On Friday, we had Rick McCue come in as a guest speaker from the UVic Libraries to discuss video and audio editing with out class. To be honest, as a 23-year-old who’s job is to create outreach content, and who has had multiple alternative media assignments, what Rick talked about was mostly information I already had.
However, I really appreciated the tips and tricks he provided, and how easy the UVic Libraries’ instructions were to follow. Plus, there’s nothing I love more than beefing up my LinkedIn profile, so it was fun to earn a badge for being in class this day.
After learning more about podcasting, I am very excited to get started and rent out the podcast room in the library for our upcoming assignments!
*Sigh* I moved away from Alberta to avoid the two seasons of construction and snow. For some reason, it has followed me to Victoria!
Because of this, our soccer game was cancelled. Therefore, I was not able to practice my soccer skills with my team. But have no fear, I was still engaged with soccer! I decided to watch a movie, and take tips from none other than Will Farrell.
Now, before you judge this comedy icon and question if he can actually play soccer and if this was a rash decision for me to make, turns out, he loves soccer, and has been known to get out and play with pros!
He has also even talked about his children’s soccer on the Ellen Show.
In our last class we walked through multiple services and programs that can be used in educational settings to create fun images, presentations, and even work sheets for students.
As someone who is completing an education degree, Canva quickly became one of my best friends when I started this program. Like most relationships, there were some communication and understadning issues to buffer out. But, at this point, I like to think our relationship is strong and steady!
Below is a video that explains how Canva can be used when implementing UDL in our classrooms, even in something as mundane as the traditional slideshow.
There are many many ways that Canva can be a fun and inclusive tool for teachers. Outside of the classroom, Canva is also a very fun resource to create posters and artwork with. Below are images I created this week for my mom’s ‘under the sea’ themed curling tournament for their raffles.
This poster was made for the raffle table.
This poster was made for their ‘Toonie Broom’ where the winner will get a new curling broom covered in toonies!
My mom was VERY happy with this whale pun 😉
This one was fun to make. The idea is you pick a playing card, rip it in half with the raffle attendant, and then based on the card you pull, you win a bottle (of gatorade, obviously).
And yes, this was a lot of graphics I put in this post, but I put a LOT of work into them and was proud of my work!
On Monday, we had our second soccer game of the season. There were many improvements from our first game! I now knew where I was on the field and what that meant my role was (at least in the context of my team). I strongly to prefer being the right winger.
Unsuprisingly to those that know me, my favourite part of playing soccer has been hanging out with my friends, and trash talking the other team, in a respectful friendly way ;). One time in ringette, I convinced my team to cheer for the other team, like the video below, and it is now a goal of mine to convince my soccer team to also do it!
Now the update you’ve been waiting for: no, we did not win our soccer game. We were winning for awhile, and it made my heart sing to see fragile egos shatter of the field. Sadly, they pulled ahead of us and we lost 5-3. But an almost win, that wasn’t in the double digits, is a win!
I did worry less about my knee, I made at least a half decent pass, and I may not understand all positions, but I knew mine meant I ran up the right side of the field!
Next time, I hope to spend more time on the field, and enjoy the vibes of my friends. Making another good pass would be good!
On Monday, the Blackboard Ballers had our first game as a team; it was also probably the first time I’ve kicked a soccer ball since junior high. I had no idea what to expect from this soccer game, and at the start I truly felt like the little kid in the red vest pictured above (both because I was nervous and because it was cold).
As the ref blew the whistle to start the game, I had a moment of realization where it dawned on me that I know NOTHING about soccer: I did not know the positions let alone the rules of the game. Thankfully, my teammates gave me a quick rundown of the positions and the ‘dos and donts’ of soccer. Although UVic’s rules are slightly different, this PDF of 7on7 McGill Soccer Rules was very helpful helping me solidfy my understanding after the game.
I’ll be honest, I am still confused by the positions of soccer, at least in the 7on7 intramurals soccer, when it seems we are letting everyone run anywehre and everywhere like loose chickens!
The expereince I did not expect to occur duirng this game was having an eleemnt of fear of injury. A fun fact about me is that when I was 15 years old, I tore my ACL, MCL, LCL, and Medial Meniscus; all of which were reconstructed from my hamstring. Today, I really only ever notice my knee when the weather is changing and the tiny piece of titanium makes my knee ache. It has never been a barrier in sports for me. For some reason, during this soccer game, I found myself really concerned about my knee and colliding with another player. It probably didn’t help that they were all men with a foot of height on me though!
