Town & Country

Dec 2014

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Saturday, December 6, 2014 the global classroom RRC's Eva Brown took four students to Churchill for a live-streaming project. Photos courtesy of Red River College gift & floral shop rainbow's end /2 Lido THeaTre /5 thE pas thEatrE rEopENs it's Doors Country Town & MANITOBA editor: Pat st. Germain pdstgermain@gmail.com By Jennifer McFee For the Free Press I t all started last spring when Eva Brown, instructor-developer of teacher education at RRC, met with science consultant Jacqueline Monteith from the Frontier School Division. Brown prepares students to become business and technology teachers through a joint program offered through RRC and the University of Win- nipeg for holders of undergraduate degrees. As part of their studies, her students are teaching teachers how to use technology in their class- rooms through an initiative called Flipping PD. Meanwhile, Monteith runs virtual field trips that live-stream learning opportunities across the geographically vast Frontier School Division, as well as to other sites that tune in around the world. A recent event called The Science of Life in Churchill reached classrooms on a global scale. As part of the Science of Life series, Brown and Monteith joined forces through their projects to live-stream a Churchill-based professional de- velopment session led by the RRC students. "I took four students up and they each taught a half-hour lesson that was live-streamed to 18 schools around the world. It's recorded, so the learning can go on. For anyone who wants to see it, they can," Brown says. "Then each of my students worked with teachers from the Duke of Marlborough School on technology and helped them so they can ac- tually use it in the classroom." While RRC students learned how to teach, Frontier staff learned new high-tech skills. "Because they have so many remote areas in the Frontier School Division, they're looking at how to connect and how to get this to their teach- ers, so this was a really good opportunity. That was one big connecting piece," Brown says. "In collaboration with Frontier School Div- ision, we got to work with the tech people. They made it all happen, so the students got to see both sides of how it worked." The Science of Life in Churchill event also fea- tured presentations by students from Duke of Marlborough School, which drew an audience of about 3,000 viewers at 36 international view- ing sites. As well, an expert panel live-streamed a ses- sion from the Churchill Northern Studies Cen- tre, which brought in questions from as far as New York. Overall, organizers agree that the project was a positive experience for both the Frontier staff and the Red River students. For Monteith, the main goal is to provide learners and educators with experiences they might not typically be able to have. "Our biggest challenge in our division is our geography and our topography. For me person- ally as a science consultant, getting to every com- munity is absolutely a challenge," Monteith says. "This way, we can reach an endless number of communities at one time and provide the sup- port for educators and for our learners." Brown says she was able to achieve a simi- lar goal. "I'm always looking to connect the stu- dents and get them real-world experiences," Brown says. "They're crying out for professional development in schools. They need something that will be effective in the classroom now. They need to know how to do this and bring it to the students." As part of the Flipping PD project, different groups of RRC students have also delivered professional development days in Waterhen to show Frontier teachers how to create global classroom connections and how to use different technological tools. "We're looking to teach to the school of the future where it is inquiry-based and we're ask- ing questions. It's flexible, interactive and inclu- sive," she says. "We try to put all of that together into real-world teaching, so that's the thing that's amazing." These collaborations have also paved poten- tial career paths for Brown's students. "The Frontier School Division has said our stu- dents can have a job any day of the week in any of their schools. They actually gave the students a letter of reference to put in their e-portfolios that they can take to interviews," she says. "The college advertises that we help students find jobs, and in this case, for sure, we're do- ing it." ❙ iNsiDE A unique partnership between Red River College and Frontier School Division is opening the door to a whole new opportunity to teach teachers. RRC instructor-developer of teacher education Eva Brown. Photo courtesy of Red River College I took four students up and they each taught a half-hour lesson that was lIve- streamed to 18 schools around the world. It's recorded, so the learnIng can go on. for anyone who wants to see It, they can, Brown says. " " thompson.ca thompsonunlimited.ca THOMPSON,MB YOURWINTERPLAYGROUNDAWAITS DOWNHILLSKIING ~ SNOWSHOEING ~ SPECTACULARNORTHERNLIGHTS ~ ICEFISHING SNOWMOBILETRAILS ~ GROOMEDCROSS-COUNTRYSKITRAILS traDiNg aND tEchNology arTic TradinG comPany /4 Town & Country Dec. 6/14

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