My #OneWord for 2019: Courage

My #oneword for 2019 is courage. With the current political climate in Ontario and some of the challenges facing us a global community, I feel that we will need to demonstrate courage as a moving forward in 2019. The inspiration for my one word this year, comes from having just finished Brené Brown’s book on Dare to Lead.


One of the quotes that really resonated with me was: “Integrity is choosing courage over comfort; it’s choosing what is right over what’s fun, fast or easy; and it’s practising your values; not just professing them.”  Brown’s quotation speaks to me because the year ahead will no doubt prove to be challenging and having the courage to respond in courageous ways is what is needed. For myself, this means having the courage to stay in tough conversations, asking questions and being curious, and as Brown suggests in her book leaning into that curiosity to try to learn about the other person’s perspective. Brown goes onto describe tough conversation in her book and adds “To opt out of conversations about privilege and oppression because they make you uncomfortable is the epitome of privilege.” I feel this is also critical in having real and authentic conversations in education in 2019 around equity and privilege. It means as Brown describes showing up for people in pain and not looking away and choosing to be vulnerable at times.  

MasterMind Groups in Education

“It is important to take time to surround yourself with others who help you keep you focused on the thing that matter, who energize you, and give you hope”.  

Jimmy Casas

Culturize

For the last year I have been a part of two mastermind groups: a group of people that meet to tackle challenges/problems together. Groups are generally between 5-10 people and meeting are on hour and can occur weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.  Mastermind groups a great source of professional development and personal support as well as a place to share connections, and seeks advice.

The inspiration for these group came from Carol McLaughlin whom mentioned she was a part of a mastermind group with people in her district. Carol experienced growth professionally and encouraged me to create a group myself. I decided to give it a try with 10 people in my district and meet about once a month for about an hour. In addition to my district mastermind group, I have been part of an on-line mastermind group of educators as well. Both of my mastermind groups have provided me with tremendous support and I often leave our sessions energized and armed with new information and ideas to try out in my own teaching practise.

For example, last year my online mastermind group became very interested in gamification and through conversation and on-line interactions and web based conversations, I was able to put together a gamified probability unit in my grade 3 class. My group offered me insight, suggestions and coaching as well as valuable feedback.

Both my virtual and face-to-face mastermind groups are highly collaborative and have expanded my networks. In addition, the groups often challenge my thinking and keep me growing professionally. The mastermind groups I have been apart of have also provided personal support as a place of trust and safety where we can share the challenges and be vulnerable knowing that we can get encouragement.

My experience with mastermind groups over the last year has me reflecting on how we these types of groups could be expanded within districts to promote growth and leadership in educational organizations. Given the power of these groups in helping individuals grow and the support they provide, I believe they can provide innovative and successful opportunities for professional development.

Looking for more information? Check out this podcast on the Cult of Pedagogy by Jennifer Gonzalves https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/educator-mastermind/ and also find a toolkit to start your own Mastermind group here: https://betterleadersbetterschools.com/mastermind-group-rules/

 

Reflections on ISTE 2018: My Top 5 Moments

It’s been a week since returning from ISTE 2018 and once again it did not disappoint! This year was the biggest turn out at ISTE with over 26,000 attendees and it showed! I returned exhausted, as always, but full of wonderful memories and inspired with new ideas. I thought I would share a few highlights and reflect on some of my learning.

  1. Student IGNITES

Student presenters were once again my favourite part of ISTE and a great source of learning. I love the concept of students and teachers learning together. In previous years I have had a student present virtually with me through Skype, but this year I was lucky enough to co-present with a student at ISTE in person. In fact, one of my former students was able to share an Ignite entitled BYOD=Happy Students along with some other amazing students and she did an amazing job presenting her ideas!

 

  1.  Three in One and Poster Sessions

Trying to plan what to see at ISTE is always very stressful as there are so many amazing sessions and presenters. This is why I gravitate towards the 3 in 1 sessions and poster sessions. Plus, there is usually no lining up for these!

