Colette is a teacher with Regina Catholic Schools. She decided that since her children Zach and Taylor were going to university, she would like to go with them. This started her professional development journey.

Blogging

Colette thought that since she was working as a Connected Educator, it would be clever of her to take a class with Alec Couros. He is known to be a technology guru. Colette thought she could use all the of the help she could get. On the first day of class, Colette learned how to create a blog. By the second week, she knew how to add a Giphy and credit the source.

https://media.giphy.com/media/RH0gdiC8m0nAc/giphy.gif

Technology in the Classroom

It is Colette's goal to be and have her students be technologically literate. She wants to educate 21st century learners for the diverse possibilities that are and will be open to them. She hopes to develop meaningful, interactive lessons that are diverse and adaptable to meet the needs of all of her student and their learning styles. She believes in teaching communication and information as it can also improve innovative thinking skills such as problem solving and critical thinking. She believes that this would increase student achievement. She does not want to use technology as an add-on to her lessons but rather that it is attached in the content and integrated into the planning of the lessons.

In short, she wants to use information literacy to

1.  Assist students in accessing digital information,

2. Support student-centered and self-directed learning,

3.  Produce a creative learning environment,

4. Offer more opportunities to develop critical thinking skills,

5. Improve teaching and learning quality, and

6. Support teaching by facilitating the use of technology to meet student curricular outcomes.

Learning Theories

Colette spent some time reflecting on the various learning theories and how her teaching philosophy had changed over the course of her career. She always worked toward a student centered classroom and now with the use technology she is able to accommodate for all of her students. Colette has taught many grades from grade one to grade 8. The cognitive approach as well as a connectivism are currently her foci.

http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2015/01/how-our-learning-theories-shape-how-we.html

Coding & Extensions

Alec thought it would be a good idea to have everyone learn to code. Colette was not sure if coding was really going to be her thing. She really enjoyed the Logo Emulator. Learning how much work goes into making computer apps function helps one understand some of the processes involved behind the scenes. Chrome extensions were also new to Colette. After reviewing a number of extensions she thought Distraction Free YouTube could be put to good use in the classroom.

https://www.calormen.com/jslogo/

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/df-tube-distraction-free/mjdepdfccjgcndkmemponafgioodelna?hl=en

Sesame Street vs. Traditional Schooling

Sesame Street was one of Colette's favourite shows when she was younger. She loved The Count and the Baker falling down the stairs. With the use of technology, Colette can involve the learners as Sesame Street did, so that the learners do not know that learning is taking place. Sesame Street played a key role in initiating the love of learning, proper use of technology can serve the same purpose.

https://www.pinterest.ca/jackikrystal197/count-von-count/?lp=true

https://www.pinterest.ca/jackikrystal197/count-von-count/?lp=true