About Me

            My name is Sara Bellavance and I am excited to continue my teaching career. I was born and raised in Regina Saskatchewan and have had experience in the Prairie Valley School Division for the past year. Throughout my life I have taken part in various community-based sports and social programs. I was also always involved in extracurricular programs throughout my elementary and high school career. I was particularly very involved in the music programs at my high school; taking part in band, choir, and our school musicals. Being involved in so many activities growing up has played a strong role in the person I have become and the values I possess. I believethat community involvement and extracurricular activities are an essential part in schools. This allows children to experience more than just the curriculum;allowing them to develop self-interests contributing to their identity. These programs also allow children to meet and interact with more or different people they wouldn’t normal see in the classroom, which I believe is very important to their social development and the making of friends. So far in my teaching career, I have not been able to participate in any extracurricular activities through the schools I have been in. This year, the COVID 19 pandemic has put a pause on extracurricular activities. This does not discourage me from getting involved in these experiences in my future practices.In particular, I would love to be a part of choir programs, drama programs, or any sports programs such as volleyball.

            I was fortunate enough to be hired right out of my internship teaching kindergarten in Southey, SK. I am so grateful for this experience as I have a wonderful group of students who have taught and learned alongside me in my first year as a teacher. Along with planning, teaching, and assessing the kindergartens, I have worked on building relationships with each student, rearranged our classroom multiple times to provide more room for learning and playing, created new math, literacy, art, science, dramatic play, sensory, and block learning centres allowing the students to explore different concepts they will explore throughout the school lives. I have also completed the EYE assessment and had the Early Learning Consultant from PVSD visit the classroom for more information and tips on teaching early years. I have also been subbing in the Prairie Valley School Division since January which has allowed me to experience different age groups of students and classroom management techniques.

            I have a rich amount of experience from previous employment that has supported me in the classroom. I have been a server and in the restaurant business which has strongly influenced my multi-tasking and communication skills which are both essential in the classroom. I worked for the YMCA in the Before and After School Program where I worked with children from grade 1 to grade 6 running a classroom like setting. I was able to appreciate the importance of connections with both students and their families in the school like setting and allowed me to develop many classroom management skills I continue to use in my daily practice. Another position which hasenhanced my love for teaching and the required skills was the Little Movers Instructor at the University of Regina’s Summer Sports School children camp. In this position, I ran the four and five-year-old section of the summer camp. I was responsible for creating a pre-school like setting planning and facilitating all activities such as projects focused on science, art, and physical activities for the children of the camp.  

The Final Product

Here it is: The final product!!

Phew, I’m not going to lie, I am a little glad I am finished with my cross stitching. My hands would get clam-y when working of my learning project, so the edges of my canvas got very wrinkled. It was also difficult when my hands would get sweaty because it was hard to hold my needle. Since the thread is so small and the needle is so tiny, is was sometimes very hard to thread the needle and start stitching. The thread would also get tangled in the middle of my stitching so that got very frustrating. Take it from me, the back does not look as nice.

Here is the pattern I followed for my project. As you can see if you look close enough, there are some boo boos. Cross stitching requires a lot of concentration so when I would take breaks throughout the weeks working on this project, it would sometimes be hard to remember where I was. Also, cross stitching is very tedious work, so sometimes I would get lots in the pattern and make my mistakes.

Overall, I am happy with my final results. It was fun to pick up a new hobby, and I think I do like to cross stitch. I can see myself continuing with this hobby but most likely in the winter months when there is not a lot to do. I think cross stitching is a hobby that should require no or very little amounts of pressure. Since this hobby is so time consuming, I often felt frazzled when working on this project in order to keep up with the deadlines.

The Learning Network and Enhancing the Learning of Others

Being in the first few years of my teaching career, I’ve found collaboration to be the most useful and easiest tool that I have under my belt as a teacher. Especially starting my career in the middle of a pandemic, I noticed that teachers are in it together. Now more than ever, working together to navigate the constantly changing world of education, teachers collaborate. In EDTC 300, we got a chance to practice this collaboration and communication with our peers through technology allowing us to all learn together. Whether it was collaborating on an idea, sharing resources, or posing questions to further another’s thinking, this allows us to continuously learn as a community. I believe this practice will allow the members of the course to seek out more collaboration opportunities in schools. 

