Tech and Mrs. Z's Classroom

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.  ...

Have you ever thought about the environmental impact of your funny videos you watch or even a google search? I will be the first to admit that I have never thought about it before this week. I thought about the electronic waste and the horrible factory conditions that many electronics are made in but never did I think about the environmental impact of the internet. Enter Reynold Redekopp , a Professor at The University of Manitoba, who was a guest speaker I had the opportunity to listen to this week in my Internet for Educators course.   During the presentation titled Global Digital Citizenship , Reynold discussed how the devices we use affect others around the globe by dissecting the following topics: the design process of devices, raw materials sourced and used, manufacturing and shipping, energy use and recycling processes. The presentation was very informative for me and very relevant as Reynold connected every topic to project ideas that can be taken into the classroom....

Photo by  Kelly Sikkema  on  Unsplash This week I had the opportunity to participate in a discussion with Andrew Mead, the principal of the new  MB Remote Learning Support Center (MbRLSC).  In response to the changes to education that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought, the Manitoba Government created the  MB Remote Learning Support Center  which launched on Jan 4, 2021. This blog post will take you through a brief overview of the  MB Remote Learning Support Center  ( MbRLSC ) and some of my thoughts on the future of education.    What is the MB Remote Learning Support Center (MbRLSC)? The long list of what the MbRLSC does is outlined in the exert from their  website , displayed below: In partnership with Manitoba Education, representatives from metro, rural, and northern school divisions have come together to oversee the design and implementation of the Manitoba Remote Learning Support Centre. This include...

This week I had the opportunity to listen to Kirsten Thompson Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash , the Coordinator of ICT in my home division, Mountain View School Division (MVSD). The title of Kirsten's presentation was:   "Why I Replaced Myself With a Machine." During the presentation, Kirsten touched on many topics including the use of social media, internet equality (rather, the inequality of the internet in Manitoba) and the mind shift she adopted as a teacher. The topic that she discussed that interested me the most was the discussion on her mind shift. The shift she made was after looking at the question: Will teachers eventually be phased out by “robots”? Instead of facing that question with fear, she asked herself: What's happening in my class that I can use a robot instead? When “robot” is referenced in this context, it can mean anything from actual artificial technology (Siri, Alexa or the Google AI), to any technology in general. When Kirsten talk...

In  an interview with David Bowie  in 1999, the interviewer counters Bowie regarding the internet saying, "Isn't it just a tool?" and David Bowie's response "No it's not, no, no it's an alien life form [...] it's going to, it's going to crush our ideas of what mediums are all about and [...] it's happening in every form." The internet today surrounds us in previously unimaginable ways and plays a huge role in our lives but have many of us questioned what it really is and the power the internet holds for education in particular?  Until today, I always just used the internet and never really thought about what it was and its endless possibilities. This post will take us through a brief look at what the internet is but more specifically what the "Internet of things" is and what power does it hold for education.