A disclaimer is that I was away for this lesson so I will summarize what I think the learning was about but I cannot promise complete accuracy. Much information is taken from the slides created by Guillaume.
Accessibility in the classroom is when all learners have the same opportunities to acquire resources, interact with materials, engage in activities, and create content, regardless of disability.
What is digital accessibility?
Digital accessibility is the practice of removing barriers that prevent students from having interactions or access to websites, digital tools, and technologies
What are some basic principles of digital accessibility?
Perceivable: Everyone should be able to perceive the content, and input the information into their brain so that they can process it.
Operable: Everyone needs to be able to operate and navigate through the content.
Usable: Everyone should be able to use the content easily, without becoming lost or confused. Robust: Everyone should be able to access the content, regardless of the technology they are using to do so.
You should include tools that all your students will be able to access and not hinder anyone’s ability to learn. You can use:
Text: Ensure the proper use of headings, and hyperlinks to ensure your content is accessible
Images: You should always include alt-text for your images. This text-based description will be read aloud by a screen reader and is also what will show up if an image is unable to load.
Video & Audio: Add captions to your videos, and many services are available including YouTube. If creating in an audio format, provide a full-text transcript.
Equality, Equity, and Inclusion
What is Equality? The assumption is that everyone benefits from the same support. This is equal treatment.
What is Equity? Everyone gets the support they need, thus producing equity.
What is Inclusion? Inequity was addressed. The systemic barrier has been removed and everyone is able to access the tools and opportunities that they need
It is important that we are reaching every student and that we are providing accessibility resources, online tools, and even using appropriate language. It is important to remember that not every disability is visible or listed in an IEP. The more accessible that you make your teaching the more students you will make comfortable and feel safe and included in your classroom.
I could not interview any of my coworkers this week because I was in Vancouver for a Professional Development Conference. I have decided that since this is MY blog I should talk a little bit about my own plants, what my favourites are, and share some before and after photos. The majority of my plants are rescue plants or plants that we had to take off the sales floor at my work because they weren’t in perfect condition. Getting plants for free has been an incredible learning tool for me as there is much less pressure if it doesn’t end up surviving (which does happen unfortunately). Also, when the plants are coming to me in rough condition it is a great way to research that plant and learn how to take care of it to nurse it back to health. I absolutely recognize my privilege in this situation and I am very grateful that I have this learning opportunity and the chance to make my living space green for very little money!
If you remember back to the first post, my co-worker Erin talked about her favourite plant which was the Marble Pothos. My favourite plant is also in the same family and that is the Golden Pothos! I got my Golden Pothos around June and it had barely started to trail and also looked a little rough around the edges. Fast forward to today and my Pothos is growing NON-STOP! I need to figure out a way to hang it from the ceiling because it has reached the floor and is growing in every direction it can. It is my favourite plant because it’s extremely easy to take care of, adds depth to my living room and overall just makes me extremely happy to look at!
Image by Meghan Parker BEFORE
Image by Meghan Parker AFTER
The Living Room
The living room is my favourite room in my apartment. It also happens to be the room where the majority of my plants reside. They get a natural East light which is the morning sun. This is the most gentle sunlight they can get and I find this the easiest light condition to grow in. My plants seem to be doing alright too because they are thriving. They are all grouped together and this helps the high-humidity plants stay very happy! I have added a few pictures of plants in my living room and what my main set-up looks like.
Image by Meghan Parker
Image by Meghan Parker
Image by Meghan Parker
Image by Meghan Parker
Before and After
Since the main focus of my plants is rehabilitation, I would love to share some of my before and after photos to showcase some of the growth they have made over the past little while.
Image by Meghan Parker made using PicCollage
This is the Monstera Deliciosa. I got this plant as a sale plant from Canadian Tire because it was clearly being overwatered and possibly not enough light. You can tell because of the yellowing of the leaves on the plant. It is much healthier since I brought it home however it does need to desperately be repotted into a larger planter
Image by Meghan Parker made using PicCollage
This is a Ribbon Plant which is part of the Dracaena family. I got this plant brand new so there were technically no flaws with it. I think the craziest thing is just how fast it has been growing. I would say that it has grown over a foot in the span of 9 months which is insane! These plants can get very tall and there is a chance it can even get up to 6 feet tall in the next couple years with proper care. I have staked it up because of how fast it is growing, but this one also desperately needs to be repotted to allow for more growth!
