Day 56: Getting Creative in Math

Mrs. Boate is the Innovation Resource Teacher for Numeracy K-8 with the SCDSB.

I invited her to join our class so she might demonstrate a creative and inquisitive approach to math concepts.

Math is typically an area that is seen as procedural, methodical and 'by the book'.

When most people think of math class in school, they think of following a set of pre-ordained steps, finding out the answer, and practicing questions over and over.

And yet...that does not have to be the case!

Our topic today was an introduction to graphing and data management.

To get our 'minds on' this new topic, and to access previous knowledge, Mrs. Boate posted a bar graph that had just bars and asked: what could this be about? Student brainstormed ideas, recalling previous graphs and survey subjects.

Then she asked: what is missing? Students remembered that graphs needs labels and scales and titles.

We then checked out this awesome site: Graphing Stories 

We looked at the Costa Rica swing video--but not past the point where we saw the swing portrayed as a graph because we wanted the students to try graphing it themselves.

Students had to creatively interpret the real life scenario into a mathematical (graphical) representation of their own devising.

This brought forth some interesting discussion on estimation of height, the shape the graph might take, marking the time for lowest point & highest point, etc.

We then compared student graphs to the graph in the video.

We will definitely be using this site again to explore graphing scenarios!

Mrs. Boate will be joining out class again in December for more graphing fun.

Thank you for visiting our class, Mrs. Boate!

*reposted from my class blog: http://mrsjohnsonintermediate.blogspot.ca/
*I'm a Grade 8 teacher at Shanty Bay PS. I love introducing creativity, tech and media into my classroom.
*on Twitter @julieejohnsonn

Day 46- Coding and Simple Circuits Come Alive Through the Arts

Join us throughout the day today at Nottawa Public School as we explore artbots, coding Spheros to complete tasks and collaborative art pieces...and a whole lot of STEAM fun with grades 1 -6!

Block 1 : Artbots- Gr.4/5/6 - 50+students 

With a quick lesson on simple circuits, and a reminder about forces causing movement, these Grade 4,5&6's were ready to rock and roll with their artbot prototypes. Iteration was key and embraced whole-heartedly as they worked through the design cycle / creative process to solve problems and step up to their challenge.

The challenge:

I find it essential to not show a prototype or exemplar of what an artbot could look like. We're not looking for replication, but rather inspiring creativity and innovation by presenting a challenge and the tools required to create it. It never ceases to amaze me how different each and every artbot can be when left to the creative genius of the group. Cue #theartoflettinggo

Some vibrate, some squirm, some spin...but they all dance and make their mark on the world. It is a great reminder for students that we can all be so different, yet accomplish tasks in our own way and leave a positive and unique mark on the world...just like our artbots. Teachable moments make the most of any design challenge as students are directed to think and extend upon their own schema in math, science, technology, engineering and the arts.

What's an artbot without a dance battle? #bettertogether has never been truer!

After prototyping, students were invited to create a collaborative art piece, contemplating the concepts of colour, balance and line while composing the collective piece. A masterpiece was born!

Block 2: Coding Spheros with the 'Tickle' App- Grade 3&4

If you're going to learn to code, let's add some movement! None of these kids had coded before, but before long they were coding like pros and make their Sphero's perform planned tasks! These kids were fully engaged in learning how to use the technology as a tool and not just a toy...although that doesn't mean that a whole lot of fun wasn't to be had as well!

What we did:

Step 1- visual intro to scratch/blockly style coding ( it's just like Lego!)

Step 2- mini lessons on degrees and speed vs. time variables

Step 3- Code the teacher! Be silly and have them recognize how precise commands need to be to execute a simple task, like walking a straight line 90 degrees to your right that is 5 meters long.

Step 4- predict what some sample lines of code will allow their Spheros to do by 'acting it out'. It's a drama technique, a math strategy, a kinesthetic learning technique and yep...a STEAM strategy too.

Can you act out this code? Try it! A lot of body awareness and geometry was happening to determine that this code makes a square.

Step 6: Code your sphero to follow a line or shape in the tile on the floor! How fun! And all in 50mins ;)

Block 3: Jackson Pollock inspired art created by coding Spheros to colour mix- Grade 1/2

This may have been the highlight of my day. I'll be honest with you, I have grandiose ideas at times and tend to trust that something amazing will happen...even and especially if it doesn't all go according to plan. But a plan I had. Where it goes is up to the students... and that is always the best part of the adventure!

