Father’s Day!

A quick shout out to all the fathers out there. What a great day to take some time and appreciate everything they do for us. I’m so thankful for my pops, Fraser Markham. He cares and does so much for me! Couldn’t ask for a better old man. I hope everyone can take some time today to hang with their daddios!

Tech Task #7: Mobiles for Learning

Through Liz’ Live Session, she gave many awesome ideas for using mobile devices in the classroom. These ideas ranged from poll apps to gauge student understanding and comprehension, reminder programs, recording programs to transfer audio clips from a cellphone directly to a website, and so on. These all seem very useful in the classroom, but also very daunting to master and use successfully. When given the task to reflect on future teaching opportunities and using this technology in the classroom, I decided to reflect on internship and figure out where my teaching style would benefit the most from using cellphones in the classroom.

I decided that Celly would help get rid of many of the problems I faced during internship. I often had students complaining that they forgot about an assignment, or missed a class and didn’t know about homework, and other regular excuses. This site will not remedy excuses all together, but would help get rid of some of the obvious ones. Celly is a site which sets up a 2-way messaging (alternative to Remind 101’s one-way messaging which also has its uses). This site hides your number as well as the students’ and parents’ numbers. You can text them reminders and concerns and allows for the recipient to respond, if you want to make that an option. I would take advantage of Celly by being able to remind students and parents about everything going on in the classroom. This combined with a contract on the first day (which would be taken home and signed by the student and their parent) would set up an easy way off communication between the student, teacher, and parent.

I feel that Celly is a good place to start because it is fairly straight forward, yet very useful. As I move through my teaching career, mastering Celly would open up doors for me to try other cellphone-related apps to help the class flow more smoothly. Since BYOD (bring your own device) is blowing up in Saskatchewan schools right now, this would be a great way to integrate this into my classroom. I can’t wait to try Celly in my next classroom!

Tech Task #6: Storytelling/Storymaking: Second Story

This second story is from DS 106, it is this assignment. Enjoy!

 

Monologue of a pair of scissors:

 

Life has been quite dull lately. I have been around the house and family for some time. I have been to elementary school, high school and even university. I’ve been around, you could say. Through all the use though, my arms aren’t as sharp as they used to be. This troubles me. Luckily, I can still make it through a piece of paper, which has been my main use for quite some time. I’ve seen many of my kind go through this house and disappear without warning – some have even broken and been discarded into the trash. As a new school year comes up, hopefully I make the cut yet again and stick around long enough to get through another year. I like it hear, I’m comfortable. With all this technology, how long will they need me for? I’m not used as much lately – this also worries me. I long to feel my masters grasp and have him put me to work. Its a rough life being a pair of scissors, and hopefully instead of throwing me away, I’ll get sharpened instead of replaced.

 

Scissors

Scissors (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

Why Do We Blog?

As I have been blogging, I realized something: My teaching background has come through quite prominently and each blog I seem to write has some sort of a lesson embedded within. I always seem to want to teach something or make sure someone gets some sort of positive thing to take away from reading my blog. I have been thinking about it, and it seems quite difficult for me to not do this! So, I am going to challenge myself, and you reader/bloggers (yes, I see the irony here) to try and make a blog post that is just writing, with not instructional purpose. It’s harder than you would think!

This Is The End

I went to see “This Is The End” tonight at the Galaxy Cinema in Saskatoon. It was opening night, woo hoo… I’m not normally one to get excited by movies and go to them on opening night when fighting through crowds of pre-teens and high-schoolers becomes necessity. I enjoy waiting till the movie has been in theatres for awhile and go see it then, when I can pick any seat in the house! I also hate kinked necks from sitting in the first two rows. But alas, my lovely girlfriend planned a night out with her brother and sister along with their significant others, and my brother. So I went along and tried my best to brave the crowds and not let it show that I was frustrated with each blind teenager running around like they owned the place.

This was worth it.

I have not sat through a comedy like this for a long time, I was laughing from start to finish. It was great! I’m not going to reveal too much about the plot line or anything for those of you who want to go watch it at some point, but it is outrageous with some unforeseeable plot twists. I would definitely suggest this movie. Heck, I may even go watch it again.

Ray Red from Australia

Once, while in Australia roughly 5 years ago, a couple friends and I met up with a gentleman who plays guitar for a living. He also has a website. His name is Ray. He said that he would come visit us. Hating when people say they are going to visit someone and don’t, he came 5 years ago to the small city of Saskatoon. To celebrate this, we decided to have a BBQ/Keg Party. Ray played live and we all had a wonderful time. He has been to Saskatoon in early June every year since. Last weekend was the weekend of the party. Ray came, we partied. He left, we were sad.

It is amazing to think about all the wonderful connections I made while travelling, and also how many things I learned about myself and the world alike. It was a great opportunity for me to grow and learn. Meeting Ray was one of the many positives to come out of my travel experience. If you ever get the chance to travel, do it! Heck, don’t wait for the chance, make it happen!

Kenny, (from left to right) myself, Ray and Banain (the three travelers who met Ray) at this year's party!

Kenny, (from left to right) myself, Ray, and Banain (the three travelers who met Ray) at this year’s party!

Finish Line… or Starting Line

I am about to convocate. I am reaching the finish line for my degree, and stepping up to the starting line of the rest of my life: my career and hopefully some stability! I am unfortunately not convocating with my fellow students who I had studied with for 4 years. I am going to be convocating in the fall. If I could give you one last piece of advice it would be this: Convocate on time! I can not begin to explain how remorseful I am about not having finished my degree on time. I had the chance to take summer classes last year and finish on time, I opted not to. Opted I suppose is a misleading word… I would say I procrastinated. Now I’m graduating with a bunch of randoms. I should have listened to my mum.

Is Competition Relevant?

Contact is now gone from minor hockey in Canada. This seems like an isolated event but there are many other events and topics for debate which are definitely linked to it. As marks and grades in school are seemingly being phased out, also the question of keeping score and playing to win surfaces. Most students remember the selection of teams by two captains: who is going to be last picked?  A dreaded moment for any student, filled with embarrassment and remorse – “I wish I hadn’t even bothered playing”. On the surface this appears like a degrading act with the purpose of weeding out the less athletic students. Are there benefits from this sort of activity? Should we go to the extreme and make every sport “for fun” without winners or loosers? It is a tough question with many sides and arguments, but here are a few questions to ponder on the subject:

1. The kids picking the teams and being picked first are often the very athletic students who excel in sports and that sort of competition. Are they the students who normally don’t succeed academically? Is taking away the competitive side of sports taking away a stage for the non- A, B, or even C students to thrive?

2. Is that sort of competition beneficial or detrimental to the students who are picked last? Does it serve as motivation or deflation?

3. Does this directly relate to our grading system? Get rid of grades, then get rid of scores (and winners and loosers)?

4. What importance do winning and loosing have on a child/student’s growth?

 

It is a touchy subject, but something we should think about as we become educators. What is really important for our students and how does it play into their crucial developmental stages? I’m going to stay neutral on this one, and see what you have to say!