ISTE2014

This was a truly a trip of a lifetime. This year I was chosen ISTE 2014 Outstanding Teacher. It is wonderful to be honoured for doing what I love everyday and thrilling to see a giant "me" greeting me  to the sounds of jazz as I entered the keynote.

Over the past years I have been lucky to work in a school district where we are encouraged to take risks, think creatively, and find new ways to engage and guide the learning of our students. My conversations with teachers from other countries opened my eyes to the freedom Surrey teachers have to create our own learning spaces and decide how we  build communities of learners in each of our schools. Teachers  value autonomy as we are creative creatures at heart. We are always looking for new ideas, resources and techniques to make each year better than the last.

Technology and art have been my choices to build new lessons, and find ways to encourage my students to take risks and "own" their learning. Technology  turned my students into publishers, directors, researchers, and connected us to the world. At ISTE2014 I made new connections, found new opportunities and exciting new gadgets to recharge and regroup my thoughts. After sifting through all this new information I am eager to start planning for fall. I am looking forward to joining Project Rhino, getting iPad stands, new software and apps to make movies, and to try a whole new venture of game design in Social Studies.  We will continue using our blogs to publish our work, create online portfolios, share and reach out to others.  They will be the anchor and glue that connects everything we do.

I made exciting new discoveries. The iPad stands, animation Create7 and game design programs that I will try this summer and learned about App Smashing. Who knew we were already well on our way  as App Smashers, usng a variety of apps such as Mobile Monet, King Cam. Animoto, Garage band,  iMovie and Book Creator to name a few.   I found some new great additions such as Thinglink to add to our arsenal.  A great find. Now we will be able to add info windows to make our research presentations interactive. 

Can hardly wait to get started.
ISTE RECHARGED ME.




 

Its All About The Tech

Many articles, tweets, and posts about integrating technology ttell us that it is not the technology,  but how we use it to change our teaching that matters. I agree,  how use technology within the classroom is important and that it is a tool not an end in itself. We should  use technology in creative and collaborative ways.

However. I think in my classroom its all about the technology.

 We have 5 ipads, and a cart of Macbooks that we can use daily, and the students can BYOD. If we had more we would use more, but it is certainly not essential to have a 1:1 setup. In fact, even when avaliable we usually work in pairs or teams to ensure collaboration, and to promote peer to peer support. I would much rather have 5 iPads all the time than sign out class sets that we share with the school. We use them exclusively for creating: making videos, slide shows, photography, blogging and skyping. We need them to be available at all times because,  just like our other classroom tools, we use them throughout the day. Having our own class iPads means they are always charged; they are always updated; they only contain our apps and content; and they do not get too full. We have them synced through iCloud and they are very manageable with little effort.

Now, back to the all about the technology...

Technology has transformed our classroom. It enables us to reach out to the world through daily blogging, skyping, Youtube and Twitter, We are able to share our learning with others and to participate in other classes' projects, experiments and blogs. It has enabled us to experience first hand sources for research such as the pictures, maps and diary entries within Passageways  and the information from the Government of Canada to become explorers and to blog about our travels.

It enables us to use rich resources such as Discovery learning, or to watch video  clips from credible sources such as the BBC,  NASA, and National Geographic,  to better understand what we are learning  and to produce our own videos and share them with others on Youtube.

Technology has enabled us to publish our learning in our blogs and given new importance to our writing and artwork while providing parents and others a window to our work. We have been able to reach out to others and to share globally through initiatives such as Global Read Aloud and given us choices in how we present our learning. Publishing and sharing has brought us confidence and inspired us as we learn. It has given us purpose, self direction and choice.

Our Class is all about the technology: http://mrsdycksclass.weebly.com/

IDL Yr. 2, Failure and Success

June Reflections

This year has flown by. I tried to take on new challenges as the year unfolded and I have ventured into the global stadium. Our class joined The Global  Read Aloud and I encouraged and mentored the teachers that wanted to integrate iPads and computers into their classroom.  We acquired more iPads and opened up their use to all of the teachers in the school and some have started to use them.

Even after years of using technology with children I always find new challenges to overcome. When I see new Apps, or great new ideas, or opportunities for my class to take on  a new way to build learning it excites me. I have to take it on. I can't always do it all, but I like to find great new ways to help my students succeed.

