Well... had some trouble getting my topic narrowed down for my Inquiry project. But, through some great guidance (thank you Dr. Mary Stordy) I am well into it now... actually, just about done. Once I finally had it figured out, I spent all of my free time digging into it and learned a lot. I did notice that I spent a lot of the time searching though. I remember the days when courses were along the lines of "here you go, here is everything you need" but those days are gone when it comes to working on your masters. Though I did find in this course the guidance is there if you ask! Maybe I should more time asking... like I tell my students. HAHA!
Anyway, I hope that I am doing this along the right lines. Sometimes I wonder if what I am doing is even close to what I am supposed to be doing. Especially after the initial problems I had narrowinf down my topic... I wonder if anyone else was having the same trouble... Probably not . lol.
The end of term is approaching fast. I am feverishly working at getting everything done. My wife and kids went to her mothers for the next 5 days so that I could try and get everything done. Hope I can. If I never had to go to work it would be easy to do. :) But, at least what I am reading in this course is interesting.
Well I must get back to it I suppose.
Saturday, 26 November 2011
Monday, 14 November 2011
The time, the time... and project based learning too!
Seems as though the year/semester is flying by! 5 more weekend until the Christmas weekend!!!WHAT!?! Guess I better get a move on... inqury project is going slow, but I think I am on the right track. Time is of the essence now and there doesn't seem to be enough of it in one day. Hopefully, time will slow down over the next few weeks so that I can get some of the work done that has been piling up. Who knew that there would be so much of it.
Found out that I am going to have an intern in the new year. This my first time having one and I am looking forward to the experience. I hope that she gets something from my experiences I have to sharer and that she becomes a better teacher than I. We will see.
I am working on incorporating the method that Pheonix Park has been using into my classroom... kind of... I like the idea of project work in class and have done so in a unit in grade 8, so I am trying to create one for a unit in grade 7 that is a unit that the grade 7 students tend not to do as well in. I am not sure the reason for it, be it the way I present it, the time of year it comes up , or maybe the back ground that they have in it. But, I am going to try a different approach this year to see if that works. It is not a unit that has been trouble in other schools that I have been in so I am wondering if it is a background thing. Either way, I am going to try a project based approach. Though I am not going to give my grade 7 students the freedom that is given at PP. I will be continually keeping them on task and guiding them in the right direction. We will see how it goes. Hopefully I won't have to abandon it and go back to what I did in the past.
They are a lovely group though and I think it will work well. Wish me luck!
Found out that I am going to have an intern in the new year. This my first time having one and I am looking forward to the experience. I hope that she gets something from my experiences I have to sharer and that she becomes a better teacher than I. We will see.
I am working on incorporating the method that Pheonix Park has been using into my classroom... kind of... I like the idea of project work in class and have done so in a unit in grade 8, so I am trying to create one for a unit in grade 7 that is a unit that the grade 7 students tend not to do as well in. I am not sure the reason for it, be it the way I present it, the time of year it comes up , or maybe the back ground that they have in it. But, I am going to try a different approach this year to see if that works. It is not a unit that has been trouble in other schools that I have been in so I am wondering if it is a background thing. Either way, I am going to try a project based approach. Though I am not going to give my grade 7 students the freedom that is given at PP. I will be continually keeping them on task and guiding them in the right direction. We will see how it goes. Hopefully I won't have to abandon it and go back to what I did in the past.
They are a lovely group though and I think it will work well. Wish me luck!
Wednesday, 2 November 2011
PD on technology
Yesterday we had our junior high close out. I attended a grade 7 and 8 math DI sharing session. Got a lot of great tech uses for classes. The presenter focused at one point on how we can use the cell phone in our classes. Instead of fighting with students about bringing their cell phones to class, we can embrace the fact that they almost all have them and use it to our advantage. I was really interested in this as I had considered using this idea as a focus for my inquiry project. I intend on getting more information on this topic and was hoping that I could "killl two birds with one stone" if you will, but it does not focus enough on math and can be applied to other subject areas. Which I think is a good thing. There are not enough hours in the day to tackle everything at the one time, so it may have to wait until another date.... maybe. We'll see. In the end, I thought it was very interesting.
Another thing that was pointed out was that in the students eyes their parents use email, a student texts. A valid point I think! I think that we have to remember that students have interestes in things that we may not. I think that in order to be very effective as a teacher we should embrace these things and use them to our advantage.
Another thing that was pointed out was that in the students eyes their parents use email, a student texts. A valid point I think! I think that we have to remember that students have interestes in things that we may not. I think that in order to be very effective as a teacher we should embrace these things and use them to our advantage.
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