Image by Meghan Parker made using PicCollage
This is a Philodendron. To be quite honest I’m still not 100% sure what type of Philodendron this is. There are over 450 varieties! I know that the leaf shape is the heart-shaped version but I would have to do a little more research to get the specifics. I rescued this plant from my work as they were going to throw it in the compost. It had an easy turnaround, and I think it was just getting improper lighting and attention to watering. Since I have gotten it it has grown 7 new leaves and an 8th is on the way. This plant is in my bedroom and gets indirect South facing light and it really seems to be thriving in that condition
Image by Meghan Parker using PicCollage
This is an Audrey Ficus and it may be up there for one of my favourite plants in the house. This plant was a gift from one of my co-workers because it wasn’t growing well in the conditions it had in their house. As soon as it got my my place it started to take a turn for the better and made tremendous growth in a very short span of time. I think in the span of 3 months it produced over 15 new leaves!
Image by Meghan Parker made using PicCollage
This is a Philodendron Giganteum. This was also a rescue plant from my work and to be honest I’m not 100% sure why because it seemed pretty healthy when I got it, so I am just thankful for the free plant. It has made quite a bit of growth in the last 2 months that I have had it and it needs to be staked up and repotted very soon. As you may be able to tell from the name. this plant can grow VERY large, especially in the wild!
Image by Meghan Parker made using PicCollage
This is a Dieffenbachia aka Dumb Cane. Despite its rude name, I think the Dumb Cane is a very lovely plant. This was one of my boyfriend’s old plants that he had in a basement suite with very minimal light. When we moved into our current place the plant started to flourish as it was finally getting the light it needed. After 1.5 years it is very healthy, very full, and still producing many new leaves.
Image by Meghan Parker made using PicCollage
This is a Spider Plant which I first got from the sale section at Canadian Tire. It seemed fine when I got it from the section, and it has been growing very well ever since. It has lost much of its curl, but that is a good thing as curling symbolizes that it is getting too much sunlight. It is growing very plentiful and is very happy in its indirect sunlight.
Conclusion
I hope that you enjoyed some of the plants from my own collection. This wasn’t the most educational blog post but I hope that you felt a little inspired by my collection that you too can also be a hoarder of houseplants! Happy planting 🙂
I was in the middle of my second year of University when the pandemic hit. Like most, I was excited at first for a two-week break from school and to get to hang out with my roommates. Unfortunately, as we know that soon changed and the entire reality of the world somehow everything came to a standstill. It is certainly never something I would have predicted to happen let alone during my undergraduate degree. Luckily (for me) in my second year most of the professors gave up before the school year came to a close so that meant most of my final exams were canceled. However, that also meant that all of our concerts and performances were canceled as well which was heartbreaking to be working so hard on a creative project and just have it wither into nothing. Another thing that was extremely disappointing was that before the pandemic started I had auditioned for an Honour University Ensemble made up of students from across North America, and I had been chosen out of hundreds of applicants to participate in the conference and travel to the States. I am not usually someone who would have applied for something like this so when I got the news that it was cancelled I was devastated! I never was able to reaudition which is sad and I always wonder what might have been and the people I would have met if I had been able to go.
Music School during the pandemic was frankly not fun. It was in fact a little depressing… The professors tried their best to change the curriculum to make it worthwhile for us but all we really wanted to do was play music together again. At times my degree felt completely worthless and extremely isolating. We mostly just used Zoom to facilitate classes but when that comes to performing music, it really doesn’t work that well. Large and Small ensembles were paused which meant the only music you were making was alone at your house. I still had private instrumental lessons, but I couldn’t afford a microphone which meant most of my lesson sound would cut out it was a challenge for not only myself but also for my teacher because sometimes she had no way to tell what I was playing to give me feedback in real-time. Not all of it was bad though. I am thankful in a way that it was online because I had to take one of the hardest classes of my degree and I truly and honestly don’t think I would have passed the course if I had not been able to take it online. I had already failed it twice and at that point, I was really considering dropping out of my entire degree if I could not pass. The professor was brutal and was notorious for making exams that were way too hard and way too long to do in the time period of an hour leaving countless people to fail just because they didn’t have time to complete the exam. Because it was online she had to make the time to take the test time longer than normal and I took the entire 8 hours of exam time to finish the test! I am actually very thankful I was able to take that course online because I don’t think I’d be writing this paragraph in this degree if it were for taking that course online.
