Welcome to my blog! My first posts represent theoretical knowledge that I have already put into practice since beginning MET. I will continue to add posts as I cross (and recross) bridges or take time to pause (and occasionally "Break it down & Hammer Time") in my educational ecosystem. Like nature's ecosystems, making change in one area, will often affect others areas, favorably, not favorably or somewhere in between. I look forward to coming back to this page to reflect on the work I began in my master degree.
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3. Create a variety of ways for students to contribute to the blog.
Anyone who has been in the education biz for awhile, knows that our students are very unique and that a "one size fits all" approach to pedagogy, will tend to leave a few people on the shore, while the rest of the class sails away. On occasion, I will have students sooooooo scared to complete their scribe post. One student, in her Grade 12 year, made her very first counselling appointment due to the anxiety that her scribe responsibility caused her. I had finally pushed her over an edge as she had been managing to nicely avoid all- things-scary for her entire high school career.
Options that students had to contribute to last semester's blog included: 1. Scribe post of lesson.
I allowed almost anything! The only condition was that it needed to be related to mathematics or the learning of mathematics, which could include personal wellness, stress management, or other related topics.
I have only used the class blog in my Gifted Math 10, Physics 11 and Physics 12 classes. Last semester, I only launched it with the Gifted Math 10 class, as my workload with the Master degree was a bit overwhelming at times. Class blogs add work to your week. There is no sugar-coating that. If the educator does not take a hands-on approach to this activity, the blog is a waste of time. The students will only buy-in if you buy-in. This was ultimately the key difference from my previous blogs. Having said this, there is no harm starting a blog in one of your classes and just going with it. It doesn't have to be perfect! Some folks will want to stay in the safety zone of Google Sites, but if you have used Google Sites, you also know of its limitations. This could be a plus, however, if you are not the most tech savvy person in the universe. Know that I have never taken a course on blog site design. I watch YouTube videos. Weebly is my preference over the complexities of WordPress, but Google Sites is the simplest of them all. Feel free to contact me with any questions!! I did not pull these ideas out of the air; my class blog guru was Winnipeg's Darren Kuropatwa (Although he didn't know it, haha! I read about his process during my Lit Review for my 511 paper. Lit Reviews are very useful! Who knew?!?) PS. If you were wanting to know how my student made out, you will be happy to know that she made it through and conquered a MAJOR fear of hers. She had been spending her life avoiding many activities, due to her anxieties. The problem with running from our fears, is that our brain then validates the fear, whether or not it warranted the fleeing. I was not prepared to let her run, but I was prepared to hold her hand through the entire process. For her second post, she went solo and perhaps the best outcome of it all, was that she was now connected to a counselor who could help her with her anxiety that she was struggling with for much of her life. It was a success story, for sure. The moral to this story is that we need to make accommodations for those who are not ready; this does not mean that they do not participate, but how their participation looks may be different than for the rest of the class.
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Desmos and I first met at my first GAFE conference in the Fall of 2015. The presenter focused on pedagogy for high school mathematics and one of her go-to programs was Desmos.
And so began my love affair with the online, free graphing calculator, Desmos! The founders have made Desmos incredibly teacher and student friendly. (Concerned about selling your students' digital souls to big data? Go here if you would like to learn more about privacy and how they pay their bills.) With a site devoted to Desmos-created and user-created lessons, an educator can search for a ready-to-go lesson in minutes, and have their students in the program in seconds. It was from their main page, that I first learned about Desmos Art projects...
At this point in my MET, I was 2.5 courses in...
Topics such as participatory culture, affinity spaces, gaming and constructivism all got my wheels moving to bring more effective technology driven, constructivist powered pedagogy to my practice. My first attempt at creating a Desmos Art Project with my gifted Math 10 students was relatively successful. Many projects were incomplete, although every student was able to meet the minimum criteria. Here is a link to their work.
We don't have to be perfect out of the gates. Truth be told, perfection is RARELY required in education.
Three years into Desmos, I now have the ability to look back, reassess, and modify my approaches.
I have now adopted an LFU (Learning For Use) approach to my art project; shoutout to ETEC 533! Should anyone wish to launch their own Desmos Art Project, I have links to all of my material, including a grading rubric and exemplars, via my LFU reflection post from 533.
Don't be afraid to make mistakes with your learning.
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AuthorPosts will be added as I cross new bridges in my learning. Feel free to contact me with any comments or questions via email ([email protected]) or Twitter (@physicsfuntime). Archives |