Voices of Bullying

As you may know, pinkshirtday.ca was last week. To help my students further think about the various points of view and perspectives involved in bullying, I had them complete an activity inspired by "Think Pink" from Runde's Room. Students wrote and recorded their poems and I wanted to share them with you here. Check them out!

Exploring Innovation in Education

 

One of my New Year's resolutions was to make some bigger changes for the learning of my students by changing the way I approach teaching. This is no small task and a rather daunting one at that.

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the MISA Innovation conference in London where I heard some incredible ideas from educators from various school boards. We were inspired by the ideas of Tony Wagner, especially his seven survival skills.
This conference changed my perspective and understanding of what innovation is. If you had asked me a couple of months ago what innovation was, I would have immediately responded that for me it was the use of technology in the classroom (thinking of the SAMR model). However, after the MISA conference, I realized innovation is much more than that - it is creatively reinventing ourselves to solve problems. Teachers are no longer the main knowledge delivery system - Google search has quite successfully taken over this role for us. The problem then becomes what to do with all of this incredibly accessible information? How can we help our students make sense of it? And more importantly, how do we help students independently and critically think about it? 

Many of us went through an education system that was heavy on the knowledge and understanding piece and so it is what we are most comfortable with. Change is uncomfortable and so it is very easy to build a wall in response. This was a major topic of conversation in a couple of the groups I met with. 

For me, innovation means change - a willingness to be fluid, creative, and open to making mistakes - no walls allowed!  

I came away from this conference with ideas on changing the physical space of my classroom, the necessity for developing complex questioning in my students, and giving up control by allowing students more freedom in following their passions and interests. I also came away with a changed attitude - no more excuses on the constraints of the school system and it's impact on what I felt I could and could not innovate in my classroom.
Since the MISA conference I have had so many ideas swimming around in my head and I can't wait to try as many of them out as possible (and share them with you of course!). This week I introduced "Genius Hour" to my class and I am so impressed with the awesome ideas and interests students have (see my previous post on this). I've also been thinking about how I can get a standing desk in my class for those students who learn better standing or moving.
I would like to thank +Rolland Chidiac-WCDSB for inspiring this post on innovation New Fluencies: What Does Innovation in Education Mean To Me?
I look forward to hearing your ideas on what innovation means to you!

Genius Hour - Let's Get Uncomfortable

After some great inspiration from the MISA Innovation Conference in London last week, I've committed an hour every Wednesday to Genius Hour in my class. +Cindy Hughes shared some great resources she developed and used with her class in the fall and I've adopted them for my class. My students really embraced this idea and have leapt right in. I'm so excited about the amazing ideas for their passion projects - some including unsolvable math problems, how CEO's manage businesses, making a movie, perfecting a cookie recipe and hosting a cooking show, child labour, and even how to throw a perfect pitch. Presentations will be Catholic Education Week and I can't wait to see the products of student passion projects! In between now and then, I will lead students through various research and plagiarism lessons to help them navigate their projects.
I would love to hear about "Genius Hour" projects you and your students have done. What does learning look like when we "lose control" by letting students run with what they are interested in? I want to make this the rule of thumb - how can we allow students to make sense of the curriculum we teach and make it meaningful to them and their life experience? Let's get uncomfortable and make our student's more comfortable with making learning relevant to them and their interests. It's not about us, it's about students and learning.

Podcasting in the Classroom

Have you tried podcasting with your students yet? One of my goals for this school year was to try it out with my students, and I have to say I was thrilled with the results. Podcasting was a great way to explore the not always so thrilling topic of wastewater management (in science class).

I have been a long-time fan of CBC's "Quirks and Quarks" program and thought this would be the perfect way to introduce a science podcast to students. We listened to a couple of different episodes and then began breaking down the common parts and identifying them. For example, students noticed that each podcast began with a short commercial for another podcast or radio program, followed by a theme song and overview introduction of the episode. On chart paper, we wrote out the basic podcast structure and then decided what main topics needed to be covered (how Waterloo Region processes water and wastewater as well as a local water issue). We also discussed ways to "bump up" their podcasts and engage the audience through the use of sound effects, music, "hooks," and expert "guests."

I assigned partners and they began researching and script writing. To be completely honest, at this point I had no clue on how I would actually have students record their podcast, but I had faith if I couldn't find an App or way to do it, my students would! I did a bit of surfing to try and find some options, but none seemed to work how I wanted. I then did a Web Store search for audio recorders and found "Cloud Audio Recorder." This was a very simple audio recorder that would record up to 7 minutes, record as a mp3, and would even save to Google Drive. However, while this worked beautifully for me, students had a bit more trouble with the restrictions placed on Apps that they could add to their account. A few of my expert tech problem solver students were able to get the App working for each group. Today we were using "Cloud Audio Recorder" and instead of trying to add it to students GAFE Apps, we just used the website - issue free!

Students really were engaged and eager to make their recording perfect (which meant many re-takes!). Once their podcast was recorded and filed in their Google Drive I had them share the file with me. Here is one great example by two of my students - Water Podcast.

This project was also a great opportunity to integrate reading, writing, media and oral language into our science project. Here's the Podcast Rubric that I used when assessing.

I would love to hear if you've had any podcast adventures of your own!

Until next time,

Katrina