• EDTC 300,  Learning Project

    Hopping On The Tik Tok Trend

    October 31, 2022

    I feel like I am running out of places to learn from and this week was a challenge. There seem to be a ton of places to learn from but many apps and websites charge. I found a huge lost of websites but they all require a subscription. Does anyone know of any websites or apps to learn languages from for free?

    Since I have seen so many people learning from Tik Tok I wanted to try it myself. I was surprised that their were so many people wanting to teach others on Tik Tok. This week was reassuring and really interesting. I watched many many videos this week and learned from many many creators. Some of the videos were teaching me the basics like hello, bye, and how are you which I have already learned so it was an opportunity to test me on what I remembered. One video I found taught me tricks to some ukrainian words related to english words. It was cool to see similarities in the lnaguages cause I often think they are disconnected.

    My favourite creator to learn from is @Ukrainian.with.ira and I will link some of her videos below

    This creator is so awesome and has thousands of videos to learn from! She taught me some things I didn’t even think to search about. One video explains that word order isn’t important in Ukrainian which I never would have expected because it is so important in English. She also has videos appreciating Ukraine because it is such a beautiful country.

    Overall, I really liked learning from Tik Tok because of all the different creators available. The videos were really short but I could watch as many as I wanted because there was so many. I also loved the video options and getting to learn from multiple creators. As well, it was super convenient to watch some videos while on the bus, or eating lunch and get some learning in.

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  • Field Experience

    Focus Question #2

    October 30, 2022

    Students & Learning Environment: Focus on places, spaces, and boundaries

    Core Questions: What do you see in the spaces and places in the school? Describe what the classroom(s) look like (include a sketch if you choose). In what ways do these classroom space(s) indicatepower relationships? Does the space provide opportunities for all students to engage in learning? How did this space make you feel? How do teachers make classroom spaces more relational?

    This was my second week at Marion McVeety School and again another great experience. I got to experience a grade 1/2 and 7/8 classroom. This school for spaces and places is typical in most classrooms. However, I did hear about a teacher in the school who has every desk turned different directions facing the walls with little white boards in front of each desk to get rid of the power dynamic. Next week I want to try go to this classroom to learn more about it. In the classrooms I did visit they were very common to what I have always saw. The grade 7/8 class that I visited had the teacher’s desk at the back of the room and everyone faced the same direction. Since I am so used to seeing this, I didn’t think of it as something to break the power dynamic but maybe it is? In the grade 1/2 classroom the teacher’s desk was at the front of the room but I noticed she never taught from her desk or from the front of the room really. Every time she spoke to the kids and was explaining something they all came and sat on a carpet in front of her. The teacher was on a chair and maybe she could have been on the floor to be on the same level with them. She is teaching 25 little kids, so I think she needs to be on a chair to get their attention. Overall, I think she did as good as she could with kids that young because young kids still need that direction. I think the carpet space was great for the kids, they all loved it and she really had all there attention because there was nothing for them to be distracted by in their desks.

    This space made me feel welcomed and it really showed that the kids enjoyed it. I think teachers can make classrooms better by having spaces that any one is allowed to use such as the carpet, or a small work table on the side. Also all of her students desks were in clusters and no one was sitting alone. From what I saw eveyrone ws with friends and I feel like this makes it their space too.

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  • EDTC 300

    Flying Hippos!

    October 28, 2022

    I created my first coding project! I used Scratch to create a little interactive clip with a hippo. Check out an interact with the hippo with the link here.

    I have actually used scratch once before in elementary school. I remeber it being fun but at the time I didn’t see the point of it I guess. I think coding was newer when I was in elementary school so my teachers didn’t really know the point either. There was zero explanation and no assignment we just played on it for a day.

    For my Scratch project I played with drawing backgrounds and using Scratch provided ones. I wanted to incorporate sounds, text, and something interactive. It is short but I think it is cute and I got to use all the features I wanted to.

    I think today coding is important for kids to learn. It is becoming more and more important each day. I think that aside from the technology part of it you get to be creative and create something. The worst part for me in elementary school was when we had to create story books and I am a terrible artist. This is a great platform to tell stories on! I will be taking a computer science class next midterm and though the coding is very very different Scratch is an introduction to it. With math we don’t start with calculus we start little and get bigger and this is the same. I think each year this will become more important!

     

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  • EDTC 300,  Learning Project

    Ukrainian Lessons on Spotify!

    October 25, 2022

    Another week of learning Ukrainian! My platform this week was a podcast from Spotify. Ok so I thought I was going to love this because it is by the same people who I learned from last week on a website. They spoke so slow and repeated the word. This podcast was nothing like that! It was so quick and hard to learn from. I definitely struggled without a visual of the word to follow along. I was supposed to learn numbers this week. This podcaast was cool because it had little tests in it to help learn. I am struggling to read the words but I can repeat some by memory. I also learned that it is similar to english how if you know numbers from 1 – 9 then you can figure out the rest based on root words. The convenience of this method was awesome! I take the bus to and from school so I had the perfect opportunity to sit on the bus and listen and learn. I think this podcast is for people a bit more advanced than I am.

