I’ve been thinking that resumes in the 21st Century should probably look different than resumes of the past. But, I guess it all depends on the principal receiving the resume. I would think that a RELEVANT teacher resume will indicate what kind of teacher one will be. Please have a look at this Glogster version and tell me what you think. I believe it says certain things about me: creative, fun, dedicated to continuous learning, collaborative, exploratory, excited to be in the field… Here are some other examples of creative resumes that have been my source of inspiration… http://designmodo.com/30-creative-resume-cv-designs-for-inspiration/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+designmodo+(DesignModo) Bump It Up – Do Better to Be Better! | |
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MeYouHealth (http://www.facebook.com/meyouhealth) has offered this suggestion today: Pay it forward today: Make eye contact and say “hello” or “Have a nice day!” to someone in your community that you don’t usually talk to. I love that I live in a town where people say, “Hello!” as we pass each other. I can tell when I’m in the “Big City”… I try this, people often look at me as if I have two heads! It is sad that being unfriendly has become a norm in many places. This simple act makes people feel a part of the community – connected, and, nowadays, unless we are online, it is easy to feel lost in the world. As an occasional teacher, I always try to greet the students at the door in the morning, offering each one of them a cheery, “Good Morning!” If I know the kids, I add their names. Sometimes, this simple gesture, on my part, can set the tone for our day together. I believe it shows I care, and that I am in their classroom for more than just a pay cheque. Even grumpy and sleepy students can’t help but mumble something back to me, “mumble Morning.” Ps. This also works on teachers, parents, secretaries, custodial staff and principals! A smile is a frown:( upside down:) You just never know who’s day you can turn around by this simple act. Random acts of kindness, whether on the giving or receiving end, can bring more happiness than anything money can buy. It’s amazing to see the transformation on someone’s face when you do it. It is often difficult to scowl when someone genuinely grins at you, and says, “Hi, there!” In Education & Fitness...Games are FUN, and when the mechanics are appropriate, a high level of ENGAGEMENT is born. Thus, ACHIEVEMENT is sure to follow. So, why wouldn’t we take some of these aspects and incorporate them into education? I’m not talking about our students playing video games all day at school (though in small doses and used appropriately, they can be beneficial). So many students “tune out” at school, or they just go through the motions; doing the bare minimum to get by until they are released into the real world. The question remains, are we adequately preparing them for their roles when they get there? Probably not, though I can say with certainty that a lot of great teachers are trying – my Twitter PLN is testiment to that! What are the elements of video games that make players sit in front of a screen, focused for hours on end, and how can we transfer them into the classroom?
Gamification in My Life!I am totally into the ‘Gamification’ of the stuff that we should do in our lives but aren’t always motivated to do. Let me give an example… In January, I came across an amazing site called, Daily Challenge from YouMe Health (challenge.meyouhealth.com). It is a health-focused social game. Daily Challenge sends players simple tasks for them to complete on a daily basis, and the game encourages them to share their results with their Facebook cronies, who can provide encouragement and (ideally) participate in the game themselves. If players do something healthy—such as taking a walk, eating a vegetable-rich salad, or wearing lip balm that provides ample sun protection—they hit a “Done” button and gain points, earn health badges, and progress toward higher levels of the game. (It’d be easy to cheat in this game since there’s no mechanism to prove that a challenge has been done, but then players would really only be wasting their time and, potentially, misleading their friends.) I have so far completed 50 challenges, and feel a great sense of accomplishment. Now, I just need a House Cleaning game! This got me thinking, or reflecting, if you will....I found myself thinking about the school experience as a game one night, instead of sleeping. Here is my vision… I call it, “School as a Role-Play Game” and the role is student (a role our youth already play, but now, they are more engaged). Projects and tests could be quests, and lessons and activities could be the mini-challenges along the way to allow students multiple chances to succeed, thereby keeping them engaged and motivated. The harder goals will strengthen students’ perseverance. Collaboration and cooperation would be key for some of the quests. Along the way, the ‘player’ has the opportunity to train and strengthen different skill sets such as critical thinking, literacy strategies, specific curriculum subjects, problem solving, creativity, etc. There would be mini-games, as well, which are a chance to earn achievement badges or points. These would be the various sports teams, clubs, and intra-murals. Teachers would be like the wise sage character whom students go to for guidance; they also give out the quests; and the rewards/feedback. They could also interact with Experts out in the world from their physical school. Ideally, students would form cross-level, multiple strength groups to aid them in reaching the goals, like in Farmville and other such social games, benefiting both the beginners and the experts.