I think that everything happens for a reason even if it may seem awful at the time. Even though I was saved by doing that one course online, the fact that I couldn’t play music with my friends outweighed any of that. If I had the option I would probably choose to have classes in person, but I think having the choice to have some classes online is really helpful!
This week I asked my co-worker Peggy what her favourite plant was. She chose the Sunflower (Echinacea) which can be an annual or a perennial plant depending on the type.
1.) The sunflower is easy to grow. making them suitable for both novice and experienced gardeners. They thrive in various soil types and require minimal maintenance.
2.) They attract pollinators. Sunflowers are a magnet for bees and other pollinators, helping to support local ecosystems and improve the overall health of your garden.
3.) They are drought tolerant. Many sunflower varieties are drought-tolerant, making them suitable for regions and places with limited water resources.
4.) Sunflowers can help improve soil health by extracting certain toxins and excess nutrients from the soil.
5.) Some sunflower varieties produce edible seeds that you can harvest and enjoy as a snack.
6.) They are known for their vibrant yellow or orange blossoms, which can add a pop of color and a cheerful atmosphere to your garden.
Choose a sunny location with well-drained soil. Sunflowers thrive in full sun, so select a spot that gets at least 6-8 hours of direct sunlight each day.
Watering:
Keep the soil consistently moist but not waterlogged when the plants are young. Once established, sunflowers are somewhat drought-tolerant and require less frequent watering
Pruning:
Trim dead or damaged leaves and stems to maintain plant health and appearance.
Fertilizing:
Sunflowers don’t typically require much fertilization. You can add a balanced, all-purpose fertilizer when planting or during early growth.
Support:
Tall sunflower varieties may need support to prevent them from toppling over. Staking them can help.
Harvesting Seeds:
Allow the flower heads to dry on the plant. Once the back of the head turns brown and the seeds are mature, cut the head and remove the seeds. Then enjoy!
Peggy’s Poem
Peggy enjoys sunflowers so much that she even decided to write me a poem! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
This week I used the tool Designer to create a Banner which I have added to this reflection post as well as another one to my week 4 inquiry post. It was really fun to start with a template and then be able to expand on this idea! It was honestly very straightforward, and I felt that there was a lot of creativity you could have in the project once you found your template. It is one of those tools that make your life easier but don’t necessarily take away your ability to actually create. In that sense, it is a great tool for a student to use when creating projects.
Screencastify
I realized that I forgot to add my Screencastify recording to one of my other blog posts so I figured since we were talking about tools for digital creation this would be a great place to add it in!
Laurie: It is a great plant! There are a whole bunch of reasons why it is one of my favourite plants. The bloom is long so you can maximize the time it is flowering for in your garden. It’s a straightforward plant to take care of and isn’t too time-consuming. They grow quick and bush, so if you need something to fill a spot this is a great option. They also come in a few different colours so you can choose which one you like the most. I have them in my garden and they simply make me happy every time I see them!
Me: Do you know any basic care instructions off of the top of your head?
Laurie: Yeah I can tell you a few! Like I said they are pretty simple to grow which makes their care fairly easy. Just make sure that they are in a sunny spot in your garden and that they are getting regular water, especially in the dry months of the summer. They also need to be in well-draining soil if possible because they don’t like to have wet roots.
Me: Thanks for sharing Laurie! I’m glad this plant makes you happy because that is what gardening is all about!
Absolutely! It is your garden so you should plant things that make you smile and want to keep gardening!
Sunlight: They prefer full to partial sunlight. Choose a location with enough sunlight for the best results.
Soil: Echinacea plants prefer well-drained soil Choose a location in the garden with good quality soil, and if you need something that is a little more rich feel free to till the existing soil with topsoil to maximize the drainage.
Watering: The Echinacea is relatively drought-tolerant once established, so avoid overwatering. Water the plant deeply when the soil is dry to the touch, but allow the soil to dry out between waterings.