Some of the great ideas and favourites at the poster session were the coding session and making sessions. There is no doubt that coding and STEAM were a huge theme again this year and I obtained some great ideas. One of the things that really impressed me was the link between the environment and coding. I had the chance to see a great poster session on Cyber EcosySTEM  where Bee-Bots were used to investigate local ecosystems by Dr. Maybeth Green and Dr. April Conkey where second graders were involved in an ecological project to explore local wildlife by Bee-Bot Robots. (https://ae-uploads.uoregon.edu/ISTE/ISTE2018/PROGRAM_SESSION_MODEL/HANDOUTS/110763581/Trophiclevelwritingassignment.pdf)

I also learned about Scrath Ed Meet-Ups with Alexandra Kutler project manager  and part of the Scratch Ed Team. The meet-up is something I would like to take part and/or help organize. I could see value in getting educators together to explore and share learning with Scratch as well as best practises. I could see if also being part of an Edcamp or Mastermind group as opposed to an entire separate event on its own.

  1. PLN and Networking

One of the best parts of attending ISTE is connecting with educators from all over the world and meeting new people. This year I had the chance to present and connect with Maureen Asselin and we shared our experiences with coding and making and our TLLP learning.

Some of my best conversations at conferences like ISTE are not found in sessions but in spaces between sessions. For example, heading back one day from the congress center I took an Uber Pool and met two teachers working at an international school in Poland. They shared their learning from the day and shared a great quote from a session they attended in a coaching session: “It’s okay to be where you are. It’s not okay to stay there”. This idea was again highlighted in one of the closing keynotes by Chrsitne Klynen where she quoted Bruce Mau from his work entitled Manifest for Growth:

“Real Growth often happens outside of where we intent it to, in the interstitial spaces—what Dr. Seuss calls ‘the waiting place’.”   This quote has me continually reflecting on how professional development can be more authentic and can we can tap into richer learning experiences such as these.

  1. Empowering All Learners Through Technology

Another area I explored was the use of technology to work with exceptional learners. I had the chance to try out the new Microsoft VR and Immersive Reader and was impressed. It allowed me to block out all the noise and distractions in the very loud and busy exhibitor hall and really be focused and connected to the text presented to me.

 

There was also a great VR and special education ignite called Virtual Reality – US History and Visual Social Stories – Students with Special Needs,  by Diane McClellan where she highlight how she used VR with exceptional learners in her high school class in engaging ways and meet the needs of her students.

Finally, I attended a great poster presentation on Coding for All by Leanne Husk who spoke passionately about coding for exceptional learners.  She had great tips and ideas and ensuring that students were active in learning and not just passive observers.

5. Keynote by Luis Perez

The most moving and authentic speaker for me came on the first day during the Keynote by Luis Perez, PHD from Florida. Perez is a technical assistance specialist at the National Center on Accessible Educational Materials at CAST. He was a keynote to open up the conference and spoke about how he personally used technology to learn as a visually impaired student.  Perez noted the importance of being visible as a person of colour and as an immigrant. Perez’s moving keynote was a message of hope and he received a standing ovation. Perez encouraged us to “Find the humanity in each other and ignore those differences”. I will leave you with a quote he stated during his keynote: “I challenge you to be the spark. To light the path. Give learners the tool they need to be empowered and to achieve their goals”.

***If you are looking for some additional resources here is a great spreadsheet with link to 50 sessions by Tony Vincent https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xdxdIFyqxIIICSeDPW-NTc-jX_eixS2KgGGImvClTU4/preview and resources from Kasey Bell https://shakeuplearning.com/iste-2018/ and a huge binder of resources: https://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=2374612

 

 

 

Student-led Conferences: Reflections of a Convert

A few years ago, I heard about student-led conferences at a professional development session with other teachers and over the last few years I have had the chance to experience them as a parent at my son’s school. I finally decided to take the plunge this year and give it a try with some assistance from my professional learning network and some awesome teachers and I am happy to report feedback from both parents and students was overwhelmingly positive. I thought I would write a blog post to share some resources as well as reflect on my experiences.

What are student-led conferences?

In the past I have had students lead conferences by  having students talk about what they do well, what they want to improve and then I add to their comments. These are often called student-led conferences, however, generally they are still one-on-one interviews with parents in the room. The student-led conferences I tried this year and that I am speaking about in this blog post were very different.