Sounds quite similar to some of the things we already do, doesn’t it? It’s just kind of tying the bits together, and thinking of it and presenting it to the students as a game. A variation could be, “Super Teacher”… Real-Life Example: Quest to Learn is a New York City public school, a school that uses “game-like learning” as a way to empower and engage students from all walks of life. Quest to Learn (Q2L) is specific in its focus on connecting rigorous student learning to the demands of the 21st century, supporting young people in their learning across digital networks, peer communities, content, careers, and media. From the Site’s Overview… Mission critical at Quest is a translation of the underlying form of games into a powerful pedagogical model for its 6-12th graders. Games work as rule-based learning systems, creating worlds in which players actively participate, use strategic thinking to make choices, solve complex problems, seek content knowledge, receive constant feedback, and consider the point of view of others. As is the case with many of the games played by young people today, Quest is designed to enable students to “take on” the identities and behaviors of explorers, mathematicians, historians, writers, and evolutionary biologists as they work through a dynamic, challenge-based curriculum with content-rich questing to learn at its core. It’s important to note that Quest is not a school whose curriculum is made up of the play of commercial videogames, but rather a school that uses the underlying design principles of games to create highly immersive, game-like learning experiences. Games and other forms of digital media serve another useful purpose at Quest: they serve to model the complexity and promise of “systems.” Understanding and accounting for this complexity is a fundamental literacy of the 21st century. The brainchild of Quest To Learn is a professional game designer named Katie Salen. Salen, like many people interested in education, has spent a lot of time thinking about whether there is a way to make learning feel simultaneously more relevant to students and more connected to the world beyond school. And the answer, as she sees it, lies in games. She believes that going to school can and should be more like playing a game, which is to say it could be made more participatory, more immersive and also, well, fun. Nearly every aspect of life at Quest to Learn is thus designed to be gamelike, even when it doesn’t involve using a computer. Students don’t receive grades but rather achieve levels of expertise, denoted on their report cards as “pre-novice,” “novice,” “apprentice,” “senior” and “master.” They are enlisted to do things like defeat villains and lend a hand to struggling aliens, mostly by working in groups to overcome multifaceted challenges, all created by a collection of behind-the-scenes game designers. The principles are similar to those used in problem-based learning, a more established educational method in which students collaborate to tackle broad, open-ended problems, with a teacher providing guidance though not necessarily a lot of instruction. But at Quest to Learn, the problems have been expertly aerated with fantasy. Once it has been worked over by game designers, a lesson doesn’t look like a lesson anymore. It is now a quest. And while students at the school are put through the usual rigors of studying pre-algebra, basic physics, ancient civilizations and writing, they do it inside interdisciplinary classes with names like Codeworlds — a hybrid of math and English class — where the quests blend skills from different subject areas. Students have been called upon to balance the budget and brainstorm business ideas for an imaginary community called Creepytown, for example, and to design architectural blueprints for a village of bumbling little creatures called the Troggles. There are elements of the school’s curriculum that look familiar — nightly independent reading assignments, weekly reading-comprehension packets and plenty of work with pencils and paper — and others that don’t. Quest to Learn students record podcasts, film and edit videos, play video games, blog avidly and occasionally receive video messages from aliens. They also spend significant time building their own games. Here is a magazine article from the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/magazine/19video-t.html?_r=2&ref=education&pagewanted=all How very fascinating! I want to work at that school! Ideally, we could just open up more of these schools, but, realistically, it is not going to happen. So, what parts of this can we use in our schools? I have had a truly informative and insightful day today. There are two different Blogs that struck a chord with me today, written by two members of my PLN, @HeidiSiwak and @Grade1. I had shared, in a comment, my belief that classroom management issues must be virtually non-existent. This was confirmed. The other Blog’s author stated the same thing.
