Category Archives: eci831

To TikTok or not to TikTok?

Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, oh my! Twitter and Discord now give TikTok a try.

This week I signed up for an account and started exploring TikTok. Truth be told, I am not into it yet. My little interaction with the platform hasn’t drawn me in. When I use other platforms such as Facebook or Instagram, I rarely watch the videos. Since TikTok is all videos, perhaps that is why it isn’t drawing me in. I found this video to see what I was missing from exploring blindly for a few days. It goes through all the features of Tiktok and how to use the mobile app on an iPhone.

I started looking for teachers and other educators to follow. I have found a few. I am not seeing the content that I would look for in social media such as lesson ideas, classroom management and reading intervention/strategies. What I am seeing are teacher outfits and classroom setups. However, I recently found this article with more ideas for using hashtags to help me find teachers using TikTok. Some of the most popular hashtags are #teachertips, #classroommanagement and #studentengagment. These are more of my area of interest that I will dive into in the coming weeks.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

This next article is a must-read for teachers and parents. It is CBC article called Some teachers are using TikTok to reach teens but concerns over app’s effects persist. It presents many interesting ideas to consider. One is that TikTok is where many teens are getting their news from. This could be an opportunity for the teens to ask questions about what they are seeing but also for teachers and parents to talk to their children/ students about what news they are seeing. Opening up the chance for discussion. TikTok can capture attention and spark curiosity as one of the contributors says. This article points out the fact that the videos are all short and you move on to the next. What is this doing to the attention span of youth and how will this affect them at school?

This week, I also had a conversation with my 12-year-old nephew about TikTok. I learned that he does have an account and thinks that there are some bad things on there. I asked if he felt there was any educational value. He thought there was because he could watch cooking and baking videos to help him learn new things as baking is one of his interests. Otherwise, Auntie, it’s not very good. That got me thinkings and searching for more articles. My takeaway from these articles is that TikTok is really no different from other social media platforms when it comes to pros and cons. Cyberbullying can happen on any of the platforms as well as getting down “rabbit holes” looking for information.

Image by Dean Moriarty from Pixabay

The first article is 8 Pros and Cons of TikTok. I found that these pros and cons could apply to any platform. For example, some pros are: it’s entertaining, it’s a creative outlet and you could make friends. Making friends is one that makes me a bit nervous. The cons are: being exposed to sexual predators, it can harm your privacy and the negative comments that can be received. All of this leads me to the importance of educating our children/ students on how we can protect our privacy and being aware of the other cons.

The next two articles that would be important for parents and teachers to be aware of comes from the Cyber Bullying Research Centre website. The first is another list of pros and cons. There are some great points here that would be important for adults to be aware of to share with children. One is that when you sign up for an account it is automatically public. You have to go into the setting to set up your privacy settings. That article led me to the TikTok Top Ten Tips for Teens. This is a great place for parents and teens to start having a conversation about the platform and how to use it more safely.

I also went looking for #gardening ideas to help with my major project. This is where I found some success and a few accounts that will be helpful going forward. Stay tuned for more from @texasgardenguy . He has lots of great gardening tips.

@texasgardenguy

Planting Tomatoes Sideways! #raisedbedgardens #texasgardenguy #tomato #tomatoes #tomatotown #tomatogarden #springgarden #gardentok #gardening #plantsoftiktok #garden #vegogarden #gardeninghacks

♬ Feathered Indians – Tyler Childers

I see both pros and cons of using TikTok. Will I continue once this class is complete, I am not sure, yet! My biggest takeaway is to continue to have conversations with students and children about the social media they are using to help them use it safely but also as connection point. I look forward to having further conversations with my nephew on the topic.

What are some of your favourite accounts to follow as an educator or other?

Tik Tok in Education: Yes or No?

Cristiam Oliveira GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY
giphy.com

I’ll admit that I really had no idea what Tik Tok was when I created an account over a year ago. I kept hearing about it from colleagues and students so I thought I would check it out. However, fast forward a year, I still feel like there is a lot more to discover about the social media platform. First, I thought I would do a little historical research to figure out more about this worldwide app. Brandtastic’s blog gave a great overview about the history of Tik Tok. Some interesting facts I learned was that it was created in 2016 as a lip sync app in China. In 2022, over 60% of users were under the age of 25. Tik Tok is not without controversy as it has been pushed towards being banned in the United States and off of government employee phones. However, it continues to be one of the dominating social media platforms in the world.

