Working with Communicating with Students & Parents.

My Guest Blogger this time is S. Brine, a Social Studies Teacher at our school who loves trying anything new that engages the students.  The following is her research and learning today.

My goal: a website

During the Pro-D at the end of summer in 2011, I set my goal: to create a website that would meet the needs of students and parents.  Using Webnode as my template, I put together a site that allowed students and parents to view a weekly run-down of what to expect in Social Studies class, check homework assignments and due dates, view test dates (along with what to expect on the test), and have access to links that connected them to important documents (unit overviews, course outlines, expectations, etc.)  The website also provided numerous ways to contact me and strongly encouraged both students and parents to do so at any time. 

What really happened: a website and Twitter and a document reader

Upon completion of my website, I proudly wrote out the address for the students and asked them to use it often to keep themselves informed throughout the course.  One of my grade 10 students respectfully informed me that they didn’t really ‘use the Internet’ but rather relied on Twitter for information.  This particular class made it clear to me that if I truly wanted to be technologically savvy with my students, I would need to use what they used.  I created an account and tweeted reminders about homework.  More importantly, I sent out tweets that informed students the website was updated.  This helped remind them of my website and they began checking it on a regular basis.  So my goal became larger and I was able to both complete and manage the website this year and become familiar with Twitter and how it can be a wonderful tool to further connect me with students and my larger educational community.  I am now in the process of learning about my new document reader and how it can provide an opportunity to not only aid instruction, but record photos and video that can be uploaded to my website.     

What worked:

What worked for me was having the time to develop the website and the time to learn how to format it so it looked the way I wanted it to.  I enjoyed having my own time during Pro-D to put it all together and ask for help when needed.  The goal was mygoal and it was very satisfying to meet it.  With the updated wireless and the strong support from Nicole in particular, I was excited to experiment with and play with technology.  This school year, I have had more contact with parents than ever before as more are willing to contact me via e-mail and check the website to stay informed as to what their child is doing in my class.  It has made the whole teaching/learning experience much more open and transparent. 

What didn’t work:

I would have found more value in working with a small group of people who had similar goals to mine.  Having the time alone to concentrate on my goals was appreciated, but I would have enjoyed the collaboration with other staff members as well from time to time.  I also would have enjoyed a session where teachers would be able to show what they had accomplished or report out their experience with technology.


I agree, the teachers need to share and show their learning.  Next year, the Pro D days.

Using Learn 360 for Social Studies

Ann-Marie Harris is this blog's Guest Blogger.  She was a reluctant "tech" learning but now, she'll try anything within reason.  Ann is not afraid of asking for help or asking for training.  When she doesn't know something she has no problem asking  for a session of learning.  She and Stevens worked with R. Hayward, our school librarian, on incorporating Learn 360 due to the damage to the old VCR movies, finding the videos they found useful, seeing new ones, and downloading what they need.  What Ann did not say in her writeup of what work and what didn't was the fact that she also asked for a document reader and learned how to use that as well.  Once, when something went wrong with the technology, she put it aside the technology, said we'll do something else, and then emailed me and asked to meet so we could discover what it was.  I didn't get the message for a while and Ann troubleshooted the problem herself, came up with the solution and voila, used the same technology again in the next block. 

One of the biggest problems with most teachers is that if technology fails the first time, they give up completely with it.  Not my Harris, when it failed, she waited patiently and then tried again.  That's the sign of a teacher determine to learn something.  But her final comment is very relevant.  Here is her review of what she looked at this year:

1.  What worked?   Using Learn 360 to show clips of Gothic Cathedrals.  Worked because it was EXACTLY what I needed.  There was a complete film but it was too long and most of it may have been above the gr.8 level.  The clips gave the students a good visual of the Cathedrals as well as information about their construction.  In searching Learn 360 for this information I also found relevant clips on medieval castles which I will use another time.  I can also use these clips for Comp Civ 12.  Another thing I have learned this year is more about organizing and storing photos that I have taken on visits to historic sites relevant to the courses I teach and how to store them on a hard drive.  Finally, I have learned more about I-tunes---how to find and organize music from various historic periods relevant to the courses and how to have the music accompany showing the photos.

2.  What hasn't worked?  The first time I used the Cathedral clips I showed them to one class and left it set up for the next class but when I tried to show the clips it didn't work.  I found out later it was because the computer had gone to sleep in the interim and I had to shut it down and start over.  How would I have known that?  Lost about 20 minutes of class time.  Very frustrating.  Also need to learn more about organizing and storing videos and clips from Learn 360 for future use.  Still haven't had time to learn more about "Discovery Education".

This was the frustration of most of the teachers on the staff.  What they loved was getting time after a Professional Development day to continue the learning.  What they disliked was not having enough time with everything else their job entailed.  My frustration exactly!

