The End of an Amazing Journey!

I can say without a shadow of a doubt that the 3 Part IICT Course has been an amazing journey. I cannot even fathom the huge learning curve that has happened. I think after I go through the huge amount of resources, which by the way I have organized into multiple folders, I will be amazed!

 I have found that being organized is a HUGE task when faced with the enormous amount of collaborated information during this 3 part course.

The leadership project was the main part of part 4 of our course and I am thrilled with the prospect of being able to use this at my new school (once I have settled in of course and see the lay of the land).

There will be challenges of course, but I feel I have the necessary tools and education to move forward. 

Tying everything in with the Standards of Practice for teaching, has really made me feel how special we are as a profession. I am going to endeavour to stick to these standards at all times and going forward am definitely going to take more AQs in the future.

A special thank you to all of the instructors who have made this experience so special and so uplifting. I will be forever changed as a teacher, which is a great thing! Here's to future plans and accomplishments.......................................

LE 3 Reflections

As LE3 begins, it is time to look back over my other blogs and realize the massive learning curve that has happened and continues to do so!

Assessing a time when I was a teacher or a leader with technology really made me think whether I followed some of the qualities of being a leader or not. I found that quite a few of my colleagues had the same issues as myself; a lot of teacher-led activities and not enough hands-on. Quite surprising, really! Keeping current and being involved in communities to promote discussion, is key to honing one's leadership qualities. To be a quality leader takes an enormous amount of dedication and effort.

Collaborative Inquiry (CI) really interested me. While I had some idea about CI, I did not really know the theory behind it. Once again, my interest was peaked. I have tried to implement some of the CI theory into my lessons now and am on the road to implementing it in all my planning, I think! As anything new, you have to self-reflect and collaborate to see how and if you are progressing. I suppose that is another key to wanting to be a great leader, too!
I think I do a good job making my classroom a safe environment and also a friendly, open-door environment for both students and teachers. I really liked one of the videos that we watched about leadership and some of the quotes. Here it is:

The one quote that really caught my attention was: "Authority is a poor substitute for Leadership." How true that is. How many times in our working lives have we came across that attitude with our bosses? I try to be a leader that teaches by example and try to help whoever I can, whenever I can. Your time is free, give it generously as it costs you nothing! It is amazing to me how much time my colleagues give to students and are totally committed to their students and their learning. Throughout this course, I have remarked quite often how committed we all are to making our teaching more engaging for all of our students; as we are all committed to student learning and committed to students even with extra-curricular activities.

The activity that we all performed about programs for new teachers again amazed me; the amount of knowledge that we all shared with each other and the actual overall knowledge level of my colleagues astounded me. I learned about quite a few new programs and spent some time researching and trying different programs. Again, professional knowledge is abundant among all of my colleagues. Sharing is such a crucial part of building one's resources and all of my colleague did not hesitate to share when asked. The ideas to help new teachers out exemplifies the research, experience and overall knowledge of my colleagues; such a variance in the types of programs, also. I had not heard of some of the programs, like Comic Life, Voki and Adobe Spark to mention a few.

The PD activities that we created for a half-day teaching sessions for our fellow colleagues were extremely educational. They varied immensely and I retained a lot of new sites and programs to research and look into to use in my lesson planning and delivery. The commitment to ongoing professional learning is apparent in what all of us found. The amount of collaboration and research that we have shared is so immense that I have created multiple folders to keep websites, programs, hardware etc. I have had to be so organized to keep the folders easily understandable and easily accessible by the type of technology that I want to access.

Mentoring an older colleague at my school since the start of the year has taught me a lot about my leadership qualities; both good and bad! I have reflected about what I need to improve in and how to make a difference across the whole school. I have also realized how challenging it is going to be to implement my ideas and how crucial it is to have all parties on board; administration, teachers, students, community etc. Involving parents/guardians is a key concept to developing a successful technology plan. Sometimes, parents and the overall community in general are a forgotten part of a technology plan. Having the parents on board is crucial to getting the student to adopt a positive attitude towards learning and incorporating technology.