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

All I have used it for is watching videos which in the evening can turn into a full hour session in an instant! I still have not made my own videos and truthfully don’t think I ever will! If I were to take the plunge, this getting started video would be very helpful to those just starting out on Tik Tok, though.

I learned from this instructional video that to create a Tik Tok video it is a three step process of recording, editing and posting. However, the process of adding filters and music seems to be daunting. I am more in the discovery phase of Tik Tok. After downloading the app, I used it solely on a personal level to watch funny videos at the end of the school day or check out a trend a colleague or Professor suggested such as Pot Roast’s Mom.

However, recently I have started to explore it professionally as well. I have found many helpful tips and even funny videos on #teachertiktok. Some of my favourite accounts to follow professionally on Tik Tok include @farmerlovesphonics who has helped me research and provide strategies and instructional practices to staff that align with the Science of Reading. I also enjoy the tips and ideas regarding addressing challenging behavior and social emotional learning from @behaviorconnection. These accounts are just a couple of my top followers for professional use.

Something new to me as I explored Tik Tok further this week was creating collections. This is a feature I found very useful instead of simply saving them to favourites, you can create categories. This week I created a gardening category to support my major project for this class, a general school collection for professional ideas and a motivation collection that I could use with students and staff during discussions and meetings.

Speaking of students, I was thinking about how Tik Tok could be used safely, to support student learning. I would probably use some of the motivation videos in lessons with students to support social emotional learning. I might also use funny animal videos to increase engagement. As I currently work with younger students up to Grade 4, I believe this would have to be mainly teacher controlled. As I sit in my office at school, I can’t seem to get onto Tik Tok at the school which makes me wonder if it is blocked for usage at the school level. This could be a problem when trying to use it for educational purposes. However, with older students, perhaps you might engage them by challenging them to create a video for a project or topic they might be learning about. Again, strong guidance and safety protocols would have to be adhered to as many parents may not feel comfortable with their child using Tik Tok.

So, after reviewing the social media platform, I still have many questions about how to use Tik Tok appropriately in schools. As a mom of an 11 year old, I am working to teach my daughter digital citizenship and internet safety but she still believes a lot of what is out on the internet even though it might not be factual. Therefore, for the students I work with I would primarily use it as an option to share appropriate videos with them during a lesson or on google classroom. I will continue to use the professional ideas and accounts I have found within Tik Tok to support my role as an Administrator and Teacher. I will continue to use Tik Tok both personally and professionally as a place to watch interesting and humorous videos. I like to check out the newest challenges such as #skipping challenge. However, the next Tik Tok star will not be me!

I would like to know your thoughts on Tik Tok. How do you use Tik Tok on a professional level? Do you allow students to access it? What are some of your favourite Tik Tok accounts to follow?

Thanks for reading and sharing your answers!

-Kendra

Week 2- Gardening update

No time for wasting. This week, I jumped into my online research as I knew I would soon have to get my garden in the ground.

First, I joined the Saskatchewan Gardeners Facebook page. I made a post to determine if one of my plants was a flower or a weed. Very quickly, I had 50 comments about my plant…not a weed!  It is a poppy! One of the commenters was able to identify one of the other plants in the picture. I used the Plant look-up tool on my iPhone in my pictures which confirmed what the comment said, it is a Lamb’s Ear.

My Facebook post to the Saskatchewan Gardens group.
Plant Look-up in my iPhone pictures.
Plant Look- up to confirm Lamb’s Ear

Next, I used Feedly to start gathering articles related to my topic. I really like this site. I have to check only one place every few days and read the new articles. I have also found that some of the article sources are better than others and can look on those pages for other articles of interest. Here are a few articles that I found helpful this week:

Lawn care: From this article, I learned that I should mow the lawn every two weeks and keep the lawn length to 3.5 inches. It also talks about not cutting the grass in May. We had already cut the grass this month so I was too late to take that advice. The reason for that is to help with pollination. Other ideas for pollination that were given are to put a Hummingbird feeder, bird bath, bee house and a variety of coloured flowers to attract pollinators. So far, we have added a Hummingbird feeder and bird bath to our front garden bed. Below are not my pictures, I hope to have a few of my own pictures with birds soon.

Image by George from Pixabay
Image by Ralph from Pixabay

Growing Vegetables– I took the advice from this article to prepare my vegetable garden for planting. I added cow manure to the soil and mixed it up together to raise the nutrient level in the soil. They also suggested adding fertilizer to the soil before planting, which we did. The greenhouse had cow manure and sheep manure. In reading both packages they seemed to do the same thing so of course I asked my toddler if he would rather have cow poop or sheep poop in the garden. His choice was cow so cow manure it is.

