I have learned that teaching and learning are inherently complex, that there is no silver bullet to solve all challenges. It is through my new role that I have the opportunity to work with teachers in many contexts with unique challenges, their approaches vary, but in every single school the conversation has centred on the student. I have learned that when we place the student at the centre and collaborate with our colleagues, amazing things can manifest. I am excited by the possibilities provided by technology to not only collaborate but to foster these authentic learning opportunities and wonder what can be done to help connect teachers with similar interests? Are we far from realizing what is explained in the video below?
Most teachers will tell you that they learn as much from their students as they do in return. This may sound cliche, but as I sit down to write this post I know it to be true. This year saw me move from the classroom to a system level role, while I have learned a great deal and definitely something every single day, it pales in comparison to the daily (sometimes hourly) learning that took place within the classroom. The evidence of this can be found throughout this blog. I am constantly impressed by the engaging and authentic tasks that teachers are providing their students. These tasks show evidence of a teacher knowing their students. I have learned that teaching and learning are inherently complex, that there is no silver bullet to solve all challenges. It is through my new role that I have the opportunity to work with teachers in many contexts with unique challenges, their approaches vary, but in every single school the conversation has centred on the student. I have learned that when we place the student at the centre and collaborate with our colleagues, amazing things can manifest. I am excited by the possibilities provided by technology to not only collaborate but to foster these authentic learning opportunities and wonder what can be done to help connect teachers with similar interests? Are we far from realizing what is explained in the video below? Matt Armstrong is interested in creating authentic and meaningful learning opportunities by connecting teachers and students with experts outside of the classroom.
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Learning With a Giant Floor Map A Giant Floor Map (36’ x 25’) is coming to Cranston School on November 3. We are borrowing it from Canadian Geographic magazine for 3 weeks and the excitement is building! For October and November, Chris Southworth, our LL, and I will work with all the K-4 classes to introduce mapping concepts prior to the arrival of the GFM. As we work with digital images, videos. globes, flat maps, maps in books, atlases, and the 3-D model of 1988 downtown Calgary that resides at our school, I am amazed at the observations and questions the children bring to this learning experience. “Maybe the bumps on the globe show the mountains.” “I think the brown globe shows Egypt because there is so much dirt.” “I think the Earth tilts on the globe to get day and night.” “I wonder why the globes are different sizes?” “Why do some maps have pictures and some have words?” “I found my mom’s office downtown and she has no electricity there so she can’t go to work!” We are exploring images and learning how to represent our world using concepts related to direction, legends, scale and dimension. The GFM depicts Canada’s national parks and leads us into our inquiry work around the development of a naturalized area on our schoolyard. The enthusiasm is palpable and I am – as always – energized by the exciting ways we can all work together to bring learning alive – starting with a giant map! Bio: Lorraine Kinsman believes learning should be hands-on, fun and always engaging. A life-long learner, wife, mother, grandmother, questioner & PhD student. This past weekend was Thanksgiving. A time to reflect on all that we have and should be grateful for in our world. Being that this a blog about what we have learned from students, I went around asking students what they are thankful for at school. I had the expected answers of teachers, friends and even gym, but the response I received time and time again was “the opportunity to learn”. Learning was cherished beyond all else. Deep within the heart of students is not only a need to learn but also an incredible passion for learning. It is this passion that fuels creativity, critical thinking, engagement and new ideas. However, as I reflected, students’ gratefulness for the opportunity to learn is fostered by teachers and support staff throughout our schools who take the time to make learning engaging, authentic and rigorous. It is their professionalism in planting the seeds of learning, which in turn allows students to recognize the value of learning in their lives. This Thanksgiving weekend, I am incredibly grateful for the students who show up every day with a smile and a passion for learning. I am thankful that they inspire us as educators to constantly seek new ways to engage them in the learning process. I am also thankful for the educators in my school and across the CBE who in turn inspire students to discover their innate capacity and desire for learning. Brad (@waffleguy74) is a husband, dad and lifelong educator. He has a passion for asking questions, playing with LEGO and spending time in the great outdoors. Teachers as Guides This summer I had the amazing opportunity to summit the 2650m high Mt. Nimbus in the Purcell Mountain Range in BC. Now, not being a mountain climber in any way I was only able to attain this amazing feat with the support of my guide. Guides are teachers in a special sort of way, a sort of way that could be used in the classroom everyday. Here is how: 1. They set a clear goal - we are going to the top! 2. They frequently stop and ask how everyone is doing. They let everyone answer. 