Cree 101 – Final Project

After doing the first assignment, and learning how to introduce my family in Cree, I decided that for my final project I wanted to work with my family to do my “How To” video. I want to work with my Grandfather and Mother to  create a video on how to make a recipe that our family has passed down many years.

I am excited to do this project because both my Mother and Grandfather aren’t able to speak (much) Cree, and I want to be able to share this experience with them. Through conversations I have learned that my great-grandmother was able to speak English, French, Cree and Michif, so this is important for me to be able to do with my family.

To prepare I am going to sit down with my grandpa and ask him to teach me the recipe beforehand, so I can properly translate it (as well as get the groceries). I might do some recording of this to incorporate into my final project. I then want to make a script with the steps, so that when I record it will be easy. I am going to record on my phone and will either use Microsoft Movie Maker (I used this for Cree 100 and it was very easy) or Adobe Premier (already familiar with this editing tool). I am going to post my final video onto Youtube.

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Cree 101 – Introduction

tānsi (hello)!

I am very excited to be taking Cree 101 this semester! My name is Samantha Douglas and I am a high school teacher in Moose Jaw. I took Cree 100 last semester, and am happy to continue learning this semester.

I currently teach math at Vanier Collegiate in Moose Jaw, as well as teach/develop some courses for Regina Catholic Online School. I took my first degree through the University of Regina in Education, with a major in mathematics and a minor in Visual Art. For the past 7 years I have taught many different courses, but currently I teach mainly math, with some Catholic Studies and Native Studies courses. I am involved in the Student Representative Council, the yearbook, grade eight transitioning, and our school Treaty 4 group. Last year I made the decision to go back to school and applied to the First Nations University to obtain a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Indigenous Studies. I am taking two INDG classes this semester as well as Cree 100.

I am passionate about Indigenous issues in our country. I believe that Reconciliation is important and that Indigenous resurgence is crucial. Language revitalization is so incredibly important, as Indigenous languages should be thriving! Cree is a language that has been stolen from my family, so I am grateful to have the opportunity to learn this in my degree.

 

Cree 100 – First Blog Post

Hello!

My name is Samantha Douglas and I am a teacher in Moose Jaw. I am currently working on my second degree in Indigenous Studies through the First Nations University. I have been teaching at a high school in Moose Jaw for the past seven years, primarily Math, Native Studies and Catholic Studies. I am excited to begin learning Cree so that I can hopefully pass on this knowledge to the students that I teach!

As a teacher I am involved with the Student Leadership Council, the yearbook, and our school Treaty 4 club. I began taking classes next semester so I am still learning to balance my life as a teacher and as a student.

Outside of school I spend most of my time following sports. I enjoy all sports but specifically enjoy watching the Blue Jays, the San Jose Sharks and the Oakland Raiders. I also enjoy travelling – especially in the summer when I have no teaching responsibilities – and seeing live music as much as possible. I spend most of my time hanging out with my two fur babies, Beau and Luke (they were adopted from the Humane Society… I am not a big Dukes of Hazzard fan, but someone else was!).

Last year I tried to read through the 100 Days of Cree with our Treaty 4 group, and struggled not being able to learn through dialogue with others… so I am very excited to learn with everyone!

Testing Technology – Grade Nines

Testing out using more technology in the classroom.  Students, please comment with your daily 5.

What am I learning?
How am I learning it?
How do I know?
How can I improve?
Where can I go for help?
Five things from yesterdays class.

Technology Troubles

This year I have been working really hard to create math videos for my lessons. I started in the first semester with Workplace 20 and Foundations 10 and found myself quickly giving up. I was very overwhelmed with all my work and was disheartened when the students didn’t use them as much as I had planned. Near the end of the semester I had positive feedback from the videos looking back and studying for the final, so this semester I decided I would try again and be more diligent.

I have been making videos for Precalculus 20 using the showme app for my iPad. I have found these videos to be effective for three main reasons:
1) I make the video before the lesson, so I practice teaching the lesson out loud before with a student which helps organize my lesson better.
2) I teach very involved students who often miss for sports and other activities, and there are also students absent all the time. When they miss they know to check the video online, which goes through all of the notes and they can fill it in. So far many of the students are coming to school already having watched the video for what they missed.
3) Time. There are so many students, and even without missing, it can be difficult to assist students who don’t understand concepts. The videos help when some students just need a refresh of the lesson.

What I have been trying to gear towards is a flipped classroom. I have been posting the lesson the night before, and a couple students have watched them before hand. There are a few difficulties I have been encountering that have stopped me from flipping my classroom. First I am very worried the students won’t watch the video beforehand. It is a different way of thinking for them so it may be a difficult transition. I have been trying to slowly transition, with the videos to work towards that. My second problem is with my own preparation. I am finding it difficult to have enough hours in my day let alone being extra planned in advance. I have been working on long term planning, and am a very organized person, but I’m worried that I won’t have a video ready on time or something will go wrong and mess the entire process up.

In all, I have seen many successes with the technology I have incorporated. Many students are using the videos and it is extremely beneficial in the classroom. I need to find the extra motivation to push myself to try more with my teaching.

There’s an App for That

Things that I thought I would continue to do once I started teaching: blog.

Things that I don’t do know that I started teaching: blog… sleep…

I really wish I could get into the good practice of blogging more often, so today I have decided to talk about apps.  In university I thought I had found all the most wonderful apps that are amazing and useful.  Yesterday I deleted 100 apps.  Today, I took a moment to realize how many apps I have downloaded since school has begun, and how I found apps that fit to supplement what I was teaching.  As I teach a course that requires curriculum outcomes that relate to games, I have found apps that work in each of my units.  Let me take a quick second to recognize the apps that I adore.

Crossmath! – This $0.99 game has been used more than anything on my phone.  It works for teaching factoring, balancing equations, deductive reasoning… and also when you are really bored.

Hexominoes – This app works for shape and space as well as logic! It costs $0.99

Rush Hour – All of my students love rush hour.  I even have a physical copy of the board game. Working in groups really is helpful as they communicate hundreds of strategies. Cost is $2.99.

Flow Free – This game is great for shape and space as well as logic, it is also FREE!

Tangram XL Free – Works for shape and space units, deductive reasoning, and is Free!

Vault Breaker – Tests your logic and deductive reasoning skills to crack codes.  It’s free and fun.

Battleship – Used this for review for graphs, plotting points, ordered pairs, deductive reasoning and strategy.  You can play against a computer, over Wi-Fi with another device, or pass and play.  It is free.

CribbagePro – Need I say more? Oh right, it is free!

And lastly, I had this app downloaded forever and not once had I used it or even thought about it.  Then I taught Pre-Calculus and I understood why it is a must have.

Free Graphing Calculator

These are just a few of the math apps that I have been using in my classroom, and felt like I needed to share them now that I am actually using mobile learning.

Using technology to start my teaching career

This may possible be the best app I have ever downloaded:

ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard

You can record your screen and voice on the iPad and post to twitter, Facebook directly. I am using them to put on my class website.

This is my class website: Miss Douglas’ Class Website
And my class twitter is @misssdouglas

I chose to use a posterous instead of a wiki because each post directly posts to twitter, so all my homework directly goes on twitter with only one update to make. There is also a posterous app which lets you post from your phone. You can also upload files which instability are posted through scribd so all the documents are embedded into each post easily.

posterous

This is my showme page, I’m doing all my lessons on here, it takes two minutes to make and share a video. I am also making qr codes for each video and putting them right in my lesson so they can refer to the video if they need a reminder.

Also, I survived my first week of teaching, and posted this entirely from my phone. #lovetechnology