For the first component of my digital portfolio, I chose to attend Dr. Barb Brown’s lecture on building relationships in online classroom settings. I created a mind map to demonstrate my learning and highlight some of the main ideas that resonated with me.

I chose to participate in this online lecture because I am passionate about student-teacher relationships and hum-centred learning. Luckily, I was able to join in despite by busy schedule! I loved listening to Barb speak because she seemed genuinely invested in sharing all of her knowledge with us. It takes a certain type of person to be a teacher, especially an online teacher! I can think of a variety of in-person ice breaker games to play with my students and after listening to Barb I have been trying to think of how these could be completed online. For example, instead of doing a BINGO sheet to introduce yourself to your classmates, you could play two truths and a lie over Zoom or over Padlet! Not only do teachers need to be invested in creating relationships, but they need to be creative and easily adaptable.

The most important thing I learned was that online learning is always evolving. I connected this to the first learning outcome from the #edci339 course syllabus; I gained an appreciation for human-centred learning online and I left feeling inspired about new ways to personalize online learning for my future students!

I have created three goals for myself when I become a teacher to ensure that I am supporting human-centred learning where students are given voice and choice and where they are having FUN!

  1. Check in with students and their families at least once a week – How are things going? What can I do to help you best suceed?
  2. Provide OPTIONS – give students a variety of choices when completing a project and encourage them to get creative!
  3. Allow students to teach students – encourage think-pair-share chances, partner projects and other collaborative activities. Open learning environments provide a great platform for this but it is up to to the teacher to create appropriate lessons!