Self Reflection - Technology, Education and Our Program

Today, my focus of the blog will be about my experiences with technology and education. I think it is important to reflect on where I was at and where I currently am at with these two topics because they are a large part of our genius hour projects. Let me first begin by discussing my experience with technology.

Prior to this course, I was never one who was big on technology. Sure, I have a laptop for school and I have a cellphone that I use throughout the day. However, those two pieces of technology could not prepare me for what is expected from this course. Not only am I learning to use programs that I have never even heard of before this class started, but I am having to use social networks that I always said I would never participate in. It benefits me in the long run to know how to use different programs that are offered online, in the event that I may want to use these in my future lessons. In addition, I do not really see much benefit from learning how to use other social networks aside from the fact that it shows me how I should be portraying myself online, as a future educator. Prior to this course, I only had a Facebook account, which is pretty well cleared of everything before I even began this program. I am quite excited to return to only using Facebook soon, as I am not a huge fan of social media, though I do see the benefits in terms of being able to connect with people you might not otherwise be able to connect with.

Furthermore, I am learning quite a bit in terms of becoming educated on these programs. Throughout working on the Cup of Wisdom Badges, I had the opportunity to use many online tools. As we go along, I have been saving the pages to my favourites, so that I may return to them later and utilize them again.

Lastly, I would like to briefly touch base on my experiences in the Teacher Ed program. Before entering this program, I only had volunteer experience in a secondary school setting. Now, my observation days have been in an elementary school and it is such a difference from my secondary school experience in the classroom. I am learning a lot, not only about students, but about myself. I look forward to seeing how my practicum goes in 2016. Moreover, the program itself is a big adjustment from my undergraduate degree. I did not know what to expect coming into the program. The first two weeks, I felt very overwhelmed. Now, I am getting more used to it (for lack of better wording). I am curious to see how the second year of the course is set up.

Genius Hour Progress

Still in the research phase, I wonder what findings I will focus on for my movie trailer and TED Talk. I am quite nervous about giving the TED Talk, though I found something interesting that helped calm my nerves, while looking for something to tweet about during class. I came across a TED Talk by a child prodigy Adora Svitak. I have provided the link below for anyone who wants to see it for themselves.

Adora Svitak TED Talk

Regardless of this child being a prodigy, it calms my nerves knowing that someone younger than me can speak in front of a large crowd of people about something that she is passionate about. This left me to wonder "what do I have to be nervous about behind a computer screen?" I would hope that this will help calm other students' nerves regarding this TED Talk assignment too.

My main goal is to establish credibility with my audience. I have attempted to become a vegetarian years ago, though I did not successfully continue my journey. However, now with research and gaining new knowledge about this lifestyle change, I hope my passion for this topic will demonstrate my credibility. I will not claim to know everything there is to know about becoming a vegetarian in a safe and healthy manner, though I will do my best to provide my audience with my findings surrounding the starting point of this journey.

My research thus far is making me aware of all my options for a starting point. For me, I know why I want to become vegetarian, though I know I want to do it in an effective, safe and healthy manner. This is why I began my research for this project topic. Based on research, I am finding multiple solutions on how to receive my daily intake of vitamins and essential nutrients. I feel that with this research, my journey with adapting to this lifestyle will be a successful one this time around because I am more educated on the lifestyle.

My research will not end here though. In the future, I hope to expand my research from safely transitioning into a healthy vegetarian, to living a vegan lifestyle. This lifestyle is much more strict than the vegetarian lifestyle, and therefore, I will need to take baby steps along the way such as becoming vegetarian, followed by cutting out dairy products, and then jumping into becoming vegan from there. My conducted research will help me to get one step closer to my ultimate goal, though I feel like right now, becoming vegetarian rather than vegan works best for me in terms of time and dedication. I look forward to finding out more information and possibly finding out other people's experience with becoming vegetarian or attempting to become vegetarian to see what their story is like in comparison to mine.