3. If you are not doing so well, they help solve whatever problem it is. 4. They go first, they show the way. 5. They encourage, demonstrate,explain, then sit nearby and enjoy watching you do it. 6. When it gets super hard they lend a hand. 7. They marvel in your accomplishment, just as much as you have. Tomorrow I challenge you to guide your students. To guide them in achieving their dreams and doing more than they thought they could. I think you will be amazed at the wonders that will occur. Lori Cullen (@lorilynnecullen) as been with CBE since 2000 as a teacher, learning leader, assistant principal, principal and now teacher recruitment consultant. She believes in the power of teams and challenges herself and colleagues to maximize their potentials and reach for their goals. Fostering Entrepreneurial Spirit Through the Maker Movement Makers are people who tinker, create and innovate through trial and error. They believe if you can imagine it, you can make it. In a makerspace, tools are provided for students with projects to help ignite imagination. Projects can range from duct tape art to robotics. Exploration is encouraged through building and tearing apart objects to understand how things “work”. Through this process, makers F.A.I.L. (First Attempt In Learning) and persevere to reach goals. This creates an environment of entrepreneurial spirit, as students are encouraged to think outside of the box take risks, set goals and persevere. Recently, the debut of maker kits occurred, including balloon animals. Not knowing how to make these creatures, I left it up to the kids to discover – instead of me showing them how. This resulted in one young boy asking me to “show him” - I am sure many teachers can relate. What happened next forced this grade 4 student to make a decision: to be a maker or to not. I explained I didn’t know how myself, but was willing to explore and F.A.I.L. with him. The student grew frustrated and said, “I think I want to quit”. I encouraged him to not and we came up with a plan to make twisted balloon sections stick together. After checking on others, I returned to find that same student with a finished dog balloon animal! His smile was gigantic and confidence high. When I asked him how he felt, he said “proud”. Of course, we made a big deal of this accomplishment. Moving Forward… A PL learning opportunity on entrepreneurial spirit is coming up: Startup Weekend – Education Edition (StartupWeekend.org). This event is an example of how to combine both the maker and entrepreneurial thinking in education. It runs from Oct 17-19 on the SAIT. For a more detailed write-up, please visit ambermazur.wordpress.com @ambermazur teaches at Keeler School. Her interests include mobile learning, makerspaces, augmented reality and professional learning. How do human hopes and fears shape society? This is the lens we are using for our learning as of late. We have looked at current events, such as the Ebola Virus and ISIS, and tried to puzzle through what we feel and what the media might want us to feel. Questions I have heard students asking are rich… Why aren’t there more stories of hope? Why do they make nations out to be the enemy when it might be a small group of people? As a way to explore this idea further students have been looking at worldview as it relates to values, and how our worldview influences our hopes and fears. Grade 8 students have been investigating the ‘Lost Boys’, and the experience of those in Sudan. Students watched a documentary about Sudan, refugee camp life, and the experience of coming to the U.S.A. While the exploration goes on, perhaps a highlight was some the students realizing that hope can come from many places, and perhaps fear is what stops us from empathizing or understanding. Ms.Robert’s, a teacher at TMC, hosted a Sudanese lunch planned by students, and they gathered together to see if the experience furthered their understanding in any way. A grade 8 student perspective: I can see why the kitchens, meals, and shift work were isolating for them. Cooking food together and eating together makes you feel comfort and less afraid of unfamiliarity. It was a moment together to breath. Tiffany Coles. 18 years with the CBE. Grateful to be at TMC. Passionate about Middle School and providing experiences that allow students to look at different ideas, in many ways, with new eyes. Although I greet each morning with anticipation, rarely does the day begin with magic. We normally begin the day in our Kindergarten class with about 15 minutes of activities that target fine motor development and skill competencies. Then we transition into the rest of our day. But today…today was different. One of the activities I had left out for the students to explore was a container of loose metal pieces and magnets for sorting, patterning and fine motor development. When the group began to grow and the conversation became livelier, I started to pay attention. “Can I help?” “Here, hold this.” “We need instructions.” “I can draw instructions. My mom is a designer.” “I’m good at this. Here, let’s do it like this.” I hung out close by and acted as their guide. “We need a screw driver thing.” I quietly handed them a hammer. “We need wood.” A box of wood scraps