Week Two: Activity two

This activity required a fair bit of research and signing up to various sites. Too be honest I think it might be impossible to consume all the information that is present on the various sites but i think over time I will be review them more thoroughly.

The main portion of this activity was to post a blog post about policy that I was interested in. You can view that post on this blog. The rest are posted on the Teach Now platform. Basically, we had to go into various sites and find something interested to comment on.

PS. If you are interested in taking a teacher certification then drop me a line at cshears@teach-now.com

Week Three: Context of Teaching

We are into week three already. I would like say time as flew by but there is a fair bit of work involved in this course. I didn't expect the program to be a cake walk but I am spending a lot of time in front of the computer. I think in the end it will all pay off though. As I am getting used to the programs that are being introduced in the course and searching out new ones.

Our Third Activity has us making videos/presentations. I will post the finished product up soon but for now I will throw up the link to the site I used. I use a site called POWTOON.

I really enjoyed using this site and I was always done when I saw all the other options that are available on the site for free.

I will post soon with some completed activities for you folks to talk a look at.

Later Skater

PS. If you are interested in taking a teacher certification then drop me a line at cshears@teach-now.com

Week Infographic Activity: An analysis of of the ITL Research File

Hi, so we had to create an infographic with some information about Student centered learning, extending students learning outside the classroom and introducing Information and Communications Technologies into the classroom. We also were expected to do some analysis of a research paper. Here is what I came up with.PS. If you are interested in taking a teacher certification then drop me a line at cshears@teach-now.com

You can view the image here or follow the link to a more interactive version.

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Or you can check out the interactive version:

https://magic.piktochart.com/output/2021019-innovative-teaching-and-learning

Week Two: Policy Blog Post.

If you are interested in taking a teacher certification then drop me a line at cshears@teach-now.com


The core principle of free appropriate public education (FAPE) which is a required component of IDEA seems like a no brainer to add to any legislation dealing with people with disabilities. FAPE says that school districts need to provide general education and specialized educational services. It also requires that disabled children get support free of charge as is provided to non-disabled students.(0) There are many opinions on the role that government should play in society and it is hotly debated but it my personal opinion that government should assist people who are in vulnerable positions such as families who have a disabled member. I know from my own families experience that there are a lot of expenses associated (figure 1) with caring for a disabled family member’s needs.  The cost of health care and other indirect costs can be very overwhelming for any family to manage. A study done showed that over 40% of families in the U.S were experiencing financial difficulties due to having a child with a disability.(1) Add to that the potential costs that might arise when a child is ready to enter into the school system; it is possible that the financial burden would be too great for an average family to handle.          

  When my brother first contracted cancer, my family found out very quickly that even in a country like Canada, medical treatment is not free. The costs of traveling to see specialists, staying in hotels, and airline tickets to name a few quickly mount up. After the surgeries and the end result leaving my brother with very restricted movement of his left arm, my family had to prepare for the extra costs now associated with my brothers disability.My family was not alone as it is estimated that there are over a half million people 20 and under that have some form of disability. (2) It would have been more difficult for my parents if it were not for programs in Canada that helped my parents with the financial burden of some of costs related to my brother’s disability. (3)           

 Developing a program that can identify families that require assistance and allocate funding to support parents that have disabled children is a vital step in providing equal opportunities for children with disabilities. The costs related to properly educating students with disabilities can be enormous. According to the NEA, the average cost to schools for supporting a special education student is between $9369 to $16, 921 per student. Anyone can understand when one considers the costs of providing individualized education, teachers, paraprofessional, teacher assistants, proper learning environments and all the related services, it would be impossible for parents to pay the fees that would be required to facilitate these services. In fact, it is difficult for schools and school districts to support these cost as the US federal government only provides local school districts with 20% of the funding.(4)           

 One of the benefits of living aboard is that you are able to see and experience the conditions that people live under in their home country. I have had the privilege while living in Korea to have the ability to travel for long periods of time to other countries. I have seen the stressful and horrible circumstances some parents find themselves living in countries do not provide funding to families that require assistance in order to educate their children. In fact  the WHO, reports that there are one billion people in the world living with disabilities and 1 in 10 are children. Furthermore, 80% of disabled people live in developing countries. (5) 

I have witnessed several disabled children living and working the streets with very few options. Many children end up begging for change or pedalling small wares to provide some sort of subsistence for themselves and often times for their families.Thankfully there are organizations like UNICEF and GPE that trying to work local governments to improve the living conditions, educational opportunities and awareness of the issues.
         