Being one of the tenets of professional knowledge, life-long learning is a must for all teachers who want to be leaders in technology. Ongoing professional learning and professional knowledge are key to our standards of practice as teachers. I want to be that life-long learner and want to pass that attitude on to each and every one of my students. Finding a balance in today's society with the vast amount of technology at our fingertips is our struggle moving forward. Time management is still a skill that needs to be developed in all areas of our lives including the use of technology for education, convenience and betterment; and not just for entertainment.

LE2 Reflections IICT Specialist

The first part of the learning activity was to post programs that we use in our teaching and may I say, it was unbelievable how much knowledge was shared. It is absolutely mind-blowing to realize how much technology is out there and how much each teacher has assimilated and still is! A pure example of the Standards of Practice in the area of Professional Knowledge! Some of my colleagues are absolutely inspirational with their ideas and contagious with their enthusiasm.

The ministry documents activity really opened my eyes up to the language that the ministry uses towards technology use in the curriculum. I was quite surprised in some areas and subjects about the lack of specific language towards the use and in others the amount of specific language detailed. From subject to subject it differed greatly. Although technology was mentioned in almost all subject curriculum language, there seems to be a gap in the overall consistency across the whole gambit. Finding a consistency in the board documents can be a little challenging from a professional practice point of view. Technology standards and use tend to be very open just like the new French curriculum!

Our chat session about issues at schools concerning technology use was very informative. I realized that there are fellow teachers struggling with the same issues with technology that I am encountering. There were also others that had an amazing environment and a whole plethora of resources related to technology and its overall use in lessons and classroom activities. What shone through in the 'Google Hangout Chat' for me, was the importance of being a leader and showing leadership qualities to either improve or continue to nurture a positive attitude towards the use of technology in the whole school environment. The commitment shown by my colleagues towards making engaging lessons and activities for their students, was inspirational to say the least. It makes me want to become a better educator and open a new future of learning using technology.

Creating a plan for the whole school year to promote the use of technology and training, was actually quite difficult. I realized that there are so many moving parts and human-beings! The idea of team-work really did become apparent for me while organizing each month's technology idea. Ongoing learning is for me one of the Standards of Practice that has to come from a positive attitude towards change. Adapting to a new way of teaching using technology is crucial to meeting the standards of practice that are so key to us as educators. Involving the parents was a very important issue in designing a plan to use technology, too. Having all parties involved in the 'movement' is beneficial to the students and their families and creates a consistent growth-mindset among all participants.

The video conferencing activity that we did was quite informative. The amount of lesson ideas and the scope of the information available, blew my mind! Having an author video-conference with students was one idea that really portrays the use of technology to engage learners. Video-conferencing with other countries and cities and even with another class from your board, makes learning so much more 'realistic' to students and helps engage them. Even the idea of video-conferencing with parents who are not physically able to come and meet the teacher, blew my mind! It was once again apparent, how educators are committed to the standards of practice in all areas; professional knowledge, ongoing learning and a total commitment to engaging learners.

IICT Specialist LE 1 Reflections

I am excited to start the Specialist part of my IICT course. We have started with leadership qualities and some activities to read and discuss about what we need to be a good leader within the educational community.

One of the activities was to identify what makes a great leader and to choose someone that exudes these qualities. I chose Gandhdi, as he is such an inspiration to me with the qualities of honesty and humility being at the top of my list for leadership. I also like how he gained follower after follower by leading by example and started a revolution of conflict resolution through peace. 

GAFE (Google Apps For Education) was the next activity that we were to explore. I have a bit of a foundation with Google apps, but limited for the time being. I hope to explore Google forms, hangouts, surveys and other apps within the platform and I have identified becoming Google Certified as one of my goals over the next 18 months or so. I think the GAFE options are awesome and love the live editing features of a document with the ability to chat with the person or persons that have access to the document in real time.

Bloom's Taxonomy is definitely something I had heard about, but never ventured into reading about. It is a great way to integrate technology in all the levels of learning and helps make the learner more independent and a higher thinker. Like the SAMR model, it is definitely a tool that I am going to use going forward in my lesson planning and delivery.

