Here is a Webquest that I created for a Visual Arts 3o project. I integrate the Evergreen Curriculum with the Module 21 on Personal Identity and Independent Study. This module is optional and I thought I would create my own project for my students. They are to create Artist Trading Cards. I hope you enjoy it! HERE IT IS.
Wrapping up My Blog Saturday, Dec 8 2007
My Thoughts on Teaching 10:50 pm
Well, it’s now the end of the semester and the end of my ECMP 355 class. I have learned so much in this class and I will use it to my benefit. I cannot imagine going into teaching without all the tools I have learned in this past semester. It’s almost as if all these great things( blogs, tools, podcasts, 2.0 classroom) were right under my nose all this time but I had no idea what any of them were for. I would like to thank my prof for all the help he gave me. It was such a treat to be in such a class where things are achieved through participation and hard work but while learning sooo much at the same time. I would like to wish everyone great success in their future and good luck on your finals!
Monster Exchange Tuesday, Dec 4 2007
My Thoughts on Teaching 6:33 pm
The monster exchange project began in 1995 and is designed to develop reading and writing skills while integrating computer technology. As I was viewing this site, an idea came to mind and I believe it would work perfectly in the classroom, not only for English writing but also for art. These children start off creating their own monster with very original traits. This helps them use their originality and drawing skills. They then describe every aspect of their monster and send the description to another student anywhere around the world. The other student, based on his knowledge of what the monster could look like, recreates his own version. I believe this is so great and plan on using it in my art classes. Here is an example of BAM
Original: Jennifer V. Redrawn: Shrestha
Here is the description as to what Shrestha had to work with.
Here are other similar website in which the child can use his or her crafting skills
Trading Cards (done here in Regina in collaboration with the Art galleries)
Mentorship Project Wednesday, Nov 28 2007
My Thoughts on Teaching ECMP Project, Mentorship 5:31 am
The Mentorship project I chose to write with was with the Consumer Math 20s class of Darren Kuropatwa. I was and still stand amazed at the technological advancement of our classrooms. The thing I find is the most interesting about these classroom projects is that the students help each other learn. An example of this is when I asked a student to find the answer to a question I had. He didn’t know how to answer but his friend answered me back. By doing so, he not only gave his classmate the answer, but showed the benefits of having an online class tool as such. I found it a bit intimidating to try to give comments or suggestions to math students because I was never really that good in math. However, the exercise helps me to overcome my fears of the unknown and I even learned many math tricks that I will most likely use! Here are a few examples of the comments I left.
I also learned that this type of teaching keeps the parents accountable as to what their child is learning. It would be great to create a website as such to help the parents of my students updated on their child’s success just as Mr. Kuropatwa did.
To James,
I like your sense of humor James. The step 6 is the best part isn’t it? Because you know you are going to pass the test! Thanks for sharing that with us. It’s so much simpler to find the answer to larger numbers once you have tricks. Is there a trick to finding an answer quick when you have divide 3 digit numbers by 9? For example, 432/9…
James said,
Veronique
I have no clue about a trick to divide three digit numbers by 9, but I assume Mr. K has one and is just not sharing it with people. =O
Vincent said,
hello, its me vincent, i have a clue about your question, veronique,this how it is, 432/9=48 simply put the first figure of the dividend down as it is, so its 4, 4 is our first number of our answer, then add diagonally to get the next quotient digit.so, its 4+3=7. 7 is our 2nd number of our answer, but 47 is not our final answer. next step is to add the 7+2=9. actually the digit of 9 or more is not permitted because we are trying to find how many 9’s are there in 432,so there’s 1 nine in 9 so we must add that 1 into 47,so the final answer is 48.
I replied,
Great thinking Vincent!
I am impressed by your critical analysis. You are clear and in control of the topic. Keep it up! Thanks for answering my question!
Another comment was the following but I did not receive any reply yet.
To Junar,
That’s a really great thing to learn about healthy food especially with all the bad things we unconsciously eat. You should check out this site http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/food-guide-aliment/index_e.html on Canada Food Guide. Maybe you have already seen it. I have a little task for you. Check out the website and tell me how much milk CHILDREN need to drink and why. If you find this answer maybe you can ask me a really tough one too and I’ll try to answer it. 
Classroom 2.0 with Clarence Fisher Friday, Nov 2 2007
My Thoughts on Teaching Clarence Fisher, classroom 2.0, ECMP 355, k12online07cl01, My Thoughts on Teaching 7:24 pm
Clarence Fisher did a true masterpiece with his presentation about Classroom 2.0 You Live Where? by introducing different aspects of learning environments. His presentation was set in nature, one of the most beautiful places to be in.
I am very happy to see a teacher speaking from a rural point of view because it brings back some nice memories of my school days in my town. We also had some great technological innovations happen in our school because it was a small school, it was a minority school funded by the government, and because many classes were not offered from teachers, we turned to video-conference classes, E-learning and asynchrony, and multi classrooms with other schools from around the province.