  I know the above the situation might seem extreme to most North Americans but there are many families in America that would be forced to make some very difficult decisions if they faced with the challenges of paying for the education of their disabled children. There are many laws and programs that the government develops that may be considered wasteful or inappropriate but I can see very little fault to found in providing the necessary funds for parents to give their special needs children the chance to integrate themselves in the school system. Although criticisms of IDEA might include excessive bureaucracy and costs, from what I can read it seems like it benefits families a tremendous amount.  

Info Sources:http://nichcy.org/laws/idea

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15965627

http://www.ncld.org/parents-child-disabilities/ld-rights/what-is-fape-what-can-it-mean-my-child

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1802121/#B8

http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/audiences/families/benefits.shtml

http://www.nea.org/home/19029.htm

http://www.globalpartnership.org/focus-areas/children-with-disabilities

http://www.unicef.org/education/

Figures1: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1802121/figure/F1/

Week Two of Teach Now Activity One

Well, I'm starting week 2 of the teacher certification. We have four activities to do this week which require a fair bit of research and work. The first activity was reflective in nature. Looking at why I want to be a teacher.

Here was my response.

After looking down the list of reasons for teaching there were several that jumped out at me but I tried to place myself in my shoes 11 years ago when I first decided to begin teaching. The first reason I choice was employment mobility. This was definitely a priority to me when I first started on my path as a teacher. I would say that this is still my primary reason for teaching. I enjoy that teaching allows me to travel the world and I look forward to teaching in new countries in the future.

The second reason I selected was long summer vacation. I know this is a bit of a cliché when it comes to teaching but personally being able to have time off from work it vital to my life. I certainly believe that a person needs time off to explore new interests or have an opportunity to travel. There are lots of personal reasons for choosing a job that has the benefit of time off but the two listed above are mine. I also believe that teachers who teach young children day in and day out really need the time off to recharge their batteries.

The third reason I selected was a desire to work with youth. Through my life I have always taken an active role in working with or being a part of youth groups. I was a hockey coach during my high school and university years and I always enjoyed having an opportunity to help children. I guess coming from a very large family had an influence in this as there were always lots of cousins around to take care of. My mother is an elementary school teacher and I seeing the way she was able to improve the life of her students and return the wonderful experiences she was able to take from teaching definitely motivated me to give teaching a try.

There are few reasons why this survey is important to new teachers. First and foremost, it is always beneficial to anyone who desires to enter any field of work to understand their motivations for entering said field. When reasons are laid out in a list such as this survey it can give someone a new perspective on why they are making a particular career choice and if those motivations are ones that they feel are valid. Anything that can improve self-awareness is very important in my opinion.

Another reason this survey might be important to a new teacher is that it gives a new teacher an opportunity to see other reasons for choosing a career in education that they might not have thought of before. It is always nice to look at a topic or a decision from as many angles as possible and being presented with new ideas on a topic and only help a new teacher make more informed decisions.

It went a little longer than I expected. 

Reflections on Adobe Connect and Virtual Classroom experience

We are using a platform called Adobe Connect for our virtual classrooms. One of the discussions we had was about our opinion on the program. The following was what I wrote.

In my opinion, for amateur bloggers both options are great. Only looking at WordPress a few times, it definitely looks better if you want to be more creative with your blog. It seems to have a lot more options and it is much more customizable. However, for the purposes that I use blogs, I lean towards using Blogger as it very simple thus easy for me to navigate. I also like that it is a part of Google so it is connected to all the Google features I am already using.  I think WordPress might lean towards more experience users and Blogger caters a bit more to the “newbs.” Being a “Newb”, Blogger is the way to go for me. However, I could be persuaded to jump ship if someone walked me through the WordPress features.  




This was after our second session on the platform. The first session we met the founder Emily and got a overview of the program. She opened up the forum to questions which we could all in in a live video chat. Pretty cool.


The second session was much more interactive. As we got a walk through of the platform and we give  short 5 minute sample class using the features that are available. ex. polls, whiteboard, share files like presentations, mp3', images etc.

As of right now, there isn't an option to directly link Youtube but there is share desktop option which would allow you to do this anyways, so no biggie.

So far, great first week in the program!PS. If you are interested in taking a teacher certification then drop me a line at cshears@teach-now.com

I'm Back!

Well, I've been away for awhile. Been busy with work and life.

But, I am back in the classroom as a student again. This time I am studying my teacher certification with Teach Now. A great program that allows one to study and obtain a US teaching certification from just about anywhere in the world. It is also open to citizens from all over the world.

If you are interested in this program, feel free to follow me along my journey and if you decide you would like more information about the program then feel free to contact me at cshears@teach-now.com

Have a good one