Being an occasional teacher, I have a lot of opportunity to see what engages students and what does not. The times I have seen the students to be the most involved are when they are using technology. A class of grade 5/6 gifted students were so into the bridge-building stimulation game they were using that they bargained with their French teacher to let them keep at it at the end of the allotted time period. She agreed, on the condition that if they speak, it be in French. The result being that, not only were they learning about structures, they were speaking and learning the vocabulary in French. Just, WOW! In every case that I have seen students involved in meaningful technological projects, they have been engaged. I had to kick another grade 6 class out of the computer lab at break time. They were busy creating comic strips on BitComet. It is truly amazing to see such student involvement. Isn’t it time that students LOVE going to school; that school becomes a place where they are challenged, where they can create and impact the world that they live in? It seems to me that we have finally found the answer to keeping kids engaged, thus successful. So why so much opposition? Our students will be knowledgeable, functioning, critical consumers when we release them to the “real world”. Is this not the goal of Education? Maybe, not everyone’s, but it is definitely mine. A Game, an Application and a Video...Well, it seems things are a little slow in my world of occasional teaching… not that I have ANY problems finding things to do. First, a little looksy on Twitter, then some exploring, and, finally, some sharing… A GAME: Kids love games, so here’s one that gets them to think… Cool online social game where citizens compete to make their city the most energy efficient http://greenmyplace.net/ (Unfortunately, in 2014, this game no longer exists, but it was really cool!) AN APPLICATION: http://www.wordle.net/create This is dead easy to use… 1) Paste in a bunch of text: You can cut&paste text into the text box or write your own text. I wrote my own text in this example. It is a good idea to copy your text before you hit ‘go’. That way, you can go back and alter it if you need to. The program takes repeated words and makes those the largest. Knowing this, I copied certain words and phrases a number of times each to get my desired result. Then I use a Snipping Tool to save my wordle, or you can put it in the Gallery. 2) Enter the URL of any blog, blog feed, or any other web page that has an Atom or RSS feed. 3) Enter a del.icio.us user name to see their tags Here are some ideas (compiled but not originally thought of by me): Wordle your resume” (http://wordle.net) to see what keywords are most prevalent Wordle 4 vocab? Appeals to “visual learners” years later, running across a word, “hey, that was the big word on my wordle!” http://static.animoto.com/swf/w.swf?w=swf/vp1&e=1305689026&f=W90WyyN56mpNMW0PVcYZdg&d=149&m=a&r=240p&volume=&i=m&options= https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_157dpbsg9c5 A VIDEO: This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA’s Benjamin Franklin award. Certainly, gives a lot to think about…
BONUS WEBSITE: This guy knows stuff… http://sirkenrobinson.com/ (Plus, the accent is quite nice, really.) HERE’S A VIDEO I JUST MADE, CALLED “DUNDAS – VALLEY OF DREAMS” ANIMOTO IN 100-WORDS FOR A BRIEF SYNOPSIS. OR…ANIMOTO IN 500-WORDS FOR MORE DETAILS, AND… http://animoto.com/education/ to see how you can use it in the classroom. Just explore the site, already:) You can try it out making 30 second videos, and so can your students. I have gotten the yearly subscription for about $30 and I can make full length videos (10mb song limit). I am going to upgrade (I believe you can do this on a monthly basis)… to get better DVD quality images… I have recently gotten married and plan to have fun making wedding videos over Christmas break. A school I teach in often has used this program for a DVD yearbook and it looked FANTASTIC and the KIDS LOVED IT!!! The accumulation of resources has got to be one of the worst parts of being an occasional teacher…. I see great stuff every single day. I have stuff for all the grades… one day when I get my own classroom, I’d have a proper place to store it, so we would not be forced to use it as furniture. This is over a year’s worth! It’s like a whole acre of rain forest in my living room!! And that’s only about a quarter of the stuff I have in various locations in my small, I mean, quaint abode. It never fails, though… finally throw stuff out and then arises the opportunity to use it… Hey there, Murphey. It’s silly, really! Nowadays, there is no need for all this paper. Myriads of relevant and current resources are available immediately for whatever subject… (Google steps up once again)! I’d love to just toss it all, but I know I never will. Besides, as a supply teacher without access to technology in schools (it is usually locked away), I still use paper:) Today was one of those days…. a good one; dare I say, fun even?! (Darn, I may pay for this tomorrow!) How many jobs are out there that involve reading aloud and acting and playing in the gym? Okay, so there are many teachers out there, but they are very stressed out right now with the ‘all new and improved’ Provincial Report Card… and the rest of the demands that the World of Education makes on their time…. “Data walls, teacher-moderated marking, T-CLPs, running records, benchmark assessments, numeracy assessments, early literacy observation tools, district review team visits, electronic data entry, pre- and post-assessment tasks, class profiles, mock EQAO tests, SMART goals, Alpha-Jeune, PLCs, LNS, PRIME, CASI, DRA, GB+, OLA, APA, OFIP, IEPs, CIL, PLAB, ONAP, OWA, DPA…. Educators across Ontario are swimming through an ever-growing alphabet soup of new initiatives introduced by the government, school boards, and principals. Many of these initiatives are driven by an accountability agenda with little regard for the increased workload they entail.” (an excerpt from ETFO Voice Publication, October 2010, Vol. 13 – No. 1, Michaela Murphy, p. 29) It certainly makes me happy to be an occasional teacher. As great as the stability would be of a full time position at a school that one goes to everyday (like a ‘real’ job, LOL), for now, I think I’ll stick to this…
