Chloe's Blogs

A blog used for EDCI 336

Week 11 Reflection

April 1, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This week’s topic was gamification and coding. This topic is very important for teachers to recognize and integrate into their classrooms. Games are very strong motivators for many students. Roblox and Minecraft are two games that could be linked to the curriculum and motivate students to learn. Similar to integrating social media into the classroom, the pros of bringing in games that students are already likely using helps to get students excited about learning. Even when creating assignments, a teacher could integrate in some Roblox or Minecraft themes and ideas to excite students. A teacher could also gamify an activity by incorporating rewards, visually appealing aspects, progression of difficulty, feedback, and limitations (all aspects of gamification). Games like Roblox and Minecraft are also a great way to help students make friends and connect with others, as students are given something they can connect with others about. The downside to gamification is that students might get used to playing games to learn (which is highly engaging), and so learning in a different way may become boring to them. This might be an issue if a lot of classroom activities are gamified, but not all.

Coding is also something that students can explore. Coding not only helps students develop computational thinking skill and problem solving, but it is also fun. It also helps students to understand technology, which is basically everywhere around them! CS Unplugged and CodeBC are two great resources to get teachers started with using coding in the classroom.

Although this week focused more on the idea of gamifying curriculum and learning standards, games are also a great way to strengthen the classroom culture of a class. This is important because in order for students to participate in curriculum-linked games, students need to feel supported and safe in their classroom community (especially if those games are to be played with other students). Below is a video that explains a few great community building games to use throughout the year with students.

What other games would be good to bring into the classroom? Let me know in the comments!

Final Reflection

March 31, 2024 / / 0 Comments

My favourite topic I learned about in EDCI 336 was inquiry projects. Because it was one of our assignments, we were able to deeply engage with the topic. I feel like I learned a lot from exploring my own inquiry, and that knowledge will help me to guide and aid students in their inquiry projects.

I also really enjoyed learning about AI, as it is something that I was not very familiar with prior to the course. In EDCI 336, we were introduced to some AI websites and apps, and I found it fun to use those. I had the most fun exploring Craiyon and Notion, which each allow users to use AI in different ways. Below is a video that shows you how to use Craiyon, if anyone is interested in checking it out!

I found practicing some of the tech skills like screen casting and video editing to be the most challenging part of this course. Despite that it was my least favourite aspect of the course, I know it is very important to practice and have those skills to use for when I am a teacher.

I plan to bring a few aspects from this course into my teaching. Firstly, I plan to start using AI to help me in the lesson planning process to explore ideas. Secondly, I plan to bring more technology into the classroom than I had planned before. There were so many ways to use technology in the classroom, and it became apparent that it was something that would likely affect many students positively. Lastly, I want to introduce the idea of learning pods to my future students. I found that the learning pods were a good way to stay accountable for our assignments, and I enjoyed the collaboration aspect of it.

Overall, EDCI 336 was a very informative, explorative, and fun course, and that is how I want my classes to feel for my future students! What were y’alls favourite parts of the course?

Educational Technology Presentation

March 30, 2024 / / 0 Comments

For our EdTech presentation, we recorded a conversation about whether social media should be incorporated into the classroom. Each of us already had different opinions on the topic going into the conversation, as we have our own biases and past experiences with the topic. We also had each done our own research, which made our perspectives differ. After briefly going over some key points we wanted to talk about, we began the recording of the conversation. Each group member explained their thoughts on the topic and explored the pros and cons of bringing social media into the classroom.

For this assignment, each of us did our own research prior to the conversation. We used a shared google doc to share our research and look at what all the members of the group had found. Then in the conversation, I spoke about how I felt about social media in classrooms. I am quite on the fence about bringing social media into the classroom, as I see many pros but also some cons. I think this was shown in my contribution to the recorded conversation.

Overall I think the video went well. It was a fun and informative assignment, and it was interesting to have a conversation like that with my peers!

Final Inquiry Post

March 29, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Well, this is my last inquiry post for EDCI 336! Overall, my inquiry went really well. My question (will doing yoga for 15 minutes daily help my mental health/anxiety) was pretty much answered. Doing yoga daily did not provide me with quick/right after benefits like I had thought it would, but rather provided me with a more lasting effect that made my overall mental health better in general (but not particularly right after doing yoga).