How to handle change is a big part of becoming a leader and adapting to the ever-evolving world of technology, especially! The circumstances that happen in a school demonstrate how each community has its own issues and challenges. Some of my colleagues have described circumstances where change was dealt with very well, others where change was not handled or communicated properly. Change is often initiated by administration without any choice, too! 
Following the standards of practice helps me give every situation a clearer picture and allows me to realize how committed I am, as well as my colleagues, to professional growth; handling change is an important part of that!

Some of the changes that happen during the school year, demonstrates how flexible as educators we need to be. Being committed to our students and finding new ways or better ways to engage them, falls right into the reason why we take AQs and how we adapt our practices using our professional knowledge.
The discussions that we are having during this LE1 section of my course, makes me realize that collaboration is the best way to communicate both positive and negative challenges that face us. I am still amazed, even after part 1 and 2 of the course, how much I am learning from the discussions about our individual circumstances in our schools. I look back after each e-activity that I finish and it still excites me how much I am learning! The new pedagogy of research used to scare me, but now it excites me and I no longer have that reflex of being skeptical. 

I am willing to 'try everything' now, which is a huge improvement in my attitude. Experience, research, collaboration and research are a fundamental part of our discussions in this AQ and I am happy to both give and take any great ideas from my colleagues. I aim to pass on all this knowledge to my colleagues that I communicate with on an ongoing basis.

Intehgration Part 2.....................My Reflections

The one point I want to talk about that has really turned my head during LE3 and LE4 is that of leadership. Included in the leadership role is the issue of the role that you want to aspire to in your school with regards to technology.

I had no idea how crucial leadership could be to integrating technology into our lesson planning and delivery. Needless to say, it has shook something in me that was not quite alive! I am so excited about becoming a leader and demonstrating all the qualities needed to nurture a technology attitude towards 21st century learning. It has become my main aim now to lead by example no matter what school I end up at and I will meet the challenges head-on and inspire others to do like-wise. Sharing and collaboration are such an important part of being a leader.

I really enjoyed the articles and the resources in LE3 and LE4. 'Digital Citizenship' really came to the fore-front once again for me in relation to technology. The articles I read about the advantages and disadvantages of using devices in the classroom really interested me, also. I learned that there are way more advantages than disadvantages to using technology; for teachers, students and even parents. I will include links to some of the websites that I read material from at the end of this blog.

Once again, the amount of information that I garnered from the discussion forums was amazing! So many good ideas and so many things that I did not even think about! The collaborative process throughout this course has been a complete success for me in all areas of my learning and teaching. The commitment to students that has been demonstrated in the activities and ideas by fellow teachers have definitely continued to inspire me. 

The learning community that has transpired from our discussions continues to inspire me; I also to want to create a similar environment within my school. The amount of shared knowledge has demonstrated to me the commitment that fellow teachers have towards their profession. Throughout the discussions, teachers have demonstrated their desire to help educate a future generation of learners.

 Just by taking this course, each teacher has demonstrated a willingness to want to continue to learn; especially with something as important as the integration of technology into their lesson planning and delivery. The array of ideas and diverse school settings that we each are involved in, demonstrates the unbelievable amount of knowledge that is out there! The creation of a 3 year technology plan for my school instills the spirit of community and being a leader in the implementation of ideas for the community. 

Moving forward, I have so much more to learn and I aim to approach all my learning with a positive attitude. I am taking the Specialist Part 3 AQ for Integration of Technology and am really looking forward to the challenge. I am both excited and passionate about the future and what it holds for me professionally. I have an aim to be Google Certified, Smartboard Certified and to learn about as many Apps and useful resources to help nurture a technological environment within any school; especially with my lesson planning and delivery. The future is so bright, I might have to wear shades!

The overall learning that each of us have accomplished by taking this course, leads to us applying the knowledge to our lesson planning and delivery and becomes a huge part of our professional practice. 

