Techtrackers+PLC



Jennifer Rowsell (presenter) and Brandon Smith (with Kylie) I attended Jennifer Rowsell’s presentation on New Literacies. This is a subject that connected greatly with my tech. course. She presented mainly on the integration of technology and language, especialy media literacty, which is a topic within language instruction that I feel most unprepared for, so it was good to explore this topic with someone so knowledgeable about it. I think the use of new literacies in the classroom will benefit me greatly in my current placement in a grade six classroom. If for no other reason, I think the novelty of it can really cut through the static. They've been instructed with the same tools for so long, something different will be able to at least capture their attention!



The Professional Learning Community Assignment

I attended the technology showcase on January 28, 2011. I learned about the new Epson interactive projector, the SMARTboard and the interesting educational programs that Microsoft offers. Out of the three workshops, the one on the Epson projectors was very interesting as it is an alternate to the SMARTboard. I am aware that SMARTboards are losing their appeal in some cases and was intersted in what other technology companies were offering to the educational field. Epson highlighted that their product can do everything that the SMARTboard can without requiring the installation of an interactive whiteboard. Their product can be placed anywhere where there is a flat white surface to project the image to. The one main difference is that the instructor or user of the projector would need to have the pen. The pen is what makes the projector interactive rather than the board. I like the idea that the projector is much more portable than the SMARTboard if you do not have the interactive board mounted in your room. It is too hard for teachers to roll a SMARTboard into a room for a lesson. It would be much easier to bring a projector in and hook it up. Epson has interactive programs and lessons that go with their product (similar to SMART) which is a benefit as well. Having an interactive technology tool would be good to have in any lesson as in many cases students are engaged when an assignment is interactive.

By: Kim Konior

Brenda Gardiner Topic: Storytelling by Cathy Miyata All my experience has been with the Junior and Senior Kindergaten. If it is one thing this group loves is stories. I wanted to learn how to give more expression to my stories and learn how to engage my students more. I think engaging students at any early age sets up for a positive learning environment. Students will have a chance to use their imagingation and explore places and things they have not had the opportunity to do. I would be able to use story telling to teach many different concepts to the students. On my next block I plan to use a story to explain the planting process to the students. This workshop did not include any technology. I can see how using technology can be a useful tool for some students. I have seen some excellent stories (comic strips, power presentations) students have produced using technology. It is important that we remember that all children learn differently and we need to find different avenues for students to express themselves.

Courtney Stortini

In the Fall I attended the Project Wild workshop. I found this to be a very interesting workshop, full of great educational activities we were able to do as a group as an introduction to the resource book. I have used the resource book many times since the workshop. My grade one's loved certain games, so we did them all the time, but there is so much to be done in the resource book that I think it would take a very long time to exhaust all the activities. In the workshop, the teacher candidates were required to pick an activity, teach the basic objective(s) of teh activity and then allow the rest of the group to do the activity. I found it was a very beneficial workshop.

Jennifer Rowsell (presenter; New Literacies) and Kylie Carter I was very pleased to attend Jennifer Rowsell’s presentation. She presented on two separate occasions regarding New Literacies; the integration of technology/ new media into the Language Arts. I found this presentation to be extremely relative to the twenty-first century learners that I will be teaching. Jennifer spoke about how New Literacy can even promote Family Literacy, which was a new concept for me, and one I found very helpful. Although a lot of what she said was a refresher from the Technology class I attend, I found the direct links to the Language Arts and Literacy to be very helpful and directly useful towards my time in the classroom. We did an activity in which we chose a tech source (ex. Google Earth) and integrated it across both a Language lesson and another subject together. My group used Google Earth to learn about the places that famous humanitarians came from (ex. Nelson Mandela, the Dali Lama) and then created their own biographies for these people. In a grade six class, I would most definitely use this concept because I find that a lot of pen and paper writing activities can become very dry for the students. Incorporating New Literacies such as audio, television, or radio will help to engage the class. I selected this lesson to gain a different perspective on the technological aspect of the twenty-first learner as it relates to the Language Arts (a book, pen and paper type subject).




