Category: Uncategorized

Looking back over the course I feel appreciative for the opportunity to delve into my French language skills and see where I was at. I was able to practice writing by typing entries into Chat GPT and asking the generator to correct my mistakes. This allowed me to write freely and express myself in French without worrying too much about mistakes during the initial phase. Once I had the corrections, I read through them and copied the finished product into my blog. It was nice to work with AI because I was able to produce text in French that was correct and see where the gaps were in my language skills. Figuring out what language features I was missing helped me direct further study in the right areas.

Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to do everything I wanted to. There was a French program offered for free through the education program. I was able to attend one of the sessions for beginner French. I was told I was beyond that level and should be in the intermediate class. That was great. The problem was that the intermediate conversation cafe overlapped with one of my classes. I could have attended for about 25 minutes per week but I didn’t end up going as it didn’t feel worthwhile if I had to rush out early. I wish I could have practiced conversation during that cafe but will seek out other opportunities in the future. There was also a zoom session offered through the same program. It was several sessions to prepare for the Delf B2 exam. I did one session and felt my level was far below other members of the class. I also did not pursue the remainder of the sessions as I was too busy.

When the time rolled around to take the Delf B2 exam, I opted out. I was already busy with family and school priorities and felt unprepared to for success. There will be more opportunities to do this exam during the remainder of my schooling so I do intend to seek out those chances to sit the test. Looking back on my experience in French, in this class and prior, I do feel semi-prepared. If it doesn’t work out, there will always be a next time. Learning is continuous. I appreciated this opportunity to intensify that process for a few months.

Fippa, digital resources, gamification, generative AI, and the Multimedia Principle. These are some areas of tech we looked at during the course. The bottom right hand corner of my sketchnote is disturbing, who knows what the future will bring with AI? It’s connected to FIPPA, how we choose to work with tech and the environment. Gamification brings joy into learning, and the multimedia principle reminds presenters to avoid cognitive overload. All good food for thought to take forward from our 336 course.

I watched “Old Projects versus New Projects” by Liz, Shay, Amy and Sheyla, “Using Film in Classrooms” by Annalise, Beth, Drew and Meghan, “Using Slido in the Classroom” by Refano, Jack, Will and Byron and “Using Stop Motion to Support Multimodial Learning” by Rylie and company. I liked the topic of comparing old projects to new projects and the group was creative with their approach of doing a podcast. The Stop Motion animation was great. Unfortunately during the question and answer in class one student raised the issue of how time-consuming it is to create stop-motion animation. Still, I think it is a really cool idea and would be a really fun and creative way for students to respond to pretty much anything in a school setting. Below is a still from their animation on DNA.

Here is a link to the Slido Presentation posted on Jack’s WordPress Blog and here is the Using Film in Classrooms video that group posted to YouTube. I still need to investigate Slido further because I have never used it and am grateful to the group for introducing me to a new tool. I appreciated the Using Film in Classrooms presentation. I already knew about the National Film Board and it’s always good to be reminded of such an enriching corner that contains so many stories about this country. Film is definitely a great part of experiencing school but as a parent, I do have concerns about screen time so I think they could have included some research on this in their project. Instead they focused on Permissions, Budgets and streaming services.

Today we did an EdCamp on Supporting Skills for students. The topic was a bit general so we brainstormed what skills we think are needed in today’s schools.

Assertiveness training, spelling, public speaking and social skills were some key areas we identified.

We agreed that skits and presentations should continue to be part of learning in schools and that anxiety increases the more we avoid difficulty. In contrast exposure therapy can help decrease anxiety and encourage youth to be more confident in areas they wouldn’t otherwise be.

I like the EdCamp idea because it gives people a chance to chat and discuss topics of interest. One part of the experience that was disappointing to me was that there were a certain number of participants in our group who did not contribute to the discussion. I think this is one of the failures of Zoom, it is a bit easier to stay out of the conversation whereas if we had been in person we could have brought everyone into the discussion more easily. Some group members even turned their screens off which was disappointing.

We argued a bit because I suggested self defense skills as worthwhile but others argued students might try to justify using self defense to escalate instead of deescalate potentially violent situations. I agreed to disagree as I think knowing self-defense doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in physical conflict but does enable youth to be prepared in case of a violent incident.