Gizmo Viewpoint from another teacher.

This post guest blogger is from the Science department, a teacher that team teaches, and likes trying some new stuff.  Mrs. N. Gill 

I wanted to incorporate more technology in the classroom and one of the ways was by using gizmos. Using Gizmos in class first semester with grade 10s worked well.  Lots of animations to visually represent what is happening with atoms to form molecules and a simulation of how mutations affect generations as they reproduce.   Some of the issues that I encountered were techinical difficulties - slow or nonfunctioning computers.

I wanted to use SMART board more in my Sc 10 class.  I was only able to do this once or twice limitations in time on working on this goal.  Again, this allowed a better visual as to what happens when plotting a velocity time graph and this is affected when you increase or decrease the velocity.  Limitations of what is available for science.

Blog owner's comment:

ALthough the school loves Smartboards, unfortunately our boards are mobile, which means setting the board every time you start it up.  This doesn't take much time, but a small tap of the board or a small shift will cause major problems.  So we looked into mounting them and we saw it would be over $1000.  When you compare this to getting a new computer for students to use which one do you choose?  You can use the board in one classroom, with 120 kids, or you can use another computer with the "Computers On Wheels" and reach all the students in school.  It's terrible how things come down to money sometimes.

An English Summary of Learning

My guest blogger is a teacher who is in the basement of our school (yes I know that does sound bad but she's OK, the chains don't hurt her;)  When I talked to Mandy she told me she did not have a lot of positive things to say but I said good, lets tell the truth, and be honest.  So here it is.  I'm proud of how she keeps on trying technology.

My experience with technology has not been so great. My first experience with technology included video taping students acting out their character skits. The camera battery died. Students then suggested I use my Iphone to record these skits. That part worked out well. Initially I was quite disappointed because I really wanted to video tape my students and they were looking forward to watching themselves. 

I have used the document reader several times. However, setting it up can be time consuming because I have to move the desks in order to connect my laptop (cords not long enough and not enough space on the trolly that the document reader sits on). I am hesitant to bring the Ipads downstairs to the basement for two major reasons. First reason being that it is too time consuming and a hassle bringing them down. I have to go through 2 floors with separate elevators. Secondly, the wifi connection is very weak down here. So I would hate to go through the hassle of getting the ipads down here and then the internet not working. Students in the past have brought their own laptops or have tried to use their ipods; and have constantly complained about the wifi connection. Myself I have my laptop plugged into the direct internet connection. I am also making good use of Facebook to update students on homework, assignments or announcements I may have. Students have been responding well to this idea. I am finding that students are responding well. They are using this venue as a place to ask questions--and if I am unable to answer questions, students are answering questions for each other. Students are able to use Facebook to engage in discussion and collaborate with each other on certain projects/assignments :)

Learning from a Science/Math Teacher - Mr. Mitchell

In the last few years I have been working on simplifying my life with technology.  Being a seasoned teacher and technology user, I have used many different programs and methods that may or may not have made my life simpler, for example, 4 or 5 different mark programs:  Grade Master, Master Grade etc etc . I have learned 10 Statement Fortran, Basic, Latek and most have gone by the wayside, let alone SIS and then BCeSIS.  Many of these programs were so poor that the work and frustration levels actually go up instead of going down.

It is finding of things that just make life easier, that can be used without the rel-earning curve that I look for at this point in my career. 

One item that I have adapted to in the last year is the Document Reader.  I was given one to attach to my projector and have moved up one level to the newer version of this device.  The ability to show demonstrations of magnetic fields right onto the screen, the effects of electricity on magnets directly onto the screen as well as just not having to stare into the overhead projector light 5 hours per day has been a boon to me.  Writing notes in multiple colors and being able to keep them as is afterwards is great.  I find that showing errors and corrections by taking a students’ test or worksheet and examining their steps and errors without having to make a transparency is a great thing.   As an academics teacher, I would be hard pressed to move away from this system. . There are functions that allow it to overlay onto the computer, that allow you to save screen captures and video. While I have not used these functions beyond ‘playing’ with them, I see these as future developments in my teaching style.

In order to simplify the giving out answer keys in my Physics 12 class, I have also used DROPBOX.  Dropbox is a cloud computing system where I can place PDF files that the students can then access from their own accounts.  This replaces the old photocopy the answer keys and either post them on a bulletin board, or to photocopy them and hand those out. I have also used this to get students to make up answer keys for the questions that I then scan and   Next year I plan on expanding its use to Physics 11 as well as Physics 12.  The new Sharepoint at the district level may make this much more available for all staff in the district.  It will be interesting to see.

These are two of the technologies that I have found in the last year that have actually made my life, or I believe, will make my life simpler as a teacher as well as improving my abilities in my classroom.  A win-win situation.