Blog – Page 114

May 13, 2018May 13, 2018 Deb Weston Additional Qualifications, Professional Learning and Growth

ETFO AQ Edge: Inclusion in Teacher Communities Learning Together

I’ve taken many Additional Qualifications (AQs) in my 19 year teaching career. As a classroom teacher, AQs give me the edge to meet my students’ needs and keep me up to date with the latest pedagogy and technology tools.

Through many universities and accredited organizations, I’ve experienced how AQs are presented and organized. I’ve taken some AQs where I was impressed with their high quality and instructional expertise; I’ve been underwhelmed with AQ courses too.

My recent experiences with ETFO AQ courses were excellent. ETFO AQ courses rise above other AQ options as the courses are:

developed by highly qualified and experienced elementary teachers for elementary teachers
taught by teachers who are still active in classrooms
regularly reviewed and updated to address the current realities of elementary classrooms
developed with course content that is practical and well grounded in effective practice
developed to balance the theory of teaching with the practice of teaching
respectful of the work/life balance teachers juggle with every school year
taught by instructors with high levels of professionalism and updated AQ course training

While I was taking ETFO AQ courses, I noticed a significant difference in the culture of the courses. I experienced a sense of collaboration, support, and community I had not experienced in other AQ courses. I felt that I was an individual candidate with unique needs instead of just a name on a class list. My instructors went beyond my expectations in creating a classroom community, both in online and in face to face courses. Interestingly, this is what I stress in my own classroom practice: a sense of belonging and inclusion.

Feeling included and part of a community is the additional edge ETFO AQ courses offer to teachers. As part of my ongoing professional development, I plan to take more ETFO AQ courses in the near future.

Collaboratively Yours,

Deb Weston

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.

May 2, 2018 Kelly.McLaughlin General

Google Classroom

I just wanted to share about an exciting digital tool I have been trying for a few months now. Google classroom is an organized way of creating a document on google drive and then having it available on google for all your students to use. Google classroom can create a separate copy for each student as if you have printed them all off their own copy. This helps the environment and is awesome if you have a supply in or did not save time to photocopy.

The great feature about this program is once a student “turns in” their work, you can submit their mark to them online. You just add the mark in the mark column and then they get it back in their google classroom accounts.

I am hoping one day to use this for all assignments but for now, it was great to use for a grade 7/8 writing assignment as they used their typing skills to help get their ideas down faster. They also stayed organized and it was my way of ensuring all documents were turned it at the end of class.

Another feature includes the students not being able to re-open their document until the teacher has added their mark. They can turn it in again if they need to change something but only after it has been graded the first time. Since it is turned it at the end of class, students cannot add anything at home.

To use this program, look in to your google classroom account and simply click “Create Class”. I promise you will all love this paperless tool!

April 30, 2018May 4, 2018 Laura Bottrell General

Differentiating Inquiry and Theme in Kindergarten

With the shift towards inquiry based learning in Kindergarten, I’ve seen some really wonderful things happening in classrooms. Teaching to the interest of the children opens doors to some really authentic, meaningful learning and quite honestly makes our job pretty fun. Educators have the ability to cater their program towards certain interests and often get quite creative in bringing these interests to life in their learning environments.

When classes get right into an inquiry, it can completely take over the classroom. Dramatic play centres are turned into elaborate submarines, dinosaur museums, space stations – you name it! Almost all areas of the classroom get retrofitted to go with the inquiry: the sensory bin, the library book selections, literacy materials, the block centre, and so on. All of these things are wonderful, but I find myself wondering a few things.

At what point does an inquiry become dangerously close to being a theme?

Kindergarten educators have a guilty pleasure for theme based teaching. It’s easy, it’s organized, it makes sense, it follows rules, it’s pretty and it all matches! It just makes sense that we have a harvest inquiry in the fall and a plants inquiry in the spring, but do they come about authentically or because we secretly want them to? We need to be careful not to turn our inquiries into themes.

