Miss Schwarz

For the final presentation in our Internet for Educators class we had the absolute pleasure of hearing Dean Shareski speak about the joys of teaching and boy it sure was exactly what I needed to hear. This semester I took on the difficult task of both online education classes and teaching grade one part-time. I started to really question whether or not this was the type of career I was cut out for. It felt like I was dedicating every spare minute I had in the day to planning, prepping, or doing assignments. Many questions formed on whether or not I was prepared to be doing this for the rest of my life. Dean put a lot of my questions into perspective by saying "busy is not a badge of honor". I really needed to hear this because I felt like if I wasn't busy doing something then I was slacking. The podcast that I started listening to this semester also talked about how we need to "be present where our feet are" meaning that we can not be worried constantly about sc...

This week we had the pleasure of meeting Chris Fredrickson and Shannon Magee who talked to us about distance learning, which whether we like it or not is our current reality in the world of education. I also had the opportunity to attend Manitoba's Byte (Build your Teaching Experience) professional development day which I learned some pretty amazing things. The Keynote speaker for this event was Daphne McMenemy who brought us some neat ideas on incorporating coding across all subject areas in the classroom.   Chris and Shannon's talk revolved around the platform Brightspace which is an education-based webpage that is designed for schools. Google, Microsoft, and Zoom are all great platforms to use in a school setting but were not specifically designed for students and teacher use, where Brightspace was created with this purpose. Chris and Shannon talked about all the amazing aspects this platform has and how it can be utilized fully in education. The one tool that they shared t...

Infographics are a great way to get information across in a visually pleasing and efficient way. An Infographic at a glance is similar to a poster but is created using technology and is much more structured and organized. This representation of data is typically appealing to look at and supply the reader with enough information to develop a well-rounded understanding of the topic. Developing a way to get information across in an interesting way is always the goal of a teacher, so infographics in my opinion definitely have a place within the classroom.  Using infographics in a classroom can be very beneficial, from both the teacher's side and the student's side. Posting infographics around the classroom regarding the topics being discussed can be a great way to re-enforce certain topics. When productive information is posted around the classroom it allows for students to review information in a way that doesn't even seem like they are. In this past year with schools resortin...

Over the past couple of weeks in our Internet for Educators class, we had the opportunity to meet with two exceptional presenters, Tyler Letkemen and Matteo DiMuro. Both presenters are Brandon University Education alumni and they each brought us so much knowledge on the way that they incorporate technology in their classrooms. Tyler Letkemen is currently a teacher at Vincent Massy here in Brandon and informed us of some interesting ways to use technology as an educator. One of my personal favorites that he shared with us was using memes as a way to encourage writing in his classroom. We were able to see some examples from his students and I thought it was a great way to get students excited about writing in a creative and unique way. Tyler discussed the importance of implementing real-world writing for students. Schools tend to put a lot of emphasis on formal writing like essays and papers when that isn't the only type of writing that is done outside of high-school. He talked a lot...

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have now entered the world of early elementary teaching and in short, it kind of terrifies me. The jump from the junior high level to the early years level, from an educator's point of view, is quite substantial. I have been doing a great amount of research on resources needed for educating grade ones and the youtube series from Jack Hartmann was high on everyone's list. A warning when exploring his channel, you will get 90% of his songs stuck in your head.  Jack Hartmann Channel His videos are great for the much-needed brain breaks that all six-year-olds need.  Have Fun and Freeze!  is a great example of a fantastic video to use as a brain break. Getting kids up and moving will benefit their overall focus later on in class. I love to give students something to look forward to as well and this works as a reward when students have been staying on task and doing their work. Grade one is an age where kids just love getting up and danc...

Twitter - an app full of possibilities. Twitter overall for me has been a weird experience I would say. I first created an account when I was around grade 10 and was a very active user. I loved it for memes mostly and it was also a form of social media that was separate from my mom and other parents. That on its own was very appealing. Facebook was too censored for my likings at the time and Instagram or Snapchat was not very popular yet. In the years since I first joined, I sort of fell off of the Twitter wagon. I only would check it occasionally in desperate times of boredom. When I found out that a Twitter account was suggested for this class I dusted off the old account and got it ready to roll. It was very entertaining to go back and look through what I had thought to be quality tweets back in 2013. In retrospect, I should have just created a whole new account but it sure was a fun-filled afternoon deleting the cringy tweets on my account.  I know that social media is growing ...

The blogging world is something I personally never thought too much about until recently. I never fully understood or appreciated the potential of what a blog can become until I started to explore the world of edubloggers. Blogs can be the home to so many amazing things. For my upcoming student teaching practicum, I have been placed in a grade one classroom which is a little out of my comfort zone. This has lead me in the direction to explore and research elementary teacher blogs. There is so much helpful information out there in the form of blogs and I was able to find a few that I will continue to follow. Through my research, I came across a blog called  The Lemonade Stand Teacher   and it has been quite helpful in understanding the immense amount of effort behind the creation of an elementary teacher.  Tiffany Gannon, the author behind  The Lemonade Stand Teacher , is an elementary teacher who loves to share her ideas regarding hands-on learning in the classroom. ...

I just wanted to share a little slide show I put together as a little snapshot into my life. I was playing around with the creation of a Bitmoji classroom and this is the result, hope you enjoy it.  About me

It is really quite amazing to see how far technology has evolved over the years. Today, I find it really hard to even imagine a world without laptops, smartphones, or access to wifi almost everywhere, but in reality that 'semi-disconnected' world existed only a mere 10 years ago. Ten years ago we all had dial-up internet and relied on the good old landline as a primary form of communication. I encourage you to check out this video about the evolution of technology over the years to really explain how far we have come as a digital-connected society:  Past and Present . This video lay's out how specific technology has transformed over the years. It is truly incredible to witness a world that has advanced so much in such a short time period. It makes me wonder how much further we can continue our advancements.  I personally had a very unique experience with technology. I was born into a world that I would define as a sort of in-between in a way. Somewhere partway to where we...