 I understand how hard it is for some children to communicate, to fail even when they have given their all. I understand how difficult it can be to march to  a different drummer. I have a special spot in my heart for children who struggle because school is not always an easy place for them to navigate. I know that many gifted children face challenges as diverse as others special needs children. Children come to us eager to learn, eager to please and eager to be accepted, Some make it look so easy, and some struggle every day.

I came to teaching as a second career after having children. I was hooked on education after seeing the new directions that learning was taking at the time. I visited classrooms that made teaching and learning an adventure. Along the way I took many courses on using technology as a tool to provide open ended learning opportunities for children with learning disabilities including giftedness.

I learned how helpless it feels to fail. School always came easy to me and I never quite understood how some people struggled to understand a new concept or remember a lesson. I always just knew how to write an exam essay, how to memorize a textbook, or how to anticipate what questions would be on an exam. Then, out of the blue, I learned how to fail... How desperate it feels to try to understand, how frustrating and powerless you feel.

In my last year of Education at University I ended up in a class "Elementary Mathematics From Advance Standpoint" A great math class for soon to be elementary teachers..right?? Not so. It was a class that looked at advanced mathematical proofs using whole (elementary) numbers. A class in advanced number theory. A class that only serious Math scholars and unsuspecting education students took. The Faculty of Education had mistakenly thought it was a class in basic math for teachers of primary students. The first day we were told all of the education students would fail. We did. All of us. We could not withdraw as it was required for a Math major and those of us enrolled were all a few courses from graduating. Withdrawl meant not graduating.

I was a mother of three and a student. I cold not, not graduate. The stakes were too high. The cost of daycare, classes and raising family had taken its toll and we needed to move into the land of the working. Every day I went to class and took notes, I got support from a doctoral student. I redid every question over and over. I still failed. I started to freeze on our daily quiz. My mind totally blanked out. Panic flooded me. I went to the Dean Of Education to get help. He told me to relax, my marks were high,  I would be fine. I wasn't. I turned to the Professor, a semi retired math genius, for help. He said married women  belonged at home  with their family, and education wasn't a real subject. I tried harder, I started to memorize all the proofs I could. The problem was we were never given the same type more than once.

In the end, I failed. I couldn't retake it as it was only taught by one professor. However, the course was removed from the the Faculty of Education requirements and without being required enrollment dropped, and the course did too. Too late for me. I was able to complete two independent study courses to graduate, and  more importantly I learned what it was like to fail. I have never forgotten that course. I still have the hundreds of pages of proofs I wrote out and memorized and my heart jumps when I see that look of confusion and fear in a child's eyes.

How does this relate to my teaching over the last year? It is with me always. I need to find new ways for children to succeed and be confident learners, to be able to take risks, collaborate and feel good about themselves, not the panic, fear and emptiness I felt.

This has changed my perspective on learning. I don't believe in Mastery learning, or in final answers. I believe that if you write a math test you should be able to take it home, get help, correct it, and rewrite the very same test, or take it home to practice with mom and dad first. I believe that we are there to help children succeed, to find ways to help them support their own learning, take risks, and to celebrate their success. I believe there are better ways to learn and the children will find them. If we let them.

This is what drives me to push them to do their best, to help them find new ways to succeed, to work together, to create, to engage in authentic tasks that compel them, guide them and inspire them. This year blogging was the most important tool in my box to make that happen. We invited in First Nations people to teach us to weave, to drum, to draw, to make button blankets, to listen to their stories and to appreciate their history. They taught us Arctic games, showed us their tools, and how to build an igloo. We went to Fort Langley and documented the trip, blogged about what we learned and then took time to learn about explorers from The Government archives and public domain logs, maps, and pictures. There was no test. We participated, blogged, and shared. We taught each other about the explorers we followed, and joined them on their journeys.

Every year I worry that I didn't actually test them. I listened. I read, I talked with them. They wrote, drew, and even made videos. I am not sure that every child learned everything about every explorer. But they did learn about some of the explorers, they learned about our past, and they learned how to learn more. They participated actively in first hand, authentic interviews and Aboriginal activities. They can tell me their stories.