Commenting on other’s blogs

One way I contributed to the learnings of others in this course was commenting on my fellow classmates’ blog posts. I loved seeing and reading the different learning experiences my classmates were having throughout this course. From reading different blog posts, I found myself constantly making connections to the Genius Hour project I have been able to see in many different schools as a substitute teacher. Although expectations vary depending on the classroom teacher, Genius Hour is where students (usually middle years) choose an activity or event to learn about. They choose whatever interests them and pick a way to document their learning, and just learn about whatever they have chosen. It is incredible seeing what students choose and are capable of learning. I saw students learn origami, crocheting, making stop motion films, making candy, and so many other amazing things. Since this is pretty much what our task was in our #learningproject assignment, it was almost impossible to not make that connection. 

When doing something out of your comfort zone, I find it is all about confidence. For me anyways, I need to feel confident in order to continue with these tasks and keep going. Most learning projects in this course, seemed to take place outside of people’s comfort zone. So I felt like confidence was key during these learnings. One thing I tried to do when commenting on my classmates’ blogs was to provide encouragement in order to help their confidence. Here are a few examples:

Another way I tried to enhance the learning of my classmates was to pose questions about their blogs and learning projects. I think it is important to always be critical of your work which goes with the responsibility of being a responsive teacher in the classroom. Never reflecting on lessons, activities, and instructional strategies might spark challenges in the classroom so I aimed to kick start this way of thinking to my fellow classmates.

Twitter

Twitter was another way I contributed to the learning of others in this course. As I am not a Twitter gal (yet), I found that the #SaskEdChat allowed me to ask questions and start conversations comfortably on Twitter. I was able to not only chat with my classmates, but also other educators in Saskatchewan. 

Twitter also allowed me to shared different resources and information with my classmates.

Lastly, Twitter made it easy to reach out to classmates through their posts and mine, and have conversations surrounding different topics.

All and all, there were a few ways I contributed to the learning of others throughout EDTC 300. Practicing this collaboration technique (through technology), has made me feel more confident to reach out to other educators through these platforms as a teacher. Theres so many resources out there in the world of technology, you just have to reach out to find them.

A Few More Stitches

As we are coming close to the end of the spring semester and EDTC 300, I am starting to wrap up my learning project. I had made so much progress and am feeling more comfortable in my cross stitching abilities but I still have a ways to go. I saved the coloured yarn for my last steps as I needed to complete my outline before adding the background detail, and this detail is not complex whatsoever, but it is time consuming.

Doesn’t look like too much but I worked through 2 episode of The Peaky Blinders!

I decided to work in sections for the light pink and orange areas of my background. I have found that since the stitches I make are so small, it is very easy to lose track where you are according to the pattern and it is vert difficult to count out the stitches. The pattern is separated into grids so I decided to stitch according to those in order to follow along easier. So, instead of stitching up and down, or side to side, I stitch according to the grids. This way is also easier to tie off my yarn as I run out of it and start out a new piece in a good section.

While I was cooking supper tonight, I was using a recipe off of Pinterest and I thought, “Why haven’t I looked on cross stitching on Pinterest yet?” Pinterest is one of my favourite websites ever. I use it for recipe ideas, teaching ideas, and when I decided to #treatmyself and get my nails done, I look for nail design inspiration. I finally decided to search up just “cross stitching” on Pinterest and couldn’t believe the results. I found tips and tricks, links to free patterns, different designs, different techniques for stitching, and so much more. I can not get enough of Pinterest as a resource and recommend it to any and everyone.

