Michelle Fenn – Page 5

September 2, 2018 Michelle Fenn Behaviour Management, Building Inclusion, Celebrating Success, Challenging Topics, Classroom Management, Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians, First Week Reflections, Inspiring Students, Inspiring Teachers, Learning About Your Students, Making a Difference Through Education, Mental Health, Professional Learning and Growth, Start of the year, wellness, Wellness

Building Connections with Students

Be Authentic

The video of a teacher giving each of his students a “just for them” handshake each morning upon entry has gone viral. His efforts to connect with students have been applauded. I think that this is a wonderful way to create a bond between teacher and student; for THAT guy. I know that this is not “my thing”. If I were to choose to try this at the beginning of a new school year, it would not be genuine and it just wouldn’t feel right. I’ve also often wonder what happens when a parent wants a word in the morning, or someone forgot their backpack on the bus, or there is a class trip leaving 5 minutes after the bell. There are many ideas for connecting with students online, but you need to do what is genuine for you. Otherwise, you won’t sustain it and the students see right through it.

Lunch

During the first few weeks of school I try to stay in my classroom while the kids eat lunch. I will often eat my lunch at the same time as my students so that I can have the other half of lunch to relax, visit with colleagues or do some preparation. I choose to do this for the first couple of weeks to make sure that the routines for lunch time are established and students understand my expectations around cleanliness, behaviour and technology use during lunch. There are often different teachers on lunch duty, so it is helpful for them if the regular classroom teacher is in the room until they become acquainted with the students. When I take the time and effort to do this at the beginning of the year I find that there are less issues throughout the school year at lunch time.

Circle Chat

No matter what grade level, I have always started of my day chatting with kids. In a circle format the students can share something, check in, ask a question or some days they pass (I will personally check in later to make sure everything is ok). Sometimes we have topics, sometimes we have to discuss class updates but no matter what, we’ve connected in some way. Yes, it takes instructional time. Sometimes it takes up a LOT of time. But, in my experience, it builds relationships with your students and saves time in the long run.

Front End Load Communication

Parents’ concern for the well being of their children seems to be at its highest point at the beginning of the school year. It may be a new school, a new teacher, academic concerns from previous years or peer group concerns. Taking the time to communicate during the first week of the school year by phone, note or at least a personal email in addition to class updates on websites or newsletters home will pay off during the rest of the school year. The more you assure families that you are accessible and concerned about their child, the more supportive they will be if an issue arises. Find the good in each student and make sure that you communicate it to families. For the students that have academic or behaviour concerns, meet with families face to face as soon as possible. Do not leave it until report card time. I often start those conversations by asking them to voice their concerns, as well as asking their goals and hopes for their child for the school year. Those positive and proactive attempts at communication at the beginning of the school year will go a long way with families and ultimately will benefit the student.

Take Your Job Seriously; Don’t Take Yourself Seriously.

About 10 years ago I picked up a pair of absolutely crazy novelty sunglasses. No matter the weather, I wore them in the morning when I picked the students up at their bus lines and I wore them when I walked them out to their buses in the afternoon. There were always comments from the students (and sometimes parents) and it was often a conversation starter when I could see that kids needed to be checked in on first thing in the morning or at the end of the day. I began to get crazy sunglasses as gifts. I now have about 60 pairs and wear different ones depending on my mood. My staff humoured me and each wore a pair in the staff photo for the yearbook. This might be something that you try in your classroom, I’m happy to share, but make sure it is something that suits you.

I remember being told by a colleague at the beginning of my career that you shouldn’t smile at your students during the first few weeks or even until Christmas. I didn’t follow that advice, because it wasn’t genuine and authentic for me. The way I see it, if you aren’t smiling at the beginning of the year, you can pretty much be guaranteed that you won’t be smiling at the end of the year! Students feed off of the mood of the teacher. Ultimately, the teacher makes the weather in the classroom. There are days when I have to apply the “fake it until you make it” strategy and I smile until I really feel like smiling. I also highly recommend a morning music mix for the way to work. Put together 5 or 6 songs (or more depending on the length of your commute) that really motivate you, make you bouncy and make you smile. On the days where I know I’m tense, in a mood or haven’t slept well I put this on during my drive and usually by the end I’m singing along and feeling better. Then, I slide on those crazy sunglasses and I’m in tip-top teacher mode ready to greet every student with their name and a smile. I may not have individual handshakes ready to go but after 23 years…I still start the year off smiling.

