As a Principal, I often use AI to proofread or draft letters that I am sending out to staff or families. It’s something that I’ve done sporadically in the past and would often think of doing after I had drafted the letter. This fall I drafted the letter to our families about the Anxious Generation book and after completing it, realized I could have saved myself quite a bit of time. Luckily though, I was able to ChatGPT a letter…
Thanks for a great semester! My Summary of Learning is a culmination of new learnings, mixed with reflections on past, current, and future practices. The learning was made possible by excellent presentations from my classmates! (https://youtu.be/7Yg94Wcv9vI)
STEM and Makerspace is an integral part of the future of education. When I think about the power of AI and its ability to write and produce information in a split second that would otherwise take a human several minutes or hours to complete, these hands-on tasks seem far more important than they previously did in education. Last year we purchased around 25 Robotics kits for our Grade 9/10s at Rouleau School. Students took their first Robotics course with an…
Assistive technology can benefit all students. Most of the adaptations or accommodations we provide students not only benefits those it is in place for, but also the class as a whole. This is true for assistive technology as well. My experiences with assistive technology is fairly limited, but my experiences with adapting instruction and providing accommodations is more well versed. I’ve frequently used bluetooth transmitter/FM type systems to communicate with students who wear hearing aids. Combined with the hearing aids…
I was happy Nysa showed off Google Forms as that is one software that is free and integrated with the rest of the platform that many schools are using. As a Google Based school utilizing Google Classroom and other Google products, the use of Forms is one which works nicely, doesn’t require expensive subscriptions, allows the screen to be locked and collects students information safely. In a world where cyber attacks are all too common, the use of some of…
Anxious Generation Parent Letter The Anxious Generation Letter
As a staff, SCC, and community Rouleau has been reading the Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. Along with the Social Dilemma, the book captures the drastic change that has occurred since 2010 when pre-teen and teenagers made a switch from flip phones to iPhone 4s and other smart phones with front facing cameras. Combined with a shift from a play-based childhood to a phone-based childhood, every marker of self harm, anxiety, mental health diagnoses, and suicide rates have increased faster…
Distance learning platforms require a number of traits in order to help students stay organized, achieve success in their courses, and ultimately learn. My familiarity with distance learning technology include the UR Course platform, Sask Distance Learning Centre (Sask DLC) Moodles, and Google Classroom. Each of these has aspects which I find positive and negative. The characteristics which I find students thrive from the most is a layout in which the information is readily available, easily to find, and tracks…
During the Monday night presentation, Ayushi, Gage, and Mohammad asked a thought provoking question regarding the use of productivity suites. They asked whether we felt the use of these software programs enhanced creativity or suppressed it. It took me a long time to answer and I continued to think about this question throughout the evening. While I do believe some aspects of the productivity suites do foster creativity, I also think they have worked against creativity in many ways. Productivity…
I’m constantly torn with what I feel are the most effective strategies for teaching students and the methods in which students should be showcasing what they have learned. As a History teacher, I want students to be able to memorize facts, understand how the events of history are connected, and how those events and decisions impact our world today. I want students to memorize facts as that seems to be a skill that is disappearing with the ability to search…