With student-led conferences I am speaking about, one of the biggest differences is that I had up to 3 sets of parents and students in the room at one time for approximately 30-minute interviews. Students were completely responsible for leading the interview and I acted more as a facilitator.  Students must attend the conference in order to it to take place. The focus really is more on the learning and sharing than the physical report card. Parents are much more active participants in these types of conferences. Here is a short video that might assist you to help you see what I am describing and that is useful to get a real sense of how student conferences operate.

Preparing for Student-led Conferences

Prior to starting student-led conferences there is a lot of preparation, particularly with younger primary students to ensure they are ready for the big day.  I reached out to a friend and colleague of mine, Janina Navarro who has ran these types of interviews before. She Skyped with me to answer my questions and provided me with a letter to share with parents.

I started the process of preparation about a week and half before interviews and I came up with some stations that I wanted to include. With older students, I would actually co-construct these centres. I decided on 5 centres that illustrated a variety of academic areas. Station one was to showcase the podcasts that students created called, Me in a Minute.  Station two was our blog centre to share student blogs and encouraged parents to either comment on their child’s blog or co-create a post together. Station three was a silent reading station where I had students read a book at their reading level with their parents, while providing prompts for parents to ask. Station four consisted of a social studies/art station to showcase the work we had completed with our social studies teacher around some Indigenous Art. The final station was a portfolio goal-setting station where students went through their portfolios, completing a reflection piece on what they were proud of and coming up with a goal for the next term.

Each day in class I went through a new station with the students, having them practise in pairs: one student acted as parent and the other student acted as the student. I created a package for students in case they forgot on the day and to help remind them of what to say. My favourite part was an extension activity at the goal-setting station, where I asked parents to write something they were proud of their child on a sticky note. We posted these on a large piece of chart paper for students to read. Students were so excited to see what parents had read. I was particularly impressed at comments which focused on a love of learning and character education as opposed to grades.  I have since added the chart paper to our prayer centre in the classroom, so students can continue to see the home/school connection and feel that they are supported by their parent(s).

Student-led Conferences: The Big Day!

On the conference day things ran extremely well! I had no more than 3 parents in the room which I felt was perfect amount for privacy. Students were encouraged prior to the day to be at different stations so they had privacy with their parents when discussing their learning. Sometimes some of the interviews overlapped so I would probably try to adhere more strictly the time next time or I would ajust the schedule of interviews having them run 15 minutes apart. I also think that having 4 stations instead of 5 would have been adequate.

I was really impressed at how students took pride and leadership, they seemed to really enjoy the experience of student-led conferences. Some of my students were very nervous and I helped them out to remind them of what to do. I was also really impressed by the parents and how they engaged with their children. It was truly beautiful to see them talking about learning and communicating with their children in authentic ways. I made it a priority to ensure that I touched-base with each parent to talk one on one and answer any questions they had, which I feel is critical to the success of student-led conferences.

Reflections and Feedback and Next Steps

As this was the first time I had experimented with student-led conferences, I created a Google Form for parents to provide feedback. I created a QR code and had an iPad available for parents to complete before they left. The feedback, as you can see below was overwhelmingly positive! I will definitely continue with student-led conferences from now on.

 

What have your experience been like? Do you have any tips? I would love to hear other experiences about student-led conferences.

 

Working with Soundtrap to Create Podcasts

I was first introduced to Soundtrap at a workshop at an EdTeach Team summit two years ago run by Meredith Allen.  During the workshop, I had the chance to experiment with the Soundtrap program and learn how to use the tool in the classroom. I was instantly impressed by how easy it was to use, and as a teacher who is passionate about the arts and global education, I loved the possibility of being able to create a piece of music collaboratively with a teacher somewhere else in the world. My philosophy with any professional development session is to try to utilize it as soon as possible or you will forget what you learned so the next day, so I jumped right into the program with my grade 3 students a few days later. I was already planning to create podcasts with the students called “Me in A Minute”, an idea that I got from another teacher where students create a podcast about themselves discussing their talents, gifts and telling the listener a little about themselves. It is a great project as it connects to our media, language arts, and family life program.