Why? Themes aren’t meeting the needs of all of our learners. When we start an inquiry based on the observation of a few students displaying an interest, we’re doing a wonderful job meeting their particular needs and encouraging their learning. What about those few (or sometimes more than a few) students in our class that aren’t really interested in insects, arctic animals, structures, flight or whatever it happens to be? Sure, they will benefit from the exposure and probably take part, but for them the time spent during that inquiry isn’t as valuable as it could be.

An illustration of this is when we’d spent hours creating an intricate veterinarian’s office dramatic play centre and many students turned it back into a home living area whenever they used the space. This is mostly, I think, because they didn’t know how to take on the roles in a veterinarian’s office, but also because they weren’t really interested in that and just wanted to role-play home living like they’re naturally inclined to. Perhaps we build these beautiful inquiry related areas in addition to their usual dramatic play area, and not instead of?

This leads me to my second thought. We know that we have a diverse group of students with a variety of interests, levels of understanding and learning needs.

Why does everyone need to participate in the same inquiry, all at once?

Children could participate in inquiries with small groups or individually! This is something I have been trying to encourage in my classroom and I’ve been finding great results. Students are more motivated and engaged in their day’s work [play]. We currently have a few inquiries on the go: some learning about the ocean, some about flight/airplanes, some about otters, some about hockey teams and one student who is individually researching The Tragically Hip. Again, got to love Kindergarten!

I’m not saying that whole group inquiries don’t hold value, because they certainly do when every child is engaged by them. We’ve had some wonderful experiences with the entire class engaged in the same topic for extended amounts of time this year. Our inquiry on music was a very rich experience and all of our students were genuinely interested in some way. I’m saying that whole group is not the only way to do inquiry.

Opening doors to more than one inquiry at a time will open the doors to more authentic and meaningful learning for all students. Yes, it will be messy and scattered and unorganized. For some, it might be a step out of a comfort zone but isn’t that what learning is supposed to be?

April 30, 2018 Tammy Axt Assessment

Training Students To Have Independent Reflection Skills

Assessment in my music room follows a gradual release of responsibility model. I explicitly teach students how to self-assess their ability to create and play a song correctly. I do this regularly throughout the year as we learn how to play different instruments, songs and arrangements.

Co-creating a Criteria

Near the beginning of a new unit, the students and I co-create criteria using Anne Davies’ Model. This process helps me understand where my students are in their assessment for learning and often identifies areas where they will need help. You can see from the picture below that my students really understand the idea that you are supposed to cover the holes when you are playing music on the recorder, but tonguing is something that this class needed a lot of help with, as only one student used it as part of the criteria. The criteria that we create is used in all subsequent lessons to help students have a deep understanding of how they can be successful.

After we have written the criteria, I have the students use the criteria to assess me while I am performing a piece of music. I explain thoroughly each part of the criteria as I demonstrate what a level 4 looks like. In the next three or four classes that follow, I do a warm up using the criteria until I feel that the class has a firm grasp on how they will be assessed. I want them to be empowered to be able to explain and use the criteria that we have created. In the warm up, I play for them and they give me feedback. I fill in the gaps or explain any pieces of the criteria that they are not fully understanding.

Assessment as learning

After students have some understanding of how they will assess themselves, they spend time receiving feedback from both me and their peers. They play for me in person and through Google Classrooms.

After the first couple of times that they play with me, I ask them to assess themselves with my support. I train them to express their next steps orally with me in small groups or one on one. For those students who need further practice, I do small group instruction where they play and we work through each part of the criteria until they understand it fully.

Assessment of learning/Celebration of Learning

Once each student is able to fully assess themselves confidently, they have so much ownership over their growth and I focus on helping them achieve as much as they can in one year! My assessment of learning is always a celebration of how far the students have come. I always make it a point to show them their progress as they move through various units, so that they have confidence in their abilities.

This process takes quite a bit of time, but it is well worth the skills that the students acquire. The skills required to be able to identify areas of need are the skills that will carry our students through much bigger challenges than Hot Cross Buns on the recorder.

