Month: March 2025

While listening to today’s lecture, Micheal had to pivot and say, “Keep Calm and Turn It On and Off Again,” which gave me the idea to create a poster like Keep Calm and Carry On, which seemed to be resurrected from World War 2 England to be everywhere in the mid-2010s. At first, I wanted to create my own, find a template online, and change the words, but it came up short. So, thinking about the topic we discussed today, Artificial Intelligence, I turned towards ChatGPT’s imagine-generated section and came up with the image above, which, I’ll be honest, turned out exactly how I imagined it. Claps to you, AI👏🏼… this time. Now, was it necessary for me to generate the image? No, but did I want to create a cool image for my blog post that fits with the content of the class? Yes. And that’s what I thought before typing ChapGPT into the search box, thinking critically about why I want to use it and whether it is worth it. I believe this is a thought process we should all consider. We should be critical of AI and, even more so, be aware of the environmental implications. With AI being a new and exciting thing, many people ignore or are unaware of what it does and its repercussions. Seeing the stats of how many bathtubs AI needs to cool down the processors is alarming and scary because we are already facing so many climate crises and have a generation growing up in climate anxiety. After all the information given to me today and as I go along in my AI education, I will tread with caution and use it when I think it is necessary, but I also recognize that, of course, it can change over time. 

P.S. For the Taylor Swift haters out there who did understand the title of this post, it’s a reference from the ME! music video, which kind of depicts how I’m feeling about all of this: calm but not fully😂. 

Unfortunately, I was away this week, so I missed the EdCamp. Nevertheless, I reviewed the class material and questions and I’ll do a mini EdCamp in my post! I think three subjects I would have suggested would be how to keep students engaged in learning French in late elementary and middle school grades (this would be for the French immersion context), how to use technology for classroom management and learning more about supporting students with IEPs. 

How to keep students engaged in learning French in late elementary and middle school grades (French immersion context) 

I chose this topic because I find that with my work in French immersion classrooms and my experience going to a Francophone school from K to 12, students start to lose interest in the language and find it not “cool.” Teachers have tried to enforce speaking in French, but that pushes students away. So, I want to know how to make language learning cool but not cringe for students. One idea that I came across was integrating Manie Musical! It’s like an annual March Madness but with French songs, and the class listens to two songs and votes on which one is the best or that students like. As they go through songs, it becomes a bracket-style competition. Here is the official website and a post on Instagram where the teacher puts the bracket up in the classroom for their grade 7/8 class, but Manie Musical can be for any grade from grade 2 to even high school! This activity can excite students to vote and choose a winner while discovering music in French from various artists. 

https://www.maniemusicale.info/

https://www.instagram.com/clementsclassroom/reel/DGRsJl1RYcx/

What are ways to use technology for classroom management?

Classroom management is one of the key elements that make student learning successful, but it is another element for teachers to do with the many other things going on in the classroom. I would like to know if technology can be used by the second or third teacher in the classroom to help with classroom management. To find my ideas, I turned to TikTok because so many teachers post resources and tips for many classroom-related things. Regarding classroom management, most teachers say it’s all about routine and making things clear for students to understand. For example, transitions can be one of the most challenging parts of classroom management, so they suggest using timer videos to ease students into the next activity and finish what they are doing. Here’s an example I found:

Another suggestion is using Lofi background noise to help students concentrate, minimize loudness, and chat while working. A note: Students may chat because they don’t have the opportunity to do so. To solve this, teachers can integrate more discussion-based learning to minimize chatting. 

I found a Lofi video with everyone’s favourite dog, Snoopy! Sadly, the link didn’t work to be embedded into the post 😔 but here it is nonetheless: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nJYIG7JSRM&t=2055s

Here’s another website that I found after a quick Google search, and it was also helpful! https://www.edutopia.org/article/classroom-management-tech-era/

Learning more about supporting students with IEPs

Lastly, I learnt about students with IEPs (Individual Education Plans) during my Link2Practice, where special education students have a written plan designed to help and accommodate their learning needs. I didn’t find much about this topic besides the BC Ministry documents. Still, I found another Edutopia article helpful in enhancing my comprehension of students with IEPs and how best to support them. https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-help-students-ieps-thrive/

This week, we took things even more online by having our class on Zoom! We focused on creating digital curation and discussed the impact of educational videos. To represent curation, I put a GIF from one of my favourite shows and teacher show, Abbott Elementary, with the character of Janine saying: “Create new lives, make those connections!” In this scene, Janine relates how teachers can mould students’ lives and impact their lives. While those are many superpowers teachers have, curation is the process of moulding and impacting the information we teach. And so, when it comes to curation, you must make connections to build your library of knowledge. To do this, we can look at the shared framework we discussed: Seek, Sense and Share. Seeking is trying to find information that best suits what you are looking for and finding mentors to network with; each is important in teaching as we are always seeking new information. Sense is adding our personal flare to the information we seek and doing some experimentation. Lastly, sharing is sharing and exchanging resources and ideas within the networks created and collaborating with them. 

Another piece we discussed was the importance of educational videos, and we discussed with a classmate about educational videos that impacted our learning in school. Crash Course videos helped me in high school when the material taught in class wasn’t sticking, well, also because I didn’t have the greatest biology teacher. The videos instantly helped me fill the holes in my comprehension of the material with fun visuals and the voice of John or Hank Green. I added one of their videos below in case you haven’t seen one before, and maybe something to integrate into your classroom! While finding a video, I discover they also have a YouTube channel for kids called: Crash Course Kids!