<![CDATA[mater monstrorum - Digital Classroom]]>Fri, 12 Dec 2025 03:42:46 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Bringing CI into the Digital Classroom]]>Sat, 14 Dec 2024 15:32:19 GMThttps://www.matermonstrorum.com/digital-classroom/bringing-ci-into-the-digital-classroomThis is a series I'm sharing over on the CI blog page. Use the buttons below to find each post.
Easily Adaptable Activities
CI Responses in Zoom
Coming: Bringing CI to the Empty Digital Classroom
Coming: Bringing CI into a traditional online Latin class
Coming: Using Brain Breaks Online
]]><![CDATA[Live Learning Features of Zoom]]>Tue, 01 Oct 2024 07:00:00 GMThttps://www.matermonstrorum.com/digital-classroom/live-learning-features-of-zoomI have had a love/hate relationship with Zoom. There are a number of features I appreciated, as a professional, like the ability to exit out of a full screen screen share so I could open my notes (or something else 😲🤫🤭). During the pandemic, when I was teaching a hybrid class and had students in my room physically and online, I hated it. Zoombombing was a new thing and teachers were having many issues with it. I instead used Google Meet. Now I am in a world where I'm required to use Zoom and, I'll be honest, I've learned some cool things. I still find the sharing procedure clunky and much prefer Google's, which worked with tabs, windows, AND the screen, but Zoom is growing on me. So, I wanted to share some things I've been doing with my classes. 

The Annotation Discovery

I just wanted to give a brief rundown of what you could do with the annotate feature in Zoom. As you can see in the picture, when you click "Annotate" on your zoom toolbar, a second toolbar shows up. You can move this around to where you need it to be and it includes a number of features. You can also disable others' ability to annotate on that main toolbar. From Top Down:
  1. Pointer (this allows you to move through your presentation)
  2. Move (This allows you to move drawings, stamps, or text already on the screen)
  3. Text (This allows you to write text on the screen. I did find this to be a bit fickle in that if you don't type quickly enough sometimes the text box disappears. Once you've typed in a textbox, you cannot open that box again [as far as I can see]).​
4. Draw (Maybe my favourite feature!)
  1. type of pen (pen, marker?, highlighter, ??)
  2. line width
  3. shape options 
    1. lines and outlines
    2. arrow and shaded box
    3. double arrow and fully coloured in box​
5. stamps (not in order)
  1. check mark
  2. X
  3. ?
  4. star
  5. heart
  6. arrow
6. Pin Pointer (makes a small red dot show up where your curser is)
7. eraser (click on what you want to erase)
8. colour chooser (for Text, and Draw options)
9. undo
10. redo
11. Trash all your annotations
I've never used the others, but I can guess that the last one is download.

Mythology Class

In this mythology class, after a presentation on 4 culture's deities, students were asked to pick a colour and begin to identify connections between the cultures and deities. You can see that some students chose to draw the line option and others chose to freehand. Both had uses in this activity. As we discussed, students drew more and more lines. We did this using the annotations and my Canva presentation. 

Spanish Class

Similarly, in this Spanish class, students did a vocabulary check using the annotate option. They all chose a colour and were to draw lines from the vocabulary to the image that showed its meaning. Some students free handed, some used the draw an arrow feature, and some use the arrow stamp. Colour coding it allowed me, as the teacher, to see who was doing what and, if needed, remediate or make notes for the next class. 
In this image, you can see that I divided the screen space (via my Canva presentation) into 2 sections. Each student had a section labeled with their name. I asked questions in Spanish and they wrote their answers. One student chose to hand write theirs and the other typed. 

Latin Class

In my Latin class, as we were reading a text, I asked students to underline words and phrases they didn't understand. I then typed those out below with notes. As we discussed, I took more notes and drew pictures to help with comprehension. Then, we answered the questions and drew boxes around the answers.

Conclusions

I am still learning about Zoom and all the things it can do. I know I may be behind the curve on this, as I held out against it due to Zoombombing, but I am learning more and getting a little more excited about what it can do. What are your favourite features about Zoom? What things do you wish it could do?
]]><![CDATA[An Introduction]]>Fri, 27 Sep 2024 19:24:48 GMThttps://www.matermonstrorum.com/digital-classroom/an-introductionI am a millennial. When I was younger, that term made me cringe, but I have come to accept and even enjoy the title. Our generation is credited with ruining a variety of social and economic constructs, inventing L33T speak, and living through a exhaustive list of "once in a lifetime" events. In addition to all this, we grew up as technology advanced. I often give this timeline:
  • I was born when records and cassettes were popular. 
  • In elementary school I learned basic coding and typing.
  • By the time I was in middle school, we had a computer (with dial up), and I was beginning to explore the online world.
  • In high school, I learned how to do research online, what a virus was, and how to blog. I've had a LiveJournal, Blogger, Wordpress, and more. 
  • I learned how to record tapes off the radio, then starting buying CDs, and learned how to use Napster.
  • I've also had most iterations of social media: Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Insta, and beyond.
TLDR: As technology advanced, so did my generation. We learned how to work technology and work around it. We learned how to make it work for us. All that to say, technology is a standard part of my life and one I enjoy using both personally and professionally. 

This page is going to be dedicated to what I'm calling "the digital classroom". In 2020, this had a very specific meaning, particularly for those of us who were teaching in a physical classroom and were, quite literally, thrown into a digital one overnight. There were a lot of issues, failures, and successes during that time, but it taught me new things about technology and the classroom. 

Now that term can mean many things. For me, as of today, it means:
  1. technology I use in the physical classroom with my students, particularly when they are using it as well. 
  2. a "digital classroom" - a presentation or PDF that includes links to notes, activities, and more for students to use on their own devices.
  3. my "digital classroom" - starting in 2024, I became a digital teacher. You can read more about my decision on my social media, but essentially I decided to work from home part-time to spend more time with my son and be with him at home, at least, for the first few years of his life. I have two types of digital classrooms: (1) a classroom within an Learning Management System (LMS), and (2) a live classroom using zoom. 

Lastly, while I already have plans to cover a number of things, I want more! If there are any things you've found success with or would like me to consider, please drop a comment below. Also, what do you consider a "digital classroom" to be?
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