For me the journey has been inspiring. I have seen some of my reluctant learners step up and become writers, Some have become directors and some have had their chance to shine, They blog for fun. They blog from home. They have a purpose to draw and their artwork is amazing. (Could be a book on its own.) Others have become mentors and and have been inspired to publish more. Their blogs are growing rapidly now and have become eportfolios of their year with me. They have added field trip photo galleries and some will add their artwork too. I love to see them take pride in their work and consider it important.

Now, having said all this, I must say that we have not commented as much on each other's work as would have liked. Most likely, because we do so verbally. Next year we will have to find a partner class to blog with to solve this. In fact I saw an amazing site that sets weekly blog challenges for students. It leads them through activities to learn about blogs, blog rolls, commenting, reaching out, and connecting.

I think this will be a great way to reach out and get in a weekly blog club. Also we will go ahead with Global Read Aloud again and as we make new blog partners we will Skype more.

I have started BYOD and some of my class have done so. It was done with little fanfare and students use them as they would the class iPads, We have used Creative Commons and public domain images or their own pictures for all their work. The year started slowly, but in January we reached a tipping point and the blogs took off. Now the year is running out and it feels like we just got started. When I think back to September I am amazed at all the class has accomplished and how much they have grown.

Why I Became An Educator? What Legacy?

 

 

Why did I become an educator??

I was actually going to be a Commercial Artist and worked briefly in the industry. At that time it was a field that few women were working in and an adventure in itself. However, I found that there was very little opportunity to create. I painted huge murals on buildings, trucks, windows, and even created and screened museum exhibits. After a awhile, every street I drove down had some of my work on display and every piece of clothing I owned had paint on it somewhere.  But..I was always producing someone else's creations.

 Next came Computer programming and I enrolled in Computer Science. I took an elective course in education and the rest fell into place.

Opportunities to create abounded. One of the best parts of teaching is being able to create a space where learning is an adventure. Every September is a new beginning. Every year has its own challenges and rewards.  Creating activities and opportunities to challenge and inspire my students and then watching them surpass my them is always rewarding. Every new project we take on inspires new ones.

I enjoy working with children, and each year they become mine, but for me it is the way a classroom takes on a life of its own.


What legacy do I want to leave behind? 

 That is harder. I have never thought of teaching in those terms. I  have always been passionate about integrating technology and have spent many years striving to do so. I want the world to see elementary school students as the powerhouses they are. Too may times we underestimate their abilities. I have heard:  the children are too young to learn how to save their work, or how to logon to their accounts, or that they don't need the computing capacity of older students because they only write short stories. I would like the world to see that these kids are fearless, quick to learn and capable of taking on many of the challenges we assume only much older students can do.

 I would like my teaching legacy to be that I have shown my students, and the world what amazing things they are capable of.  I want them to believe they can do it all. I want to open your eyes and make you understand that too.

Blogging: "Play The Whole Game"

Recently, I have been reading interesting articles from MindShift on visions of educational technology and thinking about the new BCEDPLAN's emphasis on digital literacy. The following quote from  Three Competing Visions Of Educational Technology refers to playing the whole game when integrating technology in a meaningful way. As we finish our second school wide write I contemplated what playing the whole game looks like in my class, and in particular as it pertains to writing.

Three competing visions of educational technology. Which is yours?

"Used well, the computer extends the breadth, depth and complexity of potential projects. This in turn affords kids with the opportunity to, in the words of David Perkins, “play the whole game.” Thanks to the computer, children today have the opportunity to be mathematicians, novelists, engineers, composers, geneticists, composers, filmmakers, etc… But, only if our vision of computing is sufficiently imaginative." 

 I have been trying to empower students with the new competencies we are moving to in our quest for digital literacy.  Our iPads and computers are important tools in our daily learning. We use them to create movies, ebooks, and to share our work. We work in partners and teams and collaborate with students in other schools with Skype. Working together to understand, create and solve gives us purpose, guides our learning and teaches respect...but has it enhanced our learning? Has it done more than motivate and engage us? Is "playing the whole game" important to student achievement?

One of our school goals is writing. We are using school wide writes to assess student progress in this area. Our first write was in October. We had another in January and will write again in term three. Since October, we have blogged extensively, created ebooks, and are about to embark on writing and producing movies as part of our study on First Nations legends.  I am looking for validation that the time spent daily on blogging and creating books was time well invested prior to proceeding with new unit plans. I reviewed our writing progress using the two writing samples and this is what I learned.