July 23, 2018 Michelle Fenn Assessment, Celebrating Success, Classroom Management, Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians, Constant Learning, Inspiring Teachers, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Modern Learning, Professional Learning and Growth, Resources, self reflection, Start of the year, Technology in school, Use of Technology, wellness, wellness

My Yearly Notebook

Each summer I buy a brand new spiral bound notebook. Not the skinny ones that you get in the 3 pack from Hilroy with the flimsy cover that rips within a few uses. I am particular about my stationary. It may be a kind of a problem. I get the 8 1/2 by 11 solid cardboard spiral bound notebook. It is where I keep my lists. Lists of things to buy for the classroom. Lists of things I want to change in the physical space of my classroom. Lists of books I’d like to read or add to my classroom library. Lists of things to get done before September. Lists of the curriculum topics I’ll be teaching and in what months I plan to teach them. Lists of special events each month that I might highlight or celebrate with my students. Lists…of lists. I use that big notebook all school year long to add notes from meetings, professional development sessions and of course, more lists. I have many already filled spiral notebooks of new ideas that I’d like to try over the school year on my shelf in my office. This summer I realized something. After the school year is over I have NEVER opened those notebooks again. There are lots of great ideas in there that I didn’t implement and then I feel guilty about that! Teacher guilt never seems to stop, unless of course, I choose to stop it.

This summer I quickly read the book, “Ditch That Textbook; Free Your Teaching and Revolutionize Your Classroom” by Matt Miller. It has fantastic teaching tips for technology integration in the classroom. Although I do not have the desire nor the access to the 1:1 technology to go completely paperless, I found a lot of wisdom and great teaching tools in Matt’s book. I have also provided a link to Matt’s blog. Matt helped me to break a cycle. I haven’t bought a spiral bound notebook this summer and I’m not planning on buying one. Among many pieces of advice in the book, Matt suggests picking two new things that you are really excited about to add to your teaching practice, being clear about your intention for using those practices and following through. I’ve been guilty of overdoing the professional learning to the point that I overwhelm my students by doing a whole bunch of new things all at once and then don’t end up sticking to any of them. I also get overwhelmed by the many great ideas out there and wonder if I do something else, what I’ll have to give up doing.

I’ll admit that I’m already kind of cheating. Instead of just choosing two teaching practices I’m also choosing two new technology platforms to learn about for next year. One of the practices that I would like to get in the habit of doing is adding more descriptive feedback to assignments that students do online and have multiple opportunities for the students to respond to that feedback and re-submit assignments with changes. The second thing that I would like to do is educate parents on how to leave constructive feedback for their students online rather than a thumbs up or “Good job!” I plan on exploring the video and audio creation tools, WeVideo and Voki. I may explore more than these but these are the ones that I am committed to doing. Since I have written my commitment here on the blog, I also commit to sharing what I thought about those tools in a review format. If you get a chance to read Ditch That Textbook, I highly recommend it. It is a quick read with great already-made lists and hey, it made me “Ditch That Notebook”.

July 1, 2018 Michelle Fenn Constant Learning, Genius Hour, Inspiring Students, Learning in a Real Life Context, Making a Difference Through Education, Modern Learning, The Global Competencies, Use of Technology

Why Coding Is Important Part Two

In Part one of this blog post I talked about coding with relation to the deep learning competencies and learning skills. However, there are greater implications of teaching kids to code. I am a huge science fiction and dystopian fan. I think I am attracted to the resourcefulness of the characters in the movies and books. The characters that have hands-on life skills and leadership qualities are valued and survive. Let me be clear, I do not view the classroom as a dystopian or science fiction society…well…unless we are suffering from a severe heat wave. I think that understanding the way the technology on which we rely on a daily basis, is a skill worth exploring. That understanding also builds an appreciation of the work of coders and others in the computer science industry. After taking 20 minutes to code a square with a small spherical robot a student said to me, “Wow. Can you imagine how much time it took to code everything in FortNite? Every step my character takes, everything it wears or every background must be lines and lines of code.” That was a pretty serious revelation for a 9 year old.

