Gr 8 Transitions Visits to SJAM

I am very fortunate to be involved in the planning and delivery of our transitions visits for grade 8 students intending to come to SJAM in September...
In addition to tours of our facilities and observations of key elective classes, we offered the students the opportunity to voice their thoughts/concerns.

We gave them a google survey to let us know what " A good teacher will" do.
See the survey...
We used their voice to create this wordle.



On a projector, the students used their own devices and accessed Todaysmeet.com (live for a bit longer at http://todaysmeet.com/SJAM) to inform us about what "A good student will" do.


On laptops, students could post a sticky at padlet.com to give us information about how we could help them adjust to SJAM.

Created with Padlet

Our last station was a large paper for a marker graffiti activity... we asked "what clubs and Activities would you like to do when you come to SJAM?" I will post some images soon... 

One more school... tomorrow.  I will update all of our info after that!  :)

This has been a great experience! 

All of this info will go a long way to inform our activities in the new school year.

'Whatever it takes'

A student is "in risk". He is failing more than one class. Life at his home is far less than adequate. He has asked for help. To some it may not appear that he is looking to improve his academic situation and ultimately his life circumstance. He has no positive adult role models in his home life. At school, naturally, he looks to his peers.  He perhaps sees a glimmer of an alternate future in a couple of adults that he chooses to trust. But how?  how does a young teen make the decision to turn on all that he knows so that he can follow a path that leads away from his family, away from his friends, away from poverty, drugs and gangs?  He asks for help.. but clearly knows not what to expect or what lengths he needs to work through.   Some adults in the building have long since given up on him.

I admire his courage. I know he will have setbacks. He needs to know that he has support. I can only imagine that it cannot be easy for him particularly when other adults put up barriers for this teen.  They don't know it, but any "small" barrier, could change his motivation to make a difference in his own life.

I have learned that for success with teens we need to embrace the "whatever it takes" attitude.

Preparing a proposal for ecoo13

Been developing a proposal to submit to ecoo13 in October. I want to share the successes we have been experiencing in our Reach Ahead blended learning program.

Blended Learning is Amazing!!!

I have the privilege of teaching a true blended learning grade nine math class in inner city Hamilton, Ontario.  The students are grade  8 students that travel to our high school 3 mornings (75 min each) each week.  The other two days, the students are expected to login into the Desire2Learn platform available throughout Ontario.

So many reasons to be excited...
- online learning included web based games, activities, quizzes, investigations, polling
- tech integration including use of iPads and computers - or even the students' own devices
- addressing multiple learning styles through use of interactive whiteboard, videos, collaboration, etc

I could go on...

All the while, not only are my students enjoying new and different learning experiences, I continue my quest to continually expand my teaching repertoire with the hope to engage more learners.

"Embrace Life Long Learning"

My other learning in this endeavour... D2L - new for me
I have been using Edmodo for a couple years now and have always been very happy with the results.  D2L is a  new experience for me - and I am also enjoying it.  More to come.

Twitter inspires!

so.. I don't make it to my twitter account nearly enough.

I checked in today and ... thanks to George Couros I came across this video...

We do not compliment each other enough.
Each person is an intricate treasure that we need to value and appreciate.
I wonder if my school can make a strong character initiative like this happen...

Westhighbros is an inspiration!

Explore, Excite and Engage

Explore all your learning opportunities...
I am so pleased to be learning so much about the iPad, my new Mac and iBooks Author. Taking advantage of these explorations energizes me  in my teaching career. I look forward to creating custom iBooks for my math classes.  Already working on a trigonometry unit...

Excite yourself and others...
I am so excited to continue my learning.  I am so excited to share that learning.
Get excited - share the love of learning.

Engage your learners... whomever they may be
I strive to engage my learners - children, teens or adults. As a teacher, I am excited about learning and i will continue to seek out strategies to engage even the most reluctant learners.  You know the ones.. lets's say students taking MFM2P.
Lifelong learning is a worthwhile pursuit - no matter your age or occupation.

MacBook Air arrived!!!

My new MacBook Air arrived on Friday Nov 30!
I have spent a lot of time learning and trouble shooting.  I have always had pcs in the past so there has been a bit of a learning curve with this new laptop. Using the trackpad is totally different - though I think I like it!
Of course I could not live without Microsoft office so I downloaded it earlier today. I was disappointed, however, to not get Microsoft Access in that bundle.

Another vital download, of course, was iBooks Author. I was not convinced about getting a Mac and have been contemplating it for more than a year. The expense seemed prohibitive. I was finally convinced that this was a good idea when my math dept was given 10 iPads to use in math classes. Then - I decided that I absolutely needed a Mac so that I may create custom content
 for my students.

I had to purchase an adapter dongle to connect to my projector - bought the lightning one and soon realized it was the wrong  one :(
I have since ordered the correct one and I hope it arrives quickly - I am looking for to using my Mac in class with my smartboard.

I created two iBooks this evening and experimented with all kinds of options: quizzes, weblinks, embed YouTube, include images, widgets etc.

I look forward to actually getting good at this!