And to all a good night!

My family had its first Christmas celebration this weekend.  I will see more of my extended family later in the month and, unfortunately, because of distance, there are some family members who I will not see this holiday season.  And of course there is my mom who gets to celebrate Christmas in heaven - that must be quite the celebration!

I, like many others, really miss my family over the holidays.  I get rather nostalgic and think about Christmases past and how we would finish our chores early on Christmas eve, go to church, open gifts, enjoy lots of food and lots of time to just be together.  There were many games, lots of play and time to praise the Lord in our house.

 I know that there are lots of ways that technology still allows us to stay connected and, yes, we could and we have, opened presents together even though we are over 3000 km apart but it isn't the same as actually being there.  A visual hug on the computer can't possibly match a real hug from my nephews and nieces, or my brothers and sisters.  

Technology, in all of the ways that I use it, I believe, still falls quite short in being able to truly stay connected. 

One of the best things I like about teaching is the ability to connect with students and colleagues.  Being able to see my classes, on a regular basis, really helps me to find purpose, because lets be honest, how many of us truly remember the lessons that we had in school.  There may be a couple of key lessons or topics in high school that you remember, for good or for bad, but it is more likely that you remember the people of your schooling experience.  There is much talk of online learning, which I support, but I will reserve that topic for another day! In a similar manner, how many of use remember the presents that we received as kids?  There might be a few gifts that have stayed in the archives of our mind or that we remember through the assistance of pictures, however, we can likely recall the experiences, the events and the people more readily. It is these interactions that stay with us!  

This Christmas season I hope you all have a chance to enjoy time spent with family and friends in celebration!

Grade 9 Computers - BTT 1O

The grade 9 class continues to work through a series of tutorials as we discover how to edit digital pictures in Paint.net.  It has been fun and enjoyable to listen to the students when they have their "aha" moments.  It is also exciting to see certain students become the "goto" person as they discover new things and share and learn from each other. One of the tutorials the students have been able to do, starts with a picture of dried mud and ends with an exploding planet.  

Grade 11 Computers - ICS 3U
In this class we are finishing our assignments for Chapter 7 in Java programming.  This is the chapter for which I have create video tutorial examples for the different types of methods used in Java.  These tutorials can be found on our school YouTube site http://www.youtube.com/user/HDCHtube.  Later this week we will begin chapter 10 and introduce our final summative project which we will start when school commences again in January.

Fit to be tied!!!

I love the month of December, I love Advent and I love Christmas!  There is a special excitement in my house, my church and our classrooms.  The month of December also provides me an opportunity to wear my Christmas ties!  Yes, the picture below is my Christmas tie collection.  I have accumulated this collection over the years.  Some ties are from my father-in-law, my wife, Value Village, and garage sales.  Strangely, I have never received a Christmas tie as a "teacher present" - I guess my students think that I have enough.  I actually have more than enough ties, 20 to be exact,  to be able to wear a different one each teaching day of December.  In fact, I may start wearing them in November next year!  This tradition that I have, appears to be appreciated by the students, as many make an extra effort to talk to me so they can check out the tie or compliment the tie.  November and December are busy months and I enjoy how my ties lift my spirit and hopefully those of others.

I say that these are busy months, yet, I must confess that this year these months have probably been the easiest in all of my teaching career.  This is due totally to the great work that Mr. Wensink did in our classes.  Mr. Wensink has now finished his teaching placement here at HD and is able to enjoy a well deserved break.  Mr. Wensink is a natural in a classroom. His gentleness, respect, presence, patience, professionalism and commitment to the Lord and his students will serve him well.
He did such a good job that, at times, the students were wondering who I am and why was I there.  God bless you Mr. Wensink!!!

A topic in education that is dear to me lately is "the flip." The flip involves flipping the classroom so that lessons are completed as homework, usually via video on YouTube, and class time is used for students to do their work, experiment, ask questions, complete assignments etc.  I have just started using the flip and providing online tutorials for my grade 11 computer students.

I will be curious to see how well accepted the tutorials and lessons are by the students.  This format of instruction makes sense as it allows me to be more available when students will likely have questions and/or need assistance.  I will keep you informed about the progress being made!

Grade 9 Computers - BTT 1O
We have recently begun our graphic design unit.  We use an Open Source, and free, program called Paint.net to manipulate and create images.  Our first task was to create Ipod advertisements. The first picture was taken in front of a green screen that we then removed and replaced to get the new image.  It was quite exciting and, in a short time, students produced a rather polished advertisement.  We will continue to work with graphic design until the Christmas break.  If there are any graphic designers or graphic artists out there, I would enjoy talking to you about possibly being a guest in our class!