It isn’t science fiction that there is a huge demand for computer science programmers and developers. According to Code.org, 71% of all new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) jobs are in computing, yet only 8% of STEM graduates are in Computer Science. According to the employment website Indeed.com there are currently over 2500 full time job openings in the greater Toronto area in the field of Computer Science with annual salaries between $60,000 and $140,000. Learning to code increases the odds of securing a lucrative STEM career, especially in a world where computing jobs are growing exponentially. Coding has quickly become a vital skill in the work world. Elementary teachers can begin to open doors for students by exposing them to coding in a fun and interactive way. It is safe to say that coding language will develop into something much different before our students get into the workforce. It isn’t about the “content” or “language” of code. It is about teaching them a new way of thinking that they could apply to any coding language or problem solving situation. According to Code.org, many colleges and Universities are looking for experience with coding on entrance applications. It is difficult to ignore the statistics.

With Alexa, Google, and Apple in homes, cars, pockets and on wrists we know that this our reliance on computers as a society isn’t going away soon. Exposing students to these new learning opportunities to develop their deep learning competencies is necessary for development as learners and in the end, may prove quite lucrative for their futures.

July 1, 2018July 1, 2018 Michelle Fenn Assessment, Challenging Topics, Combined Grade Classes, Constant Learning, Curriculum Planning, Differentiated Instruction, Genius Hour, Inquiry, Inspiring Students, Inspiring Teachers, Integration, Learning in a Real Life Context, Math, Modern Learning, Professional Learning and Growth, Questioning, Report Cards, Resilience, Student Ownership, Students as Teachers, Technology in school, The Global Competencies, Use of Technology

Why Coding is Important Part One

I consider myself a fairly techie teacher. However, until recently I hadn’t really tried my hand at coding or robotics. Well, I had, but I had lost interest as I quickly felt as though I was out of my depth. So, I did what I always do when I really want to learn something about teaching, I go to a colleague that has the knowledge and I try it WITH the students. Collaborative inquiry.

Until recently, I didn’t see what the big deal was or why it was important to teach coding to students. Yeah, playing with robots is fun but what does that have to do with curriculum? When I started working with and learning coding along side students I had a change in mindset. There is a lot of math, strategic planning and visualization in coding. Coding may not always directly relate to curriculum content-that is true. However, in terms of teaching students about the deep learning competencies, coding is key. If you aren’t sure what I mean by the deep learning competencies; they are referred to as the 6 C’s. Here is a link to the New Pedagogies for Deeper Learning paper but I have extracted a summary of the 6 C’s for a quick reference:

Character: Character refers to qualities of the individual essential for being personally effective in a complex world including: grit, tenacity, perseverance, resilience, reliability, and honesty.

Citizenship: Thinking like global citizens, considering global issues based on a deep understanding of diverse values with genuine interest in engaging with others to solve complex problems that impact human and environmental sustainability.

Collaboration: Collaboration refers to the capacity to work interdependently and synergistically in teams with strong interpersonal and team-related skills including effective management of team dynamics, making substantive decision together, and learning from and contributing to the learning of others.

Communication: Communication entails mastery of three fluencies:digital, writing and speaking tailored for a range of audiences.

Creativity: Having an ‘entrepreneurial eye’ for economic and social opportunities, asking the right questions to generate novel ideas, and demonstrating leadership to pursue those ideas into practice.

Critical Thinking: Critically evaluating information and arguments, seeing patterns and connections, constructing meaningful knowledge and applying it in the real world.

