Day 175 Toy Dissection Workshop- An E-Workshop Presented by ScienceNorth

A month ago a student came to the library here at Portageview Public School, looking for information about a specific rock as she was gathering research for an inquiry in grade four on Rocks and Minerals.    

Together we composed a tweet and sent an email to Science North/ Dynamic Earth in Sudbury.  

A quick reply was received.  The response from Science North led me to wonder if they would be interested in connecting with the students at Portage View to discuss and answer additional questions about rocks and minerals. Through email, they explained that they didn’t yet have an e-workshop for rocks and minerals but that they did have one for Gears and Pulleys. A phone call was set up between the two grade four teachers at our school and Melanie Smith a scientist from Science North to discuss this opportunity.  

Through this communication, we learned that the Gears and Pulleys workshop not only was available but was also free at this time as it was being subsidized.  We were very excited to hear about this program and set in motion the steps necessary to take part in this program.  A date was arranged, materials were sent and arrived from Science North and a check to ensure that the online conferencing we would use for our meeting (Zoom) would work.  We were now ready to go!

In April, the grade four students arrived in the library with their ipads ready to take part in this online workshop.  Scientist Melanie from Science North facilitated the program from her office in Sudbury.  

The grade four students used ipads throughout the workshop to document their learning and then used Book Creator to create a finished product to share their learning.  We have been asked to share some of these with Science North.  

Below is a video of one of the recounts created by a group of students:

This experience was an excellent opportunity for the students at Portage View to participate in hands-on learning, connect with a real scientist and ask questions to an expert in the field!

submitted by Jacquie Raycraft, Teacher Librarian

Day 151 - Sharing the Learning: Leveraging Digital

This afternoon, we were lucky enough to participate in a sharing session of teachers from the West. They came together to reflect on their inquiry that revolved around using the iPads for taking learning deeper.

Here are just some of the examples that were shared.  Daryl Pike's Grade 8 students at Birchview Dunes explored the impact of humans on the earth. Students did research and storyboarding in their Geography class and then did the video production with Daryl (their Media teacher).  The project evolved to include a focus on digital citizenship.

Rebecca Barr's grade 5 & 6 class at Admiral did a unit on fractured fairy tales.  The challenge was to modify or combine fairly tales and then share them in a digital format with their reading buddies. Students wrote a plan with paper and pencil, a draft in a Google Docs on the Chromebooks, then they used the Book Creator app (combined with Chatterpix and iMovie).

Laura Kennedy and Jody Bumstead shared some work that their students did in the Learning Centre. They were doing procedural writing so they created their work in the Book Creator app.  Students used speech to text and text to speech features in the iPad to support them with the writing process.

Margaret Johnson from Nottawa talked about how she is supporting her students to be more independent and self-assess their writing.  She has them use the accessibility features built into the iPad so they can correct spelling and punctuation, and use Voice Typing in Google Docs.  The change in routines has resulted in improved writing.

The common outcome for all of the students, as observed by the teachers involved, was greater engagement in the learning.  Everyone agreed that the quality of work was enhanced due to the combination of the technology and  the fact that the work was shared with an authentic audience.

Deb Shackell & Marie Swift

Day 146: Leveraging Digital Tools For Deep Learning

Today, 5 teachers from four different schools gathered at Wyevale Central P.S. to share their learning around the Leveraging Digital Tools for Deep Learning NM1 Inquiry.  The sharing of ideas and learning experiences was awesome!  

Here are some examples from a teacher in the group:  

I found that my students needed a space to share all of the digital work that we have been creating using the iPads in Science. We have been using apps such as Pic Collage and Book Creator. I also thought it was important for students to share all of their learning that they have been doing in Science Class with their parents. 

I decided to use the SeeSaw App to do this sharing. I set up a SeeSaw account for my classes (I am a PT teacher). I spent several classes demonstrating to the students how to post their digital work onto SeeSaw after they have completed it. I also printed out an invitation for each child to take home inviting their families to log onto their child's "page". 

