Voyage Coetail

What is changing because of technology: education or the educators? This week’s prompt gives me a lot to reflect on! That’s another good thing about Coetail: the reflection part! Reflecting on our learning is already a change in education and it is even more visible and doable because of technology. Obviously, I’ve always reflected on my teaching but not as much as I do now. I’ve never blogged about it. [caption id="attachment_420" align="aligncenter" width="300"] flickr photo by omran.jamal https://flickr.com/photos/62855773@N08/10757491534 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license[/caption] Reflection is, I think, part of the growth mindset and if we want changes to happen, don’t we, educators, need to have a growth mindset? Easy to say when we know how scary tech integration can be sometimes. Carol Dweck, author of “ Mindset ” explained in Recognizing and overcoming false growth mindset We have come to realize that every one of us is a mixture of bo...

One of the most important concepts in teaching is creating opportunities to make thinking visible. When teachers can really see the thinking of their students, they can provide these students with the support and encouragement they need to be successful. I truly believe in this statement regardless of learning strategies educators are willing to use. Tech integration is just a tool to support the students’ Learning. Games, game-based and gamification As I teach K1 and K2, I cannot see my classroom without games. First of all games are fun! Then learning is fun. Thus games have a place in my classroom. I know however that games tend to be less present in my older grades, French classes. [caption id="attachment_407" align="aligncenter" width="300"] flickr photo by Christos Tsoumplekas (Back again!) https://flickr.com/photos/tsoumplekas/4989423482 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license[/caption] I find that just so easy to play with the youngest. Ev...

What I like the most with Coetail is that I have valid reasons to try new things!! As this week is about project-based learning, problem-based learning, challenge based learning….I jumped in and introduced a Genius Hour-like to my Grade 5. (To be honest, the idea came after I attended Marcello Mongardi session at Learning 2) …More on that later… [caption id="attachment_392" align="aligncenter" width="300"] flickr photo by Prairiekittin https://flickr.com/photos/prairiekittin/5951368139 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-ND) license[/caption] The philosophy behind PBL, CBL, PBL… Projects: I like doing projects with my students but at the same time, just the thought of organizing a project gave me goose bump! As yes, it’s always fun to start a project, I find also always difficult to finish it on time, to manage the unforeseen…. That’s why I’ve always kept it simple, kept it analog and more like a wrap-up of what has been learnt in the unit. Maybe it’s no...

Tech integration in a French classroom Have I already told you that I teach French? I believe that teaching language is all about bringing authenticity in the classroom. Because learning and acquiring a new language must be a need. That’s where technology integration fits into my language classroom because it brings authentic materials and I can create “authentic “tasks.   Technology also changes the way teachers teach, offering educators effective ways to reach different types of learners and assess student understanding through multiple means. It also enhances the relationship between teacher and student. When technology is effectively integrated into subject areas, teachers grow into roles of adviser, content expert, and coach. Technology helps make teaching and learning more meaningful and fun. This quote from Edutopia , yet wrote 8 years ago summarizes perfectly my definition of technology integration. #learning 2 I just attended the first ever Learning 2.0 Europe in Milan. An...

This is the end of Course 3 already and that was my favourite course so far as this one was very practical and fun too! My takeaways from Course 3 were the Presentation Zen and the digital story telling. Perfect to use in language classroom! Presentations: I have gathered a lot of student friendly resources to teach the design principles and the CARP principles (found on Jocelyn Sutherland blog) which make me like presentations more now! Digital storytelling: The one I made for the week 4 was the little push I needed to finally jump into the water of video editing. I thought it would take forever not only to edit but also to film the students at work (meaning having some “visual “ activities). I really like the digital story telling as it can be shown to the parents and they can really get a sense of what’s happening in the classroom and hear their children speaking a foreign language. As I have already explained in a previous post, digital storytelling would be such a powerful t...

What’s an infographic? Before preparing for this post, an infographic was for me an editorial infographic or a data visualization , like a lot of numbers put into a picture to make it easy to read. The value of visualization video really helps me to create my own definition of infographics. [vimeo]https://vimeo.com/29684853[/vimeo] We also know that there is a scientific reason for why we like infographics Why using infographics in education? Using infographics in instruction is an innovative and engaging way to ensure that the message you are sharing is visually appealing and easily digested by your students.  They allow students to comprehend, interpret, and analyze complex information in a quick and clear manner.  This combined with the brain research to support why infographics are so effective gives teachers a powerful new tool to use for teaching and learning. I really like this quote from t he JTH instructional technology blog . And it made me think that I have had my students...

I didn’t want to start this post by the usual “I love stories”, yet I love stories…especially when they’re made digitally in French lessons. En français! I kept on asking my students to talk in French, reuse all the words they’ve been learning, to express themselves in French. Obvious to say that some students are natural-born communicator, always happy to talk and raise their hands even if they don’t know the answer and some others who blush just with the idea of talking in front of the group. However when it comes to use technology in the French class and to record them, the activity becomes fun and even the more shy are happy to participate. I regularly record my students when they‘re presenting, reporting to the class or acting out. I found a nice trick to have everybody excited about the activity: recording their feet! I can still hear them, they can still listen to them and everybody is happy to listen to the recording. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqGSj2EgMl4[/embed] ...