Category: Weekly Reflections

In the future, I expect schools to see more students with behavioural and learning challenges; however, I hope there will be enough additional support and funding that these students will have the tools they need to succeed. I hope that with the advancements in technology that students can have access to virtual support when resources are lacking in schools such as demonstrated in the video of Khan Academy creator using AI to support learning math. Although I am still uncertain about AI, I am optimistic that with time, it will become an integral part of education. I think about my experiences learning math and the difficulties I had, resulting in my parents paying for a math tutor once a week. I despised math tutoring because I was forced to go to an unfamiliar space with a person I did not know and spend an hour learning something I hated. I think about how, with AI, and its potential to be a “tutor”, all students can have equal opportunity for success at no additional cost! I can also see these tools being useful in the classroom. For instance, I imagine a classroom of 30 students with diverse learning needs and one educator teaching a lesson and then giving students a worksheet. Students will have questions, need further explanation, but with only one teacher, some students will not get the support they need. So now I write this and I imagine how impactful it would be for students to have additional support on demand! Students will need the proper training to know how to use these tools, and these systems still need to be developed, but I hope it is coming.

Reflecting on our “Zoom” class we had a few weeks ago, I am starting to realize how impactful it is to offer different opportunities and methods to learning, for all my classes, other than this one, it is expected that students commute to campus and attend class in person. Although I understand the benefits to being in person such as building community and connections, I think the flexibility of offering classes on Zoom could be very beneficial. Life is busy sometimes and making it to campus for an hour course doesn’t always make sense. If all classes had the option to take even just 3 classes on Zoom, I believe the flexibility would increase student participation, interest and attendance.

Additionally, Zoom is a great resource for having guest speakers present in classes from wherever they are in the world.  I think it is fascinating how much education has changed and the increase in methods, and resources that are now available. 

In our last class, we were broken up into groups to discuss topics we were interested in learning more about. The discussion I chose to participate in discussed how to build a class on a budget. This is something that interested me as I feel there is a lot of pressure to be an “aesthetic” teacher. This could include teacher outfits, classroom decor for each season, materials for students and an overall aesthetically pleasing classroom. I follow multiple teachers on TikTok who show their classroom and the colour coordinated decor, and do daily teacher “fit checks”. I find these videos intriguing and I often imagine how I would structure my classroom and the fun “teacher outfits” I would want to wear. Although I think these videos provide inspiration and foster idea generation, I cannot understand how a new teacher affords all these things. It’s my understanding that teachers receive a small budget from the school for classroom materials, however, in my Link2Practice, my mentor teacher explained that this money they receive is not nearly enough to cover the expenses for the whole year. 

After our group discussion, I feel better knowing that most of us new teachers feel the same way and have come up with ways to limit cost. For example, thrift stores are a great place to start building your classroom library. They often have new or lightly used books at a low price. Additionally, in terms of the classroom decor such as letters of the alphabet, number lines and posters, I think we could use platforms such as Canva or powerpoint. 

Here is used an image of strawberries from Pintrest and found a letter on Canva that allows you to replace the background with any image. I think this would be a great way to add character to your classroom without spending any additional money!

A couple of classes ago, we had the opportunity to learn about video editing. We had a guest speaker Rich McCue from the Digital Scholarship Commons come and guide us through a video editing lab. This was an interactive and interesting process that I really enjoyed! Video editing is something I have no experience with, but having support and clear instructions made it a really fun experience. 

During this class, we edited a video on goats. We were required to import the video into iMovie, add an intro screen, transitions and a final credits screen. we were also taught how to adjust the sound. This was a really fun class that taught me some tangible skills! Below I added my video ‘Goats Gone Crazy’.

In this class, we discussed different, accessible platforms for creating visuals. We spent a large portion of the class learning about a free, easy-to-navigate platform that we can use to create assignments, worksheets or just fun visuals. What i found the most interesting was how versatile PowerPoint is. I have only ever used it to make PowerPoint and even then my skills lacked. All I knew how to do was add pictures, and text, and change the themes. Getting to discover new tools such as the 3D art feature, and changing the slide layout and what I found to be the most interesting was removing the background and creating “stickers” out of my own photos. I enjoyed this and getting the opportunity to be creative.

In this class, we heard from Jesse Miller, who shared the benefits of technology in classrooms and the importance of setting boundaries and AI. This was a captivating presentation with so much important information shared. I took a lot away from this presentation, such as the importance of boundaries and my digital footprint, but the conversation on AI stuck with me the most. Other than a few discussions in other courses and using Meta AI on Instagram to create funny images, I have very little experience and understanding of AI and its possible uses. Hearing about the teacher who used AI to create audio sounding like the principal of her school and the students using AI to develop inappropriate pictures was truly shocking. I understand that there are many positives to AI and it may be a beneficial tool that can support student learning as well as my own however, I worry about the consequences of misuse and how I as an educator will be able to support students to use these services appropriately. As I advance toward my career as an educator, I hope to learn more about AI and develop a better understanding so I am more prepared to help my students navigate these new resources. 

Open educational ressources provide free educational materials that are licensed in a way that allows the public to reuse, revise and redistribute. There are already so many barriers to education that platforms such as OER are super important. Accessing free educational ressources, editing them and then sharing them is a way to make education more accessible and I enjoyed learning about OER. I found it interesting to learn about this and to learn about Creative Commons and what that means. Being able to justly use others’ work is important and it is very cool how people can create content with the intent for others to use and for them to be shared. I was aware of sites such as Teacher Pay Teacher but was unaware that many of the ressources being shared are facing challenges with copyright. I liked the idea of being able to share and find resources and be able to support other teachers along the way but now knowing that come work may infringe on copyright I feel less inclined to use it. This was a really thought-provoking lecture and I am excited to see what else we learn this semester!