The best part of my inquiry is that it helped me to prioritize self-care during a busy semester of school. Without this inquiry, I likely would have continued to do my workouts, but I would not have really done any other form of self-care. 15 minutes was a reasonable amount of time to take out of my day to do the yoga, and it was obviously worth it (as it definitely helped with my mental health throughout the semester). Doing yoga also comes with benefits not related to mental health, and I have definitely experiences some of those over the last few months. A list of benefits to doing yoga can be found here.

One thing that did not go as well with my inquiry was that I felt like I didn’t always have much to say each week. Most weeks seemed to be about the same, until a few weeks ago, when I realized that my mental health was improving as a whole. Even after that though, all I had to say in my post was that I was feeling good and yoga was helping. If I repeated this process again, I think I would do updates less often, and only post when something changed or seemed worth it to mention.

I loved the format of this inquiry, as it gave us a ton of freedom and thus we could all choose topics/questions that we are interested in. I will definitely be using inquiry projects when I am a teacher. Depending on the age and the students, some student inquiries might need to be a little more guided by the teacher, but regardless, I enjoyed having the freedom in this course. I will definitely be incorporating inquiry based learning when I’m a teacher!

Photo by Markus Winkler from Pexels.com

Week 11 Inquiry

March 29, 2024 / / 0 Comments

This week’s yoga sessions went well. Most days I felt good mentally, but I felt like my body was carrying some stress. My muscles felt tight and sore throughout the week, but I always felt better after my yoga sessions. On Tuesday I followed a Youtube pilates video, and while it felt intense to do that and then yoga, my body felt good. It felt pushed in a good way. I was worried that I would feel really sore the next day, but I didn’t!

For the few days when my mind felt anxious and stressed, the yoga didn’t really help. I still find it strange that I don’t often notice a change in anxiety level following my yoga sessions. Yoga is well known to help with anxiety, so I am very surprised that it hasn’t helped make me feel better mentally right after doing it. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I do think my mental health is better in general, and that is likely from doing the yoga. So although I thought that yoga would give me some quick and maybe short term benefits, I have found that the benefits from yoga are more general and long lasting. My overall mental health is generally strong, and I believe that is from doing the yoga (as I have not changed anything else in my life, and I am still crazy busy).

I have heard from many different people that anxiety is often stored in our hips. I found a yoga video that is specifically for anxiety, and it focuses on opening up the hips. My goal for next week is to try this video and record how it makes me feel! This is the video:

What yoga videos have y’all tried and liked? I am always looking for videos that others have found helpful!

Week 10 Reflection

March 22, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Image created using DALL·E 3 model found on Easy-peasy.ai

EdCamp was super fun and helpful. I most enjoyed my conversation about managing disruptive behaviours. It was great to have a conversation with my peers about such an important topic. We have all learnt so much over the length of our program, and it was nice to have everyone contribute what they remember and know about the topic. It was a very collaborative space and everyone had a unique perspective to share.

Some key ideas regarding managing disruptive behaviors that my group talked about were:

-Making sure to get to know students-ask what they need, how to help, what’s truly going on?

-Have good communication with parents. Parents and teachers need to be on the same page for student behaviour to really improve.

-Work out a plan. This should be in collaboration with the student, their parents, and any support people involved.

-Have clear and reasonable expectations

-Provide supports, motivators, and materials that can help the student use healthier behaviours.

-As teachers, we need to lean on others for support and make sure to ask for help when we do not know what to do.

I found this video, which focuses on preventing disruptive behaviours, which is also very important when it comes to managing disruptive behaviours.

The video below is also a very informative video!

What else has been missed? There are tons of ways to manage disruptive behaviour, so comment any other ideas you have!

Week 10 Inquiry

March 22, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I felt pretty good this week! Most days I felt good both mentally and physically. Even when I encountered car problems (on Thursday), I handled it well and my mental health was still strong. Like I mentioned last week, I think my mental health as a whole is doing better because of my daily yoga sessions.

I had a particularly good and helpful yoga session on Saturday, as I was feeling down and then doing yoga made me feel better mentally. I made note that I was not anxious, but rather feeling down. I wonder if yoga improves my mental health more when I am feeling sad, rather than when I am feeling anxious. This would be a surprising finding for me, since I started this yoga journey to help specifically with anxiety (and not sadness or depression).

I found a super interesting and informational article that talks about how doing yoga might help reduce depression and sadness. According to the article, because depression/sadness and stress/anxiety are closely related, things that are good for one are likely good for the other.