April 30, 2018 Tammy Axt General

Personal Wellness

It is at the end of April every year when my personal wellness goes out the window and work seems to take over my life. There are so many events as we gear up for the end of the year, that I often feel like I am a hamster on a running wheel trying desperately to keep up. At this time of year, I exercise less, eat more junk food, and sleep becomes interrupted with thoughts of what I didn’t do during each day. This is a pattern that I know is my weakness, but something happened last week to signify that my approach to personal wellness in the spring has to change.

After teaching music for many years, I decided that this was the year for a big change. I have been at the same school for a decade and I felt as though I really needed some new learning. Last week, I accepted a job at a school across town where I will be running a program for 10 intermediate Developmentally Delayed students. I have always been drawn to helping our special needs students and the school that I accepted a job at has a built-in mentor next door. She is an expert in running similar programs and will really teach me a lot. I am very excited about this new challenge!

This opportunity is so exciting and wonderful, but it will come with a lot of challenges that potentially could be stressful. Maintaining a good work/life balance and focusing on personal wellness will be an important part of my success in this role.

As I finish up this year and look forward to next year, I know it will be important to focus on the building blocks of personal wellness.

Physical Activity: My goal will be to get out and just get my heart elevated at least three times a week.
Laughter: My goal will be to laugh every day as much as I can.
Nutrition: My goal will be to try to make sure that my diet doesn’t consist of an over abundance of Doritos and McDonald’s French fries.
Reflection: This is important for growth. However, I sometimes overemphasize the what went wrong instead of having a good balance between acknowledging successes and failures.

Some years go better than others in the area of personal wellness and stress management. Some years you have kids that get along and make major gains in their learning, while other years you have a parent who is mentally ill that you are constantly dealing with or administration whose vision doesn’t match your philosophy of education. The best part about our job is that when things go wrong, you can do your very best until the end of the year and start fresh in September. In order to make it to another September, we have to take care of ourselves along the way.

April 30, 2018April 30, 2018 Laura Bottrell Celebrating Success, General, Play-Based Learning

Celebrating “Invisible” Progress

A student in my class spoke to me for the first time today. It was the tiniest whisper and only one word, but for this particular student it was big, important progress. She has never been observed speaking to adults at school, only a few other children in the classroom. After trying everything in my ability and to my professional knowledge to build a nurturing relationship with her, finally something changed enough that she felt comfortable speaking to me for the first time. It brought tears to my eyes – another memorable moment in teaching for me.

This has got me thinking about all of the important, not always noticeable, progress being made by my Kindergarten students every day. We don’t always stop and take the time to think about the development of the whole child that is taking place. Educators tend to focus on reading, writing and mathematics behaviours in Kindergarten. Of course, this is an important aspect of the curriculum but it’s also the easiest to observe, measure and assess. Perhaps because it is the easiest to observe, we can sometimes forget to celebrate the more hidden things.

Kindergarten is full of invisible progress. Though, invisible is probably not the right word. Progress in Kindergarten is quite visible if you know how to look for it.

If students are given the opportunity to play, even more so if the play environment is set up intentionally, they will be constantly and rapidly growing. Through the right lens, we can observe social and emotional development in all play that takes place. Kindergarten students are never “just playing”. Their play is a hands-on exploration of the world, but more importantly it acts as testing ground for young children to try out their social skills, problem solving abilities and experience the emotions of everyday life in a safe environment. Children are building confidence and resilience. They are making mistakes, experiencing failure and experiencing success. They are intensely studying the world around them. There are no screening tools, checklists or assessments to measure this growth. It is sometimes hidden, often subtle, and only observed when we purposefully look for it. Just don’t forget that lens.

Our young learners are making huge cognitive, social, emotional and physical gains every day in our classrooms. Progress in problem solving while building with blocks, gains in understanding social cues in the dramatic play centre, discoveries of problem solving strategies in the sensory bin when a conflict arises, building resilience when trying to independently open a snack at the eating table – it’s everywhere. Sometimes we just don’t notice this progress until something profound happens: like a student who struggled with transitions all year suddenly handles them with ease, or a student uses their words to solve a conflict with a peer rather than reacting emotionally as they have all year, or like today, builds enough belonging and confidence to speak to a teacher for the first time.