I reflected on these 6 C’s as I wrote the learning skills for my grade 4/5 students this year. I spend the most time on my reports creating the Learning Skills for each student. They are personal and they reflect each individual student. As a parent, it is what I am most interested in reading about my own child. The 6 C’s are competencies not only for school, but for life. While students were exploring coding I had them working in pairs or small groups to give them the opportunity to communicate, collaborate and show leadership. When the code didn’t work, they were able to go back and find the error and correct it and try it again with results right away. Sometimes they found it painstaking and I had to let them work through that and they were glad in the end when I didn’t give them the easy way out and they solved things on their own. When they learned something in coding, they quickly wanted to share their learning with other students. I gave basic instruction about the program to start using a youtube tutorial and then let the students go. Students who often don’t do well in groups with “typical” academic tasks often excelled as leaders in coding because it is a divergent way of thinking and they had a self-check strategy built into the task. It was incredible to witness the amount of learning that was taking place.

You don’t have to have robots to code. There are online coding websites that teach kids to code such as code.org and Scratch. The students even as young as grade 3 are easily able to use these sites to code. Scratch Jr. is available for younger students. The sites have great tutorial videos and somehow the students seem to just start discovering and creating things intuitively. They begin helping each other when they see that someone has created something cool and ask the creator to show them how to do it too.

I am proud to say that I can now code a square, star and a small obstacle course using blocks and a Sphero robot. My students discover new things every day and share them with me. It is definitely a new age in teaching.

May 31, 2018May 31, 2018 Michelle Fenn Constant Learning, Inspiring Teachers, Making a Difference Through Education, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Professional Learning and Growth, Resilience, wellness

Teacher Guilt

I have felt guilty about my job since the first year that I started teaching. I have always felt that I did not do enough, didn’t contact parents enough, didn’t make it fun enough, didn’t write down observations or assessments enough, didn’t do enough intervention with those struggling readers, writers, mathematicians, didn’t do all of the wonderful Pinterest extras, didn’t go above and beyond enough, didn’t volunteer for enough extra curricular activities, didn’t give enough timely critical feedback, didn’t document behaviour enough, didn’t post enough on Seesaw and the big one is not feeling like I get enough work done on the weekend. When I told a colleague about this recently he said, “If you were only doing half of the things that you do, you would still be working harder than me and a whole bunch of your colleagues!” I thought to myself, “Really? I thought everyone else was working harder and doing more than I was and seemed to have it all together.” The truth of it is though, most of us feel like I do and we feel the same way about our colleagues. Rationally, I know that we can’t “do” it all. However, I somehow feel that I might if I just keep trying! Crazy, right?

I lamented to a friend recently that I don’t get enough done on a weekend and always feel guilty on Sunday night. “I have 48 hours every weekend. You’d think I’d be able to get something done! I manage to watch Netflix and read my book. Why do I feel like such a lazy teacher every Sunday night?” Her wise answer was this, “You think you have 48 hours to do work? I suggest you write down what you do in a weekend, write everything down from sleeping to eating to doing the laundry and driving your son around. You’ll see you don’t have 48 hours to do work. You also need to balance with family time and self care. Reading your book or watching Netflix is not being a lazy teacher. It is practicing self care.” So, I did it. I wrote down everything I did in a weekend. Guess what? I had precisely 3-4 hours to do some teacher type work which is on average the amount of work I do practically every weekend.

Social media keeps me connected with friends and family all over the world. Sometimes, however, it also becomes a land mine for guilt. I find myself thinking, “I should be doing that or what a great idea!” I used to send home a hand painted pumpkin at Halloween and hand painted Christmas decorations for every student every year. When I stopped doing it, no one said a word. That is not what the students remember me for years later. They remember the connection and the relationship. They remember my quirky sense of humour and the hand puppet named Butch who is a little irreverent and likes to use the word underwear in whatever song it will fit. I have discovered that I’m not the Pinterest teacher and I have to be okay with that.

After20+ years of teaching I still struggle in thinking that I haven’t done enough but I’m trying to look at all of the things that we have accomplished this year rather than all of the “great ideas” on the many lists that I didn’t accomplish. I will cut myself some slack. I will look at self care as a positive and necessary thing and not a lazy one. On the lists I make now I will put family time first, accompanied by good sleeping habits and good eating habits. Keeping me healthy makes me a better teacher and a better person. So if you struggle like I do, here is a video that a friend suggested to me to help me get through those negative self-talk times when I feel that I am not enough.