Finally, I’ll tell you what you are really curious about. We lost 14-8… not bad!
My goals for the next game: learn the positions, make a really good pass, worry less about my knee, and…. WIN.
There has been an emerging trend in our education classes, regardless of course subject matter, to have conversation about “the big ba- no, the coolest tool… but also the scariest invention”, aka Artificial Intelligence (AI).
On Friday, our class had a guest speaker come in and talk to us about AI and internet safety that we will inevitably need to acknowledge and create boundaries with in our future classrooms. We discussed how amazing AI can be, but also how terrifying it is because AI is advancing faster than government legislation, and it has an enormous carbon footprint. Truthfully, I do not know how I feel about AI, but, as the guest speaker discussed, the reality is that it is now a tool that is not going away and is something we must evolve with, just like social media was for the generation of educators before me.
I decided to look into the actual impact AI has on our environment. I first watched the CBC video that you can see below. Hearing that training one AI model can produce 626,000lbs of CO2, the equivalent of 5 cars in their lifetime, was shocking. However, it was interesting to also hear that AI could be used to reduce general carbon emissions and help firefighters contain fires due to early detection technology.
AI is tool that I believe should be regulated for many reasons: to protect our young people and anyone who is vulnerable to cybercrimes, to protect copyright, to save lives, and for the safety and secuirty of global citizens.
Although I believe AI should be regulated, there currently is next to no regulations, and it is in the hands of almost all students and children. Because of this, I think AI is a tool teachers should ackowledge and engage with to demonstrate safe practices and AI responsibility to our students. By using AI with our students we help prepare them to be responsible citizens and for the changing world and job market they will eventually enter, while still keeping their spark of creativity alive.
AI also has the potential to be a helpful resource for teachers when creating and implementing IEPs in the classroom. Whether it be Magic School AI that helps teachers creating IEP goals and lesson plans, or Google Read & Write, AI has the ability to help both students and teachers with diverse needs and goals thrive in and outside the classroom.
Calling all [team sport] athletes: we all can relate to the moment where, your team did it! You finally made it to the gold medal game of the biggest tournament of the season. There’s a minute left and the game is tied. You make a pass of the century, and your teammate scores the game winning goal. Everyone cheers and praises your teammate for their hardwork and amazing game.
You know they deserve praise because they helped your team win; but you also feel sad because nobody is recognizing that they couldn’t have that success without you setting them up. That mixed emotion of being happy but also unrecognized is gutwrenching. It is also how our educational partners and resource creators may feel when we use their resoruces without proper credit.
Alright, now that I’ve got you hooked, we can dive deeper into this week’s material!
In today’s day and age, I was surprised to hear that as soon as you create something, you automatically have copyright over it. We live in such a digital age that I assumed you had to prove to some sort of agency that the work was yours in order to get copyright. This misunderstanding was likely because I never had read into Bill C-11, and did not realize that there is a certain amount of “wiggle room” given to my instructors and I to use materials for educational purposes.
Going into my practicum this April, and having to create my own lesson plans, I want to be very intentional with my lesson planing and use Open Educational Resource (OER) to ensure that my practice is both beneficial and ethical. Luckily, it is an easy practice I can make sure I do, even today! For example, ths picture in this post was sourced from Pexels, and I would like to thank fauxels for making this picture available.
An OER that I could potentially see myself using for my free inquiry project is the “Have confidence and go for it” YouTube video by Megan Oyster. I specifically chose this resource because it is from another woman telling other athletes to have confidence and try new things.
For my free inquiry project I have decided that this is a great opportunity to reflect on, and make the most of the soccer journey I am taking with some of my cohort. Secret time: I have always disliked soccer, but, I have a intense FOMO.
What is My Motivation?
In April, I will be completing my 6-week practicum and I know that there are subjects I have to teach that I am not particularly passionate about. So although this soccer experience is also a fun challenge for me to learn new skills with my friends, it is also an opportunity to get better at learning to enjoy things I am not good at.
With that in mind, my questions based on my interest and curiosity surrounding learning Swedish include:
How dificult is it to unlearn the idea of disliking a sport I do not excel at?
Is throwing myself onto an intramural team a great idea, or will it reinforce my feelings?
How do I sit in the uncomfortable feeling of playing a sport in my 20s that I refused to play as a child, and have fun?
Next Steps
On Monday, our team, the Blackboard Ballers, will be playing Sikh and Destroy. Sadly, I was unable to make it to the first “kickaround” so I will be going into this first game with zero foundation… I even had to borrow cleats for the first game… wish me luck!
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