Week 8

Hello! Time is of the essence, as this is my second last blog in ICT (However, I do plan to blog when I have a classroom of my own!). In just over a week I will embark on my second pre-service teaching placement, which will be in a middle years, multilevel classroom. I'm super excited to meet my students and get out there teaching! Unfortunately, for me, I am just getting over being sick. I was really sick this week with a terrible head cold, so, I'm going to do my best to summarize what I learned (when I wasn't sneezing or reaching for kleenex!).

This week felt short (probably because I was sick), but we did do a lot! We shared and watched our videos and had our own mini film festival. I was at the doctor for most of the festival, but some of the other groups showed me their videos on their computers afterwards! Even though I am just a beginner at making videos, I find it to be a really fun process and look forward to making more in the future!

In ICT, we were also lucky enough to have the opportunity to Skype with Kathy Cassidy, the author of the eBook we read as a class, titled "Connected From the Start". It was really neat to talk with her about her book. I have never talked to the author of any of the books I have read so I found it to be a really interesting process. Our class had the opportunity to ask Kathy questions about her book. It was such a cool concept to Skype with her after reading about the positive impact Skype could have in the classroom. I didn't have any questions for Kathy because I feel she explained her ideas and concepts in her book thoroughly, but I was curious if any of her other teachers or colleagues within the school used technology similarly to how she did. One of my fellow classmates asked Kathy a similar question and we were all relieved to find out that another teacher blogged with his students and helped keep up their blogs. I thought this was great that technology evolves as the students go to the next grade. I will be curious to see if the teachers at the school I am student teaching at uses blogs or Skype in their middle years classroom. 

My tech task for ICT this weekend is "every selfie tells a story". I have to take a selfie of myself (hence, selfie) and in the picture incorporate text from Kathy's eBook. Seems easy enough, right? ITS NOT, I'm not a fan of taking selfies, the concept is awkward to me, as are my efforts at taking one. I tried to take a selfie last night, but I failed and took more photos of the wall than myself. The photos I did manage to get of myself are blurry. Even though I am a self titled selfie amateur, I plan to stay positive and hope that I will snap a quality selfie sometime within the next twenty four hours! Wish me luck!

Until next time!