The end…

It’s here. The end of semester, the end of EDC3100 and, for the time being, the end of this blog.

I have come to enjoy blogging and plan to continue this form of documenting my journey to teacher-hood. I do, however, need a break from ICTs in general after the heavy load of this subject.

Thank you all for popping to see what I have to say, and I am so surprised by how many of you have found my words interesting enough to comment on, re-post or talk about in your own blogs.

I encourage you all to continue on the blogging path, and look forward to keeping an eye on your journeys also.

Second go-round for the Lollipop

I have taken the Lollipop test once before but, to be totally honest, was put off by the opening video and closed it down. However, reading Kathleen and Mrs D I thought I would give it another try.

The results were scary; an eye-opener into the world of cyber-safety and how we should protect our personal information more closely online.

I post photos of myself and my family, log my runs with GPS maps that include my address, and put quite a lot of information into my status updates. Never did I think that this could be put together to create such a detailed profile of myself for someone not invite to share it.

A big re-think and purge of my Facebook account is due, I think.

A fresh new look

Whilst I realise it is the last week I will be regularly posting in my blog and probably have people visiting, I felt I needed a fresh new look to keep me inspired to compose my last few posts.

Inspired by the webpage of Kathleen McCallum, this Koi theme is light and colourful, which more accurately reflects my personality. I love it and wish I’d thought of it earlier!!!

Maths for Junior Secondary – not as easy as it sounds

I am doing the Middle Years pathway as my specialisation with maths and history majors.

This means I have to do three maths electives. I am doing my first maths electives subject entitled “Mathematics Fundmentals”. Well, it’s not so fundamental and not so simple. I have been researching a lot of websites to help me stumble my way through, and found this. It is an awesome site to help students when they struggle with the concepts of lorithms.

Reflector: An awesome tool for modeling

My fellow blogger posted about Reflector as a complimentary tool for the iPad. She used it to show students’ work and model activities such as writing.

This would have been a fantastic tool to use with my Prep class during modeled writing and rote learning. It is a great example of augmentation as it relates to the SAMR model.

Writing lines – a great whole class activity

I was working with a Prep class for my professional experience this semester. The preps are learning to write the alphabet. My mentor usually teaches whole class writing by modelling on the small whiteboard with hand-drawn lines, asking volunteers to demonstrate.

I took this style of teaching to a ‘new level’ ( the Augmentation stage of the SAMR model) by displaying the red and blue writing lines on the IWB. I used whiteboard markers to model writing the ‘letter of the day’ on the board, and asked students to demonstrate and practice as well. This worked really well, as the whole class could see the IWB clearly and when letters were erased the lines were unaffected.

My mentor very rarely uses ICTs in the classroom, as she felt that they were not concrete enough for Prep students. After seeing the effectiveness of this activity, the teacher has said she will be replacing the old way with this new, more effective version of the activity.

My 1st Avatar

Tammy

As a way of introducing myself to the Prep class I was working with during my recent Prac, I created my very own avatar using Voki. It was very exciting to go through the process of design and publishing the avatar. More exciting still was the excitement the kids showed watching it.

After the success of using an avatar for my personal introduction I decided to continue this theme throughout my teaching. I used the avatar to introduce each of my teaching sessions, informing the students of what subjects and activities were coming up.

This was a great system to engage the Prep students, tune them into the upcoming sessions and was a great way to “switch them on” to the fact that I was leading the class rather then their regular teacher. This helped with classroom management, the levels of respect shown to me as a pre-service teacher and really helped engage the students in the lessons.

My new favourite classroom management tool

Bouncy Balls is my new favourite classroom management tool. And the best part? It’s free!!!

The balls respond to noise by bouncing up the screen. The louder the noise, the higher they bounce. There are five icon options including plastic balls, smiley faces, bubbles, and the slightly creepier eye balls!

During quiet work time I displayed this on the Interactive White Board and it was instantly effective. Students monitored their own volumes as well as those talking around them…it had a roll-on effect that was remarkable.

I will definitely be using this program in future teaching experiences.