Links to some resources and websites:

http://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/tech-ed/pros-and-cons-of-allowing-digital-devices-in-the-classroom/

http://www.teachhub.com/advantagesdisadvantages-ipad-classroom

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/02/20/from-distraction-to-learning-tool-mobile-devices-in-the-classroom.aspx?=CTMOB

https://mps-eventreg.com/gk/g/6gRbqPIQelv-575

LE 3 Reflections Continued...............................

The amount of information that I have taken in over the course of this AQ actually blows my mind!

There is so much shared information that I have started to organize sub-folders with all the different websites and links to articles to make sure that I do not lose any of these awesome resources. I was just looking today at the amount of resources and it is actually quite amazing that I have been able to read and digest most of the information given and shared.

I really like sharing and collaborating on all the activities that we have done and really appreciate the effort that fellow teachers have put into sharing their ideas and resources on a daily basis. It has given me a renewed spirit and hope about collaboration and I am going to pay it forward to the next school I work at and hope to nurture an environment of technology, full-on!

I am looking forward to the LE 4 portion of the course and know it will be as interesting at the first 3 parts.

LE 3 Thoughts and Reflections

I have really enjoyed some of the activities that we have done in this unit; from realizing how lacking the school board is in resources and training, to renewing hope that I could be a part of the change to inspire other teachers, I have come full-circle to my attitude towards collaborating. I was quite frustrated at the lack of opportunities to collaborate, but now realize that I can be the catalyst by doing it with my own power of positive thinking and can use my own skills to teach reinforcement.

Teacher development has come to the forefront of my mind and has really made me think about what a great decision I made to take all 3 parts of the Integration AQs for Technology. It has woken up the lazy, complacent attitude that has been allowed to fester. Combine that with the fact that I am moving to a new school in September, I feel like I have a renewed spirit and vigor towards teaching. At my new school, I am definitely going to be leaning towards staff development and training in technology and am going to let my ideas and attitude known to all that are willing participants!

The introduction of Google docs to allow people to either edit in real time or on their own schedule, has really peaked my interest. I am loving the Google Calendar and think that going forward it is going to be one of the tools that I will use consistently. Being able to co-ordinate to arrange meetings and teaching workshops or teach and greets, is such a plus for me to have the tools to accomplish this.

The discussions that we have had about staff development and the ideas we have shared among ourselves, has given me a sense of both reality and hope. I realize that the challenges to change the culture of technology in our schools is one of major proportions, but I feel that going forward, it can be very exciting and very self-fulfilling. Communication is the key and twin that with collaboration, I think that all teachers can hop these hurdles with the least amount of discomfort possible. The world of education has opened up even more with the integration of technology as one of the tools of life-long learning and will only get better as the future unfolds. I am excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LE 3 Begins...................

LE3 has begun and the first task is to look at how the staff are working within the technological environment at your school. It is definitely a subject that is close to my heart; one of my main complaints about the lack of technology being used in lesson planning and delivery.

I am very interested to see how the survey goes and even more interested to see how honest teachers will be with the questions that I provide; I will be sending the survey to teachers that I know will be honest!

LE #1 and LE #2. Thoughts and Reflections

One of the most significant ideas that has come to mind for me is the need for schools to back up their initiative about 21st Century Learning and using technology to engage the modern day learner.
There are so many gaps in the education, training and exposure for teachers to technology. A lot of teachers (new and experienced) are still a little hesitant to use technology completely in all of their lesson planning and delivery.

The amount of release time and any training provided to help with the steep learning curve is minimal and I think the school boards need to back-up their policy initiatives with money to put into helping teachers attain adequate proficiency and to keep current with the ever changing world of technology. 

With that in mind, I want to express how excited and scared at the same time that I am about using technology going forward. There is so much software/hardware and programs that are out there to help a teacher engage the students and also help special needs students, it can be quite overwhelming. I have learned so many new things during the first 2 parts of the course, so far.

