indigenous culture.

References

Coelho, E. (2012). Language and learning in multilingual classrooms: A practical approach. Multilingual Matters.

Cummins, J. (2007) Promoting Literacy in Multilingual Contexts. Research Monograph No.5.Toronto: Ontario Ministry of Education.

Exciting New Learnings 1

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ELNG 200- Exciting New Learnings 1

In class, we discussed the use of English in the classroom. I found it interesting that if you push for only English to be spoken in the classroom some students may feel like their home language isn’t welcome. I remember a time in high school when I heard a classmate speaking Turkish on the phone to her parents. She might have felt that she was not welcome to share that part of herself. I never knew that she spoke a different language at home. It must be hard to be one person at school and a different person at home. As teachers, it is important for us to be willing to understand these students. We need to recognize that they have different lives at home, and they should feel welcome to share those lives at school.

Something I found interesting in the Coelho (2017) reading was about the Fourth Grade Slump. I was looking at the curriculum to see what the reading level had to be for a student in third grade compared to a student in fourth grade. After seeing the indicators for grades 2,3, and 4 I can see why the fourth-grade slump is something students struggle with. According to the Ministry of Education (2011) the grade 2 curriculum students should read 70-100 words per minute, in third grade 80-110 words per minute, and in fourth grade 135-185 words per minute. It is clear to see that the word count for grade two students overlaps with grade three. But in grade 4 there is a big jump with no overlap. I can see that students may have trouble with the jump, especially because the rest of the grades have an overlap as well. It kind of makes you take a double look at the curriculum in case you read something wrong.

Also, in the Coelho (2017) reading the different perceptions of bilingual are shared. When I hear that someone is bilingual, I would think that they are fluent in 2 languages. But another way of looking at it is someone who’s “able to function like a native speaker of the same age of both languages” (Coelho, p. xv). I wonder if this is representing adults as well. I work with people who would rather have me talk on the intercom or call for supplies because their perception is that their spoken English isn’t as good as mine. So, are they bilingual? They can speak 2 languages, but they are not as confident in their English.

In my breakout group, we talked about the struggle children must feel if their families don’t understand very much English. If a student wants to come home and tell their family what they learned at school, they will have to do an extra step of translating what they learned in English into the language they speak at home. This may cause more of a disconnect between home and school. Another problem that may arise is communication with the parents. If there is a student who is having trouble in class, the teacher would have to discuss the problem with the child’s parents. This means the teacher must try their best to communicate the problems the child is having. I don’t know the best tool to use at this point but at the least, we could find someone who can translate between English and their native language. Some school divisions subscribe to a translation service to help with this, but that requires a lot more scheduling to get everyone available at the same time. Another thing we could do is use a tool like google translate to type what the teacher needs the parents to understand and vice versa what the parents may be concerned about.

Finally, I smiled when we learned that language is a socially created power. English must be one of the hardest languages to learn because of all the slang that is constantly being created. It is interesting to know how old someone is based on the words they use. Even I (as a 20-year-old) am already feeling old because I don’t understand this new wave of slang. The video linked here explains new slang words in 2021. I think this can create a power dynamic between the students and teachers because the students may all know words that the teacher doesn’t understand. In the video, Rachel shows how words can change over the years. This can cause miscommunication between the teacher and students.

Link to the video- www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzjRsCTDn30

Refrences

Coelho, Elizabeth. Language and Learning in Multilingual Classrooms: A Practical Approach. Access and Diversity, Crane Library, University of British Columbia, 2017.

Ministry of Education. (2011). Saskatchewan Curriculum: English Language Arts 2. Retrieved September 10, 2021 Retrieved from https://www.edonline.sk.ca/webapps/moe-curriculum-BB5f208b6da4613/

Ministry of Education. (2011). Saskatchewan Curriculum: English Language Arts 3. Retrieved September 10, 2021 Retrieved from https://www.edonline.sk.ca/webapps/moe-curriculum-BB5f208b6da4613/

Ministry of Education. (2011). Saskatchewan Curriculum: English Language Arts 4. Retrieved September 10, 2021 Retrieved from https://www.edonline.sk.ca/webapps/moe-curriculum-BB5f208b6da4613/

Rachel’s English. “Learn American Slang | My Niece Teaches Me Slang.” YouTube, YouTube, Retrieved September 7, 2021 Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzjRsCTDn30

Faith Haberstock- I SEE YOU

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I am a little scared about how good I am at finding information on the internet. My first step to looking into Faith Haberstock was pulling up an incognito tab on google. I am friends with Faith on all social media so I figured I should make this a bit harder on myself.