 * Building Futures PD Day: Full-Day Kindergarten Workshop (January, 2011)**
 * Amanda Feener**

I was very excited to have the opportunity to attend the Full-Day Kindergarten Workshop, as I am very interested in teaching Kindergarten in the (hopefully) near future. The focus of this workshop was to bring awareness to upcoming teachers about the new Kindergarten program that is beginning to take effect, and is expected to continue transitioning into schools all over Ontario for the next five years. I've taken a personal interest in the program, as I fully support play-based learning (inquiry-based) learning in elementary classrooms. I think that this new program can be very inspiring for education in higher grades in the future. The program is student-centered, following the ideas and interests of children and guiding them towards rich, hands-on learning experiences. It is the goal for the classroom teacher to provide learning centres which promote learning through rich, hands-on activities that children are free to explore develop at their own pace. As an educator, I am very excited that this type of program is being introduced into the school curriculum. There is a great deal of controversy regarding the academic needs of students being met with this type of learning environment, however I fully support the idea and feel that students will largely benefit in this type of environment provided that Kindergarten teachers understand the model and how to use it effectively.

Technology Class at Brock University. I have learned so much in technology class about integrating modern forms of communication with curriculum expectations and making learning relevant for today's youth and tomorrow's leaders. There are so many ways that technology can be integrated into the classroom. My grade 5 class is using Frames 4 to express a point of view in Language Arts. They are engaged, eager to explore the internet for photos and create "new video games" that they want to promote for this exercise. As teachers, we need to learn various forms of technology with our students to stay current. Every day I learn more and find it easier to try new forms of technology. Sylvia Mayer

Amanda Whitenect

The topic highlighted at this Tribes Training included creating an inclusive community in your classroom. I would use this information for instructional purposes to help with classroom management. I believe that having an open environment and a place where students feel comfortable to take risks and make mistakes will help with their learning. I also think it will contribute to anti-bullying and restorative justice in the classroom and on the playground. The one reason I selected this presentation was to learn how to create this environment in my classroom and what specific strategies and techniques I would use. I will definitely use these strategies I have learned at tribes, such as community circles and energizers, in the future! I will use them at the beginning of the year to get to know my students and set the tone of the year. I definitely see a use for this strategy in the classroom during instruction because it will help with collaborative learning for a rich learning experience. There was technology used in the session through use of powerpoint, short video clips, and digital cameras. The technology used was not necessarily fascinating as I’ve seen all these forms used before but, I found the use of technology beneficial for a visual representation and had an impact for mood throughout the session.



By: Alison Herrndorf
As a part of my Professional Learning at Brock University I participated in a 3-day Workshop in Tribes Training. The purpose of this workshop is to educate professionals on how to create an inclusive learning community in the classroom. The picture that is posted above shows a few members of my cohort with our cohort leader Gail Phillips. Gail is a certified Tribes trainer and has continued to build a learning community within our cohort since the beginning of the school year. Over the past year I have become more aware of how bullying and other social conflicts have become an increasing struggle in schools, and it is important to help students build an inclusive learning community where all students feel accepted. Tribes training has provided me with many strategies to build a classroom community, as well as creative ideas on how creating a learning community that can also be implanted during DPA time, as many activities allow students to get up and move out of their seats.

As a teacher candidate in the Halton District School Board I am aware that Tribes is a significant part of classroom structure in classrooms across the school board. I feel this is a valuable training that will help me become a successful leader to groups of students in the future, in the Halton Board or in another region. I have developed many close friendships in my experiences in my Cohort classroom this year, and I believe that to be as a result of the community that was established among our group from the beginning of the year. The tools and strategies that I have gained from Tribes will help me create a comfortable learning environment for students in my next block as well as in future classrooms.

In this presentation power point slides were used to highlight important strategies and tools related to the course material. The first day we participated in an activity which identified a series of multiple intelligences among our group, though not all aspects of this workshop included the use of a power point, it is important to recognize that this means of learning is important to included to ensure that the needs of different types of learners are considered. This workshop also used music through a computer and ipod at several occasions throughout the workshop.