Grade 11 - Computer Programming - ICS 3U
We have just finished our presentations about computer issues and have had a chance to watch some of them.  It was interesting how we learned from the videos about how to present and also how to take better videos.  This week we are starting a new unit on methods in Java programming.  This is the chapter that I will be making video tutorials for so keep checking out http://www.youtube.com/user/HDCHtube to see the updates!

Check in time!

Whenever I stay in a hotel I am often surprised at the time that the hotel provides for a check in time, often 3pm - this is much later than I would like.  When I go somewhere with my family, the hotel part of the trip is a big part of the experience, especially if there is a pool, water slide, video games or for myself a treadmill.  I guess I want to get the most out of the experience and value for my dollar.

Often when I teach, lead workshops or help people to use technology, I will provide quick little opportunities to "check in".  These "check ins" occur quite regularly, and the feedback which they provide, is valuable in the classroom.  As new skills or processes are being taught and learned , these "check ins" give me great information about how the group is doing.  My favourite line in the classroom is, "Check how your neighbour is doing."  This short line allows students to not only help others but also to see if they too are on the right track.  It also gives me a moment to walk around the room, provide help as needed, and ensure that everyone is one task. 

This post is my "check in" time for the last month and bit of blogging and tweeting.  I must admit that I am tweeting less frequently but my tweets, I believe, have more substance to them. I had hoped to tweet 5-10 times per day, which on some days is easy and on others it is more difficult.  Also,  I am occasionally finding my blog as a duty that I must do, yet it still produces lots of enjoyment and from stats and feedback, the blog is well received - thanks!

In my first blog post I mentioned that I would assess my blogging and tweeting after my "trial period".  I will provide a simple SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis - my first year BUS 121 at Redeemer is still proving its worth.

Strengths

• allows me to continually think about how I use technology
• through following others I have read way more about technology in the last 6 weeks than I would normally do
• I am beginning to follow and connect with other Christian Educators - some that I already know and some that I have only met "virtually"
• more communication with parents and guardians - ( I would still appreciate more comments on the blog please!)
• I am able to share with other educators and I am seeing more benefits to collaboration than I have in the past
• wow! There are some incredibly gifted people out there!

Weaknesses

• there is little face to face communication
• 140 characters is not a lot to say something meaningful
• little snips of information can easily be taken out of context
• information overload 
• fear of missing something that someone tweeted and is 200 tweets down the list

Opportunities

• there is great potential for Christian educators to share knowledge and ideas
• there is great potential to connect and partner with all educators and experts
• blogging provides a chance to have dialog with parents on a more regular basis ( I would still appreciate more comments on the blog please!)
• able to "bring" others into my classroom who can shed more light on the topic
• Life long learning on my part
• model effective uses of technology in education

Threats

• information overload
• finding the time to tweet and blog
• ignoring other concerns
• getting side tracked and off topic
• not wanting to miss a post or tweet
• being "consumed" by the processes

If any of you blog, podcast, tweet etc and wish to share some of your own SWOT analysis please comment below.  

Overall, the process has been amazing.  I am really enjoying the opportunity to get my thoughts down and connect with a community.  I am learning much and, therefore, I will keep blogging and tweeting.  Please bear with me as I still learn to communicate effectively through a blog.

You can expect another "check in" around the time of the semester switch.

Grade 9 Computers - BTT

The class is just about ready to wrap up their video editing with Mr. Brink.  The filming process has gone well and I believe that we have some Oscar worthy candidates!  Mr. Wensink and I will have our regular class back on either Tuesday or Wednesday.  Sadly, Mr. Wensink has only one week left with us.  It has been a pleasure having him in our classroom.  He has fully assumed the role as the class teacher and the kids have fully accepted him.  I will likely be thought of as the substitute when he finishes and I take over again.   

Grade 11 Computer programming - ICS 3U

Mr. Wensink has done a great job with this class.  The students have finished working on programming a guessing number game.  Mr. Wensink provides great feedback, encouragement and appropriately challenges all students to work at, and beyond, their capabilities. Through several class discussion about issues with, and of,  technology, Mr. Wensink has been covertly prepping students to critically evaluate tech, and now, the students are working on their own technology topics.
We look forward to students presentations of learning this week.  Last week our school took part in a day of silence to honour Uganda, and especially young girls who may not receive an opportunity for education.  Some students demonstrated support through a vow of silence on the same day that Mr. Wensink had planned a class discussion.  To honour the day, the class took to the Internet and had a real time discussion using todaysmeet.com.  This was a great way to model the use of technology and in so doing, our whole class had a vow of silence for about 20mins.

A blessed Advent to everyone!