Miss Chapman's Classroom

The presentation on Wednesday February 20th with Shannon Magee & Chris Fredrickson from MB. Education & Training was very interesting and informative. I have substituted in IITV classrooms, so this was not new for me. I am not entirely sold on these types of classes, I prefer the face to face of a traditional classroom.  Especially in classes such as Physics and pre-calc math, where it may be difficult to explain the task, and see where students are making errors in their work when trying to communicate through a screen.  I also have seen first hand how difficult it can be to classroom manage and engage students in conversation in these types of courses.  (My mom taught a course called "History through Cinema" - when she taught it in a classroom, the students were engaged, participated in discussion of the movies content and had no behaviour problems.  Teaching it over VC resulted in less students taking the course, students in the other schools goofing around a

In #I4ED this week we took a look at the pros, cons and solutions for using social media in our classrooms. Our Class' findings were as follows: PROS ~relatable for students - most are using it ~engaging for students ~great method for keeping in contact with parents ~accountability - tool for reminding students of assignments, etc. ~differentiating instruction ~students can show their learning in a variety of ways ~development of 21st century skills ~easy access to resources ~connect with other classrooms ~students learn to be responsible digital citizens CONS ~could be distracting/students may get off task ~difficult to monitor cyberbullying ~some students may not have access to a device or Wi-Fi ~could be hard to keep up with (large class sizes/using many platforms) ~privacy & data sold to advertisers  SOLUTIONS ~classroom management ~cyberbullying awareness/have students report immediately to teacher ~use social media in school only ~start off w

Today in #I4Ed we had a very interesting speaker, Kirsten Thompson, talk to us about using social media in the classroom.   A few key areas she focused on were as follows: Why Use Social Media in the Classroom?     A ccording to Kirsten, everyone (no matter the grade and subject area) should be using social media in the classrooms.   Regardless of the platform or context, social media can be used to address the 4 Cs of technology: -           Communication -           Collaboration -           Curation -           Creativity What value does it bring to classroom?   1. Prevalence  o    Prevalence of social media usage- 25 million Canadians are using social media. 2. Dig ital Literacy o    Best way to understand and model digital literacy is to get involved online. o    Help meet digital literacy outcomes in the LwICT framework. 3. Relevance              o   P reparing students to use social media Popular platforms and a few ways to use them in the clas

Today in lovely Manitoba, we have been hit with a polar vortex and are currently experiencing the coldest temperatures we've seen in over a decade!! -55 with the wind-chill has made it extremely dangerous for travelling and being out on highways. Thankfully, our professor called off class, so everyone could get home safe (and in daylight) and made this into an a synchronous class! I love the idea of asynchronous classes.  Although, they could not be used all the time, there is definitely a time and place where they do become very useful. There are many situations where students cannot make it to classes, such as: bad weather/driving conditions illness sports/other commitments outside school being away in another country Asynchronous means to learn online on your own schedule. The instructor provides materials, such as videos, articles, slides for students to access at their own convenience.  Students are then given a time frame, such as 1 week, where they usually need to

Virtual Reality Technology… WHAAAAAT? I had never heard of this! Apparently, Virtual Reality is the wave of the future.   It allows you to see new worlds and experiences without even leaving your home! In our ICT class Monday, we were able to try out VR headsets.   The headsets were surprisingly simple to use.   You simply find the VR video on your phone through either a VR app or YouTube, put the phone in the headset and press play and enjoy the experience! BUT, how can we incorporate this cool technology into the classroom? There is an abundance of EDUCATIONAL VR videos out there, including videos in: Science (astronomy & physics, biology and engineering) Travel/geography (tours of cities in North America, Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia) History - (visit museums) Art - (learn about art history through art museums) Here is a list of VR Educational Apps Google Expeditions is also a great app for VR educational videos (available for Apple and Android)

What is an infographic? Infographics are visual representations of information which display the data in a clear, concise manner.  I think infographics are very helpful in a classroom, especially for those visual learners (such as myself)! Often an image or graphic will help a student make a connection to the data, which make for a better chance of memorization.  Infographics can included: flow charts, timelines, comparison infographics(versus), statistical infographics, and process infographics(steps). Here is my first infographic I created called "Miss Chapman's Classroom Expectations."  I think having these expectations always posted in an infographic would be advantageous because they are always there as a reminder to the students.  The following is an example of an infographic I would use in an early years classroom to remind the students of strategies for reading.   ~Miss C photo: http://www.printablee.com/postpic/2012/12/reading-strategies-pr