Stop It.

You won’t regret watching it. I promise it will make you smile.

May 6, 2018May 6, 2018 Michelle Fenn General

#Booksnaps

“Booksnaps” are visual responses to texts that students are reading. When I first saw #BookSnaps on Twitter I was a little confused. There were a lot of “Bitmojis” and “emojis” pasted on pictures of text. My understanding was that the students were providing a personal reaction to the books that they were reading. I certainly liked the idea of responding to books in a visual way using technology, but I wanted my students to go deeper than just pasting emojis onto pictures of books. As a class, we came up with a list of when it would be appropriate to create a #Booksnap and then created the success criteria together to make our #Booksnaps something that others would be interested in reading.

When to #Booksnap

An interesting or exciting part in the story.

Information or a fact from a Non-Fiction book that you found particularly interesting.

At the beginning of the book when you would like to make a prediction.

A personal reaction to something that has happened in the story.

A book recommendation when you have completed reading the book.

To identify and react to the problem in the story.

To identify and react to the main idea in the story.

To identify and react to the setting description in the story.

#Booksnap Success Criteria

Balanced design between pictures and text.

Text is written clearly and is easy to read.

Title and author are included (source).

Includes a personal reaction and evidence from the text.

In our class we have used Seesaw to create #Booksnaps but find that Pic Collage is much easier to edit and make changes and it has a few more bells and whistles for choices in texts and backgrounds. Here are a few more samples of the work that students have created. All of the samples that I have included here are from grade four students.

When students finish the #Booksnaps they post them to their account in Seesaw and I also airdrop them to myself and then put them on Twitter under my class account with the #Booksnaps and share on our school Twitter account. Sharing these responses and getting feedback makes the learning authentic and meaningful for students. The students are excited to create book responses in this format and they keep amazing me with new and interesting ways to interact with their texts.

April 2, 2018 Michelle Fenn Classroom Management, Combined Grade Classes, Constant Learning, Curriculum Planning, Differentiated Instruction, General, Inquiry, Inspiring Students, Integration, Math, Modern Learning, Questioning, Resilience, Resources, Technology in school, The Global Competencies

Deep Learning in Inquiry (Part 2)

In reading part one of my inquiry blog, one might think, “That’s all lots of fun, but building a bee house isn’t exactly something that I can write on the report card.” You would be absolutely right. The learning is imbedded in the exciting things. It is intentional and it is authentic. Connecting with a local expert, using technology for research and having hands on activities with students engaged scratches the surface of inquiry. Our deep learning with this unit began with the types of questions that we were asking. I noticed that when the students began asking questions on Padlet that Siri could have easily answered many of their questions with one or two word answers. This lead to a series of lessons on “THICK” vs. “Thin” questions. We added better questioning to our goals.

The students also noticed that I had included a lot of infographics on the Padlet. Infographics are seen everywhere in social media to communicate information efficiently and visually. However, students need to know how to use this information, how to synthesize it, how to put it into their own words and how to source it. We spent a significant amount of our language periods on reading and interpreting infographics.

Source:Visual.ly

Our learning goals and success criteria went way beyond making houses for bees and honey tasting. Students wanted to DO something to help bees. We created our learning goals and criteria together:

Early on in the inquiry we watched an informative YouTube video called, We Can Save the Bees Together. Sarah Red-Laird, bee enthusiast and scientist, gave us a number of ideas of actions that we could take. The students decided that one of the things that they wanted to do was to call for stronger legislation about mono cropping and pesticide use in farming. They wanted to write letters to politicians and change makers. In addition, when Susan Chan, local bee researcher visited, she “planted the seed” about creating a non-stinging bee friendly garden in our school yard. This prompted students to write letters to local school officials to solicit assistance and guidance. One of our students from Curve Lake First Nation decided to write the Chief and Band Council to ask them to consider building a bee friendly garden in their community. The desire for letter writing lead to a series of lessons on how to write a professional letter, how to proofread and how to edit in a meaningful and authentic learning context for students. The students also felt that educating others about conservation of bees was important so they are now working on developing presentations that they can take to other classes as well as media advertising to share their learning and call others to action.

