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Carmen.Oliveira Diverse Learning Needs, Learning in a Real Life Context

Finding Opportunities for Learning Outside the Classroom

This week we participated in an excellent real world learning experience outside the classroom (and it was almost free!).  My Grade5/6 class has been exploring biographies, memoirs, and looking at the features and format of recounts.  We have also been using our MacBooks to support our learning in various ways.  An opportunity arose to bring the two together by visiting an Apple store to learn how to create an iMovie in the form of a biography about each student.  The entire trip, including transportation, came to $1.50 per student.  It ended up being a meaningful, incredibly fun, and real world learning experience for everyone!

This year, our division is committed to creating as many of these powerful learning opportunities as possible for our students because the enthusiasm, eagerness, and results we see back in the classroom support the belief that applying concepts and new learning to real life experiences is what creates long-term understanding.

When you begin to explore all the possibilities to have students apply classroom learning and experience in a real world setting, with a little creativity and investigation, it’s amazing how many opportunities are out there!  The only expense our students had was the bus trip to the Apple store for $1.50.  In return they received lessons and support from a team at Apple, a free t-shirt, the opportunity to use the latest technology to create their iMovie, and a certificate of participation in the program!  It can’t get better than that!

Students working with the crew at Apple

 

 

Students watching their video biographies!

 

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Tina.Ginglo Communication Tools, Communication with Parents and Guardians

Tweeting To Families

Although I am well aware of the concerns and dangers of participating in web based social media sites with students, social media platforms such as Edmodo.com and Ning.com are quickly becoming powerful classroom tools. I am excited about these web based social media platforms and the potential they have for engaging students with curriculum and providing them with 21st century literacy skills.  Over the summer months, I looked into ways social media has been used safely to build community and collaboration in business and education.

Now that I am a parent myself, more than ever, I appreciate the importance of home and school communication.  I thought that I might try a social media platform to support my connection and foster relationships with families.    With my principal’s permission, I am now Tweeting to my students’ families!

My principal had a few concerns about Internet safety, which I respectfully considered when setting up this Twitter account. First, I have set my Twitter account so I must approve my followers.  Since I have most of my parents’ email addresses, it is easy for me to identify whether or not a request to follow is coming from one of my families.  Secondly, I set it so that followers cannot comment on my Tweets.  Unfortunately, this limits the potential this social media tool has for building community, but hopefully it will help keep parents in the loop and help me to establish trust and rapport with my families.   Finally, I don’t identify my school, my teaching assignment or students’ names in my tweets.

I have 18 students in my class.  To date, I only have two followers, but hey, that’s okay.  I have two parents who I touch base with on an almost daily basis about things such as homework reminders and positive events that took place during the day.  It will be interesting to see if more parents begin to follow as the year progresses.

To learn more about ETFO’s Advice to Members re: Social Media, please click here.

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Samantha.Perrin Building Inclusion, Diverse Learning Needs, Learning About Your Students

Slowing Down and Creating Goals

“Go Slow, Go Deep” – Tina’s words have been resonating in my head since I read her last post and over the past couple of weeks. I find myself repeating them to myself daily in response to everything from delivering my lessons in math, teaching the students how to sustain reading effectively during independent reading time, to working through our class agreements and routines.

After reading those words, I found myself reflecting on how intently I work to developing class lessons, routines and climate, and how there are always times when a few students don’t seem to transfer the learning from the class lesson to their individual work or conduct.  It can be frustrating trying to figure out why the students are missing it: Was it because I am moving through the lesson too quickly? Were the expectations clear?  Was it because Jimmy was squirming too much in front of Tommy?   Maybe I’m not engaging them… or is it the material?

Then I remember  the words … Go Slow, Go Deep…

After some reflection, I remembered that in order to go deep with my students, what they are doing has to be meaningful to them (even when the subject area isn’t every students interest), and that time needs to be given to hook the students into what they are learning and reflect on what they are supposed to be getting out of a certain activity or lessons  (their learning goal). I usually draw upon student interests to make my lessons fun but not all students are passionate about all areas of the curriculum all of the time, and rather than spend all my time scouring the internet for more fun teaching ideas, I need to find a sustainable way for the students to buy in, and go deep:

Inspired by  Jim’s inclusion activity about developing Goals/Strengths/Beliefs ( Heart And Art of Teaching and Learning, p.36), I adapted the activity to have students communicate their learning goals for several learning tasks and we have begun this for a number of activities and subject areas.