Digital Literacy in the Elementary World

Teaching digital literacy to young kids is hard. Most of them are not on social media yet where a lot of digital literacy and citizenship teachings focus on, so teaching this concept to little ones can be tricky. Although, I have heard a lot of younger kids mention that they are active on some Kids Messenger app, either way, teaching digital literacy is essential in the classroom.

https://www.verywellfamily.com/what-kids-miss-out-on-when-on-a-screen-4106100

I am an elementary focused teacher. I taught kindergarten and will be teaching grade 2/3 this upcoming school year. In kindergarten, my students didn’t use much technology. I tried to incorporate the SMART Board into most lessons, but with technology like iPads, there just simply wasn’t enough for everyone. That didn’t stop our conversations about using technology at home though. Most of the students had a tablet of some sort or shared with siblings they played games on. Mostly our talks were about learning focused games, but others involved some sort of shooting/killing. Whenever I hear or see students reenacting those kinds of games, and yes that even happens as early as kindergarten, I always use it as a teaching moment. Why we shouldn’t play those kinds of games at school and how it would be scary if there was any of that at school is usually the focus of those conversations. Reflecting on the many conversations I’ve had with students about what is school appropriate and what’s not, reminded me of Alice Marwick and Rebecca Lewis’s article “Media Manipulation and Disinformation Online”. This article speaks about different ways the media can manipulate just about anyone. It got me thinking about how easy it could be to manipulate young kids playing games like Fortnite, Minecraft, Among Us, or any of the other games they play online. A lot of these games have the option to play with or against people and a lot of the time it’s strangers. I think as an educator, it’s important to have conversations surrounding this type of digital literacy and manipulation playing these types of games. Even if it’s not a directed lesson, I think it is still a way to teach digital literacy.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?l=ukrainian&id=1903872296

At any age, students discuss current events. Whenever this would happen in classrooms I was in, I would turn their conversation into a whole group discussion. This happened a lot with COVID, the war between Russia and Ukraine, the whole Regina Public Schools being hacked, etc., kids knew what was going on. Whether or not they had correct information was another thing. I think it’s important as a teacher to take those conversations and turn it into an opportunity of learning digital literacy. Making sure their aware that it’s easy to spread fake news online. Incorporating little activities like Facticious, Break the Fake, and examining articles like the Tree Octopus, are great ways to teach digital literacy in the classroom.

Overall, I think it is important for teachers to discuss and examine concepts of digital literacy in the classroom. Having the goal to provide students knowledge and resources like Sweet Search instead of scaring them in terms of trust and technology should be the focus of these teachings especially in elementary years where students will be starting their journey as digital citizens.

Cybersleuth-ing

For this cybersleuth-ing assignment I was in a group of three and was “sleuthing” my bffs sister! I already knew a lot of things about her but was interested on what else I would find. I found some basic information on Facebook including her which school division, what she took and where she went to university, where she went to school and where she is from, and who her husband is and when they got married.I also found her birthday, that she lived in Regina, some family members on Facebook, and some videos of her and her friends. I did do a little more digging into her profile and discovered that she worked for K & K Swim School and for Evraz as a life guard/swim coach, rescued a dog and it’s name is Simba, and a picture of the house her and her husband bought in 2020. She also has a lot of pictures on Facebook of her family and friends dating back all the way back to 2008.

I tried to google my partners name after examining Facebook and I actually couldn’t find a whole lot of other information. I first tried her maiden name and found a ton of people who shared the same name but something about my partner. I then googled her married name and couldn’t find anything either since both names are so common. The only thing I could find on google was a possible Teachers Pay Teachers account.

My partner has an Instagram account but under a different name. I was already following it but I don’t know if anyone random would be able to find it. I found out the my partner is big into Oxygen Yoga and Fitness as she was tagged in pictures from a photo shoot they did around Christmas (which is awesome because I used to work there!!). Her Twitter is very professional and includes her pronouns and posts including different resources and articles related to teaching. I also found her Tik Tok! No posts yet but 15 followers.

Overall, I didn’t find anything too new and exciting in my cybersleothing… Just some nice pictures of my bestie when she was little.

Adding Some Colour

This week was a busy week, and I’m not going to lie, I didn’t get much of my learning project done. My goal this week was to add some colour to my cross stitching piece. There are three different colours in the cross stitch kit I bought and am using for this project, so my plan was to add one colour for each week left in the class. I started with the pink or rose colour because it was the colour that was most spread out in the piece. I got about half done of this colour and hope to get the rest done in the next day or so!

