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 11: Entrepreneurial Thinking and Learning

Today we had the privilege of spending time with intermediate students (and teachers Marci Hunter and Jason Fishpool) at Ardtrea-Cumberland Beach Public School, as two classes were engaged in a range of technology-enabled activities lead by Tyler Cave.  His passion for entrepreneurial thinking and problem solving through technology was evident in every challenge he offered the students.

   

In one classroom (as well as an outdoor space), students had opportunities to experiment with a carousel of learning with Makey Makey, littleBits, Reality Goggles, Dash and Dot Robots, Sparkfun Inventor's Kits, a Roominate Building Kit, a Snap Circuits Rover, Cubelets Robot Blocks, a Vex Robotics IQ kit, an Arduino kit, a Logics Bumble Bee, among others. Students customized their own learning in a digitally rich environment.  

           

In another classroom, students were navigated through discussions that developed an understanding of role collaboration, design thinking, construction and evaluation.  They were given kits that included a wide range of materials to develop a Hovercraft.  The groups were given time to plan, design and build!  Were all groups successful on their first attempt?  No.  But they went back to the original design, assessed the model, made modifications, and tried again!
What came out of this valuable experience was a great deal of student choice and voice, meaningful discussions, and collaborative learning.  What was most inspiring was the perseverance and determination these students demonstrated.  For this group, "giving up" was not an option!  
Ardtrea students discovered, experimented, constructed and created throughout their day, with few limitations and minimal guidance.  In short, the students found constructive, fun ways to LEARN!  

Thank you to Marci Hunter and Jason Fishpool for inviting us into your amazing classrooms. Thank you to Tyler Cave for taking student engagement and innovation to a new level!

"Think left and think right and think low and think high.  Oh, the thinks you can think, if only you try!" ~ Dr. Seuss

Marci, Jill, and Paulyne

Day 10: The Space to Think and Learn

I loved today. I spent time in a Grade One class at Maple Grove, working with the students to learn Explain Everything. I was a little nervous when the classroom teacher asked me to do this. I wasn't sure the best approach. I've watched enough Grade one students roll on the floor, when I was trying to give instructions, to know that a long carpet time showing them how to use the different functions wasn't going to work. We started off by showing the students an Explain Everything video made by a student their own age so that they could understand what the app does. We then handed out iPads to teams of two and let them explore on their own. Within minutes students were importing pictures, recording their voices and drawing with the draw tool, it was exciting to watch their faces light up us they discovered something new! After 10 minutes of play and exploration, we asked the students to teach their classmates one function they learned about. Each group proudly came up and shared their discovery with their classmates, suddenly they were the experts about something, they were empowered and they took that new knowledge back to their work. We asked them to use Explain Everything to express the number seven. It was amazing to

watch the different ways they showed their thinking. Some students took pictures of 7 shells, others drew 7 objects. One group took used the video function to explain why seven was so fabulous. Each group of students got to show their thinking in their own way. I can't wait to see what theses creative thinkers will do next!

Day 5: Life is Meant to be EPIC!

I love this time of year.  A time of excitement and new beginnings….and best of all new shoes!  Maybe, if you’re lucky, two pairs of new shoes - a pair of indoors AND outdoors.  

When you are a teacher and it’s the first week of school, people are always interested in how your week is going. When you are a kid at this time of year, it’s the same thing. I asked many students about their first week of school and most of them responded with a “good”, “great” or, “okay”...but a couple of them replied with an enthusiastic:

“EPIC!”

For one student, his week was ‘epic’ because he landed in the same class as his pals, for another she was excited because she FINALLY got to wear her brand new shoes! For me, it didn’t matter what the reason was, I just loved their enthusiasm.  I started reflecting on their responses and I was inspired by their passion.  Then, I came across the following video from John Spencer and I knew I just had to write this post. Sometimes, (especially this week), I get caught up in the the busyness of life, the discomfort of conflict, and I forget about the important things...like passion, purpose and people.

In the video, John says that epic stories aren't comfortable. It's true! I encourage you to think about the school year ahead. Push beyond your comfort zone and go ahead...make it EPIC!

Day 4: Find your passion

I've been back at work for almost a week, but today was my first day back at "school"! Nervous and excited, as I am sure many students were this week across Simcoe County- I took the first step towards a Master of Arts in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Development @UofT . One of the presenters at the orientation session this evening talked about passion. She said that to embark on this learning journey, you need to follow your interests and love what you do. I couldn't agree more! If we could all find that sweet spot > doing something we love, that incorporates our strengths and has purpose! Can you imagine the possibilities? How can we create these types of opportunities for ourselves and the students in our classrooms? 

Happy first week back SCDSB! Wishing you all a fabulous new school year:)

Louise

Day 1: 194 Days of Learning

Sometimes, the best way to start something is to just… start. Blogging isn’t any different.

I wish I could remember who said “Ideas are born on the page.” I wish it was me because it’s true. Once you start writing, your brain kicks in and the ideas come. You just need to start.

Blogging isn’t about perfection. Perfection is for novels, greeting cards and prescriptions. This space is about documenting learning in real time and reflecting on it.

Today I learned about the:

• history and future of eLearning and blended learning from Hanne and Jaclyn – so many possibilities
• long road of building of a system culture from Kathi and Anita – everything we do only serves to prove what we believe
• vast black hole of kitchen renovations from Jessica – best to keep your distance
• importance of family and friends from Kieley – they are with you even when they are not

Looking back on the day, I realize two things.

One, we are all walking around with so much knowledge, insight and talent, and its worth grows exponentially when we share it with others.

Two, I am surrounded by brilliant women.