Hello everyone! My name is Francesca but you are more than welcome to call me Fran. I have just finished my second year in the Elementary BEd. program here at Uvic. At the beginning of May, I just finished my very first practicum in a grade 1 class and it was so much fun! I have danced since the age of two and in my last 3 years of high school and dance I studied very hard to get my dance teaching certificate, which is what I get to do now while going to school. I have always loved working with children and seeing them learn and understand different topics. Additionally all throughout high school, I volunteered in my school’s “Shine On Program” which was a unique in-school community designed to support learners with developmental, physical, and educational challenges while giving a real high school experience. Here I was able to help many students with varying developmental disabilities with reading, math and building social skills. These experiences have inspired my educational journey to become a well-rounded educator who strives to create a positive learning environment for all students. Additionally, below I attached a photo of one of my family dogs. His name is Otis:)

Social media can enhance communication, sharing, and learning. Social media can offer personalized learning strategies and reveal real-world ideas that are effective. I am interested in how social media can help build your class community and how you could use it for interactive lessons. With these interests, I have a few worries about privacy and misinformation that can come with using social media with younger students.

Currently, I use digital tools mainly to help with creation. Of course, I use applications like Google Docs and Microsoft for writing assignments, but I particularly like using Canva to create different worksheets and creative elements for my assignments or lessons. I have also recently learned some interactive digital tools like EdPuzzle that I think would be of great value in my future classroom. In my future classroom, I will use digital tools to create engaging and interactive lessons that help to spark critical thinking and creativity within my students.

Digital literacy is the skills that aid people in navigating, evaluating, and creating digital content. The key components that come with digital literacy are information, media and technological literacy. Knowing these components helps us to recognize the responsibilities and possibilities that come with the digital world. Digital literacy is important for students, educators and education. It provides students with skills that will help in their academic and work success in the future and encourages safe and responsible online interactions. For educators, it works to help guide students in the digital world and can help to create better learning experiences. As for education digital literacy supports engaging current curriculum and helps to empower critical thinking and digital citizenship.

As for experience with PLNs, I do not have a lot of experience with them, however after my first practicum my cohort created a shared drive to share lessons with one another where I was learning from others and others were learning from me. Here I was able to connect with peers/colleagues while getting other resources that will help in my future learning and teaching. I plan to use the building steps provided like identifying the learning goals while connecting different forms of social media and digital tools. With the tasks for this week, I created an account on Facebook account to help build my PLN. The goal I wanted to focus on is inclusive classroom strategies for all elements. From there I was able to follow some helpful and influential educators who provided loads of strategies for inclusion in the classroom.