Welcome to Canadian Mashup!

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Permalink Reply by Tanya Hendsbee on December 7, 2009 at 5:00am

Hi, I am Tanya Hendsbee and I work as an Instructional designer with Nova Scotia community College. I am also taking a graduate certificate from fielding Graduate University in Online Teaching and Learning. It is giving me wonderful opportunities to try new things and to be able to pass them on to the faculty I work with. I live in Dartmouth NS but have relatives in Red Deer and Calgary.

Permalink Reply by suehellman on December 9, 2009 at 2:24pm

Hi Tanya -- where's Fielding? I was in Nova Scotia last summer visiting a friends who live near Wolfville. We also went to see the fossils at Joggins. Welcome to the Mashup.

Permalink Reply by Julie Nish on December 7, 2009 at 7:46am

Hi All,
I'm a technology lead in Calgary, AB in a K-9 school. I teach JRH Comm Tech. options. Thanks for the invite - nice to be part of a Canadian group!

Permalink Reply by suehellman on December 9, 2009 at 2:26pm

Hi Julie and welcome to the Mashup -- what a lovely job to have. I live in hope of there someday being something like that here in Surrey.

Permalink Reply by Andrew Bradshaw on December 13, 2009 at 1:00pm

Hello,

I am a new teacher in Stratford, Ontario looking for my first contract. After a 12 year career in Information Technology, where I progressively found myself doing corporate training, I decided to switch careers. Last year, I had 2 7-week teaching placements at a high school in Stratford, and things went great. I love it there, and would love to teach there (or anywhere, for that matter). However, the occasional list in this board is closed, and you need to be on that list before you can get a job, so I'm still waiting.

The nice thing is that the school in Stratford where I taught has had me back to lead technology workshops for Professional Development days, so that's kept me in the loop.

I'm still hopeful, although it's odd for me to be unable to get a job for the first time in my life. In IT, there are an abundance of jobs. In teaching, there are none.

In my time as a student teacher, I had a great associate teacher who encouraged me to experiment with technology in class. I developed a webquest (http://moz.execulink.net/~bradshan/) that went over extremely well in a grade 11 English Media Studies class. If anyone is interested, I posted some of the students' work on my own website (www.abradshaw.ca) under Student Samples.

I joined Classroom 2.0 to learn how other teachers are successfully incorporating technology into the classroom. Some of the more common technologies (blogs, wikis, podcasts, websites) naturally lend themselves to education. But I'm interested in innovative ways teachers are using other technologies (like cell phones) in their classes. In addition, I'm interested in networking and learning, and this seems like an interesting place to do so.

Permalink Reply by suehellman on December 16, 2009 at 6:52am

Hi -- Your stuff looks absolutely wonderful, Andrew and I've passed your name and resume on to a fellow named Vince Hill who runs a virtual school named Credenda in Saskatchewan. He may send you a follow-up email. Welcome to the Mashup -Sue

Permalink Reply by Julie Mueller on January 5, 2010 at 8:07pm

Hi Andrew, this is another instance where the world just keeps growing smaller. I am a teacher educator at Laurier in Waterloo. I know that our board (Waterloo Region District School Board) just opened up their supply list in October for this year for the elementary panel anyway--I don't know about the secondary. It would be worth your while to inquire around here...and perhaps you could find some time to get involved in some research if you're interested.... I am going to be working with some schools who are using iPods in their classrooms at the junior/intermediate level. It might be a way to make contact with schools and demonstrate your talents at the same time. Send me a message if you're interested in talking more. Take care

Permalink Reply by John Valentine on December 14, 2009 at 6:07am

Hi All! I teach at Ashbury College in Ottawa. I have been teaching Computer Classes to grades 9 -12 for 25 years, mostly on the applications side of things. I am currently teaching Communications Technology to grades 9 and 11. Just to add to a thread that I noticed in this group, I am also from Winnipeg, although a long time ago! I am currently the Educational Technology Coordinator at my school, which means I help staff and students integrate technology into what they are doing (plus I do a lot of hand holding ;-)) I joined Classroom 2.0 to get a sense of what people are doing with technology. I look forward to discussing things with fellow Canadians!

Permalink Reply by suehellman on December 16, 2009 at 6:42am

Hi John -- I have to say I envy districts and provinces where there are enough resources to put tech co-ordinators into schools. In Surrey, we have 2 tech helping teachers for over 120 schools. Needless to say we don't see them very often!! as they also have other duties (such as serving administrators) they have to carry out. Yours sounds like an ideal job. -Sue

Permalink Reply by John Valentine on December 16, 2009 at 11:21am

Well Sue, to be fair, I am at an independent school... we have made a significant commitment to technology for our staff and students, my position being part of this. As I approach my retirement, I am really enjoying getting involved (officially, because I have always done it!) with supporting teachers and their use of technology. I am in awe at what is available, and at the same time intimidated by it.... I can only imagine how some of the less comfortable staff are feeling! I have been doing a fair amount of hand holding so far (which I don't mind). Looking forward to making some connections and picking up some ideas...

Permalink Reply by Kevin Pashuk on December 14, 2009 at 6:47am

Thanks to Sue Hellman for the invite to this group. While not a teacher, I recently joined Appleby College (Gr 7-12 independent school) in Oakville Ontario to develop the technological side of the model for 21st century learning environment. Appleby is in its 12th year of 1:1 computing and has provided a great platform to build on.

Having said that, it's not about technology. The focus has been on the "point of teaching" (i.e. What do students learn? How do they learn? How can technology enable learning?") rather than the technology itself... using technology to learn rather than learning to use technology. I'm excited to join this school, and get to build a network of colleagues in order to build a model that is achievable by all schools.

Most recently I have led the technology teams in Canada's newest medical school (built completely on a distributed education model) and Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning (15,000 F/T, 35,000 P/T students). The change to Appleby is exciting, since I believe the K-12 space is the most formative time in learning, and there needs to be a complete (can I say paradigm?) shift in how technology is applied so learning occurs. But it is a job of cathedral building proportions, therefore I'm glad to be "one of the many" moving our educational system toward this goal.

My blog postings are slim these days, so I won't include the link here...

Cheers!

Permalink Reply by suehellman on December 16, 2009 at 6:39am

Wow, Kevin -- I continue to be impressed by the level of talent and expertise here at home. I totally agree with this focus. Web 2.0 tools are just that -- tools to assist larger objectives. This sounds like a wonderful project. Please keep us posted. -Sue

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