Before and during lessons I  have started to include time for developing goals with my students for what I hope them to learn by the end of the lesson and I have the students share what they  think the final outcome should look like. Sometimes that means that a lesson that was originally intended to take one period will now take two, or even be spread out over the week. These goals are communicated on the whiteboard or chart paper for the students’ reference and so that the students can begin to self-regulate more.  I hope that by putting in the extra teaching time now,  by mid-year the students will be in the habit of viewing  their lessons as a  ‘goal’ with a defined outcome that they want to achieve.

I hope that by taking more time to developing goals with the students, it won’t matter as much that Jimmy was particularly squirmy one day or that Ari was counting the ceiling tiles instead of paying attention to  what a Level 4 Journal entry looks like. It will matter less  because our goals will be visible, available and referred to regularly and eventually (hopefully) it will sink in.  One of my  goals for this year is to continue taking the time to make goals with my students so that they may  develop it as a habit that is internalized, routine and oriented towards success.

 

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Carmen.Oliveira Building Inclusion, Communication with Parents and Guardians, Learning About Your Students

Getting to Know Your Students Is the Best Time You Will Ever Spend

We just had our school’s “Meet the Teacher” night and the feedback from the parents in my classroom proved that, without a doubt, the best time spent during the first month is in getting to know my students.  I was astounded at the fact that most parents felt like they already knew me.  They commented on how their child went home and told them all about our fantastic conversations during our morning community circle and couldn’t wait to be the “Rockstar of the Week.”  This month I’ve really focused on and enjoyed creating meaningful opportunities to get students to open up and share who they are with our classroom community.

The following are some examples of how we get to know each other:

1. Each student has a Daily Journal.  After they come in, they write a “Reflection Question” in their journal and spend the first 10-15 minutes writing down their thoughts.  This is a powerful self-reflection exercise that I have started in my own life and felt the difference it makes on every level: personal, professional, spiritual, etc.  We then start our morning by sitting in a community circle and volunteering our ideas and opinions.  You can literally feel the good energy permeate in our classroom!  I have attached some examples of Reflection Questions.

2. We have a “Rockstar of the Week” bulletin board.  Each week, a student is chosen to fill us in on who they are!  It involves writing about what’s most important to them in life (we read “The Important Book” as a pre-lesson), sharing their favourite books, music, movies, etc., and putting up pictures that can give us a window into their life.  During the week, students must ask the Rockstar about any fact or picture they’d like to find out more about.  At the end of the week, we have an oral quiz on the Rockstar for points that go to the groups that answer the questions correctly. This is a blast and the Rockstar runs the show!

In a letter to their parents this week, one of my students wrote something that brought tears to my eyes and affirmed why I love teaching.  He wrote, This year, I have an amazing teacher.  She really cares about us and says our classroom is our home for the day.  I like that because that’s how it feels.” And that’s why I love my job!

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

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Tina.Ginglo Building Inclusion, First Week Reflections

Go Slow, Go Deep

Like Roz and Sangeeta, I have returned to the classroom after working for seven years in a number of board and faculty professional learning positions. I found the work I did outside the classroom rewarding.  I was privileged to be a guest in 100s of teachers’ classrooms where I was inspired and motivated by the creative, purposeful learning opportunities these teachers planned for their students.   As I planned for my return to the classroom, I couldn’t wait to put many of these new strategies and routines in place.  I wanted to dive right in and start everything right away!

In the later part of our first week back at school, I received an email from a new teacher I taught in pre-service.  She was excited to let me know about her new teaching position and to share her long range planning ideas with me.  At the end of her email, this former student wrote, “ I remember what you always told us, go slow, go deep.”    Well, did I feel foolish! I was just “schooled” by my own principles!  My enthusiasm clouded my thinking.  If I want my students to truly grasp the strategies and routines I want to put in place, I needed to slow down and delve deep into a few skills and strategies rather than skim the surface of many.

Also, it is important that we first consider our students.  We need to discover their strengths, and how they feel about themselves as learners.  Only then can we align the best strategies with the right kind of learner.     I have used many of the strategies and activities in Heart and Art to help build community in our classroom and learn about the individual learners in our class.   I provided students with opportunities to share their feelings and ideas through oral activities, the arts and written responses. One of my favorite activities was the goals and strengths t-chart that Jim shared in the Heart and Art book.   After modeling my own t-chart that included my personal, social and academic goals and strengths, and my personal beliefs about “life”,  I had the students complete their own t-chart.  Once completed, students then shared their t-charts with each other. The students learned that they have similar skills that needed work such as being tidier at home!  They also discovered that they all cherish their family and that friendship is important. I  learned that all of my grade 3 students want to be successful at school and want to be accepted by their peers.

I have to thank Rose for her email.  Daily 5, literature circles, and all the other great programming ideas will be established in time, but for now,  I will continue to go slow to grow, and remember that depth is better than breadth.