Knock, Knock...

Who's There?
…………ManACE TIN NIGHT!

When @amckiel emailed and asked me to present at ManAce's  (Manitoba Association of Computing Educators) TIN (Technology Information Night). I thought what a great opportunity to showcase what I'm doing at my school!l At Lakewood I've been transforming our "old school P.A announcements" to our vivacious LAKEWOOD LIVE daily newscasts!

I've always attended tech-education PDs and conferences in the past and made it a personal and professional goal to eventually be able to give a presentation on something that I was truly passionate about, within the realm of technology.

Tonight I was honoured to showcase all the wonderful things Lakewood Live has done for our school.  These daily news reports involve our students delivering announcements in an exciting and engaging way. Parents and the school community can access these videos via YouTube (through a private blog address). LAKEWOOD LIVE LINKS
Lakewood Live allows for children to develop student voice, leadership and academic skills while connecting to the Lakewood community (students, staff and parents). When I first got started, I felt a little unsure if my "early years" project would be applicable to a roomful of high school teachers. As the presentation went on, I saw some head nods and laughs from the crowd from our energetic grade 4/5 presenters. My hopes were that maybe this idea/project would spark another idea that would make it applicable / suitable for them to use in the middle years / high school years format.


Tonight I was also inspired by our other two presenters, @msmclauchlan and @Henderson204.

@msmclauchlan (Tara) talked about her inspiring journey of having her high school students create "Bucket Lists" and acting on them. It had me thinking about how to take her idea and transfer it to an elementary level approach. How awesome to have my 7 and 8 year olds think about what they want to accomplish…and most importantly act on it. My favourite quote that I took from her tonight…

" If you put something out into the world…..you need to stand behind it" 

(@msmclauchlan) 

At 7 and 8 years old, I can't ask them to think about what they want to do before they "kick the bucket." But what I CAN DO is ask them what do they want to accomplish in short segments. 

What do they want to accomplish by the end of the week? Act of kindness? reading a certain book? 
What do they want to accomplish by the end of the month? New skill in the gym?
What do they want to accomplish by the end of the school year? 

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this idea and LOVE what Tara is doing to ignite creativity and passion within her students! 

Up next, @Henderson204!
Matt is a passionate history high school history teacher - brownie points --- I majored in history in University. Matt talked about having students create their own social networks. He talked about the cautions of social media and the message behind who are you "selling yourself to" when you join social media platforms. I looked at SM a little differently tonight. Matt brought some great hot topics to the table in regards to SM. He uses wordpress to blog and through wordpress, creates his own social network for his students to comment and connect through when working on digital projects. SM in the classroom can be quite the controversial topic for teachers, administrators and parents.

SM can do many great things. I blog and use Twitter with my grade 2/3s. We talk about the ethical and responsible use of technology and social media on a daily basis. My students have had the opportunities to interact with classrooms all over Canada, the US, Japan, China, England and Germany. It's been quite the exciting journey and we're only at the end of February!

Overall, I took away more than what I think I gave! I hoped to share one school's journey on modernizing daily announcements that incorporated student voice, leadership and community involvement. What I got from TIN tonight was another 2 or 3 ideas to bring back with me and start cooking with!

TIN was a great opportunity to not only grab some great ideas from other educators, but also check off a personal and professional item on my own "bucket list" (talking to a group of people about something that I am truly passionate about).

Passionate because each time I hit that record button, there are 228 smiles that light up and become connected to their school community in an exciting and engaging way!

N