My teaching philosophy involves creating a flexible, safe, and encouraging learning environment that centers on fostering inclusive classrooms where every student’s background and identity are valued and celebrated. I believe that embracing diversity enriches the learning experience and overall empowers students.
While scrolling through instagram this week I came across a video that really stuck out to me. It was the song “Love Yourself” by Justin Bieber being taught on guitar by Thibault. I instantly went to pick up my guitar and started learning. It was a pretty simple song keeping the same shape for the most part, but it took a while to memorize the movements and the picking pattern. Going back to this picking style that I did in my first week was a lot of fun, I definitely plan to go back to this more often.
For me personally I found that watching someone play a song and being able to pause, slow down, or rewind to see the chords they play and how they transition along with their strumming or picking pattern has been a great way for me to learn. For someone with a similar learning style to me I would definitely recommend using a good mixture of videos along with website and apps such as GuitartTuna to learn quick!
Being a beginner I find some of the apps and websites very tough to use as they need you to be able to read music or already know how to play. It is nice seeing these videos made where people take the time to break it down on apps that I am used to and comfortable with. I have found that the videos I am seeing on Instagram and TikTok almost all the people on the apps teaching have a great pace and take the time to really break down each aspect of the song. I will definitely continue to keep taking the time to watch these videos that have seemed to take over every app I am on. Even if it is not a song that I want to learn, I know I can definitely pick up a thing or two from listening to new people. Overall I am having a lot of fun learning guitar along with finding all these cool resources to help me!
Check out me playing here!
To be completely honest I do not remember much on being educated about “cyber safety” within my life. I like to think that most of it comes with common sense and respect for yourself and others; but it is obvious many people do need this education and true understanding of impacts.
The one time I do remember being educated on cyberbullying would have been when I was around grade 6/7 and some of the Saskatchewan Roughriders Players came into our school for a presentation. I was able to find an short article on this anti-bullying program here! This being a long time ago I do not remember much, the two things I do remember were the quotes “the internet is forever” and “If you wouldn’t want your grandma to see it, don’t post it!”. Obviously two smaller messages but ones that have still stuck with me to this day. This example was definitely more focused on education to proper use over scare tactics. I believe both can be beneficial when done right. For example when using scare tactics it definitely makes a bigger impact when it is close to home, whether that being a local story or even just a story like Amanda Todds being within Canada definitely made it taken more seriously for me.
When I think of my university experience with this it is definitely something that has been Brough up often. Especially being in education, a common conversation is regarding our digital footprint. Understanding that our future employers, students parents, and more will be seeing what we post and everything we have posted. One good way it has been put is that we always hav out “teaching hat” on so it is important to always understand the greater impacts of our actions.
It is truly amazing the impact participation culture has had on the world. I really enjoyed the example of how fast YouTube grew in the video. I think today’s obvious example would be TikTok. It grew insanely fast and if you are a frequent user you can see how common participation culture occurs on the app. Every new original video you see on the app whether it just be a dance, a song, or a voice over it is rare that you will only see it once. Over time depending on how popular the original video got there will be thousands of recreations making the video seem like the next big thing, until a new one comes around the next week.
This graphic was one that really shocked me. It is crazy to think that one app can have such a large amount of people using it until the next app comes out and we see it slowly fade away. Im curious to see as we get into out later years of teaching what this will look like. Will Facebook even be a thing? Will everyone still be using Snapchat? Will something have replaced TikTok?
As for future classrooms, I think participation culture will continue on the path it has been on. Not only students but teachers will be continuing to look for new technologies to assist them with learning and teaching but also continue using the new apps during their free time. One thing that comes to mind for me is the use of AI, we have seen it absolutely takeoff in this past year. Personally I seem to find a new AI tool out there at least every week. It will be interesting to see where AI goes and as teachers and students how we will be able to take advantage of it and monitor it in the right ways.
