PS1 - Student Names/Interests in Math Problems
In this lesson plan, included below, students were learning to solve word problems in their order of operations math section. I've included this as an artifact to demonstrate my building of effective relationships, part of TQS 1, to help engage my students with the lesson content by including their hobbies and interests into the word problems they were to solve. I've redacted the student names to ensure privacy.
The amount of student engagement I saw out of this lesson was outstanding. From their brief roar of laughter to see their names and interests, along with their bewilderment as to how their teacher actually knows/researched about their interests, students were immediately hooked on the word problems, so I feel they were an incredible success.
Computers for Kids
Computers for Kids is an organization I founded in 2012, and continue to run on my own to this day. Computers for Kids takes in broken and unwanted computer equipment and distributes it to those in need. While the initial aim was to help youth and families in need, it has since expanded to help youth, families, senior citizens, and victims of natural disasters, having reached people as far west as BC, as far east as Saskatchewan, and down south of the US border as well.
Computers for Kids has been a wonderful way for me to not only help our environment by keeping usable equipment from becoming scrap or e-waste, but also help give families and young people access to educational resources online. Our world is continuing, more and more, to become dependent upon technology, so it is vital that young people are not only experienced with technology for the workplace, but that they have access to it to benefit their education as well.
Computers for Kids has, and will continue to, help shrink the digital divide, and provide greater access to the wonderful educational resources available online.