Progress:

• Students are writing more - especially my lower students. In October student writing ranged from several sentences to a page in length. In January, most were writing three to four pages.  
• Their writing is more fluent. They are more focused and have a better sense of what they are trying to accomplish, or what their story is about.  Now they have a beginning or starting point and a sense of direction while they write. They focus on the story and follow a logical path from introduction to end, with less repetition and are not adding irrelevant information.
• They are less focused on "video game" writing. Fewer students are caught up in writing about fighting with little regard to story or character.
• They are starting to add their own "voice" and making an effort to engage the reader rather than simply listing a series of events.
• They are starting to use conversation, vary their sentence structure, and more detail to explain and add interest.


Areas needing focused support. Now that we are writing more we will focus more on editing.

• Sentence structure. Although they are writing more and trying out new ways to engage the reader, many still have run on and incomplete sentences. They need to work on editing their writing to add the punctuation after they get their ideas down.  As we write our legends we will work on peer editing. Scripting their legends for their videos will help with conversation and focus them on setting and character development.
• Organization - We have not yet spent time on paragraphs as our writing was too brief. Now that we are becoming more fluent we can organize our writing into paragraphs. We will work on this through a research project, and in our daily blogging. We will use subtopics to research owls and to separate scenes for their movies.
• purpose - As we  continue to work on our blogs and use our sites we will focus on the reasons we are writing or presenting. We will work on combining information, sorting out the relevant, and ensuring that what we write is important to our purpose. We will continue to work on commenting and discussing other blogs with each other.



Conclusions:

Overall, I was very impressed with the progress we have made. I think that blogging has given students both opportunity and a purpose to write (to play the whole game). This has resulted  in increased confidence and direction. They enjoy writing now and often add more as they blog. We always write rough drafts in our journals first and then move online and I think this has made students more willing to edit and add "more" as they write. Having time to re-read their drafts as they blog gives them the opportunity to enhance their writing.  Having their own sites and blogs gives them the audience and purpose to enjoy writing. They often ask to add more or write extra blogs. They are choosing to write from home now and to add extra blogs if they are finished early.

At our last diner series we talked about giving students authentic work to inspire and motivate them. For us it is our blogs. There is a sense of purpose during class time and students are acquiring a sense of independence. They work at their own rate now. This provides the opportunity to individualize projects to fit student abilities.   They use the iPads to upload their artwork and help each other when problems arise. 

As we research and making movies I expect we will develop an even deeper understanding of story and our voices will become stronger. This was my experience last year and I am confident we are on track to do so again this year. Students will have another choice in how to present their writing  and become better at collaborators. 

As I look at these results with an eye on the new draft competencies from the BCEDPLAN I feel that we are headed in the right direction.

• Communication
• Critical thinking
• Creative thinking and innovation
• Personal responsibility and well being
• Social responsibility

Playing the whole game has promoted social responsibility in class. It has helped students to self-regulate as they become responsible for their own work, and for their part in group projects. During blog time they are often all in different stages of publishing and this required them to take charge of their time and work independently. Some will be drafting while others are illustrating or working online. Students need to rely on each other for technical support and often work at home. They move from one task to the next and are comfortable working together to accomplish tasks. They have learned to appreciate the strengths of classmates, ask each other for support, and provide the same to others.

My next quest is to find new ways to assess, self assess, and peer assess student work. Langwiches blog discusses this and offers an assessment rubric for blogs. This will be a starting point for me to begin creating class rubrics with students. 

Assessment in the Modern Classroom: Part Three- Blog Writing

Innovative Learning Year 2

Last year was a true adventure in learning for me. I have always used technology in my teaching but I have never had so many opportunities to integrate.  Access to technology, availability of new apps, online space to blog and the emergence of iPads have opened new doors to us.

 Today I went to the first Innovative Learning meeting of the year. It was exciting to see and hear of the changes moving forward in project based learning.  As part of the day's activities we re-considered our progress and re grouped for a fresh start as each of does every fall ready to take on another year of learning. We made short artifacts of the year that was as we looked ahead.

 This year I want to find new opportunities to support my class and new resources to individualize learning for each of my students. 