appeared. “How can we make a door? Maybe with cardboard!” I went and got a collection of cardboard boxes. They built, readjusted, talked and talked and talked. I was suspended in the moment as I witnessed creativity, collaboration, leadership, analytical thinking and so much more from the “simple” activity of playing with loose metal parts. I have a maker space in our classroom and a wide range of found materials for students to use. When I take the time to listen and be a guide, I am always astounded by where the students can take us with their curiosity and self-instigated learning. Stephanie Bartlett (@sj_bartlett) teaches Kindergarten @Mme_Stephanie FI at Chinook Park. Passionate about teaching a curriculum driven by creativity (creativitycollective.ca) & storytelling. Last week, I learned a little more about the legacy of Terry Fox. When our students arrive for their daily Phys Ed classes, their expressions and body language provide me with a great deal of valuable information. I can see the look of relief, for many students, that their time for gym has finally arrived. For others, I sense their hesitation and perhaps some concern about how the next 30 minutes will play out for them. Students’ self perception, and their previous experiences, hold such power that impacts their future approaches to Phys Ed, just as it impacts their approaches to other subject areas within their learning. We sometimes hear from our struggling learners that they “just aren’t very good at Math.” Does the perception of being “good at sports” make Phys Ed more enjoyable for many of our students, while making others more reluctant to participate? If so, how do we change this perception? Our Terry Fox Run was held on Friday last week, and we had spent our week preparing for the run. In our Phys Ed classes we discussed techniques and strategies for running, we worked on pacing and breathing, and we challenged ourselves to become “smarter” runners. The week was incredibly revealing in that we have runners of all different ability levels, who run at different paces, and yet the notion that some of us were “better” runners than others never seemed to matter much at all. Our understanding of Terry Fox and the challenges that he faced changed the entire perception of our unit on distance running. Clearly, we need more champions like Terry to rally around. Allen Wideman (@ajwideman) teaches elementary Phys Ed, stays active by chasing around his 3 year old twins, and is a UBC graduate student - Master's of Educational Technology. Ralph Klein Park Field Study On September 23rd, my class had a field study at Ralph Klein Park, our first of three visits this year. We will observe changes in the weather, seasons and the wetlands themselves. On this field study, there was already a dramatic change in the weather. When we arrived, the sky was dark and overcast, with a light drizzle. After a tour of the building, our guide took us outside so to see the wetlands more clearly. We learned that the Bald Eagle’s call is a series of hoarse chirps instead of the piercing scream of the Red Tailed Hawk. We also learned that when oil, litter, bacteria, pesticides or fertilizer, and salt get in the water it becomes dirty. By cleaning up after our pets, making sure that our car isn’t leaking, using less fertilizer, and not littering, we can keep the water a lot cleaner so the wetlands don’t have to work as much. By afternoon, the rain cloud had blown away and the sky cleared out. We followed another guide to the wetlands so we could investigate insects and bugs in the water. My group found four Damselfly nymphs, a caddisfly larva, two water boatmen, several side swimmers and a water mite. We found a lot of insects by masses of water plants. I sketched some of them. By home time, the sky almost completely cleared. We enjoyed our field study in Ralph Klein Park and learned a lot more about wetlands! Jessica X, Grade 4 student, Hillhurst School. Likes drawing, reading, and creative activities. Especially good at Science and Math. Diving in Taking risks is hard. Putting yourself out there for the world to judge is scary and incredibly difficult sometimes. And yet, we ask our students to do just that every day. I know I have been guilty of forgetting just how many risks I ask my students to take with me, especially at the beginning of the year. I ask them to trust me – someone they barely know. To walk with me along an unfamiliar path, doing strange new things, facing challenges they might not even be able to imagine yet. This year that path is filled with visual journals – an entirely new entity to my students and myself. They are so eager to try, to fill the pages with ideas, pictures, reflections, questions. At the same time, the uncertainty of knowing if they’re doing it “right”, if they are making the choices that they think I want them to make, if their work is perfect, can sometimes overwhelm all of us. We’re on a journey together right now. A journey that explores the ideas of risk and perfection, the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them, the joys of knowing that expressing yourself doesn’t have to mean fitting into the box someone else has made. But it’s scary. I’m asking my students to take risks with me every day and, if the change I’m seeing in their journals is any indication, they’re learning to jump in with both feet right beside me. Allison Smeltzer is a grade four teacher at Brentwood School. She believes in encouraging her students to see the world in new ways. |
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