It has been my experience that
most teachers are not aware of the available resources that the Ministry of
Education provides for teachers and students. I didn't take advantage of
these resources until I was introduced them after taking Part 1 of the
Integration of Information and Computer Technology in Instruction course.
One could spend hours sifting through all of the available resources offered to
educators in Ontario. In this blog entry I am going to highlight three of
the resources I have found most valuable to me in my teaching.
OERB
(Ontario Educational Resource Bank)
OERB offers free digital learning resources to teachers and students, for K to 12. This includes units, lesson plans, activities, and interactive learning resources.
The search features are really
well done. You can select a specific grade, course and strand. I
used OERB to locate math resources on parabolas and was able to find a really
good activity done in Microsoft Word that allows students to investigate a
rollercoaster at Canada's Wonderland. From superimposed images of the
Behemoth on a grid, students determine the equation of the parabola that would
represent the track for one of the hills of the ride. Students really
enjoyed the activity and it gave me and an idea about a great field trip to
Wonderland for a grade 10 math class where parabolas are introduced or in
Calculus and Vectors when students study derivatives and rates of change.
To give you an idea of the sheer
amount of resources available on the OERB site, I did a search of a topic to
see the number of resources found. The topic was "War in
Europe" and there were 161 items found. Many of which were PDF's,
Word documents, videos, and interactive maps. A wealth of resources for
any teacher putting together a history unit on World War 1 or 2 or the Cold War. One
interactive map that I particularly enjoyed was one on the Cold War. The
link is attached below.
Edugains
Edugains is another site that contains ministry
developed resources. Once on the site there are links to many resources
for classroom educators.
One of my favourite teaching resources can be
found in the mathematics link. It is called CLIPS and it is a interactive
math resource for all grades. Students can work on the activities independently in a computer lab or as a class with volunteers taking turns. The students love to come up to the SMARTBOARD and take part in the games and other activities.
I really find it effective to incorporate the CLIPS resources when I am introducing the concept of trigonometric functions to my grade 11 students. This is a great interactive activity where the students are presented with a Ferris Wheel ride that has changing conditions and students must identify these changing conditions as transformations of periodic functions in context. For example students are asked to decide if increasing the speed of the Ferris Wheel will change the graph of the trigonometric function. Then they are asked specifically which transformation has taken place. It is a great way for students to learn these difficult concepts, and they all enjoy it. I highly recommend it.
Questions were in the format students would see on the actual test, such as multiple choice or open response questions. I would spend the first 10 to 15 minutes of each class on this review. Students enjoyed the challenge of testing themselves on actual EQAO questions, and they appreciated that when they weren't able to answer some of the questions, we would go through and see how to apply what they had learned in class to be successful. This built up their confidence and reduced the fear associated with the mystery of the whole process.
One other EQAO resource that I know parents of students in Ontario take advantage of when moving to a new area, is the ability to access the EQAO tests results by school or board. We may disagree whether or not this data will accurately identify "good" schools, but many parents use it because it may be all they have. Parents feel it provides them with some information regarding their perceived chances of success for their child.
EQAO
Having taught grade 9 applied mathematics, which is an EQAO testing year, I have really appreciated the resources that the EQAO websites has made available to both teachers and parents. Grade 9 applied mathematics has been an area where students are notorious for struggling to succeed on the EQAO assessment. Leading up to the test I would incorporate a daily routine of reviewing key concepts and providing students with the opportunity to practice the skills and concepts they would be tested on. I found it effective to visit the EQAO site and locate pasts tests to gather good questions to use in this review process. The website is quite extensive, with all years and winter versus spring tests available in PDF format.Questions were in the format students would see on the actual test, such as multiple choice or open response questions. I would spend the first 10 to 15 minutes of each class on this review. Students enjoyed the challenge of testing themselves on actual EQAO questions, and they appreciated that when they weren't able to answer some of the questions, we would go through and see how to apply what they had learned in class to be successful. This built up their confidence and reduced the fear associated with the mystery of the whole process.
One other EQAO resource that I know parents of students in Ontario take advantage of when moving to a new area, is the ability to access the EQAO tests results by school or board. We may disagree whether or not this data will accurately identify "good" schools, but many parents use it because it may be all they have. Parents feel it provides them with some information regarding their perceived chances of success for their child.
