The Haydn Hideaway

This week in our Internet for Educators class, we focused on online learning. We experienced an online synchronous class on Monday, and had a presenter in our class on Wednesday from Manitoba Education about their online courses. Monday Our class on Monday was hosted on Zoom, an online conference call service with video capabilities. During this class, we discussed our experiences with online courses. We discussed asynchronous, synchronous, and blended learning classes, and their pros and cons. Our class then broke apart into smaller groups to discuss questions about online learning.  Why do we do online at all? I think the best reason is accessibility. For students who do not have access to certain courses because of remoteness or lack of services, online courses provide them with options they would not have otherwise. Online courses allow for flexibility, letting students complete assignments on the own schedules and complete modules at their own pace (assuming the cours...

Today I went to a professional development event called "INvolved - Inclusive Health Promoting Schools" hosted by the University of Winnipeg. It is a physical education student-driven conference that originally started in Brandon about six years ago. A friend of mine, who is a U of W early years education student, invited me to go. Though neither of us are physical education teachers, we thought it would be beneficial for us to learn more about inclusivity, adaptations, and about teaching health class. This friend and I have been friends since our early elementary school years and our general classroom teacher was the one who taught us health, and in case we found ourselves in a similar situation, we thought this would be a good experience. Keynote We began the day with our keynote speaker, Heather Rootsaert from Edmonton Catholic Schools. She is the physical education and wellness consultant and has been a physical education teacher for over twenty years. Her topic was...

For my second Tech Task of the term, we are discussing the digital world our students do, and will, live in. First, we examine diagrams provided of a "typical teacher" and compare it to a "networked" teacher. Then we are to think about what a typical student's diagram would look like, and what the digital world means for their learning, and for us as educators. Let's get started! Typical versus Networked According to diagrams by Alex Couros , the typical teacher has few relationships that influence them. Curriculum documents, popular media, and print/digital resources are influences that act as a one way street. They inform the teacher, provide information, but the teacher does not interact with them anymore than that. The teacher does not  influence the documents, media, and resources. They are also influenced by their colleagues, family, and local community, and the teacher has influence on them. The teacher is able to interact with these relationsh...

Our Internet for Educators class had special guest, Kirsten Thompson , in our classroom to present to us "Why I Replaced Myself with a Machine". Kirsten is the ICT coordinator in Mountain View School Division in Manitoba. She spoke of the importance of WHY we incorporate technology in the classroom, and one of my big takeaways from her presentation was that technology is there to make our lives easier, and increase student/teacher face-to-face instruction. Hierarchy vs. Ecosystem We discussed if robots would replace teachers in the future. Distance learning is becoming more common, and sometimes content in courses is self-led and independent work. What would education look like if we had robots instead of teachers? Kirsten discussed the concept of a Hierarchy Mindset versus a Ecosystem Mindset when it comes to technologies role in the classroom. A hierarchy mindset is the perspective that technology, robots, and AI are at the top of their hierarchy, and are the best, ...

Hello everyone! As previously mentioned, my Internet for Educators course includes Tech Tasks, small assignments that we need to do in blog posts separate from our weekly blog. I'm going to start with Tech Task #1 today, all about our own digital footprints! Our task is to discuss what online services we use, and what appears when we Google ourselves. Then we are to discuss the importance (or lack thereof) of our digital footprint and if it is important to address in schools. Google Searching I am an avid social media user. My main apps/websites (as included in a "Social Media" folder on my phone) include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Pinterest, Snapchat, Linkedin and YouTube. I think I also have accounts on websites such as Soundcloud, but I haven't logged in in ages. If you Google search my name, this is what pops up. None of these links are me! I may pop up if you click the Facebook or Linkedin links, but that is not my Twitter account, my we...

Hello readers, I was eager to begin writing my new education blog. So much so, I decided to start writing as soon as my class was finished today. My name is Kayla Hay, and I am in my final year of the B.Mus/B.Ed concurrent music education program at Brandon University (Canada), with my teachable subjects being early years music and Native studies. I have been the principal bassoonist in the Brandon University Orchestra since 2014, and the Winnipeg Pops Orchestra since 2019. I regularly teach bassoon throughout Manitoba. I looked to join Brandon's School of Music because of the great playing opportunities it would bring me, but I have found (almost) more joy in teaching young children about music. My goal is to teach K-5 general music in the Winnipeg area after my graduation. Though I am passionate about music education, I also aspire to be a teacher-librarian someday. In today's digital world, it has become of utmost importance for youth (and adults...) to understand the ...