Fertilizing: Echinacea doesn’t require heavy fertilizing. You can apply a balanced, slow-release fertilizer in the spring, but avoid excessive nitrogen, which can lead to leggy growth and reduced flower production.
Pruning: Deadhead spent flowers by cutting them back to encourage the plant to produce more blooms.
Division: They benefit from division every few years to maintain their growth. Simply dig up a section of the plant and move it to a different area of your garden.
A Herbaceous Perennial is a plant that has non-woody stems that reach their full height and produce flowers once a year, before dying back over the winter and then reappearing the following spring.
What can you do with an Echinacea?
The flowers are traditionally dried as a herbally supplement. The petals, roots, and leaves are all edible. They are commonly dried and steeped into teas
Just reflecting on our most recent class, even though it is a technology-specific course there were still issues with using that technology. It is always tricky when it comes to tech because no matter how prepared the teacher is to teach that subject, there can be many different factors to which it will be successful. The biggest thing is that you must be flexible to change and adapt on the spot just in case something doesn’t go to plan. In our last class even though we were set up to use HP5 many of us couldn’t log onto the program which was a setback for many students. Luckily Rich was able to modify the lesson making learning still accessible for everyone involved.
1.) Accessibility: You must make sure that this new technology is accessible to all of the learners in your class. You don’t want to create any inequities in the classroom.
2.) Trial Period: Before you even introduce that technology to the classroom you should conduct a trial period where you evaluate whether or not it will work for your classroom, and if the technology even works at all.
3.) Assess the Reliability: Research and assess the reliability of the technology. Read reviews, talk to colleagues who have used it, and consider its track record for stability and accessibility.
4.) Feedback and Adaption: Collect feedback from students and be prepared to adapt or even abandon the technology depending on the experiences that the students had with it.
What are some steps for success while using new technology in the classroom?
Have some sort of backup plan just in case the technology fails.
Make sure that both you and your students have proper training on the technology and that you are providing clear instructions and examples for them to follow.
Understand that technology might be frustrating for some of your students and they might need extra support.
Create proper communication between you and your students just in case they need to ask for guidance on a topic.
Be flexible with the material you are teaching. Not everyone may understand right away and that is OK. You need to be ready to adapt your lesson to make sure you keep everyone’s learning on track.
After the lesson is complete assess how impactful the technology was, and if it was the right method for the students in your class to learn. Not every technology you introduce will be successful or impactful for your learners and that is alright!
This week I asked my co-worker Sam what his favourite plant was. He chose the Blanket Flower/Indian Blanket (Gaillardia Pulchella) which is a perennial plant.
Video by Meghan Parker
What makes this plant a good choice?
1.) The Blanket Flower is low maintenance, is relatively easy to grow, and requires minimal care once established. It is drought-tolerant, making it suitable for regions with limited water availability.
2.)This plant attracts pollinators! The bright flowers are attractive to pollinators, such as bees and butterflies. Planting these flowers in your garden can help support pollinator populations and promote biodiversity.
3.) It has a long blooming season, often from late spring through early fall. This extended bloom period provides continuous color in your garden throughout the growing season.
4.) It is very versatile in terms of where it can be grown. It thrives in a variety of soil types, including well-drained soils, and can adapt to different growing conditions, making it suitable for many regions.
Choose a well-draining location with full sun. It prefers at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day.
Watering:
Water a newly planted Blanket flower regularly to help them establish roots. Once established, they are drought-tolerant and generally require less water. You need to water deeply but infrequently to encourage deep root growth.
Pruning and Deadheading:
Deadhead dead flowers regularly to encourage continuous blooming.
In late fall or early spring, you can cut the plants back to encourage fresh growth.
Fertilizing:
They typically do not require heavy fertilization. In nutrient-rich soils, they may not need any additional fertilizer. If your soil is poor, you can apply a balanced, slow-release fertilizer in the spring.
Mulching:
Apply a layer of mulch around the plants to help retain moisture, suppress weeds, and regulate soil temperature. You can use woodchips or straw for mulching.
Now that you have a little bit more information on the Blanket flower, I hope that you will consider adding it to your garden! I am always trying to find plants that help encourage pollinators and this is a spectacular one to add to the collection!
