Today we got the opportunity to hear from Rich McCue. Rich’s lesson was very informal and engaging; he shared lots of great strategies about how to integrate technology into classrooms in a positive and effective way. One big take away from this presentation was his insight on the benefit of including educational videos into classrooms. I’ve been thinking about different ways of integrating technology into elementary classrooms without having it take over; children tend to spend a lot of time on screens outside of school, so I think it is important to not rely on technology to teach too often. However, technology has become a huge part of society and has great benefits when it comes to learning. Educational videos can be more engaging and concise than a long lesson on a topic. It also creates an opportunity for students to feel comfortable giving both negative and positive feedback to the video, whereas they may not share their opinion if the information is coming from a teacher or peer. Rich gave us suggestions on reliable sources to find educational videos from such as Teachertube, Khan Academy, and YouTube. He also brought to our attention possible drawbacks of using YouTube. Teachers have to be aware of the advertisements, the suggested videos, and they must make sure that all of the content is appropriate for their target audience. I appreciated that he gave us names of commonly used sites because now I know where to look for inspiration for finding educational videos. I spent some time browsing each of these sources and I can see why they’ve become popular tools for teaching in classrooms. I have included the links to these sites below. I also included a link to my “Screencastify” video which we experimented with in class today.

https://www.teachertube.com/

https://g.co/kgs/T6TLmi

https://g.co/kgs/m7HR5q

https://watch.screencastify.com/v/LkiWI1JhjKSDHfUy6plM

Concepts in technology revolving around copyright and privacy guidelines is not something that I have a lot of knowledge in. However, I want to expand my knowledge in this area because I think it is important to model appropriate online behaviour for students. If I don’t develop a solid understanding of copyright guidelines, I may struggle to recognize if a student has plagiarized or copyrighted work. Also, if students come to me with a question about copyright, I’d like to feel confident in my answer. Reviewing the copyright matters document already enhanced my knowledge and understanding in this subject area. Although I already knew more about the BC FIPPA cloud guidelines, the clarification about certain privacy guidelines was really beneficial to read. This resource is one that I can see myself referencing regularly on my journey to becoming a teacher. As it is a lot of complicated information to process at once, it will take me time to have absorbed all of the data presented. Teachers understanding the importance of protecting students privacy and managing their own is essential to creating a safe and unproblematic classroom, so this is something that is really valuable to me.

I am so grateful that I got the chance to listen and engage with Jesse’s presentation today. I’ve started to become more aware about my personal social media accounts because I’m beginning to work in school environments. I feel like social media as a teacher and social media in the classroom is a very grey area. This is mostly because teachers, parents, and social media professionals are all going to have their own differing opinions. I know that I have the responsibility as a teacher to make my own decisions, but I appreciate the guidance and advice that Jesse provided our class with. I personally think it’s better to keep my social media life separate from student and parent contacts. As it is common for parents to do some digging about their students teachers prior to meeting, I think it is better to avoid having public social media accounts. In the chance that parents disagreed with a post I posted for whatever reason, I’d rather prevent those potential issues ahead of time.

I found it helpful to hear specific examples about when teachers should get involved with students personal lives over social media. If you happen to find something online about a student that puts their safety or well-being at risk, it is your responsibility to get involved. However, there are positive and negative ways about dealing with these situations. It is important to think critically before making a decision about how to handle sensitive situations involving students online, the priority has to be to protect the student. Some circumstances are better to talk to the student, whereas others are better to bring up to the principal.

This presentation gave me a lot of clarification and support with navigating social medias connection to teaching. I still have more to learn, but now I have access to some trustworthy and beneficial resources to support me.

After watching the film “Most Likely to Succeed” by Greg Whiteley, I feel as if I’ve been exposed to an entirely new way of learning. The school High Tech High challenges students with the exposure to essential life skills that are often not taught in traditional high schools. Rather than having students sit at desks and follow teacher’s instructions all day, High Tech High learning is hands-on and encourages students to advocate for their own learning. This redefines student-teacher relationships by giving students a sense of responsibility and agency that they wouldn’t experience in previous schools. As the year progressed, students seemed prepared to enter the workforce as they had developed valuable skills such as collaboration, communication, conflict resolution, and problem-solving in ways that students in traditional classrooms may lack. Most students in traditional high schools feel confident with the level of knowledge they’ve accumulated but feel as if it won’t serve a purpose in their future careers. Most students would benefit from a balance of knowledge production from traditional high schools and exposure to the kind of learning that High Tech High offers. The teachers at High Tech High emphasize the importance of students making decisions for themselves, encourage reserved students to be leaders, and place students in situations where they must work cohesively with peers. As the instruction by teachers is very broad and open-ended, students must take their learning into their own hands. Teachers were rewarded by the growth they saw each student endure; they gave feedback and constructive criticism to help their students succeed. Students responded very positively to this feedback because the teachers re-wired their brains to have a growth mindset. The effort teachers took to “re-wire” student’s mindset’s was essential because previous schools put so much value on tests and grades, rather than other forms of assessment. I wonder how high school teachers and education ministers would feel after watching this film. Maybe understanding that the traditional way of learning doesn’t work for every learner could provoke productive changes in the curriculum.