1. In year 1 of the Project we dabbled with Pinterest and although we only managed to dip our toes in and bookmark our work to share, I can see now that there are other great possibilities for this year. I want to set up separate boards for each child:

•  to post links to their online blogs, movies and to post photos of their artwork;
•  to pin the resources they find and the photos they use in their creations. This year we used dropbox but Pinterest makes it much easier to bookmark and collect resources because it is so visual.
• one for me to post resources and links to new projects. I make webpages for each of our projects with video, links and instructions and I think Pinterest will help me organize and make them quicker to access. Also the class can add new links they find that we should use or share Then they become part of the assignment creation phase.

2. I will continue to make movies with the class. Last year we made two.  Both were follow up projects to novels. The class loved making them and it helped them develop a stronger understanding of setting, character, key events, and plotlines. They said it made them become the characters and they learned to work together and value each other. This year I would like to open up opportunities for them to use this format to make documentaries of our First Nation's workshops and research Owls. Now that Book Creator can hold videos we can embed our videos and then write about making them. Or perhaps create a book that contains them all and allow a question and answer  or comment section to go with each video. Lots more possibilities.

3. I would like to find more opportunities to give students choices. They love to take charge of their own learning. I think that after they have tried a variety of presentation and research projects they should have the opportunity and the confidence to decide which ones they want to try again.

4. Sharing. Last year we shared our books and videos at assemblies and through YouTube and our blogs but we did not have a partner class to work with to get feedback.This year I will involve at least one other class and help them to start their own class blogs,  publish ebooks and I will mentor other teachers as they work on their own class projects. Also I will find another class that is blogging and link up with them to comment and share our work and give my class an opportunity to appreciate the work of others. I want to set up groups to share online resources and ideas with others on our new Surrey Schools website and I hope others will add and share theirs with me.  I would like to find a way to meet with some of my twitter colleagues  to share,  compare, plan and engage in collaborative projects together.

5. Assessment:  Last year we did school wide writes and as I looked at the fall and the spring writes I was amazed at the growth. The new writing is focused and far more detailed. The students edited more,  their stories had better overall structure, and their voice shone through. I will need to see if the same is true next year.  When they published their research on the CPR with Book Creator they were able to publish their findings in their own words - a big step for grade four. Was this just a one time event or does blogging make such a major difference in student writing? Some of the most dramatic changes were made by my lowest students. 

Year 1 was inspiring and I am looking forward to an another great year.  I am sure that more opportunities and ideas lie just around the corner. Starting all over with a new class of "rookies"  seems daunting, but I know  that  jumping right back in always works,  the children always amaze me and the year flies by. 

On to year 2! 

Of Books, Blogs, and Videos. Transforming the Classroom

This year has been an adventure in integrating technology. Our school acquired a cart of iPads as part of a pilot project in innovative learning. Our goal was to use them in class to see if and how they changed the way we teach and learn. The project was not just about using ipads in class but about discovering how using them would change the learning experience. My class got 5 iPads to use full time and I got  personal  Ipad to use.


Integrating technology was not new to me, but the iPads were. The first thing I did was to explore many  of the Apps that were available to use in a variety of applications. I looked at apps that helped  learn math facts, others that let you create books, video and music, and still others that let you download and read eBooks.  I had intended to try it all.

Including the MacBooks, my goal was to use this equipment to create online portfolios of student work to motivate students and to allow parents to follow their progress throughout the year. We started with publishing  a creative writing assignment for Halloween. Each child followed the writing process in planning, drafting, editing and publishing their own story. They learned how to create a webpage, took photos of their illustrations and posted both. During the process they learned how to use Dropbox,  how to upload pictures from iPads and then download them  to use in a blog. We worked through many problems, and their resolution and enthusiasm grew with each success. They learned to value each others opinions and to rely on each other for support.

 Then we started blogging...and writing took on new importance to the class.  The students began to take charge of their own learning. They stared blogging about class activities. Laterthey took on a new role as a character from our novel and their blogs became her diary.

I had started a blog as well to experience it myself and  record and reflect on our progress.