Voicethread, Google Docs, Skype, Clickers, all the software programs and web tools have changed my attitude and way of planning to teach. My discussion groups on Twitter have allowed me to discuss current issues with like-minded people and has changed my perspective on education completely. So many of the articles that I have read and researched have also helped me open my mind up to new ideas and strategies.
Now I am making sure that I think of as many ways of engaging the student with technology and applying it to my lesson planning and delivery. I am definitely thinking more now about my special needs students and how I can help them find a better, easier, more engaging way to learn that suits their needs or challenges. I have definitely become more aware of some of the gaps that I have when it comes to special needs planning.

Collaborating with fellow teachers and asking for their input on lessons and my planning, has allowed me to learn more quickly and realize how talented my fellow teachers are. The ideas that some of them come up with amaze me! The collaborations I have allow me to realize how committed they are to students and the impact they have on the students' learning.

The professional knowledge that teachers have demonstrated has been extraordinary! The teachers have exemplified their passion towards learning and have taught me how amazing the profession of teaching is and is becoming. From curriculum standards to adapting to engage each and every learner, and their commitment to keeping current, amazes me every day. I try to share and give back as much as I am taking and learning from each and everyone of them.

Collaborating and observing special needs students (ASD and GLD classes within my school) has allowed me to see what strategies and tools the teachers use for assessment of special needs students and some of the assessment can be used for the mainstream students, as well. Miscue analysis and other types of assessment that I had never heard of, can now be tried and tested within my learning environment. Through dialogue, inquiry and reflection my strategies now include how to improve in my assessment criteria and overall lesson planning and delivery.

Online forums such as Twitter and the hashtags associated with what type of discussions I wish to choose, including other discussion groups, has enlightened me and will continue to form a part of the educational community that I belong to and will help me keep professionally informed. Although it can be quite time consuming, in the end the teaching practice becomes well more rounded and current. 

Throughout LE1 and LE2, it has become apparent to me how important it is to stay current in teaching and taking AQs is part of that learning curve. Learning about new software/hardware and studying about new programs available using technology all pertains to the teaching standard of ongoing professional learning. I am hooked now!

In conclusion, I am quite excited about what lies ahead in my learning curve, but realize that it will be up to me to put in the effort to achieve the professional level that I want or require to pass on this learning and impact each and every student that I teach. 
Here's to the learning more and especially from this course!
Bring on LE3 and LE4........................................................

"Necessary for Some, Good for All."

Assistive technology has become a new tool to help special needs students adapt their learning and help them use an array of software/programs as a way of enhancing their particular challenges and easing their ability to learn. The impact on their learning can be monumental.

The technology can help the student become more independent, empower them and build their confidence. It allows them to be more integrated in the learning environment and can increase their aims and objectives. It gives them choices about how they can or want to learn. It helps the student feel included in their classroom environment and gives them more tools to help self-manage and self-reflect.

The intended or unintended result of using assistive technology not only helps the special needs students, but also gives the teacher tools to help all students collaborate. Assistive technology becomes a collaboration tool available for all students in the classroom and helps nurture a philosophy of co-operation and inclusion.

LE 1 Reflections Part 2

Developing a 2 year Learning Plan made me more aware of what courses and what conferences are available especially in North America. I had no idea how many conferences I was interested in! Here are some links to some global conferences and some in our continent:

http://www.celea-aceel.ca/Global-Conferences

http://educationconference.info/

http://10times.com/canada/education-training/conferences

I also realized how many different programs and workshops are ongoing and the amount of learning that is possible. Talking to fellow teachers, the only thing that is problematic is the release time. Each school differs on how much release time they allow you, and in my school over the last 5 years, I have been allowed one or two seminars that lasted a day. 

When I was given a new Smartboard, there was no training provided and I literally had to go on YOUTUBE and learn myself. This was difficult as I did not have the software to install on another computer (was only on the school provided laptop that came with the Smartboard) and I had to wait to get to school to practice. It is such a huge learning curve to become efficient with a Smartboard.

In conclusion, I have definitely 'woken up' to the fact that there are many different types of technology that are available to be used in a classroom setting and it is just up to the individual to become proficient in using them and then delivering them as part of a lesson. It can be a little frustrating trying to figure out some software and programs, but the pay-off is that you will engage the students 100% more and the lessons will be so much more interesting to plan and deliver for you as the teacher, also. In my opinion, that is a win-win situation.