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  • EDTC 300

    Digital Citizenship in the SK Curriculum

    October 23, 2022

    I think the relationship between the Saskatchewan Curriculum and Ribble’s Nine Elements of Digital Citizenships are very outdated. We are in a time where technology is the fastest growing and changing thing we have ever seen. The benefits from tecfhnology are endless but that means so are the dangers. Kids know the typical “don’t take candy from strangers” and “don’t get into strangers cars” but predators are smarter than that now. Kids aren’t expecting a grown adult to be pretending to be a young kid. We need to update the curriculum to protect kids.

    Ribble’s Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship:

    Digital Access: This could be linked to RW3.3 in Social Studies 3 under the section Resources and Wealth.

    Digital Commerce: This could be linked to CC7.1 in Career Education 7 under the section Connections to Community.

    Digital Communication and Collaboration: This could be linked to W4 in Wellness 10.

    Digital Etiquette: This fits into classroom rules since online etiquette should match in person etiquette.

    Digital Fluency: This could be linked to USC2.5 in Health Education 2 in the section Understanding, Skills, and Confidences. This outcome is for understanding how to be safe in “play areas” and since technology is so common for kids it is a play area as well.

    Digital Law: I think this should be talked about the same as classroom “laws” are.

    Digital Rights and Responsibility: This could be linked to PA3.3 in Social Studies 3 in the section Power and Authority.

    Digital Security and Privacy: This could be linked to PA1.1 in Social Studies 1 in the section Power and Authority.

    In my future classroom I want to incorporate these nine elements as soon as I can. I won’t shy away from talking about hard topics and I will demonstrate that I am here for support.

     

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  • Field Experience

    Focus Question #1

    October 20, 2022

    Teachers, Knowledge, Building Relationships: Invitation & Hospitality

    Core Questions: In what ways do you see teachers honouring different ways of knowing and doing in the classroom? In what ways do teachers build a sense of community in the classroom? In what ways can teachers build hospitable and invitational educational environments and relationships with all students?

    My field experience this week was great at Marion McVeety School. I got the opportunity to experience a grade 6/7 split class and a grade 2 classroom. In the school hallways and in the classrooms, I witnessed a strong sense of community. I was warmly welcomed to the school by Tannis Lowey-Chimilar, the principal, and I recognized she did this for every student she saw. She knew all students by name and had a relationship with each of them. In the grade 6/7 classroom the teacher demonstrated a community and relationships by her decorations, and through her activities. On her backboard in the room, she had a little poster for each student that had their name and images/words that describe themselves. I was looking at these posters and I was able to get to learn about the students after only an hour with them. I think this board would have made the students feel very welcomed and safe in a classroom that is often the teacher’s space to decorate rather than the students too. Next, the kids were working on character analysis and adjectives. To involve the students and to maintain a sense of community she wrote each child’s name on a sticky note and randomly handed them out. Each student wrote one positive adjective to describe the name they got. This involved the students with each other and taught them about adjectives. I think this built a community relationship because they got to guess who the adjective was about. The students got it right almost every time.

    Marion McVeety school is very diverse and welcoming. At first glance of the school, you can tell it is welcoming because of the pride walkway leading to the front door, there is a wall that has flags from many many countries, a gender-neutral washroom, and the holidays celebrated at the school. While I was in the grade 2 classroom, I watched the kids get handed back an assignment that had to do with a recent holiday. The teacher explained that at McVeety they celebrate every holiday. Early in September in lecture we learned that it is important to recognize diversity and not ignore it, so all students are valued. I think this school is very good at this.

    After being in the classroom I saw some great things to encourage community and an inviting school. I really enjoyed the board of the students’ posters to describe them. Often in my classrooms when I was in school there was no input by students for the decorations. Many of my teachers even had tape on the floor to outline the areas students can’t enter such as the front of the room and around the teachers’ desk. These classrooms always felt like the teacher’s space and not shared at all. Having the posters in the room allows students to feel welcomes and can help to build a relationship with each other. I think Marion McVeety school is the perfect example to help kids feel welcomed into an educational classroom.

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  • EDTC 300,  Learning Project

    Добрий день (Hello!)

    October 19, 2022

    This was my best week yet! I’ve been meaning to make a video to share what I learned so I made a video of words that can be helpful when you are travelling.