"We started to blog with the idea of blogging once every week or two. We now blog every day we are together. The kids are always looking for more ideas to blog. They write more now. They are more creative in their blogs and they are always busy taking pictures of their work with the iPads to publish their work in their blogs.
 "From My Blog at the time  (Blogging a Class Changer)

 About this time we finished our Literature Circle novels and started a new project. We worked in our groups of four  to create a video of the books. The students  rewrote the book as a play, created sets, characters and scripts and used the ipads and MyStopMotion to create animations of the books. They used iMovie to do voice overs for them. I showed them briefly how to use the app and gave them very basic instruction on iMovie. They took up the challenge and became directors, actors, and producers.
                                                                                        
   

"We jumped in feet first and again the class surpassed all expectations. We all started together but soon leaders emerged and as problems were encountered, solutions were found. Everyone was proud of their finished movie and gained a deeper understanding of the elements of a story. As I watched and listened I realized just how important this was to them and marveled at their new found expertise in setting and character portrayal. " (Reflections on Innovative Learning year 1)

We also took on the researching of the building of the CPR and its importance to B.C. We watched several YouTube documentaries on the building of the railway and took notes. We then set out and found old pictures of Immigrants working on the railway and the dangers they faced. We used Book Creator to meld our notes and pictures and created voice overs for the books.  I wondered if students would emerge from the project with more than just  technology skills and they impressed us by answering questions on their books, When I asked them if making the book helped them learn they said ."Yes, cause the information keeps traveling around your head when you need to  use it."

I am amazed at all we have accomplished and how we have grown as a team. Technology has become entwined in my daily classroom routine. I don't plan how and when to use technology. On any given day, you will find some of my class filming or doing voice overs as others are drafting and still others are blogging. Some are busy taking photos of their latest artwork or making illustrations for their blogs. Some may even be using the time to finish up some Math or scrapbooking. We have many projects on the go and we are often all in different stages of creating. We have blocks of work time and students help each other, teach each other, work together and  technology is just another tool in our crayon box.
 
As we worked through each project I worried about the time involvement for each. Were we taking too long?  Was each project and effective use of time? Would students finish with a deeper understanding of the content they used? How could I evaluate each student's learning effectively?

It is gratifying to know that the students  think they have learned more and have a deeper understanding of the content we set out to learn about. They felt that they would remember more about the topics than if they had just read about them, answered questions, or written reports.
My personal observations of the time they spent actively engaged and the collaboration required in creating the movies, books, and blogs would mirror those of the class.

 

"I have learned as much as I have taught and am excited to try new projects next year.  Each new project we finish seems to open a new door of possibilities for another."

PS We never got to those Math apps or any of the other teaching apps. In May I erased them from the iPads and we are all happy filming, writing, taking photos and building portfolios. We used Pinterest to bookmark our work and highlight out portfolios Our adventure has just begun. We are already looking to next year.

Pinterest Portfolios  
http://pinterest.com/mrsdycksclass/

www.mrsdycksclass.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/lrdyck12511
www.trackermax.blogspot.ca
http://pinterest.com/mrsdycksclass/
www.mrsdycksclass.wikispaces.com

Linda Dyck
Gr 4 teacher
Surrey, B.C.

I am currently a grade 4 teacher in Surrey B.C. I have integrated technology in my teaching for over 20 years and have given many workshops on how to do so. I am a past president of CUEBC and was Conference Chair of TELED, a  twin International conference on technology integration in Victoria, and New Orleans. I participated in Ministry of British Columbia investigation into k-12 requirements for the successful integration of technology in schools. As part of this year long investigation I was one of the co-authors of the final report Conditions For Success. I appeared on Working TV in a documentary on the pros and cons of using technology in elementary school.

In Our Own Words!

This is a documentary made by my students about our year long journey in project based learning with technology. The students interviewed each other and mixed in clips of their work. I asked them to  think about how the technology changed the way they learned and what they learned.

This is their voice.
This is what they want you to know about their adventures along the way.

