My Old Blog

  I started using Google Classroom this year with my grade 6 Late French Immersion students.  It has been one of the best tools I have used in my classroom for a number of reasons: 1.  students can submit their assignments from anywhere and I will be notified  2.  I can easily grade assignments once submitted 3.  I can quickly send out an e-mail to students who have not yet submitted assignments 4.  When creating an assignment, I can include all the needed links and materials to complete it 5.  as a French Immersion teacher, I love it because students can record themselves speaking.  This allows me to listen to their recordings and keep them for future assessment purposes. I recently watched a video from Pocketful of Primary about making the grading process easier in Google Classroom.  It is really worth watching if you are new to Google Classroom.  I learned the following new things from this video: 1.  You can select "To revi...

Sumdog  is a website that allows children to play math games while also practicing math skills at grade level.  Games adapt to the child's skill level as they play.  Students earn points as they continue to play and achieve new levels. Teachers can create accounts for their class through Sumdog.  I created accounts for my students with ease and was able to print login cards for my students to have handy when signing into their accounts. You also can create assessments and math practice tasks for students.  You can customize the assessments and math practice tasks according to your student's ability level.  For example, you can create a daily multiplication practice for your class and modify it so that certain students might just be working on multiplication by 2s and 3s, while other students are working on higher number multiplication questions. Currently, Sumdog is offering free 15-minute webinars to teachers interested in learning more about how t...

Never in most of our lifetimes have we seen something impact us globally like the COVID-19 virus.  From week to week the government is making new announcements and the changes that are taking place can be quite overwhelming to digest for many of us. As an educator on spring break, this vacation is not like any I've experienced before. I think I speak for so many educators when I say that it isn't a time of true rest and relaxation.  I awake each morning looking for direction on what we can expect to come as we are being told we will be returning to work next week.  Our students will not be in our classroom as the government has issued an indefinite suspension of classes. More districts are looking to remote learning options and how to best support teachers with off-site learning for students.  I have fortunately experienced teaching online in the past and see a lot of possibility with using the internet to deliver instruction to students during these uncertain t...

This free app is available on iTunes and at the Google Play store .  I love it so much because it lets children create art using really interesting colorful effects that will leave children feeling stunned at the touch of their finger tips.  My daughters have been using KidsDoodle at home and I have to do everything in my power to keep them from prying their tablet away from one another when they are taking turns on this app.  My daughters created the following doodles and the words my older daughter used to articulate her work to me was rather impressive. This experience got me thinking about how this app could be useful in my classroom. So how does this artsy app relate to French Immersion, you ask?  Well if you think of all the language that potentially could be conveyed when explaining how their images were created, you can appreciate how this could be a great opportunity for children to mix creativity with oral language skills.  Children could ...

Below are some great resources I found online to support educators with using Google Drive for assessment and supporting students' learning journeys online. The first time I used Google Drive with students was when I was teaching French online and wanted students as part of a weekly assignment to edit a document written in French with spelling and grammar mistakes.  Google Drive's features have since evolved and offers for so much greater potential to be used in educational settings. Sit back and take this quick test drive in Google Drive first: 5 Crucial Google Drive Tips for Teachers: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/09/5-crucial-google-drive-tips-for-teachers.html Google Drive and Docs for Teachers (Free e-book): http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/05/google-drive-and-docs-for-teachers-free.html#.UtiRcfgU4Q8 Google Drive for Formal Assessment: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vktCO3xiIelPkEjpAzuwhpSFOd-EZP2BaXLXg9ds_Z8/edit?pli=1#sli...

I've taught online using Edmodo . Like Moodle, Edmodo is a Learning Management System (LMS) which allows you to share course content, updates, send messages to students, and manage student memberships. Students are able to download assignments, post replies to updates, send messages to either you or the entire class, and access their grades. Another interesting thing to note is that Edmodo's interface is somewhat similar to Facebook. Updates are posted with a profile picture attached. Replies to updates can then be posted and will appear just below the update. No "Like" buttons, invitations to play "Farmville" or ads on Edmodo's site, though! One of the things I think some Middle and Secondary School teachers (and parents) might like about Edmodo is that students are not able to send private messages to other students. One can then rest assured that no inappropriate correspondence is privately happening in the course. If students want to send a messag...

Please view this tutorial about Edmodo, a safe learning management system for students. I have used Edmodo with French language learners (online teaching) and with my Grade 6 French Immersion Students as part of our Harry Potter Book Project with students from Cairo, Egypt. It is a very useful tool if you don't have Moodle or an affordable (or free) Moodle hosting service. I am a strong advocate for the open source movement :-)