Miss D's Classroom

Ladies and Gentlemen! Today's post is brought you from a presentation by Alec Couros.  A little bit about him first. Alec is a professor from Regina Saskatchewan. He specializes in connective education. His job has him traveling around the world to advise and consult on online course related topics. The BEST part of the internet is that it gives everyone a voice, but how ironic is it that that is also the Internets worst trait too. Which leads to a buzzword in 2019 society, Fake News.  Alec talked on five big topics that I agree are important when assess and teaching about fake news. Attention Literacy: How do you spend your time online? There is no such thing as multitasking. What? I know. I am a firm believer on multitasking. But it actually can result in time wasted due to all the changing in between tasks. This can cause more errors, forgetfulness and a lack of attention. Because you are not focusing on only one thing your attention is divided. Due to the mul...

This week is all about Distance Education. Have you taken a distance class? Personally, I have not yet. A couple of times I thought about taking a distance class when I needed an extra credit and wasn’t really interested in what is available. Chris Fredrickson and Shannon Magee gave our Tech class a small presentation about all the distance education classes available in Manitoba. I was surprised at the variety that is offered in the province. From division driven online classes, teleconferencing classes, and even completely online collegiates. I like the idea of distance ed classes because they are easily accessible for everyone and they have the ability provide many diverse classes rural schools aren’t always able to provide due to lack of number and funds. It can also be helpful where students are being home schooled or are unable to be in school. And for teacher’s distance course can be used as a great resource, especially, when you are thrown into a situation where you m...

Inforgraphics is a visual tool to display important information that is readily accessible to its viewers. It uses charts, numbers, imagery, and very little text to provide an overview that is easy to understand.  I think this would be a handy tool for the classroom. Previously in my grade 5 social studies class I had the students create infographics that overviewed the key points of the Fur Trade. This allowed them to demonstrate their learning and build their critical thinking skills! The results were really good and were all unique to the students interest in the Fur Trade.  Here are 50 great examples for a further look.   Above is an example of one I create. It's not to in depth but it gives a good idea of what can be whipped up in s short time. I used Canva  to create mine but I also played around with Piktochart  . I'm sure there are other sites available as well to create them. These were just the first two I came across. Until next t...

A while back I was working on an assignment gathering resources for unit plan and I came across Miss L's Whole Brain Teaching  page. It didn't take long before I was completely lost in all the activities and resources it provided. It was awesome! I was looking for activities for a grade 7 forces and structures unit and the page outlined different activities and resources. This included interactive experiments, online games and activities and even articles for students to read. Not only was it for cluster 3 but there were resources for all of the grade 7 curriculum. Another awesome thing it is aligned with the Manitoba curriculum which is such a relief! She lays out all the resources with the link and a small description I loved this and will defiantly use it in my classroom and upcoming practicum. As I was digging around the site I found that the site was inactive and moved to Teaching in a Fishbowl . Which surprisingly is yet better than the first site. I love the pag...

Today's post will be short and sweet. I came across this Ted talk the other day and found it quite interesting. A lot of my classes want to change the classroom by incorporating more technology. Don't get me wrong I am all on board for that, and I think our classrooms need change. If you compare a classroom from 50 years ago not much has changed. So my question is how are you changing your classroom? Watch this ted talk and let me know what you think and what your doing in your classroom. A few key ideas he states: Education is a social process The future is in social interaction working together students as maker Leave comment below with your thoughts! Until next time,

I believe it is so very important to incorporate technology into our classrooms. You've heard me say it before and you'll hear me say it again and again. This is where our students are at. They are constantly surrounded by technology of some sort, whether it is their parent's smart phones, game devices, tablets, etc. it is part of their life. So why are we as educators going to remove that from the classroom? Instead we need to incorporate it into the classroom in a way that has value and meaning for both yourself and your students. If you are wondering ask yourself if it falls into one of the 4 C's: communication, collaborate, curate, and create. Are you using it to communicate with students or parents? Are you using it collaborate with other students or classes? Are you using it to curate your tech for students accessibility? And are you using it to help students create authentic work? But at the end of the day be smart; if it is not working for you and your students ...

Meet Emily Aierstok writer of the blog Read it. Write it. Learn it . and grade 7 ELA teacher! Emily has been teaching 7th grade for 17 years and believes that it's as simple as reading and writing and loving everyday. Having students do this as much as possible makes them better readers, writers, and learners. Having fun in her classrooms is so important. Her students have taught her that motivation to learn leads to the most success and it shows. Over the last couple of years she has shifted to a more data driven and standard based learning. This promotes a growth mindset and create the most meaningful learning experiences. Therefore, her blog provides time saving tools to help motivate, engage, and empower students to read and write. I started following Emily in the last couple of months as I was trying to expand my professional sphere. It started with her Instagram account, and then her blog  and  twitter . I found that she really cared about what she was doing, not o...

You've heard me say it before, technology is a powerful tool that can and has shaped classrooms. It has created a vastly unique world. That's fantastic, but my biggest challenge is how to incorporate it into the classroom and curriculum that has meaning and is engaging. Because we all know making mandatory classes like ELA interesting and engaging for students can be challenging. But Tyler Letkeman from Vincent Massey in Brandon Manitoba has an interesting spin on engaging students. The goal is to use tech tool to create meaningful tasks and improve the health of the classroom for both students and teachers. Here are just a few of my favourites he shared that I’d love to try in my class one day: 1.       Student crafted Books Student crafted book puts an interesting spin on writing and writing with a purpose! It takes students through the writing process, but with the end goal of publishing their work. When students have a purpose for their w...