I liked his concept of our educational world having changed from not only isolation to global connections but also from teaching students to stay in a town to teaching them to go beyond their limitations and showing them that they have many options.
Before watching this conference video I had no idea what the idea of classroom 2.0 was. These are the things I understood from it.
-It is about a change in schooling. Not only in blogging and responding or even using any tools, but most importantly in the pedagogy and in our way of teaching. That is the most important change taking place.
-We do not solve anything by using the same old ways of teaching such as memorizing and having the students spit information back to us. They cannot speak creatively in this way.
-Tools help collaboration between students and their environment-local and international. It makes it easy for them to communicate with each other, to exchange ideas and views points, and even to make connections.
-Information is vital! Textbooks are not our only resource now. We want our students to question the information, not only read it.
-Unfortunately, the curriculum is hard to change but we must follow it by choosing what is most important and what kids really need.
The following things are what Clarence does with his students:
Blogging, RSSing, Flickering, Podcasting, Voicethreading, Edublogging
Fortunately,I now understand all these tools because of what my prof, Alec Couros, is teaching us in ECMP 355 at the University of Regina.
It was nice to hear his opinion on classrooms as studios- sharing, worksheets, group work, collaboration, interaction, different things going on, everyone working at their own pace, maybe a bit louder but even more energetic and vibrant for students. This is a very different idea from the usual classroom.
Classroom 2.0 redefines many things such as activities being different yet appropriate, spaces being larger than the normal classroom, and schedules changing from school hours to online hours, being attainable and flexible to every student. The thing that impacted me the most from this presentation was that all these ideas are possible and objectives are reachable by trying different ways of teaching. When I become a teacher I really want to bring these ideas forth in my own pedagogy. It will not only benefit the students, but it will help me to make my teaching FUN, simple, engaging, and most importantly, collective.
Students’ relationships with teachers with this concept are more positive ones and much more interactive. Blogging helps that very much. I believe that if speaking in person makes someone a bit uncomfortable, asking those questions online or on paper make communication more productive. It becomes easier to speak in person because you already have a good idea of who the person is, either by how he or she writes, explains, or even reacts to you. Hopefully, my students will be comfortable with my blogging and they will want to be involved in the discussions and questions I set out.
“Teaching today is a collective effort and not an individual accomplishment” – Tom Carrol
Learning is networked and done together. Technology is about getting together, about connectiong to others, about learning from each other, and about seeing new things. If we can integrate technology and teaching the right way, we have a pretty good start at accomplishing many things with enthusiasm!
Losing your phone Wednesday, Oct 31 2007
My Thoughts on Teaching and My thoughts 5:21 am
I have been listening to the conference presentation on cell phones in learning and it is funny that the subject of phones has come up once more because just this week-end, I lost mine. It’s crazy how dependent we can become on cell phones. They are our number mean of communication and of use on a daily basis. I use my phone for many things such as texting, keeping all my friends numbers, calendering, noting assignments and setting schedules, and most importantly, setting it as an alarm clock in the morning. Now, of course these are the basic things for me but now that I have heard Liz Kolbs presentation on cellphones in schools, it stunned me that, like 73% of high school students, I rely on my phone daily. It has become more than just a toy to me, and I know that to many students, it is a planner, a scheduler, and a tool. Although I don’t use the internet on mine very much, it is another effective tool that is offered with cells. This is a little insight that I had by listening to Liz.
Presentations Monday, Oct 22 2007
My Thoughts on Teaching 5:24 am
I think that class presentations have gone such a long way in the last few years. I’m presently working on a group presentation for my Art100 class. At the beginning of each class, a different group presents a Canadian artist assigned by the prof. It is so great to see all the tools that every one is using starting from powerpoint to short clips, even to actual documentaries all used through internet resources and technological advances. I think it’s amazing! I don’t know if it’s just the creativity of art students, but it seems that it is so much more interesting to learn with visual aid. I truly believe that we are much more visual than we think and that each student, although they probably practice it with television and all sorts of other things, needs to be educated through visuals. When we can put visual and audio learning together, this can be the best tool other than pure communication. My group is presenting a Canadian artist called Janet Cardiff, and although some of you may have heard of her or seen her work, I thought it would be cool to post a link of one of the installation works that she does. It is called the Killing Machine. It displays the social aspects of the electric chairs through very technological advances. This could be a very cool thing to show students, for example, history students learning about the lethal punishment. The thing that is the most interesting with this clip is that, although it may not be the usual form of art that we see on canvases, it is still art. Technology is being used in every thing now, and if you have time to see this clip, I think you will enjoy seeing how far we can go with technology. As far as teaching goes, why not involve our students in more technological artistry?