"Using the blog is incredible because we can share our projects with the world

 When making our movies we cooperate with each other and get closer

A textbook has limited information when the web has millions of results

computers are very fast for searching up stuff

When we did our Barkerville journals it felt like we were there

When we are on Youtube looking at our movies it looks like we have fame and people we don't know, know us

In a group you an share your ideas and create something amazing

Kids feel like they have more trust 

Blogging about a book or something makes you feel like your in the book

If you bring your own technology you can work on your stuff at home too

Putting movies on YouTube might make it go viral

We learn by doing it

When we do blogs we have to research things and by getting information we are learning 

When you have a blog you can share your information with everyone elsse I really like our website because you can look back on it all"

Reflections on Integration

https://mrsdycksclass.wikispaces.com/

In 2007,  I found Wikis.  A way of sharing, publishing, engaging and promoting writing.  We started by writing every day, creating scrapbooks and a class Wiki. The Wiki  gave my class a reason to write and they took off.  This was a class that struggled with written output and the difference that our Wiki made was very evident. We were lucky enough to have an author and a game developer answer questions and chat with us through our Wiki as well. The students loved showing off their work and often took the time to go back and edit or re-edit from home. It surprised me to see students had made changes over summer and that we had traffic from all over the world as they shared their pages. 2007and 2008 were our Wiki years. We loved it. They are still up and my students stop by and visit their old work.

In 2009,  we acquired carts of Macbooks.  IMovie  and iPhoto and iWeb became tools of choice for telling our stories and we made DVDs of our work.  We  have continued making movies and have discovered blogging. Another success! Another reason to write. We blog every day, and since we received the iPads we use Book Creator and MyStopMotion to make movies and publish books. We have a class website, a YouTube channel and a Pinterest account. We are running out of year faster than we are running out of projects.

Technology has become entwined in my daily classroom routine. I don't plan how and when to use technology. On any given day, you will find some of my class filming or doing voice overs as others are drafting and still others are blogging. Some are busy taking photos of their latest artwork or making illustrations for their blogs. Some may even be using the time to finish up some Math or scrapbooking. We have many projects on the go and we are often all in different stages of creating. We have blocks of work time and students help each other, teach each other, work together and  technology is just another tool in our crayon box. If we can't get the Macbooks during specific times we change our day around and use them when we can. We usually work in small groups and some of us take on more projects than others.

I have always integrated technology, and I know many of my peers do not share my views on its importance in the classroom. They see computers as a way to teach typing, to learn math facts, or to research and publish a report. Many want a one on one ratio of computers to students and think of using computers as a acquiring a new skill. They want scheduled weekly times with computers and don't see the need to have ongoing significant access to them. Over the years, I have been steadfast in resisting scope and sequences, marking technology skills, promoting integration and arguing for increased technology funding for elementary schools.  I still believe that elementary school is the perfect place to use technology, as integration is the cornerstone elementary classes are built upon. We need to see technology as an essential tool for elementary students, a means for early intervention and a way to kick start literacy. 

Mindshift

I am excited to begin planning for the year ahead. There is so much I would like to take on. A new class, a new challenge,

From my twitter feed, today

KQED  MINDSHIFT HOW WE LEARN via Kevin Amboe

August 22, 2011 | 2:14 PM | By Tina Barseghian

Five Changes Every School Should Make

Make all learning real, relevant, tied to communities, with real application in the kids’ lives outside of the classroom. Example: Ban research papers—unless they are published online and have an informative, persuasive, or other real purpose for others. Learning should have an impact beyond getting an “A” on  the assignment.

Teach kids to think through, with, about, for–and create–new, interactive digital global communication. I don’t mean this as an add on. I mean rethinking all the subjects we now teach in view of the possibilities (what techies call “affordances”) of the digital age. That means getting rid of the “two cultures” binary. STEM subjects are impoverished without creativity, analysis, critical thinking. The Information Age is about putting back together the knowledge that the Industrial Age subdivided. A simpler way is to say have them all learn Scratch multimedia programming and think about the possibilities.

 Things I learned from my methods classes:

1. You need to make learning relevant. You need to tie it to the here and now. We learn best when we need to use  knowledge for a greater purpose. It is not good enough to teach skills and content for future use.

For example, if we require students to research a Canadian Explorer, and report back simply to receive a mark, they will. However, if we ask them to join that explorer on his journey, find out where they went, what they did, and  blog about their adventures, they live the part. They need to use all the research and tie into their imaginations, They need to create, to become involved. They will take away so much more and enjoy the experience.