When I first googled Faith, I looked at google images. I quickly found that Faith was a dancer, played in a trumpet quintet, performed in speech arts, and got a $100 scholarship for Souris Valley Theatre Camp. Faith also graduated with Principal’s Distinction in 2020. This would lead me to believe that she was born in about 2002, which means she is about 20 right now.

When I looked at Faith’s eportfolio I found that she has an iPhone. So if I had the skill, need or knowledge on how to hack Faith, that’s where I’m guessing I would start! I also found out that Faith plays the French Horn, she’s learning to play the guitar and her favourite artist is Alec Benjamin

I started to take on the role of a super sleuth. I found the obituary of Faith’s grandfather and found her mom’s full name. When I googled Faith’s mom, I was able to find videos on YouTube of Faith performing poetry and speech arts.

It was very interesting looking at Faith online however I think it is time for me to hang up my sleuthing hat (at least for now)! I felt a little funky looking for the information about Faith, but it is clear to see how people who stalk others online can take the littlest piece of information and run with it until they know everything.

I Have Been Humbled

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I have been doing my placement in a grade 4 classroom, where students are about 10 years old. When I was younger, I wasn’t allowed to get any social media until I was 13 but students in today’s world use social media as a communication tool. My cousin had to get Snapchat as a way to communicate with her volleyball coach and team. Students need to be literate to understand things that are appropriate and inappropriate to post on social media as well as who to add. Snapchat is a tricky subject because someone can add you on “Quick Add” and all you might see is their first name and their Bitmoji (if you are confused about what a Bitmoji is you can find an explanation here). The quick add section is where someone can add you because you have mutual friends. Snapchat thankfully tells you when someone added you on quick add or if they have searched up your username. The image below is from my personal Snapchat account. I have had a person try to add me 4 separate times using 4 different accounts.

This is from Snapchat, a few days later, she added me again using a different username

Something I have learned, and I will try to teach my students is actually to look at the name. Do you recognize the name? No? Well then don’t add them! Why do you want some stranger texting you or seeing your Snapchat stories? Sometimes someone’s username can come in handy as well. Some people have parts of their last name in their usernames or recognizable words. This is another tool to help your student think clearly before they add strangers on Snapchat.

Learning about online safety would build on the health curriculum in grade 4 and make connections to developing new relationships.

The scores you see below are my results to the quizzes “Can you spot the fake news headline?”, “Spot the troll”, and Break the fake. As you can see, I am not the best detective to when it comes to determining if an account is real or fake. However, I still swear by the method if you don’t know them, then don’t add them. You don’t need to be best friends to add someone on Snapchat but it is good to at least have an idea of who you are adding.

Can you spot the fake news headline?

Spot the Troll

Break the Fake

These quizzes have humbled me and my ability to spot a fake account. People on the internet have been getting very good at faking accounts and news headlines. This is why it is so important to fact-check your information including the site the information is coming from.

 

Thanks for reading,

You’re a gem ☺️

Cheese Puffs and Cake!

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Coding is hard!! I understand that this coding isn’t what people who are in computer science take but I must say that I had a really hard time understanding it. I took on more than I could handle with this task. When I started, I wanted to do a task that had a cat who needed to jump on a milk carton, for the milk carton to crush, and then for the cat to shoot a ball into the basketball hoop. After about 2 hours of working on this cat jumping, moving, and crushing, I wasn’t making enough progress. However, I found a video from scratch linked here that explained how to make a simple jumping game. If you want to give my game a shot, feel free to click here! My game consists of a bowl of cheese puffs jumping over a cake. Scratch was very interesting to try. I think that having a basic knowledge of computers would be helpful because I found it difficult to use the different actions, and then when I thought I had an action that worked I would click the green flag, and nothing would happen! I also spoke to a few friends who have used scratch and they mentioned that they had trouble using it in school. I think that if I were to use Scratch in the classroom I would give the students the freedom to choose their characters and background, but then project the game onto the board so that the students can participate with the teacher while also using the program themselves.

Thanks for reading!