This week we were able to have two young and innovated teachers as guest speakers. Kirsten Thompson and Tyler Letkemen are both ambassadors for using technology in the classroom at their respective schools and school divisions. In a little over an hour they were able to share with us many online tools and projects that they have done with their classes. What I like about being given these kinds of resources from teachers in the field is that they are current and they have been successful.
One thing I liked that Kirsten showed us was the remind app. You can send out reminders to your class via this app and it will go to their phone. You can do this without having to share your phone number with students. Parents can sign up and get all the same reminders. I found this to be such a safe way to be able to communicate students and parents. As a phys ed teacher I know that I will be coaching many different school sports. I think the remind app will be a great way to communicate with students and parents as a coach also. Kristen also told us about the blogging project she has done with her students. She uses it as her main assessment tool and the nice part is her full 26 page document of student handouts/parent letters is all available for free from teachers pay teachers. If I find myself teaching a course where I think blogging could be a great assessment tool I will turn to this as a resource.
My favorite idea of the class came from Tyler Letkemen, and it was about using a website called Blurb. The website turns work into professional quality books. What he does is get students to submit their best writers workshop writing to him electronically. He then takes his students writing and uploads it to Blurb and makes a book of their work. He keeps one in his classroom and one goes in the class library. So they have to take pride in their work because people will see it. He brought a couple of books to show us and they look very nice. One way I could see myself using this in a gym class is when you have students create their own games. They have to write up the equipment needed, the rules, and whatever else. Then you could make a book of all the different games that your class designed. You could even bring them out from year to year and students could pick a game from the book that they wanted to try and play. Another way I could see myself using it is when students create their own fitness routines or work outs. At the start of the year you could have students all make up their own work outs. You could make a book of all of the different work outs and then throughout the year you could go through the book and try everyone's work outs. I just feel that it would be very gratifying for students to see their work published like that. It would be incredibly beneficial for their confidence and self efficacy.
I really enjoyed what our presenters shared with us this week. As a coach, the Remind app is really a great way to communicate quickly with the whole team to remind them about practices and games and other administrative things. As a teacher, it has the same benefits, allowing to send reminders about homework, assignments and tests. A great tool!
ReplyDeleteI thought Tyler's blurb publishing idea was really cool. I like how it gives students a more professional feel to writing - they are actually getting their work published! A great way to engage students with their writing and get the best out of them.
Wade I also enjoyed the two presenters we had in our class last week. They both bring so much knowledge related to technology and using paperless in their classroom when dealing with tests and assignments. I really liked how Kristen uses blogs and twitter to stay connected with her students and parents. Every parent wants to know what their child is learning and be able access information about the teacher or subject. By using these apps I feel as future educators it will be a great way to be on the same page with the parents and students as well keep organized.
ReplyDeleteThose are great ideas for publishing in a Phys. Ed. class, Wade.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that remind app is useful to communicate with students as well as with parents. Also blogging is interesting for students and she uploaded her material on symbaloo. So, students can access that material. Even Tyler’s had good ideas about Google drive, book which they published, and also word challenge which I could use in science class. I like your idea about the book which you would like to use for the students in gym class. If we use technology in teaching which we learned in our classroom with different ideas, then that can make interesting learning for students and when we give chance to participate the parents like Kristen who is using twitter then we can make good conversation and connection with parents.
ReplyDeleteHello Wade,
ReplyDeleteI think the Remind Me App would be a great thing to use as a coach. This way you don't have to worry about parents having your personal number and have to worry about them calling or texting you about how you are coaching the team. It is also a great way to let parents know about upcoming assignments that are occurring in the classroom without them actually having your personal number.
I also really liked Tyler's Blurb idea and I think the opportunities are endless with it. You could use it for art, poems, short stories, etc... By the sounds of things the books are not very expensive to buy which is a benefit!
I enjoyed those presentations as well. I have used the remind app a couple times during my placements because it is such an easy way to contact yoyur students when they owe you work or if they miss to keep them up to date if they are away. Tyler had some interesting ideas on how to incorporate social media into the classroom. You have to risk some things to make it work. I like Tyler's style on this.
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