Tech and Mrs. Z's Classroom

 Attributions:   Video and images sourced from  Pixabay  by the following creators:  Prashant Sharma   Sophie Janotta   Joseph Mucira   Pixaline   Pexels   Computerizer   Pashminu Mansukhani     tribesh kayastha   Donate forpeople    Marian Croitoru   Maruf Rahman   Peter H   DarkmoonArt_de    Stefan Meller   Tibor Janosi Mozes   Other sources:  Digital Citizenship Infographic Infographic: I'm a digital citizen Student Activism Infographic  Dash Robot Minecraft Education  Micro: Bit Mars Rover AR by Jig  Some elements by Canva Article headlines:  https://tcocertified.com/conflict-minerals/ https://www.mining.com/conflict-minerals-entering-tech-supply-chains-from-countries-beyond-africa-report/ https://medium.com/wedonthavetime/guest-blog-post-the-alarming-environmental-impact-of-the-internet-and-how-you-can-help-6ff892b8730d https://tech.co/new...

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash Have you ever had a stranger pay for something for you?  The feeling of pure delight that I get when I drive up to the drive-through window to pay for my coffee and they say "The person before paid for you" is something that I hope everyone gets to experience. The delight doesn't directly come from not having to pay, but rather the action of kindness and the element of surprise. This concept of joy and delight can and should be brought into the classroom. This week's speaker Dean Shareski spoke to bringing joy and delight into the classroom.  To say the least, Dean's presentation was uplighting and got my brain working. He discusses how "learning is [suppose to be] a joyful act worthy of celebration" but often the words that students to describe school and learning are negative. Often the atmosphere of schools can take on rigid, test-driven and boring in the eyes of students. We as teachers have the power to change t...

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash Due to the ongoing pandemic, remote learning is a hot topic of discussion and is a common practice within Education. But what if I told you that remote learning the way we see it today, has actually been going on for years? This week I had the opportunity to listen to a presentation by two individuals who have been teaching remotely, long before the pandemic. Those individuals are Chris Fredrickson and Shannon Magee, who are both Web-Based Course Consultants for the Province of Manitoba.   The topics Chris and Shannon covered during their presentation in my Internet for Educators course, included many ways to engage students in a remote setting such as: using an LMS, collaborative tools, portfolios, gamification and personalized learning. I had the opportunity to participate in not one, but two other Personal Development (PD) sessions with Chris and Shannon at the BYTE conference this year. Chris presented in detail the topic of gamification ...

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash I will admit that I was a "lurker" on Twitter for the last 8 weeks. I created my  Twitter account only for the purpose of the requirements of my course, Internet for Educators, but after using it for those 8 weeks, I am going to continue to use it. This blog post will take you through my Twitter experience and how I intend to use it as an educator. What is Twitter? Definition sourced from Twitter's help center "Twitter is a service for friends, family and coworkers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People post Tweets, which may contain photos, videos, links and text. These messages are posted to your profile, sent to your followers, and are searchable on Twitter search." My initial thoughts on Twitter My current Twitter profile isn't my first, but it certainly is the first time I have used Twitter as part of my Personal Learning Network (PLN). Check out this blog post of ...

Before the internet, networking and remaining connected with the world looked very different than today. Today, those who have access to the internet, whether it is in their homes, on their phones or one of the many "free" hotspots businesses offer, are constantly connected to some type of network. The networks we interact with are vast and intentionally or not, we learn from those networks. This blog post will look at Personal Learning Networks (PLN), Personal Learning Environments (PLE), the implications of the digital age for both teachers and students and changes caused by the pandemic.  What is a Personal Learning Network (PLN)? Wikipedia defines a PLN as "a learning network that consists of the people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from in a personal learning environment." The slideshow video (the video has no spoken words) below gives a deeper explanation of PLNs. PLN's are not a new concept, but rather have been enhanced and expanded by ...

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash I have been a fan of podcasts for many years. It started when I moved years ago and had a long, highway commute. Today, I have an even longer commute and reach for podcasts in any spare moment I find. I have learned and been entertained by podcasts; some podcasts are great and others are not so great. In the Vlog below, I share one of my personal development podcasts for teachers. Video Notes: Podcast definition sourced from The Podcast Host . The 10 Minute Teacher podcast on Spotify Weekly podcast topics: Monday -  Motivation   –  get motivated for the week ahead  Tuesday -   EdTech Tools   –  practical Edtech tools  Wednesday -   Wonderful Classrooms  –  meet teachers doing amazing things Thursday -   Thought Leaders  – hear from top researchers and authors to think about your teaching  Friday -   5-Idea Fridays  – 5 practical ideas teachers can use now Below is a...

Who doesn't like a good meme? A simple picture with some overlaid text that expresses social commentaries and opinions often for entertainment purposes. But what if you want more your image to communicate more words and for informational purposes rather than entertainment? That is where infographics come in.  What is an infographic? What not a better way to explain what an infographic is than an infographic itself.  Image sourced from Glean Can infographics be useful in the classroom? As a learner, I prefer visual aids to assist with my learning. I find that I am more engaged with the material and have an easier time understanding the content if I organize my notes into charts, diagrams or other graphic organizing. Although it is not the case for all learners, some students benefit from visual aids.  I believe that infographics can be useful in my classroom by providing visual aids for my students both during and after lessons.  Infographics are stronger visual aid b...

Language holds such a crucial part of our lives and we often take the ability to use our words for granted. For me, English is my first language and wasn't my favourite subject in school. I don't associate my lack of love for learning English with a certain teacher or activity but rather that the English language is complex and I didn't find it to be much fun the way I learned it. Due to my experience, I committed to making English fun when I taught it to my class but I wasn't entirely sure how I was going to accomplish that, particularly in studying older English such as Shakespeare. That is until I listened to our guest speaker,  Tyler Letkeman , who framed his English Language Arts (ELA) program he teaches in a way that excited me.   This blog post is going to highlight how  Tyler Letkeman  makes learning English fun, where technology fits into Tyler's classroom and my thoughts, spread throughout the blog post, on how I envision my ELA program to look.  ...

Photo by Donald Giannatti on Unsplash As a pre-service teacher, the number of internet resources that are available is often overwhelming. Shifting through the resources takes so much time and when I think I finally found a good resource, the source either doesn't align with the MB curriculum or doesn't have relevant PD information. Although, there are good resources out there and not every one of my searches comes up empty. Over the last year, I have been able to grow my collection of internet resources both for classroom use and for professional use. In this blog post, I will be sharing a professional resource that I find very useful that also has resources for the classroom. Most of the internet resources I have found are websites and/or blogs that serve as larger collection of resources. I find that having one resource link that has many sources is less overwhelming. Often the collection type of resources is categorized by topic and allows me to navigate the resources easi...