Reaching High School Students Before They Drop Out

The All in for Youth Model

 The Centre for Excellence in Foundational Learning is piloting a project with United Way of Calgary and Area and the St. Anne Academic Centre (http://www.cssd.ab.ca/stanne/).  As part of the United Way's All in for Youth initiative the department has started with four students this term with plans to extend this to 15 students per term.

There are several exciting dimensions to this project:

1. We will learn how to intervene with students before they drop out and encourage uninterupted learning.
2. We are piloting a true "dual credit" model where the student will gain credits within both the College and high school.  United Way picks up the College tuition and materials for these students.
3. We can develop a relationship with a funder who is interested in tackling educational policy with an eye to reducing drop out rates and the resulting social issues that often follow such a decision e.g., low paid work, social assistance requirements, etc.

I want to thank Petya and Jenniel for their considerable efforts to integrate these students on very short notice.  As well, thanks to the instructors who accommodated to the delay that happened in getting the texts to the students.  I am appreciative of the efforts of our Registrar's Office to make some significant modifications to registration on short notice so that the students could be included this term.

Keith

10 Tools Challenge

Visual Text Cloud

Here we are a couple of weeks into the new term and we are already asking our learners to try new things, take new risks, and learn new skills. Well, now is a good time for us to also look at increasing our skill set professionally.

Through Twitter I came across the “10 Tools Challenge” that I’d like to pass along to you all. The idea is that as part of your professional development plan for 2013 you learn 10 new technology tools. At a rate of about one a month, this sounds like a challenge that will be both manageable and rewarding. There are hundreds of tools out there that are valuable to educators and, perhaps, that hardest part of this challenge will be choosing the tools that will be most valuable to you professionally. Below I’m providing a few examples of tools that may fit the bill, organized by category. (The original challenge post also has a great list of options.)


What are your favourite tech tools? Let us know in the comments section below.

1. Internet Search - how to get the most out of the web
1. Google - how well do you know how to search? Google now offers training for educators on how to search more productively
2. Twurdy - search websites according to readability level. If your learners are expected to read at a Grade 7 level, lead them to websites that aren’t written for first-year university students.
3. Symbolab - use math symbols to search for equations and formulas
2. Social Networking - creating a professional learning community
1. Twitter - share resources and connect with other educators (or celebrities) in 140 characters or less
2. LinkedIn - showcase your work and professional achievements and connect with others in your field
3. Google+ - share and connect with others
3. Presentation
1. Prezi - an alternative to slideshows, create zoomable, multi-media presentations
2. Easel.ly - create your own infographics
3. Timetoast - create timelines with notes and images
4. Blogging - publish information and opinions online and connect with your audience
1. Blogger
2. WordPress
3. Edublogs
5. Screen Capture - record your computer screen as images or videos
1. Jing
2. Screencast-o-matic
3. Screenr
6. Mindmapping - a visual form of planning or organizing ideas and information
1. Mindomo
2. Spicynodes
3. Spidescribe
7. Bookmarking - track all of your favourite websites online (so that you can access them from any computer) - some sites allow you to share with others
1. Pearltrees
2. Symbaloo
3. Pinterest
8. Office software - online versions of word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet applications
1. Google Drive
2. OpenOffice
9. Visual Text Clouds - visual way of presenting textual information
1. Wordle
2. Tagxedo
3. Tag Cloud Generator
10. Online Meeting software - meet even when you can’t all be in the same room
1. Adobe Connect (contact the TLE for an account)
2. TodaysMeet
3. AnyMeeting

Ac. Prep. Students Using Google Drive

This semester has brought an exciting opportunity for students in Writing 5 - TR3. Our class is working in a computer lab every day. Thus, technology is at our finger tips and so are many opportunities!

In writing, students are required to create compositions daily, and they are asked to share their writing with the instructor . In the past, I would have students save their work on either their USB or mine. A tedious task in many ways as sometimes students would forget their USB at home, or the USB drive would fail, not to mention the time this process would take. It was definitely not user friendly.

Thanks to all students having a myBVC (Google) account, they now have a very simple way of achieving this task. Students are using Google Drive. Though this may sound like a daunting expectation for students at this level, it was easily achieved by all students in my class during the first lesson.

After asking students to log in to their myBVC account, they opened "Drive" which is located at the top of the home page. To create a new document, they simply chose the red create icon. As students write, their work is saved automatically. This is a very helpful feature!  Once students have completed their work, it is time to share it with me.  This has a few steps, but it is quite straightforward.  They choose the "share" icon, change the privacy setting to "Anyone who has the link", add my email address, and choose "Can edit".   Finally, they choose "Share and Send".  I now have access to their document, and I can comment and edit their work.

Only two of my students were familiar with Google Drive before my first lesson, and the others were nervous about having to use this type of technology.  At the end of the first lesson, all of the students agreed that it was easy and user-friendly.  Now, having completed the first week of class, I find that my students are accessing their drive at home and working on their compositions.  I have never had students so motivated to write on their own time before. The energy and enthusiasm the students are displaying about using this platform is encouraging.

Our students have so many skills and talents that they use in their daily lives; it is great when these skills can be enhanced in the classroom.