This week I tried out a resource that I did not realize was right in front of my eyes since the beginning of my journey. I downloaded an app at the beginning of my journey called guitar tuna. I strictly just used this to help me tune my guitar, but this past week I decided to explore it more and see all that it had to offer. I found out this is a great tool for learning songs at all skills levels.
The app not only assists you in tuning your guitar, it also has thousands of songs that can be chosen in which it will walk you through the background of the song, and all the steps you need to know to learn hot to play the song. Each song has an option to learn the simplified version or the intermediate version. Each song includes six steps to learning – video (song background, chords, and strumming), Trainer tool, verse chord trainer, chorus chord trainer, strumming trainer, and the play along. You can go through these steps in any order you chose.
Overall this was a great tool, especially for a beginner! I found the steps easy to follow and allowed me to quickly learn the song. It was nice being able to take each step as slow or fast as I wanted and always being able to go back to any step. I definitely would recommend this tool and plan on using it often throughout my journey.
Check out me playing here!
I was able to explore the website Videoscribe. This website allows you to create different animations mainly including whiteboard animations. It is quite easy to create your own animation within the app. Right after signing in, a short video pops up that breaks down how to use the website. There is the option to start with a blank canvas or to pick from one of their many pre-made templates for almost any kind of presentation. The presentations allows you to add text, audio, multiple scenes, images, and shapes that are all put together and played through a video.
As a pre service teacher I understand how often presentation are used within the classroom, whether that be us as teachers creating the presentation for our students or getting students to create presentations. This website can definitely be utilized within the classroom often and is a great way of reaching levels of the SAMR model. Some examples include creating an animation for your students to teach them about a certain topic rather than the more traditional way of standing infant of the class talking to them; or getting students to create an animation on the website rather then completing worksheets or poster board presentations.
Technology has always been a big part of my life and continues to grow more and more. I feel like being in this generation we have seen tech grow in so many ways at a very fast rate. You can use tech to find out almost anything, teach yourself anything, keep yourself organized, and so much more. For me I definitely use tech a lot for both school/work uses along with social media/entertainment purposes. As for the more social side I find myself using Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, and iMessage a lot in my day to day life. I definitely have a pretty busy life with work, school, and football; but a large amount of my free time between those is spent on those apps. As for the work and academic side of tech I find myself mostly using my email, UR Courses, google docs, and iMessage. For the most part I feel like my tech usage is pretty balanced between work/academic pursuits and leisure/social interactions.
One thing that comes to mind when I think about tech is time management. Especially coming out of High School during Covid times and spending my first year of university online I spent a lot of time using technology and had to learn the importance of time management skills. For me my biggest focuses have been staying organized along with always having a plan. For organization I keep my phone and computer separate. My computer is only used for work and school purposes and has a specific calendar and notes app with all the information I need for both of those. I also often use my notes and calendar on my phone to help stay organized with everything but it is more football and leisure focused. For always having a plan I like to map out how my days/weeks will look. Making sure I know all my work tasks I need to get done, assignments I need to work on, and times I need to be at football. To avoid distractions I have often used a bit of a “reward” system with myself, for example if I am working on homework I will work for an hour straight then take a 10-15 minute break on my phone. I find this works well for me and creates a good balance of work and rest. The ways I have set and am used to have worked well for me so I plan on continuing with them. I also understand how tech is growing and there are so many tools to assist with organization and time management. I enjoy checking these out and trying them out whenever I have the chance and continuing to find better ways to do things.
To begin the guitar journey I wanted to start with a teaching tool I am quite familiar with being TikTok. I definitely spend more time on the app then I would like to admit. TikTok has a large variety of different types of videos on it, some being great teaching tools for almost anything you are interested in learning. I have always came across a few guitar tutorial videos on the app in which I usually skip over. Having this as my learning project I now take the time to watch and learn from these videos. While on TikTok I came across this video that I knew would be a great start. It was extremely simple but I was happy to be able to learn it and have my first song in the books. I really enjoyed the picking guitar style over strumming which was a bit newer to me. I definitely want to continue to focus on this picking style and see how good I can get with it. I think this was a great way to start and am excited to continue on this learning journey!