**BY: LESLIE MCCORMACK (4 in from the Left)**The topic highlighted as part of my Professional Learning at Brock University was the Tribes Training course which teaches students the importance of an inclusive classroom community. This picture is taken with members of my Cohort and our Cohort advisor Gail Philips who is certified Tribes Trainer. Gail has continues to build a strong learning community in our cohort since the beginning of the year. Bullying is a huge issue in elementary schools and Tribes Training provided myself and other Teacher Candidates with effective strategies to handle bullying and other social conflict problems. I participated in this Tribes Training course since it provided the opportunity to learn about different strategies to implement into my classroom in order to build an inclusive learning community in my classroom. I will use the strategies I have learned in many different aspect of my classroom. In order for students to feel respected in the classroom all students need to be included in their classroom. The Tribes Training course also provided creative ways to build a strong positive inclusive classroom. As a teacher candidate in the Halton board I realized the importance and significance of Tribes in the classroom and around the school. The strategies I have learned in Tribes and from my first block will help in the future to create an environment where students feel comfortable and confident to learn in the classroom every day. This training will provide me with the tools in order to become a successful leader to students in the future. I have made many lifelong friendships in my cohort and I believe this is a result of the community we have build amongst our cohort since September. During our Tribes Training power point was used to highlight important aspects and strategies related to community building. The first day we participated in a multi-intelligence activity, even though power point was not included in all aspects of our workshop it was still important to include technology as it recognized different learning styles.

**__ Building Futures Workshop - Britt Andersen __** (The Occasional Teacher) The Building Futures workshop was a very interesting and informative experience. The first workshop that I attended was The Occasional Teacher. This workshop basically outlined what to expect as a new teacher going into the field. This was extremely helpful, and the instructor provided many different practical tips to take with us on our first teaching experiences. I'm sure that we are all very nervous and excited about starting our teaching careers after teacher's college, and the workshop was packed of teacher candidates wanting to know how supply teaching really is. The presenter was very realistic and encouraging, and provided us with many helpful hints. Among some of the pointers she provided, the one that stuck most with me is to always be prepared. By allowing extra time in the morning to get to know the principle, the classroom, school rules, procedures and any special notes about the class, you can help yourself have a smoothly run day. The instructor also suggested bringing along an emergency kit full of tools that you may need throughout the day, including: extra pens, paper, toiletries, educational games, extra resources, and a bank of ideas for different grade levels. Even if you have problems with the lesson plan left for you, you will always have a back up game or activity to engage your class with while you figure something out. The only technology used in this presentation was an overhead projector. I did not feel that there was any need to incorporate any other types of technology in this workshop due to the nature of the topic, but I would definitely expect something more if the subject matter was appropriate. I will definitely implement the suggestions made in this presentation, and was grateful for a very realistic and practical presentation of what we will soon be experiencing as new teachers.

Project Wild Workshop: Veronica Shupe

I attended the Project Wild Workshop in the hopes of finding some interesting ways of incorporating wildlife and environmental studies into my everyday teaching for block and also for the future. While at the workshop we took part in numerous activities which tested our knowledge of the environment and also challenged us to think about how we would go about teaching it.

I have to admit, I was a bit reluctant at first to join the workshop. I would not say I am not an environmental person, as I do try to “do my part” by recycling and other activities, such as carpooling, but as for methods of teaching I was at a loss. I found the workshop to be filled with useful ideas and most importantly ideas that could be used by any teacher, for which ever grade or subject they have.

One fabulous addition to the day was the activity book that we all received. I have been looking it over in order to come up with some fun lessons that I can do with my class for next placement. I believe it is important that we open our minds to instruction such as this and use it often so that our students get a well-rounded understanding of the world they live in and what and who shares it with them.

I do not believe there was much use of technology during the workshop, but that is not to say that it is not a possibility. I believe that if it enhances what students are learning then it should by all means be connected into lesson planning.

I would like to add that I did attend the technology showcase and found it extremely useful. Unfortunately, I did not have a picture that could be used and therefore could not write this assignment on it.



Workshop by Microsoft: (Rikki-Lee Wardell)

The focus of this workshop was instilling the fact that we are preparing our students for a future that is largely unknown. With the advancements in technology, the students we teach will be facing a future that does not exist today. We will be teaching them skills for jobs that have yet to be invented. Even the school itself as an institution will be vastly different than what exists today. We as educators thus have to be prepared to embrace this change by staying current with latest technology in the classroom. This workshop was also a plug for Microsoft, which is sometimes frustrating, but the resources provided on a USB key are invaluable in the classroom.

As a future educator this workshop was a good eye opener. In terms of actual value however I found the USB key to be great! It has a number of links to free software that can be downloaded. In addition, Microsoft hosts a national educational event which was introduced to us during this workshop. It is through opportunities such as this that teachers learn of the endless resources and networking possibilities that exist.