Next time I am feeling sad, I think I will try following a yoga video that is geared toward reducing sadness and depression. Hopefully it will help me to feel better after, like it did on Saturday. There are a few to choose from, but this is one I would like to try in the future.

Now that I am thinking about it, have any of y’all used yoga to help lessen depression or sadness?

Week 9 Inquiry

March 15, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Week 9 was a busy week for me, and that showed in how my body and my mind felt. Most days my mind felt busy/overwhelmed, and my body felt tight and/or sore. I always felt better after doing my yoga sessions though. Similar to prior weeks, my mind/mental health usually felt similar after doing my yoga, but my body and muscles almost always felt more relaxed and less tight. I think I hold a lot of anxiety in my body, so when I am anxious mentally, my body often will also feel uncomfortable. Despite the fact that the yoga doesn’t usually make my mind feel better right after doing it, my body always does, and that’s still a major win for me! I haven’t had time or found the motivation to follow any YouTube yoga videos this week, but hopefully next week I can.

This might be off topic, but I usually go on my elliptical for my workouts, but this week I had a day where I really didn’t want to do it, and so I decided to follow a pilates video on YouTube instead. It wasn’t yoga, but it was an easy-to-follow workout that incorporated stretching and strength training. Then I did my yoga after, and it felt great. Let me know if y’all try this workout and how it goes! I had a good experience with paring it with yoga, so let me know if you pair it with yoga like I did!

Week 9 Reflection

March 15, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Learning definitions of online learning terms was interesting. I have heard of all of these terms but have not seen the definitions pointed out before. I didn’t know that blended and hybrid online learning were different. I have always just used those terms interchangeably. Blended means a mix of face-to-face and online instruction, whereas hybrid means replacing some face-to-face with online online instruction. In an addition, I liked the 5 R’s (Decolonizing and Indigenizing online learning). The 5 R’s are respect, reciprocity, relevance, responsibility, relationships.

This video focuses on flexible classrooms and is an interesting but quick watch!

I think there are many pros to building flexibility into classroom instruction. There are pros and cons to both in-person and online learning, and so flexible teaching is great for teachers to incorporate. This idea of flexible learning brings it all back to inclusion and helping all students to have access to ways that help them learn best. Students come from different backgrounds, meaning their accessibility to technology and to getting to the school are all different. Some students often travel with their families, which means they miss a lot of in-person classes. That is why having resources online can be very helpful for students. Record your lessons, post resources online, and encourage online platforms where students can collaborate and share what has happened in class. In contrast, some students do not have access to technology, and thus rely on in-person classes to receive their education. In addition, giving students choice and using engaging and creative ways to teach is so important when incorporating flexible teaching!

How do y’all plan to be flexible teachers? Did y’all find the video above helpful? Are there any other ways to apply flexible teaching that you can think of? Let me know in the comments!

Week 8 Reflection

March 8, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Photo by Oui Si from Flickr.com

Inclusive education is very important to me. I want to create a classroom environment where everyone is welcomed and has opportunities to succeed. To do this, I plan to not only use UDL, but to also do a lot of community building in the classroom at the beginning of the year and throughout the year to make sure students value and encourage inclusion. It is my priority to have students aware of why inclusion is important and how to create an inclusive environment for everyone. I am a proponent of encouraging students to make many different friends and to include all of their peers in their play.

In addition to encouraging kindness and making friends with many different types of people, I want to engage students in the making of a classroom contract. A classroom contract helps students to become involved in the making of their own classroom rules and expectations. The making of a classroom contract often sparks conversations about inclusivity and kindness, and I think these conversations are extremely valuable to have with and between students.

I also plan to use some of Rick Hanssen’s lesson plans to empower students to become difference makers and to engage students in disability awareness. There are many resources for different subject areas, but his resources on difference making and disability awareness are really great to use in the classroom.

Lastly, one of my classmates and I recently talked about how we both really want to use classroom contracts in our future classes. I think many people in the cohort are planning to use classroom contracts and to incorporate different ways to create an inclusive environment. Another classmate mentioned having a “cozy corner” for students to have a calm area to self regulate. I think this is a great way to help create an environment where students feel supported and are given opportunities to do what they need to do for their emotional and physical wellbeing.

What kinds of practices do y’all plan to integrate into your classrooms to encourage inclusion?! Let me know in the comments!

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