In math, we had been focusing on data management. It fit in perfectly to what we were doing with our inquiry! There is an incredible amount of data about bees on the Statistics Canada website. We read real graphs with information that the students cared about, we labelled the important parts of the graphs and we will be creating our own surveys and graphing the information from different areas of our inquiry.

Statistics Canada

Honestly, the best part of inquiry is when the students start to direct their own learning. I guide them. I provide thought provoking questions and “what if” scenarios. They make choices and feel good about doing something that is affecting real change. Inquiry is empowerment for students. This students aren’t done with this inquiry yet-they have many more plans ahead! Stay tuned.

March 30, 2018 Michelle Fenn General

“Bee”ginning Inquiry Part 1

The Provocation

After many years of marriage my husband realizes that any trip outside the house might result in bringing home something that will inevitably end up in my classroom. Generally a trip to Costco is pretty safe. I might come home with a few books for the classroom library. A few weeks ago, however, we came home with a bee house.

I took off the label and took it into the classroom. I set it on the desk at the front of the classroom. When the students came in the next day I asked them to write about what they thought it was used for and I got quite a few different answers.

Made with Popplet

When they came to the conclusion that it was indeed a “bee house” for non-stinging, solitary bees; the students then began asking questions and the biggest, burning question was, “Why do bees need houses?” Why indeed? I suppose we’ll have to find that out! I am not an entomologist. This is new territory for me but I was interested in the whole “Save the Bees” movement myself. Knowing that this provocation would quite like lead to a burning question for inquiry, I had already created a Padlet with all kinds of links to videos that were relevant and that I had screened and removed advertising. You can purify videos using a website called Pureview . Of course, this was only the beginning.

One of the websites included an article about a local researcher; Susan Chan. We went about contacting Susan to ask a few questions but as inquiries often take a life of their own; it got much bigger! Susan offered to come in so the students could make their own bee houses. So my husband and I were off to the local ditches to find and cut the plants needed for the task. My husband knows not to ask questions when I say things like; “I need to go and find and cut some grass that grows near swampy areas in ditches.” He is a committed husband of an elementary teacher.

After a few hours, we had enough for each student to make their own home for a non-stinging solitary bee. Likely, a mason bee. It didn’t take them long to make and it made them feel as though they were really doing something to help save some non-stinging native bees.

The students were thrilled with their bee homes for solitary mason bees. They took them home and hung them up in their backyards with the instructions to take photos so we could post them on Twitter and Seesaw. However, the students didn’t think it was enough to make 20 bee homes. They had much more planned. Stay tuned for part two of our quest to “Save the Bees.”

March 20, 2018 Michelle Fenn Communication Tools, Constant Learning, Curriculum Planning, Genius Hour, Inquiry, Inspiring Students, Inspiring Teachers, Making a Difference Through Education, Planning, Professional Learning and Growth, Technology in school, Use of Technology

Twitter EDU

Over the last few years many people have become disgusted and disenchanted with the platform of Twitter. I agree that it can be an echo chamber for those who like to hear their own voice. However, I also know that it can be an effective Professional Learning tool. I have created an entire Professional Learning Network on Twitter because of the people that I chose to follow and I am diligent about blocking people who are spreading unworthy tweets. My Twitter account posts nothing personal. It is about my own professional learning. With Twitter colleagues challenge my thinking regularly. Questions that I have for my educational colleagues are answered immediately and without judgment. Global connections are made easily and then I use these connections to learn with my students.

Let me give you a few examples of how I’ve used Twitter in the classroom. One of my students brought in a rock with a fossil on it from his backyard. We took a photo and tweeted it out to find out if anyone could tell us what it was and the approximate age. Within an hour we heard back from a scientist at the ROM. He had an answer for us and was happy to help. In fact, he told us that corresponding on social media at the ROM as a scientist IS his job! One of the students brought in a mushroom from the woods near their house. We tweeted out to our PLN because they wanted to know whether or not it was edible. We were answered immediately and there were many links to other sites for information that sent us on a further journey into the wonderful world of fungi. Consequently, the advice from our Twitter contact was to never eat anything you find in the woods unless you are a scientist. In music, we were learning the words to a song by the Alternate Routes band and the students asked to tweet the band. They tweeted us back thanking us for the support and encouraging us to keep singing. We found some great classes across Canada to Skype with through Twitter and did mystery number finds with other grade 1 and 2 classes. You get out of Twitter what you are willing to put into it.

