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
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Saturday, October 17, 2015
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
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! |
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