I chose this workshop honestly due to the description stating that participants would receive numerous free resources. As a pre-service teacher I am constantly looking for tools that I can attain that will benefit my future classroom. Teaching is an expensive occupation when trying to find the best resources for your students. I was not disappointed with my decision, the description lived up to its promise. In addition, it was clear that the presenter was passionate about the topic of the changing face of educated, making it highly contagious!



Project Wild Workshop: Danielle Robinson

==== I attended the Project WILD workshop. Project WILD presents itself with a goal to assist learners in developing awareness, knowledge, skills and responsible behaviour concerning wildlife and the environment. Based on the way the leaders of the workshop spoke about this program, they definitely seem passionate in maintaining and following through with this goal. This program offers an abundance of activities to integrate into my lessons when I become a teacher. I am most impressed with the resource package we received which correlates with the Ontario curriculum. This resource package crtainly lends itself to teachers by the way that it is organized. The “activities by grade” section of the book is my personal favourite, but you can also look up activities by specific skills, topics or by subject which would make it very easy for a teacher to integrate the activity into any unit. Unfortunately, there was not really any use of technology involved in this workshop. ==== ==== I decided to attend this workshop because I wanted to learn about ways to incorporate outdoor education into my teaching. I do hope to utilize some of the strategies I learned because I believe that students would appreciate learning science concepts through the use of many of these activities. It gives them an opportunity to explore their world and learn about topics in a creative way. Throughout teachers college I have learned that you really do learn by “doing” and the activities associated with Project WILD definitely lend themselves to that philosophy. ====



Storytelling Workshop with Cathy Miata

This Storytelling Workshop with Cathy Miata was a great experience. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn how to integrate storytelling into different subjects and allow students the creative freedom of expression. We were taught various techniques from warm ups to how to retell a story in stages and improvise.

I attended the workshop because I personally believe that primary/junior students can really benefit from great storytelling. Through stories students visit places they have never been, experience things they may only dream of experiencing, and be or learn about people they may never otherwise have the opportunity to meet. Through stories their world gets larger. I hope to inspire students to build on their language and presentation skills. I would like them to become more comfortable exploring things, and reaching beyond what they would normally do and enrich their lives along the way.

/Anna De Menna

I had the opportunity to attend the BitStrips conference at the Technology Showcase. It was great to see all the ways to implement

technology into the classroom. I loved all the examples she brought in from her students to showcase the vast cross curricular uses of this

program. I have already signed myself up, created a list of all the students in my next teaching block and am excited to see the students

reaction to the comic strips. I spent computer class making a comic myself, to demonstrate it to students once I begin teaching. Developing

my avatar was also tons of fun. I like that the students can access this program from any computer, so they don't always have to be at

school, they can use it at home or at the library or whenever they have internet access. I am very excited to use this program during Block 2!

Kerri G



In October I had the opportunity to attend the Project Wild Workshop. This program, sponsored by the Canadian Wildlife Federation, promoted education to create awareness about our environment. The activity guide received has hundred of wonderful activities easily utilized within (and out!) of the classroom. I chose to take this course for professional development purposes; I hoped to gain insight into instruction practices to be used for the science curriculum. I now feel armed and ready to tackle this subject area. Since getting 'out there' is not always feasible, technology could easily be integrated as it would allow you to bring the environment to your students.

Angela McGillion

This phot was taken at a math workshop, I spent some time talking to the presenter before the session started and we were talking about my apprehension toward math. The presenter assured me that she was just like me when she first started teaching. The work shop was great, it was teaching us about seeing what the students are thinking. Basicially identifying what the studetnes were thinking when they answered the questions and not necessarily where they went wrong but where they went right!!!!

I had the opportunity to attend a Problem Solving conference with my associate teacher during from my last placement. I was working within a grade 1 classroom that was part of the Problem Solving Initiative Pilot Project within the Halton Catholic District School Board. Throughout my placement I was responsible for creating and implementing problem based learning activities with mathematics. I really enjoyed this task as I was able to see the students learn in a completely new way. It was very interesting to watch the students take the problem and then go off on their own to come up with their own strategies to solve it. This was the second conference that I attended on the topic. At this conference, we were able to share our students work, progress, and thoughts with teacher's from other schools. It was really interesting to learn how other teachers were incorporating this initiative into their classroom as well as to hear how their students were doing with this new method of teaching. This picture is taken with one of the students that I had the opportunity to work with on this project as well as share his work with my collegues.