Using Read and Write Notes for Oral Feedback

Now that report cards and interviews are behind us, it is time to catch up on some marking!

I have some reading and writing assignments that required my feedback before we could proceed with the next stage. Instead of providing written feedback, I wanted to record my oral feedback. In the past, I have used Kaizena (which worked pretty well) and Screencastify (which didn't work as well - constantly crashed on me). I had recently noticed a new feature on "Read and Write" called "voice note." This feature allows you to record 60 second voice clips throughout a Google Doc. After playing around with it, I decided this was the easiest way to provide feedback (tried Snagit, but didn't have much luck...I'm doing something wrong I think!).

The "voice note" feature works simply by highlighting a word or section of text and clicking "voice note" from the "Read and Write" drop-down bar (you will have to add "Read and Write" from the Web Store if you don't already have it). A bar pops up that has three images: a speaker, a play/stop, and an "insert" button. Once you click on the speaker, a timer will count down from 60 seconds while you record your voice message. When you click "stop" you have the option of playing it back to you. To insert this voice note into the document, you must of course click "insert."

The voice note appears as a comment box in the side bar and can be easily played back. 

I'm looking forward to sharing this feedback with students tomorrow and in turn getting feedback from them on this tool. 

Have you tried this yet? What is the student reaction in your experience?

Keep on learning,

Katrina

P.S. I should have also mentioned that "voice note" allowed me to comment on a drawing that was inserted into the Google Doc. This was great as I could easily comment on the Developing Ideas Graphic Organizer students completed. 

Website Launch: Intermediate History and Geography Exchange!

Last year I was involved in several PD groups and was lucky enough to focus on developing History and Geography resources using the new Ontario curriculum expectations. As I worked collaboratively on lessons and units with other intermediate teachers, I kept thinking of how we could share what we developed with other teachers. I really wanted some sort of a platform that intermediate teachers could visit to find ideas, but also contribute ideas - a website seemed like the logical answer.
So after much thinking and discussing, I would like to introduce the "Intermediate History and Geography Exchange" website! This site is most definitely in its infant stage, but I have added lessons to the "Gr. 8 Geography" section and "Student Celebrations" to get started.
It is my hope that intermediate teachers from not just WCDSB, but all of Ontario will share ideas here on how to deliver the History/Geography curriculum with 21st Century learning and Inquiry in mind.
Please let me know if you are interested in contributing!

Until next time,

Katrina Gouett

Twitter in the Classroom

I remember first hearing about Twitter in 2008 at the University of Western Ontario from my Literacy teacher Dr. Kathy Hibbert (@khibbert). While she was very enthusiastic about it, I was rather reserved. Twitter has picked up so much momentum since then, but I was still unsure on how or why to use it, not only for personal but professional and class use. However, a couple of years ago I started out very slowly by testing out a personal account @KatieGouett - but I must admit I rarely used it.
Last year a number of schools and classrooms in WCDSB were actively using Twitter accounts to communicate with students and parents about learning and activities and I decided to join in too. I first created a professional twitter account @MrsGouett and then decided to take the leap and start a classroom account to use with students @Paul_GradeEight. I really think it was fear holding me back from exploring this learning opportunity before. But I realized that many students already use Twitter, and if they don't, they probably will in the future. What better way to teach students how to use technology responsibly than in the classroom as a group?
I created a "Tweeter" classroom job where one student submits to me a Learning Highlight every week that I will post. We are still working on meeting this weekly goal, but making steady progress. I was especially excited when I actually figured out how to embed our class Twitter feed into our D2L site!
What I like best about our class Twitter page are the regular and natural conversations it offers. Students are always interested to see if we have "followers" (we don't have many!) and who we are "following." Recently, someone followed us and when we viewed their account we realized they were probably just looking for more followers, not in what we had to say. This presented an opportunity to decide if we should be "blocking" them or leaving it (most said to not "block"). We have also had a good discussion around who we should be following - who will be positive and offer content we would be proud to have on our Twitter stream? What might be some non-examples of this?
Are you interested in trying Twitter out for yourself or classroom?
WCDSB has created Twitter Guidelines to help you get started with helpful advice and steps.
Take the leap and learn with your students - fumbles and mistakes and just well-planned learning opportunities!

Until next time,

Katrina

Why I love P.D.

Today I was fortunate to participate in a TLLP group (organized and ran by +Cindy Hughes and +JeffHaller of OLOF) with a focus on creating inquiry lessons and units for Grade 7 and 8 Geography and History.
I began working on this unit with +Michael Leonard via. Google Hangouts (what a great way to share and develop ideas!). We came up with an inquiry question "Should Canada admit 25,000 refugees?" with an end goal of a class debate.
Feel free to try it out in your own classroom - we would appreciate any feedback you might have!
You can also access the Refugee Crisis Inquiry Here

Mind-Mapping with Mindomo

Last week I presented the class with the question "Should Canada admit 25,000 Syrian Refugees?" It was really interesting to see students immediate reaction to the question - however, many students really had little knowledge or awareness of the developing events over the past couple of months. We began our inquiry by viewing Europe’s Migrant Crisis that gave a brief overview of the current crisis. This video really created some great discussion among students and I had frequent questions of when we would be learning more about it. 
We got started on our inquiry project with students using Mindomo to highlight and gather the main topics and information as they read various online articles (Quick Facts, Syria Refugee Crisis: Maps and Facts). I have never used Mindomo before, but thought we would learn together. It was easy to set up a class assignment. I could even allow students to join groups of 4 to collaboratively work on this assignment together (which they loved, and really helped those students that were not as strong at reading and gathering information). With more and more practice using Mindomo, students figured out a variety of features that really enhanced their mind map (teaching me and each other how to make their maps colourful and connected). Students were just at the point where they were beginning to add visuals such as pictures and videos.
I am still trying to figure out the teacher portal side, but excited about the learning possibilities using this tool.

I am wondering about the chat tool - while this could be a great way for students to communicate about their work, I am wondering if there is a way to turn this function off for specific assignments?

~Katrina Gouett

Here is one of the mind-maps that a group of students created - I love the additional connections they are making!