The video below is from a student who posted right on SeeSaw. The student took a picture of her work and explained what her picture was about using the microphone part on the SeeSaw App. This project incorporated Science (friction), Media (conventions of Instagram) and Visual Arts (texture). 

The second post (see video below) was created in Book Creator. The students completed the experimental method of their Gravity Experiment. They then posted their completed experiments onto SeeSaw.

The impact of using this App to keep track of their learning was that students are engaged and excited about posting and sharing their work.When students knew that there was an audience for their work the students were keener to work harder on their work. Parents who have signed on are excited to see their child's work. It makes it easier for them to engage in discussions about what their child is learning at school. 

My next steps are to continue using the App for more digital projects. To take it to a deeper level I would like to demonstrate how to use the Success Criteria to give feedback to peers on their work and to do self-assessment. I will also resend the parent invitation to try and get more parents onboard. The last thing is to continue to demonstrate is how to use the app to my fellow co-workers.  (Kimberlee Hall)

Here are some examples from some of the other teachers involved in the inquiry:


-using the SeeSaw app to allow students to record their voices while doing independent reading or while doing "Read to Someone" 

- a Google Form with the group that she had created to track observations of students while doing Running Records

-using Google Maps to locate places in the community, then having students describe the special place and read their "script" in front of  an  image of that place using the Green Screen DoInk app

‐using various resources (print, online) exploring the impact of people on the natural features in the 
community (environmental focus) and sharing learning using the Book Creator app

-creating a Weebly blog to collect student work from various projects on Padlet, Adobe Voice and Pic Collage, related to a class novel study partnership with another class

Day 23: Using the Writing Process...Digitally

The iOS app called Book Creator (available in the Airwatch catalogue on the board iPads) is an extremely versatile tool that is suitable for students from Kindergarten to Grade 12!  It connects seamlessly with the Writing Process that teachers use with their students.  Here’s a sample lesson with a Grade 3 class as they explored procedural writing.

In keeping with the gradual release approach to balanced literacy, the teacher had already done some modelled and shared procedural writing with her class on chart paper.  The students had a fairly solid understanding of the format that would be used for their own writing.  

We reviewed the anchor charts and brainstormed a list of possible topics they could use for procedural writing.  Next, we did a quick overview of only the most basic features of Book Creator (see this video).  This gave the students some scaffolding without bogging them down with too many details.  

Off they went in pairs to create and discuss a plan for their collaborative procedural writing.  Once they had agreed upon a topic, they were given an iPad and set out to write their “draft”.  The students were engaged in the writing and needed only minimal support to expand their ideas digitally.  Once the ideas were flowing, students were challenged to change the size or colour of the font.  Some explored the ability to add video or audio to their writing.  

It was exciting to discover during the mini-lesson with the whole group, that the students understood the clear distinction between revising and editing.  They were reminded that in order to revise, they needed to re-read their work carefully. During this particular session, most had enough time to use the Speak Selection feature to be able to listen to their text a second time and ask themselves if it “made sense” and “sounded right”.  

During their next lesson, the students will be given more time to finish their writing and move on to the editing stage.  While thinking about whether their text “looks right” they will check for capitals, punctuation and spelling.  

Students will be directed back to their anchor chart to have an opportunity to make any further additions or modifications.  At this stage, self and peer feedback can be used to inspire the co-creation of success criteria to support further exploration of procedural writing. Another exciting feature that teachers can use in an innovative way is to give student feedback using an audio recording.  In this way, teachers add a temporary layer of feedback that is easily understood by the students and placed directly where it’s needed.

It was exciting to see how far some of the students were able to go during just one lesson. Imagine the growth that is sure to follow with more experience, additional feedback and evolving success criteria!  

Here’s one example of a first attempt at procedural writing in Book Creator:

Thanks to Mundy’s Bay Public School teacher Kim Rettinger and her Grade 3 students for learning and sharing with me.