My Professional Blog

Today we focused on the revision of the content we learned and tips on Google test. It was a good opportunity for us to revise what we know and add another certification that would be great on our CVs. If we passed, great. It will look great on our CV, with something different to add to my profile - not many teachers have those kind of certifications for professional development. If we didn't pass, it is 10 US dollars gone, but we still have done a 9 week course, and we now have a lot more tools on our hands that would help us. Whether I have passed or not, it was still a great learning opportunity, exploring different learning tools and creating things with it.  Overall, I have found Create activities quite fun to do, and that was the most memorable as well. This gave me chance to think about what could work or what couldn't work with my own class. If I already knew some things, I could always use that time to extend myself abit more, if not, I could do things on my own pace, ...

Today's focus was on a computational thinking and coding. I had some time to explore programs like Flappy Coding, Scratch Jr, Lightbot. Lightbot was very similar to Beebots we had at school, and I remember we did a PD session talking about using directional language and computational thinking.  While coding games like Flappy Codings were the most fun when I tried, it wasn't something my students were able to use, because they need to be able to read the coding words, and get them used to the language beforehand. I tried downloading Scratch Jr as well, but I found this one very confusing. I wanted to have a go a bit more but I ran out of time. If I want to use this in class I need to know how to do all the stuff there, so I decided to make the Lightbot activities students can do. I tied this in with letters and building words as well as coding, which I thought was really cool. If they get it and getting used to the challenge, I could add more conditions in like, "Pass at le...

Today we focused on Chrome Book and Ipads. Because I couldn't get Chrome Book from other teachers, I played on the simulator. It let me practice skills that I needed even though I didn't have the real computer in front of me.  Chrome Book was very similar to Mac which I was already used to using because my school computer was Mac. However, there were a few things that were different because the layout of the keyboard was a little different. It was a good way to experience something seniors used as well as juniors as I have never used these before. If I ever teach seniors this would be helpful when students are having problems with their Chrome Books. It would be especially useful to know how to trouble shoot on there and reset the device, which I have also tried practicing. Next, we went into Ipads and learned Explain Everything. I have used it in class before, and I am still learning, even though I'm not completely comfortable with it. We learned how to put pictures and ed...