Asham Classroom

 For this task we were asked to follow a blog. I chose to follow Dean Shareski's blog linked here --->  ideasandthoughts.org Dean was our final guest speaker for the course and boy was he a "delight".  He inspired me to check out his blog and I went down a rabbit hole of his posts. I now follow him on twitter and had a quick twitter exchange with him about his chat with our class. I was lucky enough he even followed me back! You can follow his twitter here ---->  https://twitter.com/shareski?lang=en   I most recently read his post titled "From Despair to Hope" and really enjoyed it. He writes about joyful learning and how it is more important then ever to bring that to our classrooms or virtual classrooms as in 2020-21 school year it feels like there hasn't been much joy. He has inspired me to be the happy teacher and always bring "joy" and "delight" to my classroom and lessons. 

 As a teacher being connected has never been so relevant then it is today. The 2020-21 school year proved that if you weren't connected or willing to get connected digitally then you would fall behind.  Covid-19 forced teachers and students to a virtual classroom, and for many forced them to teach multiple grades and subjects all online. This was a major change for many people, however if you were digitally connected it made this transition much more manageable.   See the images below to get a visual on just how much the role of a teacher has changed in this digital age.  As you can see, teachers are now responsible for far more then in the past. This is just a sign of the times. I foresee this trend to continue even after Covid and virtual teaching is over because well, our students are all SO connected to the internet and their devices this is how they will want to learn. It is their language now, students no longer want to write something on paper they want t...

 This past week our guest speakers in class were Shannon Magee and Chris Fredrickson. The opic covered was the different areas of online teaching and learning. The topic that most interested me was gamification of classrooms. This topic stuck out to me because last year in Mikes class I read the book on gamification so I have prior experience researching this area.  When Shannon and Chris talked about gamification they weren't necessarily talking about video games like the previous weeks speaker Matteo DiMuro, however turning regular classroom activities and tasks into "games". Ways in doing this would to simply add a point system for completing classroom tasks or to lessons. Somewhat of a token system. Or for test review you can do a trivia game with teams, the students will have fun and not even realize that they are studying and reviewing hat has been learned.   The classic application to use for this would be the ever popular Kahoot. Kahoot is great for review an...

 Using info graphics can be extremely useful in the classroom. Many students are visual learners and can benefit greatly from seeing rather then listening to instructions. As a physical educator I have seen my CT's and personally used info graphics many times, they have been useful in many situations such as learning a new skill for early years  or working out in the weight room for the senior years.  An example which I will post below is an info graphic I made in anticipation for teaching overhand throwing in my upcoming placement. I will post this on the wall so students can understand the steps when learning this new skill and can refer back to the poster when they have questions or need a refresher on how to perform the skill.  See image through link below:  Overhand Throwing

Due to internet issues over the weekend I am uploading a day late, my apologies! Last week we had  DiMuro speak to our class. Mr. DiMuro is the ICT specialist for the Brandon School Division & taught previously at Vincent Massey High School. At Vincent Massey he was blessed to have such awesome students including 15 year old me! Mr. DiMuro spoke about several topics however the topic that stood out to me and interested me the most was the use of video games in the classroom. I think gaming can be a fantastic tool for getting students engaged and promote creativity in the classroom. It is 2021 and video games and technology are extremely prevalent in today's society.  Although it might be difficult to get parents on board with using video games in the classroom, it is easier to understand the benefits of using technology and video games in 2021 then in previous years. As a physical educator I have had to use technology in my placements much more then I initially would have ...

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