I mean, really! I get to go to many different schools across the board and teach many different grades. I see many teaching styles and many classes. I see Totally Cool teaching ideas everyday; I see projects kids are engaged in and some they are not. I see varying degrees of technology in action. I see so much! I LOVE it! The variety is something I would have trouble giving up… Sometimes I am a Gym Teacher; sometimes Drama or Art; sometimes Math or Language or French. Sometimes I am the Librarian or the ICT Teacher; other times I am the Science or Social Studies Teacher. I get to sing and play and make art and read stories…. I get to make Learning Fun!!! I know there are many days that aren’t like this, but, today, all is well. In fact, I choose to begin each day thinking it will be Fun… or, at least it won’t kill me (hopefully). Today’s kids think nothing of being ‘on-line’ most of their lives; computers and technology are second-nature. Many of our parents and even their parents have gotten on-board at varying paces. But, I fall somewhere in the middle. Though I have caught myself typing@yahoo.ca after being asked for just my name;) I suspect my lack of know-how in the organizational department of information has to do with the times I grew up, which are directly related to the advance of technology… The first computers I remember using were the good ol’ commodore 64s – with 64K of memory, I’ll have you know!!! Ready… Load, “Frogger”,8 and, voila….. I asked for Frogger and I got Frogger! (Note: I didn’t actually ask, I commanded. It was the times before fancy icons made know-how less important, and why when it all goes wrong, many of us don’t have a clue what to do, other than kick the darn thing!) And, of course, Atari… it’s hard to believe that these were cool graphics! From there… the first Nintendos, and Segas… I could play them and kick my brother’s friends’ butts because, unlike nowadays, you did not need an engineering degree to master the controls; could battle like a pro. Gone are the days where a computer filled a room (not that I remember those days). Now there is more memory and capabilities in smaller, more affordable devices and technology is for everybody, not an elite group. Technology is advancing at supersonic speeds. Today’s children know a lot of “stuff” about these here computers and technology in general. But, what they don’t know, and need guidance and TEACHING of (both from teachers AND parents) is critical literacy and problem solving skills. I am not getting into the debate whether all this technology is good or bad for our children because it is moot – it is here. We are in ‘full on’ technological times. Technology can be both beneficial and harmful, depending on how it is used. So, we teach them how to use it (or they teach us, perhaps). We teach them the same morals and ethics and values. We teach them manners. We teach them Maths and Language. We teach them Art and Music and Dance and Phys. Ed. and Geography and History. We teach them but we teach them differently. We adapt (albeit, some slower than others), we change and we grow with the young people we teach. We guide them. We learn with them how to find, sort and sift through all the information out there. We help them to be critical; to ask questions; to treat others (on- and off-line) as they wish to be treated. It’s all there, just as it was, but different, and if anything, it is more critical we communicate early to get them on the right path for success. AFTER ALL, THE JOBS OUR YOUTH WILL DO IN THE FUTURE, LIKELY DO NOT EVEN EXIST YET!!
I am an occasional teacher with the HWDSB. I am relatively new to participating in this Great Technological Revolution. I have done a few blogs on Posterous and glogs on Glogster, but I am enjoying the flexibility of Wordpress. I have learned to just dive right in. Even if you manage to mess stuff up, there is always help available (erm, right, PLN?).
At first, I was a Twitter skeptic, but as soon as I joined and became part of a PLN, the rest, as they say, was history:) I do find myself having to just turn it off and ignore it though, as there is just so much relevant information. You gotta get the balance right between Social Network and f2f connections! At least it qualifies the claims on our resumes that we are life-long learners! I have used the tagline, "Come Learn With Me..." to invite you into my learning process. I realize that we are all learning together in this Brave New World; in our Web 20, soon to be 30, classrooms (well, I don't have a classroom, I have always been learning and collecting ideas in other people's classrooms - my online experience is a natural extension of that, I guess). Anyway, my Blogs will be about Education in the 21st Century (no, duh, whose isn't?!). I also have an interest in Bullying and how Social Networks could and should be used for good. Since, I am rather fond of cooking, I may also sneak in some recipes, perhaps on a Recipe page (ooh, clever!). I will Blog about MY experiences with learning and share some of the neato resources I come across. I also welcome any suggestions for being a better blogger, as I am fairly new at this! Enjoy your quest for knowledge, and ALWAYS BUMP IT UP:) |
AuthorNicola Schneider, Occasional Teacher, 13 years Categories
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