Grade 1's, non readers, never coded before, paint, end of the day and robots. What could be more exciting to take a leap of faith into!!!

What we did:

1. Leaving our mark: write your name and draw a picture that represents who you are anywhere on the paper with markers- 5mins.

2. Learn to code- act it out. 

The pinnacle highlight of my day was when a little girl who recognized me from when I had worked with her in summer school this past summer (great difficulty with reading, writing and paper/pencil tasks in general), explained that if we had to code our teacher to walk a square, 'they need to take 4 steps because the other side was 4 steps and all the sides of a square have to be the same number of steps". I almost cried. Amazing right! If we hadn't given that child the opportunity to express their mathematical learning in a different way, we would never have known how much they really knew and understood. Yay for movement integration in all that we do!

3. Use the Tickle app code template and change the variables of time or speed or rotation to change the trajectory of your sphero.

Next...add paint of course!

I must thank my husband for suggesting the garden hose as a sphero fence...brilliant! And a BIG thanks to Chris Gilewicz for picking up a drop sheet and dropping in to play with us at Nottawa this afternoon!

As I sit here wrapping up this blog and tidying up for home this evening, I can hear the kids in YMCA homeport showing their parents the art that they made today just down the hall. I'm pretty sure mini motors and Spheros are on a few Christmas wish lists in Nottawa this year. ;)

Day 39: Video Announcements

At Byng PS we always struggle to find the best time for morning announcements. Often the kindergarten students are in the coat area and are not yet into the classroom.  If you wait for the kindergarten students then it falls in the middle of the intermediate lesson. The idea was born to do video announcements.

On the day before, staff and students put any announcements in the announcement binder. Students take the announcement binder and use the ipad (Green Screen by Do Ink) app to video, then import the videos into imovie. At a staff meeting towards the end of last year all staff were given the time and training to get established on google drive. The videos are shared on the google drive each day. Each classroom chooses the best time to show the video in their classroom with the least amount of interruptions.

Our goal is to have the students independently create our announcements and a teacher only needed to supervise the filming.  In collaboration with our board’s Innovation team, we will be running a student workshop to develop student ability to generate ideas, plan, conduct interviews, present orally in an effective way, film preproduction and post production.

Students will develop various segments that will be incorporated into the announcements on different days of the week.  For example, we currently include a segment called “Things that Make you Go Hmmmmm” where the students choose a photo that encourages classes to discuss questions related to the photo.  We are looking forward to classrooms sharing their learning and successes through photos or video in the shared video announcement google drive folder and then incorporating these clips into our announcements.  We are hoping that creating an extended audience for student work will help to engage them in their learning.

Our video announcements are a work in progress but we are looking forward to our continued growth!

If you have any questions please contact us: Lesia Collicutt and Joanne Larmer

Day 34: What makes a great school yard?

I was at WR Best today filling in for a colleague. I went outside at recess to get some fresh air and check out the yard. What a terrific space this school has for outdoor play. I was so impressed I gave a little shout-out on Twitter.

A few minutes later, I received a text from a friend and colleague saying;

I responded with;

Sample Size: 70+

Criteria:

% of students active

% of mixed age groupings

Competitive to Cooperative Ratio

Tarmac to Grass Ratio

Variety of activities

Quantity of large sticks from the nearby forest for fort building

This place has it all.

Day 22: Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship

Today I attended ICE Training (Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship) with SHSM (Specialist High Skills Majors) champions from around the region. Fundamentally, ICE is continuation of the design thinking template. You empathize with the end-user, generate ideas and create a prototype. ICE training provides students with opportunities to connect with sector partners to find authentic and relevant problems to solve. Like so many other things, Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship is a mindset.

Students meet with community sector partners and talk about a challenge statement. Then, they enter into the ICE toolkit which involves;

1. Empathy and Need Finding
2. Ideation and Prototyping
3. Strategy and Testing
4. Sharing Innovations

Excerpt from SCDSB SHSM ICE Information Sheet 2015

While provincially, ICE training is connected to secondary students in SHSM programs, I can’t help seeing potential and possibilities for all our learners K-12. Authentic and relevant purpose and student agency are cornerstones of engagement and deep learning. I’d be interested in hearing ideas or stories about how this could work or is working across the county K-12.