EDTC 300 Blogs

       My cooperating partner this fall put me on this new AI tool for educators called Eduaide . Before using this tool, I was familiar with Chatgpt. The difference between them is that Eduaide is shaped particularly for education and planning instructional materials while Chatgpt might not cover the perspective of education as effectively.       This AI tool is beneficial for educators who need ideas and new strategies to use for instruction and the classroom. Eduaide has over 100 different resource types to explore, and I've yet to explore myself. I've used the lesson seed before, and it works really well! Eduaide  A lesson seed Eduaide gave me recently. There's more to it, but that's all you get from me. Eduaide covers planning, information objects, independent practice, cooperative learning, gamification, and questions that teachers may need. This AI tool can assist with lesson and unit plans, assessment measures, engagement activities, ...

       My University of Regina transcript says that I'm on a fantastic journey to teaching middle years, which is around grades 6-9. This week's blog prompt poses an interesting concept for me: how do you teach digital literacy effectively so that students are able to recognize misinformation? I thought about the importance of digital literacy especially in middle years. I witnessed this fall how much tech or research is integrated into lessons. In fact, I was going to teach grade 7 and 8 students about government systems of various countries where they would group up and research specific information. I was advised not to allow students to fend for themselves and enter all these stranger sites through Google. Instead, I should direct students to Britannica School which is accessible through Clever. At the time, I agreed that students should stick to this trusted database to limit the possibility of them finding the wrong stuff.  However, exposure to the "wrong ...

     I did not know that Scratch was something that my younger brothers had worked with in school. They saw me coding (or attempting to) away on my 80-year-old Macbook and harangued me the entire time. I wondered, "What is the deal? Why is this something I had to do? Why is coding something THEY had to do?" As I persevered through the complexities of a seemingly simple coding program, I realized a couple things. 1. Trial and Error     You make many mistakes before you can see the fruits of your labor. I cannot count how many times my Sprite disappeared on me every time I fiddled with the backdrop and how long I spent trying to get it back before I had to completely reset everything. Thankfully, my brothers gave me tips and helped me to better understand coding.  Benefit : teach students that making mistakes is normal and there's nothing wrong with it; it's part of the natural process of creating something from something you've never used before. 2. Ke...

The lights are set up, and so are the Christmas decorations. I figured, "Why not write a poem for my favorite holiday?"  It worked out very well that my poetry form for this week is the " occasional ." Occasional Poetry      You can definitely guess what this particular poetry style entails. Poets.org  states, " An occasional poem is a poem written to document or provide commentary on an event. It is often intended to be read or performed publicly." (2023, n.p.). I remember analyzing one of these in my AP English class in grade 10. It was Alfred Lord Tennyson's " The Charge of the Light Brigade ." There are no specific guidelines for this poetry form other than marking an event. Why the festive mood?      I was talking to my mom recently about how I wished we could visit the Philippines now. See, we went home last summer, and it rained a lot. The ideal season to visit is during winter, especially around Christmas. They celebrate the holidays ...

 Well, well, well... Here's one of the most popular poetry forms... and one of the shortest.  I remember writing so many haiku in school. However, I don't actually remember how I wrote them. What are haikus? According to Grammarly , my partner this week,  "haiku are short, unrhymed poems that adhere to a specific three-line, seventeen-syllable format. The form originated in Japan, but today people across the globe read and write haiku in many different languages. Because of different languages’ unique syllabic and grammatical structures, haiku have slightly different formats from language to language." The seventeen-syllable format is first line=5, second line=7, and third line=5.  Did you know that 'haiku' was actually 'hokku' and part of collaboration poems called 'renga'?  Did you know that the plural form for haiku can be haiku and haikus? Just for fun, I watched this YouTube video, and it was very helpful.  I followed Ms. Drought's pro...

 I genuinely had no idea ekphrastic poetry was a thing. ' Ekphrasis ' is not something you usually hear.  Well, what is it? Ekphrasis  (ecphrasis) comes from the Greek word meaning 'description.' Basically, ekphrastic poems are vivid descriptions of artworks. These poems don't follow a structure or rhyme scheme. Actually, ekphrastic poems can be written in any other poetry style or found within a poem.   Ekphrastic poetry is not about form, rigidity, or structure, but the connection between poetry and art. I watched Johnny Savage's YouTube video on ekphrastic poetry , and he says, "It's not saying what you see, it's more like what is happening in the picture." Johnny also says, " Go anywhere you can see art: galleries, museums, universities... or go online! And try writing a poem in response to that moment you are looking at that picture ." I like art as much as I like poetry so this style sounded exciting.       I went on Google Arts...