As we head into Communication of Learning season, I hope we are reminded to stop and celebrate the “invisible” progress that our students have made this year. There will be some students who may not have progressed as well as we would have liked to see in academics, but we can rest assured that our students did learn every single day. They did progress, whether it be socially, emotionally, physically, or in countless other important life skills. I always say that in Kindergarten, we’re growing people – and that really is what we do!

April 29, 2018May 4, 2018 Will Gourley Challenging Topics, General, Resilience

Defy-ns

https://pixabay.com/en/one-way-street-decisions-opportunity-1991865/ CC0

no
nah
nope
never
not yet
not today
no thank you
not acceptable

I’ve used all of the above.

Postive and negative language flows like freeways in education.
Yet, many of us drive like we are on one way streets?

Consider the interactions below that evoked the responses above;

S: Do we have to hand our tests in if we need more time to complete it?
T: No. Extra time can be added to help you finish without feeling rushed.

S: Do we need to work with the same people on this project?
T: Nah. Work with who works best with you on this one.

S: Do we have any homework over the March Break?
T: Nope. Take some time to enjoy a rest.

S: Why do I always struggle to understand Math? I will never get it.
T: Not yet. Your struggle does not mean you won’t ever understand Math. Keep asking questions and practising problem solving. You will make progress.

S: Can we do a worksheet?
T: Not today.

S1: Thank you for letting us discuss what happened outside.
S2: Thank you for letting us do our presentations over again.
T: No. Thank you. I appreciate your honesty and kind words.

T: Is this your best work?
S: No. I think I’d like to change a couple of things, but I need to hand it in or it will be late.
T: Sorry, not acceptable. Take an extra period/recess/evening to work on it so you will be one hundred percent happy with your work. It will be worth the wait.
S: Thank you.
T: No. Thank you.

For many of our students the kindest words they will hear all day will come at school. The power to alter the expectations and narratives of our learners is at the tip of our tongues.

I hope that you will all have a chance to be defiant in the way you use traditionally negative language in your classrooms. Please take the time to share your thoughts in the comment section. Thank you for reading.

April 27, 2018 Arianna Lambert Inquiry, Inspiring Students, Inspiring Teachers, Science, Student Ownership

Science Through Inquiry

I’ve always been excited about Science. Believe it or not, as a child it was my dream to become a Pediatrician. In High School, that dream was slightly crushed by my Grade 11 Chemistry and Grade 12 Co-op teacher who said that I would be a better teacher than Scientist. I thought that if perhaps she had stuck to Science rather than teaching, I may not have been so terrible at it. But that conversation also sparked in me something that made me want to prove her wrong. I went on to get a degree in Science, worked for a chiropractor and then did Pancreas Cancer Research. And then, I got on with my true passion – teaching.

I say this because I think in a very real way, we have the power to be able to shape our students’ interests. If we make a topic or subject engaging, they are more likely to embrace it. If we offer tools to allow them to think critically, collaborate and problem solve, then no matter the content, they can transfer those skills and embrace new learning opportunities.

I remember my experiences and that conversation with my Science/Co-op Teacher vidly because I said that if ever I became a teacher, I would never teach Science in the same way. As a beginning teacher, I think that I did. I taught based on what I remember learning which was through a textbook or worksheets with a few experiments sprinkled in. I wasn’t doing much better because I found myself again mirroring the content-delivery that I was familiar with. It wasn’t until I learned about and understood the power of inquiry that my practice was able to change.

4 years ago I had the privilege of working at John A. Leslie Public School with some amazing teachers who were on a journey through inquiry and looking at how it might be done in the whole school through the theme of water. Classes from Kindergarten through grade 8 were engaged in allowing students to question and explore their own interests related to water. From exploring pollution in the Great Garbage Patch to investigating water scarcity in different parts of the world, – including Canada – students were learning about Science in meaningful ways. Seeing the messiness but high engagement of inquiry allowed for me to make the shift and I haven’t looked back since.