This article is specifically about tomatoes. They prefer full sun in the garden, which helped decide on garden placement. We purchased Beefsteak seedlings as they have the potential to grow larger tomatoes. Stay tuned for more about tomatoes in a later post.

My helper mixing the soil.
Garden divided and seeds planted.
Garden as of May 22, 2023

When to Plant?: This site has lots of great information for beginner gardeners such as the easiest veggies to grow, how to decide what to plant, and guidelines for arranging the vegetables in the garden. This article led me to the planting calendar. This is a very cool web page. You input your postal code and it tells you when is the best time to plant seeds and seedlings based on the last frost in that area. I learned that I am late planting my carrot, green bean and pea seeds. They should have been in the ground by May 11th and I got them in the ground May 21st. I will plant my tomato plants and cucumber plants between June 15th and 29th as the almanac suggests.

Companion planting: The article shows which vegetables should be planted together and which you should avoid for the best growth. I used this article to decide the best placement for the vegetables and which vegetables to plant.

I also watched this video to help me decide on plant placement in the garden. The video and article are about square-foot garden designs. Look back at the garden picture and notice black tape. This is where I measured out each foot to help space the garden properly.

The last thing for this week is Aeration. My brother called me and said he was renting an aeration machine for an evening, would I like my lawn done as well? How perfect, I thought. This will fit in so well with my project, that he is unaware of.  Of course, I told him to come on over. I did the research after the aeration was done. It will allow to the water to get in deep to the roots and help with the compression of the lawn.

My brother, hard at work aerating the lawn.

I hope you will come back next week to see how the garden is growing, learn about spring perennial care and find out what other mystery plants are growing in my flower beds. I would love any tips, tricks or gardening advice you have to share!

One of three beautiful Tulips in my garden.
Updated picture of the spring-cleaned perennial bed with the Humminbird feeder and birdbath included.

Planning Time!

The long weekend seemed like a great time to start planning my raised garden bed build. I always get the itch to start planting and greenhouse shopping around this time. I really need to reign myself in and budget wisely otherwise I could easily end up with way more plants than I need. I believe this approach will be needed for planning my raised garden bed as well.

I started by researching the best types of wood to use for my garden build. I went straight to my favourite planning social media platform Pinterest. I had already started a board titled “Gardening That I Love” so I decided to browse and add to my search of what type of wood I should use to build the garden bed and any designs I liked. I especially enjoyed this blog post from Deanna at Homestead and Chill titled “7 Ways To Make Wood Garden Beds Last: Nontoxic Sealer & More”. I decided that I wanted to use cedar as I thought it would be easy to find. Boy, was I wrong! Rural Saskatchewan it turns out is not the best place to shop for cedar. I spent most of Saturday morning calling local lumber yards all within an hour of my home with little or no luck in sourcing cedar fence boards.

In the midst of this calling adventure, I began looking at different designs that I might like to use as inspiration or plans for my own raised garden bed. The look and simplicity of this design was something I was really interested in.

https://redesignedbym.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/adventures-in-building-raised-vegetable-beds-part-1/

However, the location I chose in my garden area was a corner section where the grass was spotty and the land was flat. Therefore, I wanted something that would meet in the middle providing a garden bed on each side. I did not have any luck finding a design to match the area I wanted to build the raised garden bed in.

Area to build my raised bed by Kendra Simon

I guess it was time to design my own! After calling around to several places, I finally found luck in Regina sourcing 6 foot cedar fence boards. Using this information, I planned my design around using the 6 foot cedar fence board for my original plan. It seemed to resist rot and was budget friendly upon my research.

Garden Bed Design by Kendra Simon

Now, I wondered what this design would truly look like plotted out and when I would be able to get to Regina which is almost 3 hours away from where we live. So, I started by plotting out my design, with a little help from my husband! The visual provided great clarity as to whether or not my design was what I was looking for. It turns out, I wanted to make some adjustments to my original design as noted in this video.

Updated Drawing of Design by Kendra Simon

I realized that 6 feet did not provide enough room on either side for a large amount of space for plants to grow and develop. It would really limit the amount of plants I could put into the raised bed. Adding an additional 6 feet on each side seemed to be the best plan to go with. Now, all I needed was a plan to get the wood! I called a few family members to see if they were going to the city soon. However, no one was planning a trip. So…with no big plans for our family this weekend before our weekends become full of sports events, we decided to take a Sunday road trip to Regina for wood and a few other household items.