LE 1 Coming to a Close. (Part 1).

Assessing and researching into my board's and school's policies and the use of our computers to create a technological environment, opened my eyes to the pros and cons of our environment and allowed me to have some ideas of what to aim for to improve the overall integration of technology use for both the students and the teachers. It made me realize how technology scares a lot of teachers and how we are lacking in overall training and advancement in the use of technology at my school.

Collaborating and discussing with fellow teachers has become more important to me than in the past. Going forward, I want to become more proactive than reactive when it comes to technology. I have begun to use lots of new software and types of social media especially using TWITTER more to have conversations with fellow technology users to gain more insight and ideas into what is currently happening in our world. Here is a great site that gives some hashtags that are available for discussing such matters:

http://cybraryman.com/edhashtags.html

Some of the articles that I have read about technology have excited me, but at the same time, taught me how much I really do not know! However, that is an exciting prospect; knowing that I will know so much more than I did before! A huge part of the reason I am taking this course is for that exact fact.

Some of the tools that I have learned about in the first part of this course have given me a learning curve to aim toward and I am spending more time now using and learning how to incorporate some these tools in my lesson planning and delivery. I am definitely more open to new tools and software of any kind now than I was before. Although it takes a lot of time and effort, I think my lessons are going to be more engaging and interesting for the students; by adapting some of this technology into my lesson planning and delivery.

The SAMR model that we read about and learned how to use, made me realize how boring some of my past lessons must have been! I really was in awe of how much better my lessons could become. I used the SAMR model in one of my previous lessons that had been done without it. What a difference! The lesson was more engaging, exciting and definitely interesting. Having the students use their own photos, videos and personal information visually, made all of the students more engaged and interested. Going forward, the SAMR model will definitely be a part of my everyday planning and lesson delivery.

Excited About Learning New Technology!

The course that I am taking is making me feel very excited about how much I am going to learn. I am definitely going to be taking the Google Certification Course and also want to do the Smartboard Certification in the near future.

I know that there is sooo much to learn, but am excited at the same time. I am really enjoying sharing all my ideas and taking ideas from other teachers on the course.

The Skype activity we have to do is going to be challenging, but I am going to try and get one of my fellow teachers in my school to Skype with me during our class lessons.

This Old Dog Wants to Learn New Tricks!

“There are, actually, plenty of books that can inspire self-reflection, buy nothing beats taking the time to write in a journal. The best leaders we’ve ever met all keep journals, so we think it is a good habit to develop.” Notter and Grant (2011)"

I have read multiple articles about blogging explaining the pros and cons and I am quite interested in learning all I can about blogging.
I have always been amazed about people that are able to record history and keep a daily diary. I always thought that those kind of people must be super-organised and that there was no way the average person would be able to do what the experts do.
I have changed my mind after reading about blogging and reading other people's blogs. I think it is something that I definitely can do and aim to try my best to keep current with all my information and use blogging to help me remember things that I have done; lesson that worked or didn't work and maybe why?
As with anything new, I suppose there will be pitfalls, but my philosophy in life is if you fail, try, try, and try again until you succeed.
I hope that I can improve consistently and feel quite positive about being a blogger.

George Couros, "Another Reason to Blog; Proactive Through Reflection"(December 13, 2012) has some very interesting points about using blogs and how they help to slow down, and focus more on teaching and learning by being more reflective and critical about progression. I hope to become more pro-active rather than re-active toward my teaching and learning as he explained.

I hope to learn about these ideas and begin on a new journey of accomplishment. I am really not sure how things are going to work out by blogging, but look forward to the challenge. I agree with George that writing things down at the moment makes reflection much more capable later and should lead to much better reflection. I am sure we all are surprised when we detail things in the past and then read it much later; we forgot so much detail and maybe even forgot some major things. I hope to do exactly that!

Sources:

George. (2012, December 13). Jennifer Hayhurst Retrieved from http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/3531

Notter, J., & Grant, M. (2011). Humanize: How people-centric organizations succeed in a social world.