    I was planning on finding a YouTube video to watch this week because at the beginning of the week it was my favourite way to learn. I went to google to find a video and a website popped up titled 14 Basic Ukrainian Phrases for your trip to Ukraine and it was awesome! I was hesitant to use a website because I find it very difficult to just read the words and try sound it out. This website gave the ukrainian word, the  pronunciation, and the english translation! Plus you could click play and it would read the word normal speed and then a bit slower after.

    I feel so accomplished this week because I am actually speaking words in ukrainian and its exicitng to see my goal coming together!

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  • EDTC 300

    Cyber Safety in the 2010’s

    October 16, 2022

    In my time in elementary and high school I think that cyber safety was talked about minimally but effective when it was talked about. The first time I remember talking about cyber safety was around Programmers and cyber security technologies design websites and security in the Social World, cyberspace concepts.the time of the Amanda Todd case. I think it shocked many parents and teachers and opened a lot of peoples eyes about the dangers. I had the experience of a police officer coming in and talking about safety. This definitely utilized the scare tactic and honestly I believe it worked for many students. The officer talked about the dangers of nude pictures and explained how that is child pornography at the time since we were in high school. I think this definitely deterred kids from sending photos and also the kids recieveing them from saving them. It was scary to not only think that these pictures could be spread but that you could also have jail time if you are caught.

    I cannot remember many other times we talked about cyber safety. However, one of my high school teachers had a poster in her room with the acronym S.M.A.R.T on in it.

    S – Safe

    Photo by ChildNet https://www.childnet.com/resources/be-smart-online/

    M – Meet

    A – Accepting

    R- Reliable

    T -Tell

    My teacher was pushing that for every online interaction we have that we think about each one of these and evaluate if it is smart to continue. At the time I was kind of resistant and thought it was a waste of time. However, many years later and I remembered this poster. It has a really great message and I would love to hang this in my future classroom.

    Cyber Safety should have been talked about way more while I was growing up because I was barely taught about it in schools. The tactics my school did use such as the scare tactic was effective for me but maybe not for everyone. The little poster my teacher had was effective as well. I think schools could start talking to kids as young as grade two. Obviously the approaches should be different but getting kids comfortable to talk about it and introducing parents to it is important. For younger grades it would be effective to give worksheets about what is safe and unsafe to get them involved. For middle years telling kids the dangers and to teach them how to deal with problems. This may be scare tactics or tools online they can use for help. Lastly, for older grades I think it is important to provide support for students who are struggling online. It is hard to admit that you are in danger because of a revealing photo you sent of yourself. Giving kids a hotline to get help, or making them comfortable in the classroom to ask for help.

    Some resources I found:

    Common Sense Education: This website provides free lesson plans for all grades; it provides messages for parents, educators, and advocates.

    The CyberSmile Foundation: Provides hotlines and resources for many issues kids face such as cyber bullying, eating disorders, mental health problems, etc.

     

     

     

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  • EDTC 300,  Learning Project

    It Was A Грубий (Rough) Week!

    October 12, 2022

    So this week I had plans to work with the words I learned last week to speak some sentences and make a video for you guys so I can share my progress. However, the words I learned last week I am not confident in the pronounciations AT ALL. It was much easier to hear Duolingo say the word and repeat it but from memory and trying to sound the words out with my alphabet I wrote it was much harder. I have been practicing the words but I think I need to work with a video tool so I can hear the pronunciation first. I was memorizing the words, how to say them, and what it is translated to but I didn’t actually understand them. So when I was trying to make a video this week I felt like I didn’t know how to sound out the letters to make the word. I will need more practice on my own this week to do it myself rather than watching someone else do it.

    In place of putting sentences together this week I am choosing a new medium to learn from today. I found in my house a Ukrainian-English-French dictionary that is in the form of a childrens storybook. This was gifted to my mom from a childhood friend a long time ago and it hasn’t been used much. Every few pages has a new category such as mealtime, at the supermarket, at the park, etc. Each word has pictures which really helps to remember the words.

    In honour of Thanksgiving and my family eats some traditional Ukrainian foods I learned the category meal time. I will make a list of the foods I ate this week:

      • Печений індик – Roast Turkey
      • М’ята бараболя – Mashed Potatoes
      • Голубці – Cabbage Rolls
      • Вареники – Perogies
      • Булочки – Buns
      • Сметана – Sour Cream
      • Салатниця – Salad
      • Борщ – Borstch Soup

    I found a helpful website titled History of Ukrainian Cuisine that explains some common Ukrainian dishes that are DELICIOUS!

    I still wanted to create a video this week to show what I learned however with my luck I got sick on Monday after Thankdgiving and am not ready to make a video.

    Using this childrens dictionary I learned all the images on it and am having an easier time memorizing since I have pictures. It did take me a lot longer than other platforms I have used cause I had to sit and compare the words to the alphabet to sound out words. The book was much more independant and made my brain work more instead of just repeating what I heard. I think it will push my to memorize more and think more.

     

     

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