Week 3 Genius Hour Reflection

Welcome to another week!

I am excited to announce that I have set an outlined plan for my Genius Hour Project and started to research and come up with so many cool ideas. I decided that it was best to divide my Project plan into 10 months (as there are 10 months in a school year) and 3 headings: Information, Activity, and Mini-lesson. Information is a section devoted to writing notes to myself for that particular month, as well as posting any resources that I would like to use for that month's awareness topic. Activity is a section devoted to an engaging activity that is planned for my students based on the month's topic. Mini-lesson is a section devoted to concepts to be discussed and explored as well as engaging videos to be viewed and explained and any other extra resources. This section lays out the lesson to be taught to the class. 

Each month has its own topic to be explored. So far, I have completed 5 out of the 10 topics for my Classroom Genius Hour Project Plan. I am looking forward to further researching other topics that would be engaging to teach my students and learn about. From here, I hope to have all 10 month topics assigned with some information for each. In 2 weeks from now, I want to have each of them laid out so that I can start planning my Ted talk video to present to you. 

The only trouble that I have had thus far was initially coming up with my plan that was stated above, and then coming up with the month topics. It takes great time and consideration to pick a topic that is engaging and suitable for all ages that is not too complicated. I am really pumped up to put together an amazing piece that you are all welcome to partake in and incorporate into your lives, whether as an educator, a parent, or whatever it may be.

If you would like to have a sneak peak into my project, feel free to visit my google doc where I have all of my research, ideas and plan set in place thus far.

My Genius Hour Research, Ideas and Plan


See you next week !

Introducing my Genius Hour Question

Hey World, welcome to a new week!

I wanted to introduce you all to my Genius Hour question that I formulated in class today. The question I am passionate in answering is:

 How can I incorporate environmental sustainability into my classroom routines and practices that can transform my future students into environmental stewards who can apply this knowledge outside my classroom?

My goal is to have an effective and successful year-long plan to explore and participate in with my students during the school year. In addition, I want to have a positive impact on each of my students, where they will feel confident and passionate about applying what they have learned through my plan. I am hopeful that I can help give my students the resources and knowledge to go out into the world and make a positive impact on the environment. In order to ensure that I am on task and using and managing my time appropriately, I will have goal checkpoints and deadlines to keep myself on track and proactive with this project. I cannot wait to discover my future environmentally sustainable plan and am looking forward to showing it all with you.

Hain, J. (December 9, 2014). Footprints, Human, Feet, Nature, Natural, Earth, Eco. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/footprints-human-feet-nature-556896/

Talk to you soon!

Copyright Matters!

Hello again,

I just wanted to share with you today what I learned about the concept of copyright. Copyright is essentially a law that reserves the rights of any digital media found online. It prohibits the use of copying, distributing, performing, displaying, or adapting any form of digital media. Fortunately, copyright laws do allow fair dealing in Canada. This means that there are many pieces of digital media out there in the world where the author has given permission for people to use their work for purposes, such as research and private study, providing that it is not being used for commercial use.

An important aspect of copyright that I feel would be very important to teach my students is that there are so many different resources to guide you through understanding whether a certain piece of digital media is appropriate and safe to use for other purposes. This is a serious topic, however, my students should not feel afraid of using digital media and I will always be there to support them and guide them to understanding all necessary aspects of copyright. Attached are some fun photos that I found with copyright laws that allow me to post them if they are properly sited.

Ribeiro, L. (2008, June 08). Children at School[Photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/lupuca/8720604364/

Ritter, E. (n.d.). "Learning is fun". [Online Image]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/p-919895/?no_redirect

Hope you enjoyed this blog, and if you are interested in learning more about what copyright is, click the link below. Bye for now!

Copyright Matters

Welcome to my Blog Account!

Hello World!

My name is Samantha, and I would like to welcome you to join me on my journey to becoming an elementary school teacher! I am currently in teacher's college for the next two years working on becoming the best teacher I can possibly be. I am very excited to take on this task, learn new things, and inspire others. If you wanted to get to know me a bit more, take a look at my passion heart below.

Today I learned about a new concept, known as Genius Hour. This is where students, such as myself, are given the time and freedom to develop an online project of choice, involving research, social media websites, and so on! I also learned today what a Virtual Field trip is and I must say I am very intrigued and will hopefully be given the opportunity to apply these to my classroom one day. I will post below two websites, one about Genius Hour, and one about Virtual Field trips incase those of you reading are be interested. Enjoy!

Genius Hour Resource

Virtual Field Trips Resource

My blog will be composed of materials and resources that I learn about that I want to share to you. Through my blogs, I will also communicate my experience as a teacher candidate.

Till next time World!