Doing a little price comparison, we found that Rona seemed to be the best deal in the city for cedar boards. I am thankful for the knowledge my husband has in this area as I was given a mini-lesson on picking the best boards for the project. Each of the 36 boards (a few extra for good measure) were inspected to ensure they were not warped or cracked. After combing through two different bundles, we were able to pay and load up!

After, accomplishing our task, we couldn’t resist a little stop at McDonald’s for our daughter and of course Costco for the whole family. These are luxuries to those of us who live in rural Saskatchewan!

The next steps in my learning journey will be researching all about safety when using power tools and actually practicing before trying to cut into my precious cedar boards! Stay tuned for my next post about how I overcome my fear of the power saw. Let me know if you have any tips or suggestions to help me along the way to building my raised garden beds.

Thanks for reading!

I am not so “social” media.

I remember in 2006, sitting in Tim Horton’s with another first-year teacher talking about Facebook. Something we had just learned about.  Can you imagine being a part of this? What could this possibly mean for a teacher? Students would see everything we do? This is a bad idea!

Image by Thomas Ulrich from Pixabay

Fast forward a few months, I too made a Facebook account and still have it today. I am a fairly private person and am not super excited about sharing my life on social media. I do post occasionally. I enjoy the platform for keeping up with friends I don’t often see and seeing their children grow…even though I rarely post pictures of my own. I have strict rules about accepting friend requests, especially from students. Only if they have graduated high school, I will accept them as friends. I also don’t accept students’ parents as friends. It’s my attempt to keep my work and personal life a little separate.

I also have Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest being my most go to platforms. I began using Twitter when I took EC&I 834 with Katia, a year and a half ago. This is where I first realized the connections you can make with educators, teaching ideas, and many other education related sources. I haven’t yet started using it regularly however, I can see how you could build a community of Twitter.

Instagram, I use for connecting with friends and following other teachers and other personal interest items. This is platform I turn to the most often to scroll through, which can be a time waster for sure!

I remember hearing about Pinterest early in my teaching career. My colleagues strongly suggested that I don’t check it out until report cards were over so I would never get my report cards written. It too has a lot of information. I enjoy using it for teaching ideas, family picture outfit suggestions, and how to hang pictures on my wall just to name a few. I use this platform often when looking for ideas for any kind.

After reading this week’s articles about building a PLN, Professional Learning Network, I am inspired to use these tools in a different way. This is the way I have been using Twitter not realizing what I was doing. PLN, makes me think about Edsby groups I am apart of and how we use the groups to ask questions and support colleagues within our school division.

Image by Marie from Pixabay

My relationship with social media is mostly positive as I have set boundaries for myself and how I would like to connect with others and who I would like to connect with. The biggest negative for me would be the time I can waste “scrolling” when there are other things I should be doing.

My green thumb?!?

A green thumb, I do not have! I have always loved the idea of having flowers and a vegetable garden in my yard. Each year, I chose the flowers that I think are the prettiest, a variety of vegetables seeds and a few veggie plants and away I go. Some survive better than others. My approach to yard maintenance is: weed when I see weeds, cut the grass when it gets long and water when I have time. As you can see, no science involved.  

Instagram @BizarreLazar

A year ago, at the end of June, my family and I moved into our new home. It is an older home with a mature yard and landscaping. We have many perennials, shrubs, bushes, and a lovely garden box. When we moved in, everything was in bloom. I am starting from scratch this spring. My goal is to figure out what kinds of plants and shrubs I have and how to best maintain them. I would like to find out what vegetables are best planted together, what are best for the location of my garden bed and how I should fertilize the soil and so on. We are fortunate to have underground sprinklers, which I have never had before. I would like to investigate best time of day to water and for how long as well as, when is the best time to cut the grass and what length to cut it to.

By the end of this semester, I hope that my thumb is a bit greener and my plants are happy!

Here are the before pictures, taken May 13, 2023.

  • South lawn
  • West lawn and hedge
  • Front perennial bed, west
  • Fuzzy friend
  • Something green
  • Plant or weed?
  • Roses should grow, right?
  • Sad looking bush
  • Veggie garden, southwest
  • This will be pretty!
  • This too, right?
  • My poor lawn.

If I Dream It, Maybe I Can Build It!

