Inspirational Find - Try something new!

Weekend Highlight - Robotics Competition

This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of being a spectator of a robotics compeitition for TDSB elementary schools with my York ICT class. It was a great learning experience! We watched times competitions between student groups of their robots. They had to complete a certain number of "missions" within in 2.5 minutes. Then, groups were also judged based on design, collaboration and a seperate project based on natural disasters. These students excluded 21st century learning skills, collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity were all present. Their passion was inspiring and I personally hope to learn more about the First Lego League because I think this is a great oppurtunity for students to find their passion, problem solve an authentic task. 

Inspirational Read: "From Dyslexia to CEO: How my learning disabilities taught me to be a successful entrepreneur"

Found the following aritcle written by Brett Kopf via Zite : 

"From Dyslexia to CEO: How my learning disabilities taught me to be a successful entrepreneur"

In my York ICT class, we explore many technology tools that help enhance both the learning of students and teachers in our 21st century classrooms. One of the tools we looked at was, Remind101, a one way messaging service that sends text messages to students/parents to do exactly what the product name suggests, "remind"! It is a great tool to remind students of upcoming events, tests dates and other simple reminders. The one-way messaging means that a generic/anoymous number sends the text message, once the teacher registers an account. The student/parent cannot reply back to the message as it is a computer generated number.

The other day, I was browsing through articles on Zite and "how my learning disabilities taught me to be a successful entrepreneur" part of the headline totally caught my attention. When I opened the link to the article I realized that the CEO was the creator and founder of Remind101! This aritcle shows how one's disabilities or struggles does not prevent one from acheiveing success. Brett Kopf was able to create a product to help others who have similar struggles as him (forgetting things! - sometimes not by choice). Check the article out - it is truly an inspirational read! 

Inspirational Find - Real-life "King's Speech"

This past week, Melissa, a friend of mine, posted this video on her social feed via Upworthy. This emotional video documents the journey of a young boy in the UK who finds a voice in front of an audience through his teacher's explicit practice of differentiated instruction.... headphones and music! Just like the movie, starring Colin Firth in "King's Speech", this young boy masters public speaking by putting on headphones and having the music playing! This video is a great example of the importance of differentiated instruction in the classroom and the profound impact of what happens when one CARES.

Inspirational Find : The First 20 Hours- Josh Kaufman

In my newest inspirational TED talk find, Josh Kaufman argues that it does not take 10,000 hours to learn something new and he demonstrates with his goal to master the ukulele! This talk is worth 20 minutes of your time, as Kaufman's musical performance itself is worth the watch, but his performance is evidence to his argument. In my current York ICT AQ class, I'm constantly learning new ways to integrate technology as a tool for 21st century learning. New learning sometimes is frustrating, but it is no reason to give up!! Kaufman finds "fear" as the most common factor of why people are reluctant to learn something new.

As an advocate for life-long learning, we should embrace the challenges and frustration that comes with acquiring new knowledge. Kaufman provides a great message to teachers, with a new learning process comes "fear" and "frustration". Let's provide strategies and tools for students to understand "it's ok" to have these emotions and encourage life-long learning.

*Came across this inspirational find through an article posted on TNW via Zite.

Inspirational Find : TED Talk - Kelly McGonigal: How to Make Stress Your Friend

In this inspirational find, Kelly McGonigal speaks about how to make stress your friend! The idea of viewing stress as not a "negative" factor in your life, but how we should embrace the changes our body induces under stress. If you have some time, check out the talk and ask yourself "have I ever tried to make stress my friend?" This talk truly made me reevaluate my lifestyle and reflect upon how I approach tasks and challenges or "stress" in my life. 

As a classroom teacher, I think it is important for students to know how to deal with "stress". After viewing this talk, it made me rethink of how we teach students to deal with stress. Do we provide an alternative narrative to stress, rather than "stress is bad for you etc." ? Are students equipped with the right tools to deal with "stress" ? Is there enough open-discussion about mental health awareness? 

**I have to give credit to my cousin, Jenn, who lead me to this inspirational find!! Thank you! :) 

POWTOON

Here is a short video creation, a product from experimenting PowToon in my YorkICT AQ class. Had so much fun and it was easy to use. I had gone to New York for Canadian Thanksgiving and used it as my topic for my Powtoon! I loved how easy it was to use and the animated characters (not just clip art) make the presentation interactive and fun.

Application Ideas:
- presentation tool
- allows for voice/audio to be added to the presentation --> alternative to oral presentation
- media --> animation
- narrative writing
- procedural writing
- storyboard
- dramatic arts

Beans In Action! - Experimenting With Stop Motion Animation

Beans In Action! By: Krystal, Nick & Joanne! 

Experimenting STOP MOTION in YorkICT AQ class this past Saturday. Simple to create, all you need is the STOP MOTION app or IMOTION app and take continuous shots to capture a movement. The white kidney beans worked really well and from 3 teachers who were beginner application users, using the application for the first time ...our short video was a success! Other materials to consider: plasticine, lego pieces, objects etc. Other class members came up with great scenarios and involving audio as well.

Application Ideas:
- integrating the Arts (i.e drama, visual, music, media)
- students can write a storyboard and turn it into a stop-motion animation
- tutorials of "how to's"
- procedural writing
- representing a mathematical problem
- alternative to oral presentations

Welcome to Ms. Chung's Learning Space!

WELCOME ! 

I will be using this blog as a working space to document and share my new learnings on interests related to education and teaching. I hope to share fun, inspirational ideas and tools on here that can be used in the classroom and discuss how it has helped my teaching practice! 

Starting up this blog has been a learning curve for myself (you learn something new everyday!), but nonetheless, it's up and running.........let the blogging begin! 

P.S. Thank you to everyone in my York University ICT AQ who helped me get this blog started! :)