This is where I got to on my project this week.

For my technology networking piece, I found a wonderful cross stitching blog that includes links to free cross stitching patterns that anyone is able to print off. I love this site because it is so easy to access more cross stitching patterns I can complete in the future! I already have the canvas holder and needles, and if I were to use these resources, I would just need a new canvas and some yarn, which thanks to the internet and Dollarama, are easily accessible.

Digital Citizenship and the Curriculum

Reading Jason Ohler’s “Character Education for the Digital Age,” and Nathan Jurgenson’s “The IRL Fetish,” got me thinking about a few things regarding digital citizenship in my life. First, how I am as a digital citizen in today’s era, how I incorporate and teach digital citizenship in the classroom to the future leaders of the world, and how students use technology outside of the classroom when there is no one to them hovering over them. Reading these articles made me think that teaching digital citizenship in the classroom requires some trust between teacher and students. Trusting them to use what they have learned in their everyday lives. Having the goal as not to scare them – “Anything you post online will be there forever and can be seen by anyone!” – But to acknowledge this large aspect in students’ lives and try to teach safety and caution behind it. 

As Jason Ohler talks about whether to teach students one life or two, one being where school is separate from technology used at home, and the other being the opposite, I began to think about my own school experience with technology. I think there were definitely some teachers throughout my schooling teaching the unplugged version as Ohler puts it. Not integrating the fast moving technology everyone began to use. I do believe there are still some teachers teaching this way in our school system, but I have begun to notice many teachers using the “one life” approach in their classrooms as a substitute teacher. This digital integration seems to occur more in the middle years and high school grades, but I am able to see this integration begin in early elementary classes as well. Whether it’s incorporating an iPad into a working rotation, using the classroom smart board, or having students use the internet, this is still a part of growing digital citizenship. I think this article is important so that teachers understand that even if this “one life” as Ohler describes is unfamiliar to you, lots of the time it is the only life students know. 

In comparison to Jurgenson’s article, instead of stressing the need to integrate this digital citizenship, it is stressed that students need to put their devices away. I liked this article because it discussed lots of points that I think about on a day to day basis. Do I spend too much time on my phone? Should I delete my social media accounts? Am I making the most out of life when I am constantly thinking about this device in my pocket? For me, I think it’s hard to balance the “In real life” debate Jurgenson discusses in this article. When I see young kids obsessed with devices, it makes me sad that they don’t experience the get out and play lifestyle that I grew up with, but I think that is also something that needs to be taught to the “one lifers”. The balance between online and offline, and the space between. 

It is really interesting that it isn’t until grade 4 that students are asked to view and respond to visual and multimedia texts on websites in the ELA outcomes in the Saskatchewan curriculum. With the points discussed in Ohler’s and Jurgenson’s articles, we almost see similarities to the “two life” lifestyle Ohler is describing where kids are offline until they get home in grades K-4. The reality is as we connect to Jurgenson’s article, students aren’t really offline at school no matter what grade they are in. I’ve seen technology used in many ways in classroom K-4. Whether it’s using iPads during a daily 5 station or using a Smartboard for lessons, that is still exposing students to technology at school. Although the curriculum doesn’t specifically say to incorporate technology into the classroom in any grade, most likely it is and that is when teachers need to be aware of how students are demonstrating digital citizenship. As the Digital Citizenship article we read in class discusses the 9 elements to digital citizenship, teachers need to be aware of how they are going to teach and incorporate these learnings into integrating any sort of technology into the classroom. Although the curriculum provides very little guidance in teaching these topics, I think teachers should be using a cross-curricular approach to get their messages across. What comes to mind when thinking about how to teach digital citizenship in the classroom, is connecting it to the Health Decision Making outcomes. Teachers can easily plan some digital citizenship lessons surrounding this outcome. Since the curriculum does leave out digital citizenship, I think that planning different lessons hitting different outcomes in different subjects is necessary to teach this topic in schools.