This week in EDCI 336, we did an EdCamp. I participated in the conversation about storytelling. Our conversation underscored how powerful a tool storytelling can be when integrated into the classroom. It can help boost student engagement, build a stronger connection between teacher and students and provide a framework to help students recall information easier/better. We also discussed how it can connect to Indigenous Ways of Knowing/Indigenous Education Principles. In addition, stories can be multi-modal and cross-curricular, allowing both students and teachers to connect to concepts and ideas in creative manners.

Overall, I found this proposed way of doing professional development for teachers only moderately helpful. Personally, I don’t think I walked away from my session with any ideas/tools that I would integrate into my own classroom. I mostly reviewed concepts or ideas that I was already quite familiar with. Perhaps if the audience for an EdCamp was more specific, it might be more useful for participants. For example, one might organize an EdCamp for only PE teachers, and then they could set-up subtopics more specific to their interests: inclusivity in PE classes, classroom management in PE, project-based learning in PE, etc. I think that when EdCamps are so large as to be open to all educators and school admins, there is the risk that the range of topics will be too broad or vague as to really provide meaningful learning and professional development for every attendee.

*Sidebar: I did a somewhat EdTech related project for another class that I’m in this semester (EDCI 476: Organization & Instruction in French Immersion). I created a playlist of current popular French music (2013-2020) that might be played/utilized in a French high school classroom. My intent was to find music that my students might actually enjoy listening to. I also organized some of my findings according to different themes that you might discuss in a classroom:

      • Family
      • Immigration
      • Inequality
      • Bullying
      • First Nations Peoples
      • Feminism
      • LGBTQ2+
      • Pollution/Global Warming
      • Racism
      • Social Media/Technology

Check out my blog post here.

Listen to some popular French songs here.

If you have any French song suggestions from 2013-2020, please feel free to let me know!

Screenshot of the French Music Playlist I Created

Photo by Dylan Gillis from Unsplash.