2.  Children love to share. We all do. The bigger the audience, The more successful they feel. This year my class made videos that we posted on YouTube of their novel studies. They enjoyed the literature circles they participated in as they read their books, but they loved turning them into movies. They asked for one more chance to make a movie before the year ends so we are racing to do just that. This time, the excitement is much higher, the plans are more elaborate, the sets and characters are coming together quickly and after a few days we are almost ready to film. This one is all them. Their project. They are working at night and planning at recess. There have been trips to dollar stores for the extra sparkle and telephone conferences to create scripts. This is a true labor of love.

What I learned from my students:

3. It's not  about the mark. It's about growing, sharing and teaching each other. It's about working together  and appreciating and enjoying each success.  It's about being proud and celebrating. It is about being our best.

Reflections on Innovative Learning: Year 1

As I read of a new group of schools stepping up to work on the Innovative Learning Initiative I took a moment to look back a year and reflect on what our school and in particular, my class has accomplished. From #sd36learn I read

Innovative Learning: School-Based Exploration

The National Council of Teachers of English (2008) defined twenty-first century readers and writers as those that need to:

    • Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-cultural

This year students learned  to work collaboratively on a daily basis. They not only took on all of the projects I created for them but  as the year progressed many added their own. They loved blogging and took every opportunity to add extra blogs and include their own choices of what they wanted to share. As their teacher, I watched them grow in competence and in self appreciation. I decided that blogging was something that I should take on as well. So I started this blog to help me reflect, share and experience blogging with my class. As their teacher I felt I should learn and experience  new opportunities with my class. Their energy spurred me on. Next year, I will create a blog to share with them and work towards interacting with them on the next step. Comments.

  •  Develop proficiency with the tools of technology

 We started with publishing  a creative writing assignment for Halloween. Each child followed the writing process in planning, drafting, editing and publishing their own story. They learned how to create a webpage, took photos of their illustrations and posted both. During the process they learned how to use Dropbox,  how to upload pictures from iPads and then download them  to use in a blog. We worked through many problems and the students found that if you placed all the photos into iPhoto before using them in iWeb that most orientation problems disappeared.

We moved on to making movies of our Literature Circle novels and my class found creative ways to combine Apps to add voice-overs to their stop motion animations. I was amazed at how easily they moved into the role of teachers and supported each other as we made the movies. I was worried about whether or not we could accomplish such a big project. I tried out a few animation apps and decided to go with MyStopMotion. I was worried about my choice and hoped all would go well. We jumped in feet first and again the class surpassed all expectations. We all started together but soon leaders emerged and as problems were encountered, solutions were found. Everyone was proud of their finished movie and gained a deeper understanding of the elements of a story. As I watched and listened I realized just how important this was to them and marveled at their new found expertise in setting and character portrayal.

On relection, I realize that we experienced truly transformative learning experiences as a class.

 

Foundation elements of the Innovative Learning Design Project: 

bit.ly/sL7SwN

• Learning tasks that are authentic (e.g. project and problem-based), relevant and cross-curricular
• Assessment that is ongoing, performance-based, equitable and guides instruction;
• Constructivist instructional models that engage students in inquiry
• Diverse learning needs are met with differentiated content, process and product
• Collaborative learning opportunities that are incorporated into both physical and virtual spaces
• Use of technology as a learning tool
• Creative and critical thinking skills are pervasive across all curricular area
• Students are able to influence and actively participate in shaping their learning.

As the year unfolded and students' abilities and proficiency with technology increased they started to ask for more projects and opportunities  to direct their own learning  by

• choosing to do extra projects, 
• asking for new ways to research and present their learning, 
• looking for input from other classmates, and valuing contributions from others
• expecting to share their learning and teach each other
• asking for choice in shaping new projects, and debating what they should be
• wanting to work in teams and building on each others strengths
• demonstrating a more involved understanding of content

 I am amazed at all we have accomplished and how we have grown as a team.  I have learned as much as I have taught and am excited to try new projects next year.  Each new project we finish seems to open a new door of possibilities for another.

I asked the class how using the Macbooks and iPads changed how they learned. They said:

"It makes learning fun!"
"It makes you remember what you learn. It makes the information travel around your head."
"It means we get to work together."
"We have learned so much about blogging, webpages, movies and book making."
"It is so easy to tell others what we found."
" We love making voice-overs."
" It makes us feel in charge."
"Making movies was the best because we got to do so many things."