Sarah's Education Blog

Tag: #LearningDesign

How to use AHA Slides in the Classroom:

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On 12 November 2020

In edci336, EdTech Inquiry

Hello everyone! For my EdTech Inquiry, I chose to explore how to use AHA slides in the classroom. I was first exposed to this wonderful tool when one of my professors in my Post-Degree teaching program used it in many of her lectures. It was a great way to get the entire class engaged in the topics we were discussing and I thought it would be cool to use in future teaching!

Overview: AHA slides is a fantastic website for teachers to create fun and interactive presentations for their lessons!

  • There are so many different formats to use, including: Polls, Q&A sessions, Quizzes, Open-ended questions, and many more!

Pro:  A pro of using AHA slides in the classroom is that it provides a great way for student interaction. Kids can easily do this on their phones or computers during class time. AHA slides also provides anonymous questions and answers so that all students can feel comfortable contributing.

Con: The downside of using AHA slides is that maybe not all students have access to a phone or computer. This could pose as a challenge. However, the schools I’ve been in recently all have Chromebooks that students have access to whenever they need them, which is great!

Risk: A risk of using this tool might be the inevitable inappropriate nature of some students. With answers being anonymous, it may cause some people to give silly answers. However, you can combat this by establishing certain ground rules prior to using AHA slides in the classroom.

Please see the resource I created below that walks you through some of the strategies and tips for how to use AHA slides!

Week 6 Reflection

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On 16 October 2020

In edci336, EdTech

love to learn pencil signage on wall near walking man

In today’s class, we had the pleasure of listening to Jeff Hopkins speak on the school he created – PSII. It was fascinating to look at the blog post and watch the videos of the school. Currently, it’s set up quite different than normal due to COVID. For example, they can’t use the kitchen, so they’ve turned that space into a room where students can sit and work together. They have also decided to rent out space outside of their normal school space just so that they can increase the distance between students during COVID. 

I find this school so interesting because it’s all built on inquiry – everything starts with questions. This is great since one person’s inquiry can lead to multiple new questions from other students as well. Which can therefore bring multiple people together. 

From a teacher candidate’s perspective, it’s awesome to see how the school is built on teacher collaboration. Teachers will have their one or two specific subject areas and if a student has a question about something outside of those areas, then teachers have the ability to collaborate with each other. The school is set up for this purpose, since there’s no formal classes with teachers. This gives them the flexibility to go and collaborate right when students need assistance. 

Overall, it was super informative and thought-provoking to hear Jeff speak to our class today! 

 

Photo from Unsplash.com by Tim Mossholder

Learning How to “Stay”

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On 22 September 2020

In edci336, Free Inquiry

Good morning!

This week I really wanted to focus on training Winnie to “stay.” She already does a pretty good job at waiting until we say “okay” when we give her food. But I thought it was necessary to practice having her “stay” when we walk away or even outside where there’s more distractions. I looked on the internet to see how I should approach this task and found a really great resource online.

To begin, I decided on the words “stay” and “okay,” as my command and release words. I then told Winnie to sit, I gave her the command of “stay,” and then I immediately gave her the release word of “okay,” as the article said to do. We practiced that a few times until she linked the two words together. Unfortunately, I was not able to get this on video as it was very quick and she was a little bit hyper!

I then moved on by creating some distance. I commanded Winnie to “stay,” and then I took a step back and said “okay.” We kept doing this until she was able to do it successfully and then I took more steps back each time.

A few days after practicing these steps inside, we moved outside into the backyard to try with distractions. The first few tries were very difficult and Winnie had trouble listening. There were a few times that she was able to focus and “stay” without any problems, but it’s definitely still a work in progress!

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