I have gotten more out of 15 minute Twitter education chats than I have out of some day long workshops. The educators on Twitter chats are there by choice and they are passionate about education. The questions are specific and the answers are in 140 characters. The best part is, you don’t even have to comment if you don’t feel comfortable. You can just sit back and learn. I have also met these Tweeters in person at IT conferences and taken their workshops. Knowing the presenters ahead of time and having a connection is like going to a concert when you already know the newest album really well; it makes the experience richer and deeper.

Here are a few EDUTweeters that I suggest you follow to get started:

@dougpete @peterskillen @brendasherry @avivalova @mraspinall @sylviaduckworth @Toadmummy (that’s me)

Here are a few #hashtags to follow

#EdchatON #edtechchat #teacheredchat #bfc530

Twitter may not be your thing, but don’t knock it until you’ve tried it as your #PLN. I guarantee you will find some ideas for #deeperlearning or #inquiryed.

February 18, 2018February 18, 2018 Michelle Fenn Celebrating Success, Classroom Management, Combined Grade Classes, Communication Tools, Constant Learning, Curriculum Planning, Differentiated Instruction, General, Inquiry, Inspiring Students, Integration, Literacy, Modern Learning, Professional Learning and Growth, Resources, Technology in school, Use of Technology

Free Creation Apps to Show Student Thinking

I was asked to present a workshop about using technology in the Primary grades over a year ago and got into a debate with the Principal at the host school about apps. The Principal was quite excited about the apps that he intended to purchase for his teachers to use with their students and he showed me his list. I was surprised. None of the apps were creation apps. They were all “practice basic skills and keep kids quiet apps”. I showed him my list of preferred apps. It was his turn to be surprised.

“These apps that you have chosen for the teachers are a lot like fancy worksheets for kids to practice basic skills. Those skills are important, but doing a worksheet on an iPad might be a little more engaging, but it is still a worksheet, and an expensive one at that! The apps that I am going to share with the staff today are all apps that students can choose from to show their thinking in a fun, engaging way that also provides opportunity for feedback and editing.” Unfortunately, he didn’t stay for the workshop.

The main difficulty that I have found with apps is finding something that you can use in schools that doesn’t cost a lot of money and isn’t just a free trial or have “in-app purchases”. I don’t mind paying a few dollars for an app but when you get into the double digits for a school, it isn’t sustainable. I thought I would share a few free creation apps that I have used with both the primary and junior grades. I have also included some samples. None of the samples are done by students, but I can assure you that each of these are quite intuitive and easy even for primary grades to use. Each of the apps has a link to it in the App Store for further information.

Shadow Puppet EDU The name is deceiving and the little white bunny on the app icon is too. It basically provides a video of a slide show in which you can add voice and text. Students can link to the already sourced for copyright pictures provided within the app or take pictures from their iPad or with the camera. The students find this one easy to use but tricky to edit some of the text. It uploads to Seesaw and other platforms easily.

Here is a sample of Puppet EDU:

Padlet I have used this a lot in order to begin a new unit of inquiry on something. It provides a place to put safe links and videos that I have sourced for the students as a starting point and reference. In addition, the students can collaborate their thinking with sticky notes. You can share it publicly with other Padlet users, but we keep ours private at this point. We may share our Padlets with other classes at our school through the use of the QR code and password. The sign is uses a QR code which you can print out. We are using Padlet for our unit on the Olympics. The students will then create their own Padlet to share with classmates on an Olympic event that they will research. Students will be invited to provide feedback to one another. This is a screen capture of our Olympic Padlet:

iBrainstorm This app allows students to add sticky notes, text or hand written notes to templates like Venn Diagrams. In addition, up to 3 other people can be invited to collaborate on the same template in real time. You can take a screen shot and save it to photos. It also uploads to multiple platforms easily.