The warm weather has me dreaming about gardening as I begin to think about my major project. I have decided to tackle the learning project and learn about carpentry. Since I want to be outside as much as possible in the Spring, I figured what a better way to combine my love of gardening and learning about carpentry than to build a new raised garden bed in my current garden area. I love watching DIY shows but haven’t been brave enough to tackle anything on my own. I often have these big plans for my husband to build things for me but not this time! I am going to tackle this learning myself and even conquer a bit of a fear of power tools.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

Although I remember taking an Industrial Arts class in high school, I do not recall any of the skills I learned back then. I have often held boards for my husband but that truly has been the extent of my carpentry skills. I do know how to use basic tools such as hammers and screwdrivers but that is all I know. I have used the power drill but often sink in the screws too far! I have never wanted to go near the saw. So I am thinking I need to start at the beginning and watch educational videos on tools and safety. I’ll admit that my biggest fear is using the power saw! This article from wikiHow is a great place to start my learning. Once I feel, I have a grasp on this information, I believe I will need to head to the garage and get a live lesson from my husband on using these tools. I believe I will need to practice using these tools until I feel confident to move on and start my carpentry project.

The next step in my learning process is to research and find answers to some inquiry based learning questions. Here are my essential questions I will be researching as I begin my learning project:

  • What are some different garden bed designs that I would like to build?
  • What type of wood is most durable for garden beds?
  • What additional materials will I need to complete my project?
  • Do I have all the tools I will need to build and complete my project?
  • What dimensions will my garden bed be based on the outdoor area it will be placed in?
  • How will I need to prepare the area for the garden bed?
  • Are there any plans I could follow or step by step directions to complete my project?
  • What types of plants and flowers will I fill my garden bed with?
Photo by DA Capture on Pexels.com

I have the dream of being able to create a beautiful garden bed for our yard. However, I think it is going to take perseverance and a lot of patience to develop my learning and skills. Perhaps, this learning and skill development will give me the confidence to try other carpentry projects in the future! So, here I go diving into this adventure with a lot of hope and the excitement that I am going to learn to create something for our yard that we will enjoy for years to come! Stay tuned as I walk you through my weekly progress on this project. I look forward to your feedback and tips if you have any knowledge in this skill area. Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!

-Kendra

If I Dream It, Maybe I Can Build It!

The warm weather has me dreaming about gardening as I begin to think about my major project. I have decided to tackle the learning project and learn about carpentry. Since I want to be outside as much as possible in the Spring, I figured what a better way to combine my love of gardening and learning about carpentry than to build a new raised garden bed in my current garden area. I love watching DIY shows but haven’t been brave enough to tackle anything on my own. I often have these big plans for my husband to build things for me but not this time! I am going to tackle this learning myself and even conquer a bit of a fear of power tools.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

Although I remember taking an Industrial Arts class in high school, I do not recall any of the skills I learned back then. I have often held boards for my husband but that truly has been the extent of my carpentry skills. I do know how to use basic tools such as hammers and screwdrivers but that is all I know. I have used the power drill but often sink in the screws too far! I have never wanted to go near the saw. So I am thinking I need to start at the beginning and watch educational videos on tools and safety. I’ll admit that my biggest fear is using the power saw! This article from wikiHow is a great place to start my learning. Once I feel, I have a grasp on this information, I believe I will need to head to the garage and get a live lesson from my husband on using these tools. I believe I will need to practice using these tools until I feel confident to move on and start my carpentry project.

The next step in my learning process is to research and find answers to some inquiry based learning questions. Here are my essential questions I will be researching as I begin my learning project:

  • What are some different garden bed designs that I would like to build?
  • What type of wood is most durable for garden beds?
  • What additional materials will I need to complete my project?
  • Do I have all the tools I will need to build and complete my project?
  • What dimensions will my garden bed be based on the outdoor area it will be placed in?
  • How will I need to prepare the area for the garden bed?
  • Are there any plans I could follow or step by step directions to complete my project?
  • What types of plants and flowers will I fill my garden bed with?
Photo by DA Capture on Pexels.com

I have the dream of being able to create a beautiful garden bed for our yard. However, I think it is going to take perseverance and a lot of patience to develop my learning and skills. Perhaps, this learning and skill development will give me the confidence to try other carpentry projects in the future! So, here I go diving into this adventure with a lot of hope and the excitement that I am going to learn to create something for our yard that we will enjoy for years to come! Stay tuned as I walk you through my weekly progress on this project. I look forward to your feedback and tips if you have any knowledge in this skill area. Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!

-Kendra