Currently, I teach grade 5 Science and my students have been working on their own inquiry related to Human Body Systems. In the beginning, we watched a few brief videos identifying the systems and their interconnectedness. From that point, students were asked to consider a rich question to investigate related to our learning. Almost every student came up with a different question and they have been investigating them. We’re now at the stage where students are creating artifacts of their learning. Some are creating websites that will host their information for others. Some are creating slides presentations, while other are creating models. Some are even choosing to do a combination of a model and presentation.

During our classes, students are the ones directing what they need to do in order to complete their tasks. They’re collaborating with peers for feedback and to share their information as they learn. They have choice in how they wish to present their learning to others and are excited about doing it in their own way. The process isn’t always as straightforward and sometimes I wish there were more of me to go around and conference with students, but when students are engaged in and learning about something that is meaningful to them, I find it to be the best type of work.

Here’s to hoping that through inquiry, students can find an entry point into the wonderful world of Science.

April 27, 2018 Arianna Lambert Inspiring Students, Inspiring Teachers, Music, The Arts

Our Journey In Music

Last month I blogged about Music and Identity and asked you to stay tuned because my students and I were on a mission to dig a little deeper into the power of song. Well, this month, we did just that. In my last blog, I was really excited to have the opportunity to be interviewed by Noa Daniel for the Personal Playlist Podcast and wondered how I might do something similar in my classroom with students as we were in the process of better understanding identity and the characteristics that shape who we are.

On a bright and sunny – well…maybe it really wasn’t bright or sunny – Monday morning, I shared my own Personal Playlist Podcast with students and asked them to consider their own three songs that would be considered notstalic, descriptive of their identity, and a pick me up. What made that morning bright and sunny was how eager students were to jump into it and find songs that resonated with them based on the 3 categories. As students spoke with one another, listened to song choices and read lyrics, there was a buzz in the room and it amazed me because while I know the power of music, it was evident right in that moment that students were really coming alive and energized to share about parts of themselves through song.

From songs like Brave by Sara Bareilles to This Is Me by Kesha, students were pulling out and sharing lyrics that were meaningful to them. It sparked conversations from some of my most introverted students about how they were feeling and what they were experiencing. In Brave, one student mentioned liking these lyrics:

“Innocence, your history of silence

Won’t do you any good

Did you think it would?

Let your words be anything but empty

Why don’t you tell them the truth?”

She stated that everyone should consider the power of their words, not only to bring others down but to be able to bring about change and to really stand up for who you are. This was the starting point for a discussion on when we hear something or see something that isn’t right, we should say something and not only that, make sure that you are living the words that you are speaking. It was very powerful and resonated with these lyrics from This Is Me:

“I am brave, I am bruised

I am who I’m meant to be, this is me

Look out ’cause here I come

And I’m marching on to the beat I drum

I’m not scared to be seen

I make no apologies, this is me”

The student who shared this song mentioned wanting to be brave although it is sometimes difficult because we are bruised by the words and actions of others. We spoke about marching to beat of our own drums and how it is sometimes hard because it isn’t always accepted or embraced by others. We spoke about the challenges that exist when we want to be seen and yet we are so afraid to stand out. How do we become those who make no apologies for who we are?

As if that wasn’t powerful enough, the sharing grew even deeper when our Co-op student shared her playlist which included a song that wasn’t in English. I assumed that it went without saying that students could choose songs in a different language but because I wasn’t explicit, students stuck to songs they knew in English. When she shared her choices, the room erupted with, “Well, I know this song that my mom used to play to me when I was younger. Listen to this…”. All of a sudden, students were sharing about themselves, their families and their histories through songs from different cultures and languages. Whether or not their peers understood the lyrics to the song, they understood the meaning behind it through the help of their peer. All of a sudden, it was connecting on a deeper level. Music really transcends all boundaries.

A few minutes before the bell rang for recess an announcement came on to say that it was an indoor recess due to the rain. There was no groan this time and students were eager to continue on sharing their Personal Playlist.

I have to thank Noa Daniel for the experience and connecting me back to music in a deeper way and ultimately allowing for my students to share their experiences through music. We’re in the process of writing a musical for tdsbCREATES on identity and our time spent examining our own song choices are really guiding us as we start to write our own lyrics to the songs in our musical.