Music has been one of those things that I have always been very interested in but never seemed to be very good at. I have attempted many different instruments throughout my life including guitar, piano, drums, trumpet, and more. Looking back I never seemed to be able to stick with it for more then a few months. 
When I originally heard about this project my mind quickly went to playing guitar. I have some minor past experiences with guitar that never turned out too well. That being said, I am hoping this one might turn out a lot better. I first found interest in guitar when I was in grade 6. I got a guitar as a Christmas gift and began some one on one lessons once a week. I was able to pick up some simple songs but was easily frustrated by the more challenging songs. This led me to stop playing after only a few months. The next time I picked up my guitar was in high school during Covid. Obviously being locked up and not having much to do I wanted to try something new out and already having a guitar I thought it would be a good idea. This again went pretty well at the start but I slowly started playing less and less until I no longer picked it up after a month or two. Fast forward to now I am pretty much starting from the beginning, I do know simple things like how to tune a guitar and a few basic notes but can not play any songs at the moment. Overall I am excited to get back into this, I am going into it with confidence and excitement to challenge myself. I know I am going to be able to find a lot of great resources to learn from and grow within this journey.
Now looking at how I am going to go about this. I have the hardest part done in having a guitar available for me to play, now it’s looking at finding resources I will be able to learn from along with time to practice. As for time, I definitely have a busy schedule with work, training for football, and school. Having a bit of a background with playing I know that just a small amount of time a few days a week can go a long way. I plan to for sure set time aside Thursday nights along with weekends to find resources and practice along with using any small breaks I find throughout my week. For resources I have already started some research and found a lot to chose from. Just some of the many incredible techs I will use include Youtube, TikTok, iPhone apps, websites, online coaches, and so much more. I plan to begin with some simple songs and continue to challenge myself more and more to see how far I can go. I am excited to continue to find teaching resources and begin this process that I hope sticks long after I complete this class!
Hello! My name is Noah Pelletier, I am a fourth year students at the University of Regina within the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teachers Education Program. SUNTEP is an elementary level program focusing on training future educators to be sensitive to the individual needs of Indigenous students and all students.
I am extremely grateful to have the opportunity to be a pre-service teacher. I have been very passionate about becoming a teacher for a long time and have come a long way in my journey. The creative minds of students has always intrigued me and excites me to not only assist in their learning process but also to learn so much from them. Through my pre-internships along with my job as a special education assistant with Regina Public Schools, I have been able to be a part of many different classrooms. All these experiences have been amazing and make me even more excited to have my own classroom in the near future.
Other than teaching another passion of mine has been sports. For as long as I can remember I have always loved sports and have at least tried out almost every sports. Although I have greatly enjoyed every sport I have had the opportunity to play, one that has always stuck out to me is football. I have been playing football for 15+ years now and it has given me countless teachings, friendships, opportunities and memories. Since beginning within Regina youth flag and Regina minor football I have also had the amazing opportunities to play for Balfour Collegiate, team Saskatchewan three times, team Canada twice, the University of Regina Rams and even had the opportunity to spend some time with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. I plan to continue to play and coach football for as long as I can.
Being a part of a younger generation I definitely feel like technology has been a big part of my life. You do not really realize how helpful technology can be and how much it has truly taught you until you take a second to sit back and really think about it. Throughout my education journey I have been introduced to so many different types of educational technologies that have made learning much more simple and engaging. The world of Ed Tech is truly endless and I strive to continue to learn more and more about what is all out there.
Blogging is something that is new to me, but I am excited to have the chance to do it. In the past I have had some simple e-portfolios but nothing to this extent. To be honest it has already been a bit of a challenge but I am always happy to take on new learning experiences. I feel like we got a good base of everything we need to know and there is a lot of opportunity to explore and learn on your own. I know I always have my professor and classmates there for me if I need assistance with my blog which is a great feeling. I am excited to keep adding to my blog along with reading and commenting on others throughout this course.