This section of the blog is also available in the ABOUT ME section which is aptly named: "Amanda, who's that?"
What do I look like?
Most of the time I look like a student. It has helped me infiltrate their culture and get to the bottom of all these "hashtag" and "bae" shenanigans. One of these photos was taken at work. I'll leave it up to you to guess which one (you may leave a comment under this post to indicate your guess).
Introduction
Hello, I am Amanda Beaulieu, currently a grade 7-8 math and science teacher at Pierre-Savard in Ottawa. I graduated from the faculty of education in 2011 and have been teaching ever since. I started out as a special education ressource teacher in grades 11 and 12, then got sent to see the tiny kids in grades 2 and 4. I’ve now found a happy medium with kids who are old enough to be autonomous but not so old as to think they know everything.
After completing the faculty of education, I took the vast majority of my additional qualifications online and i feel fairly comfortable continuing to do so in a masters setting.
My technological background began when an electrical engineer and a computer engineer met and fell in love. They say that when two people fall in love they sometimes decide to have children. I’m one of those. My father always wanted us to have the best technology he could afford. I remember having to ask my parents to boot up MS-DOS so I could play a Sesame Street colouring game, and I remember that one of our best Christmases began when we discovered Windows 95. Though I can never hope to become my father, who works with interactive safety models for computer integrated surgery (what a show off), but I have always harboured a certain appreciation for technology.
I love learning about new educational technologies and using them to facilitate greater intellectual payoff in and out of the classroom.
Reflection of emerging technology
Emerging makes me think of new tricks and novel ideas whereas the definition of technology depends on your perspective. Going back far enough, the domestication of animals and the invention of the wheel were the technological revolutions that for generations towered over every other accomplishment. Technology, defined as widely as meaning knowledge or mechanisms used to achieve a goal, can range from a lever used to dislodge a rock from the ground to a control panel on a space shuttle. Information age technology mainly revolves around computers and chips of various resolutions. The emerging technology that concerns me in my career would be 21st century EdTech applicable to learning in science, mathematics and technology. Recently, I’ve been exploring blogs, videos, GoogleClassrooms and others as a means to create an inverted classroom.
Examples
Examples of emerging technologies include:
- Oculus Rift (possibly the virtual reality we’ve all been waiting for)
- Life Straw (a water filtration system embedded in a straw, amazingly it is capable of filtering out protozoan parasites and other contaminants)
- Wireless Smart Boards functioning with iPhones and iPads (giving students the ability to share their work wirelessly to a bigger screen)
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| Click image to load tips for using Air Display in the classroom |
- Those special drawers that prevent you from slamming your fingers (Simple but so important)
