First thing’s first…

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog for ECI&834!

My name is Andres Araneda, but most people call me “Dre”. I teach grade 6 French immersion at Elsie Mironuck Community School, and this is my 7th masters class. I took the spring session of EC&I830 with Alec and Katia, and let me tell you, that was one heck of a fun time! This class gave me the opportunity to harness some of my creativity and use it in some interesting ways I typically would have never explored or engaged in if I wasn’t in a class like this.

I’m looking forward to finishing up my degree because that means I’ll finally have more time to dive into my own personal creative projects. In my spare time, I typically like to create as much as I can, whether it’s music, art, or cooking.

I’ve played in several bands in the past ten years, most notably hardcore-punk bands. I like this genre because it breaks all the rules. It’s fueled by the energy of the crowd, the lyrics and the music. Playing this style of music may not be most people’s cup of tea, but seeing a hardcore show is not only eye-opening, but quite exciting as well. Here is a vid of my band Failed States playing at the Southern Alberta Hardcore Festival in Calgary this past July:

My other big passion is art. I like to draw, spray paint and create all sorts of crazy visuals. Here’s a quick video of me erasing some of my whiteboard creations I made a few months ago:

And here’s a video I created for my Arts Ed. summer institute this past July:

And finally, as I stated earlier, I LOVE to cook. Here’s a quick SnapChat video I took a few months ago of some Pad Thai I whipped up:

Whenever I teach, I try to incorporate all of these elements from my personal life into the classroom. Whether it’s showing my students how to video edit, how to create animations, how to create their own blogs, or how to create their own cartoon characters; I’ve found that using technology has absolutely enriched and reinforced my teaching style.

As a goal for this semester, I want learn how to effectively incorporate online and blended learning into my classroom. We all know how great online resources can be, but sometimes bringing in these tools into the classroom doesn’t always go as planned. In doing so, I want to also identify ways in which I can overcome typical obstacles we usually experience when bringing these two practices into a classroom. We all know how troublesome these tools can be if we don’t know how to use them correctly, but what exactly should we be doing to overcome and address these issues successfully? Last but not least, I want to learn as much as possible from all of you. This online community has some incredible benefits for our professional development, but unfortunately, these tools aren’t often used to the same degree in the real world, as they are when we are enrolled in an online class such as this one. Ideally, I would like to start implementing these tools in my own workplace because I’ve come to realize just how much can be gained through sharing and learning from these online communities. Just look at our Google+ community page for example; we only started this class a few days ago, and everyone is already making really good use of it. Imagine the communities we could build with our classrooms, I mean… the possibilities are endless if these things are done correctly.

Thanks for checking out my first entry. I hope to bring as much of me into this class as possible, in hopes to offer all of you different perspectives on these matters. I am hoping to do the same with you as well!

For anyone interested in following me on Twitter, here is a link to my page.

Enjoy your weekend everyone, and see you all on Tuesday!

Peace out,

Dre