About Me:
Hi all! My name is Rachel and this is my 5th course in my journey towards obtaining my Masters degree in Education. I am a Long Term Occasional Teacher working for the York Region District School Board. Currently, I am taking over a Maternity leave in a Grade 6/7 classroom at a school in Aurora, Ontario. Apart from the homeroom classes I teach, I am also the rotary science teacher for the intermediates. I love teaching this age group and can honestly say that there is never a dull moment in my class! I love how much I learn from my students every day. They definitely keep me in the loop with what's "hip and happening".
When my school board jumped on the bandwagon with Google Apps for Education I was excited to join in the fun! I have incorporated many of the available Google Apps in my classroom with my students and am excited to keep learning about all the new ways I can integrate them in my curriculum through this course.
Even though my students blog, Blogger is not considered to be one of the trusted websites within the board. The posts are public and privacy is hard to control. Instead of Blogger, we use KidBlog in my class which enables our class to have a safe private blogging community.
Because of this limitation, I have not yet had a chance to practice blogging with Google's Blogger. I am taking this opportunity to learn more about it. So far, the hardest part for me has been learning how to format the blog. I wanted to add an entirely different section for responses instead of having all my posts together, but I have not yet figured out how to create a new tab that will help me organize my posts more efficiently. If anyone has any idea, please help this lady out!
EDUC 5101G
As mentioned above, I am constantly trying to learn more about online tools that will benefit me and my students. Some of the tools I use save me time and help me with productivity. Other tools promote engagement for my students and some make their experience more valuable and authentic.
I am excited to be enrolled in this course as I feel like I will learn a lot about how technology can help me within the walls of my classroom and beyond. I am already happy with the format of the course and feel as though it provides me with opportunities to take on a hands-on-approach with the learning through the PBL projects and chances to reflect on my learning with these online blogs!
Can't wait to share these learning experiences with you all!
Happy Learning!
Hello Rachel,
ReplyDeleteWe have quite a few things in common! I teach Kindergarten in the YRDSB as well. I also am a big fan of Google Apps. I use google apps for documentation purposes and collaboration with the Kindergarten team at our school, but I am interested in learning more about using google apps in the classroom so that my kindergarten students are using technology in meaningful ways. I think it’s amazing that you have create a blogging community for your classroom!
I am looking forward to hearing more about the rich learning that takes place in your classroom.
Mary-Ann