This week in technology we had a guest presentation from Kirsten Pierce who is a grade 7 teacher in SD61. She discussed with us how we can use technology not only in the classroom but also outside and on the land!
We discussed the difference between a relationship FOR the land versus WITH the land. What I took away from this was that a relationship for the land looks more like taking care of the land for the betterment of the future of the land. Perhaps this looks like pulling invasive plants or cleaning up garbage. I felt that a relationship with the land focuses more around being educated on the land as well as reciprocity so giving back when we take.
We discussed some apps and sites that are beneficial to building this relationship with the land such as I-naturalist, skyview, leafsnap, rock identifier, google earth and chatterpix. A lot of these are easily accessible to use in the classroom if students have access to phones or iPads.
We also discussed how technology can help students build a sense of place in the world. The example that Kirsten gave is how she uses webcams of nature reserves all over the world to show her class that there is so many things happening in this exact moment globally.
We finished class with a brief trip to Finnerty gardens where we worked in small groups to find QR codes that had resources and activities for us to use. I really liked getting out of the classroom and getting fresh air. Just being outside boosted my mood. I really liked that the goal of the lesson wasn’t to find all the QR codes quickly or even to complete each one, it was just to get outdoors and take from the resources what we felt we needed. Overall, this was one of my favourite classes. Because we blended the use of technology and being outdoors so nicely, I felt this was a really important lesson that shared some really unique resources we can all use in the future.
Below are some photos from our visit to Finnerty Gardens!