When I begin the project, I usually start off talking about what a podcast is by having students listen to an example of a podcast for children. We discuss how podcasts generally contain music at the start and end and digital audio or video files, which a user can download and listen to. Then students are given a graphic organizer to start planning out their own podcasts on paper. We edit, revise and work on putting together a polished script.

 I then introduce students to how to use Soundtrap using a short tutorial on the website. With a basic understanding of how the program works, I have the students begin recording their podcasts. They also add musical loops for their programs or create their own in the program. Finally, students publish their recordings. I have them save mp3 files to their Google Drive and create a collage about themselves in Google slides and then import the music file as a link. We celebrate the compilation of the projects by listening to each other’s podcasts in class, getting peer feedback from each other about what works and what they can improve on next time. Students also take the time to self assess themselves on the project.

My next journey with Soundtrap is to try to collaborate with a teacher in another country on a musical composition. I’m excited to see what we can come up with and I hope to link it the Global Goals.

Have you tried Soundtrap? I’d love to hear what you have done with the program.

TLLP Reflections

TLLP Reflections

Our school had the privilege of working on a TLLP project in the 2016-2017 school year with the Ministry of Education. The TLLP is an annual project for experienced classroom teachers with the goal to “Create and support opportunities for teacher professional learning, foster teacher leadership and facilitate the sharing of exemplary practices with others for the broader benefit of Ontario’s students” (http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/teacher/tllp.html).

STEAM/Makerspace/Coding

Our school project focused on STEAM, Makerspace and Coding in a K-8 school in Mississauga. The project examined the use of these to enhance curriculum for students through a lens of inquiry and equity for all students as we co-learned with one another. Our goal was to provide learning experiences based on student interests that developed critical thinking, creativity and collaboration skills while forming real world connections.

We worked together throughout the year to transform our library into a learning common and with our teacher librarian who collaborated and worked closely with teachers to build knowledge in these areas. We also held in-class workshops for students, and with the help of a parent volunteer continued and built on Coding Club from the previous year, introducing students to Google CS First. I invite you to see our journey on our blog.

What we learned:

We gained an understanding of how to integrate coding into a variety of curriculum areas in meaningful ways and learned that student engagement can be increased with the use of making, coding and STEAM-based lessons that are designed to draw on the interests of students. We learned how to use a variety of new tools (i.e. Makey Makey, Sphero, 3D printing) and that in order to build capacity, teachers need to be given time to collaborate and work together and that building relationships and partnerships with community members and organizations builds further success. We learned that providing differentiated instruction and student choice leads to greater student success. As well, the importance of working with students in a co-learning stance is critical to modern pedagogy and learning in today’s classroom.

Impact on our Teaching/Questions we still have:

The TLLP journey has been one of the best professional development opportunities I have experienced as a teacher. It allowed our team to work collaboratively as a school community in grade-level teams. In addition, it saw the transformation of a library into more of a learning commons. One of the best parts of the TLLP program is that it is teacher-driven professional development. You are able to take an area of interest that you have as a school or teacher and explore it with support for professional learning opportunities and time to support your goal. Additionally, one of the highlights of being part of the TLLP journey is to network and learn about other amazing TLLP projects at the Summit. For example, I connected with Micheal Leonard whose TLLP focused on Google Expeditions and who was instrumental in helping me get my own Google Expedition off and running in my classroom.

TLLP as a Model for PD

The success of the TLLP program has had me wondering lately how this type of a model can be incorporated into our school system. TLLP researchers have found that: “Based on our analyses of a sample of Cohort 9 projects, the majority of TLLP teacher leaders report improvement in their knowledge and understanding (95%), teaching practices (90%) and technological skills (50%)” (Campbell, Lieberman, Yashkina, Rodway and  Alexander, 2017). I believe PD modelled after the TLLP would be more successful than many of the PD that are currently offered to teachers.  It is a PD model that is differentiated, provides autonomy, time to collaborate and opportunity for risk-taking and growth and values teacher voice. The TLLP is most successful in this respect because it places value and trust in teacher-leaders and ultimately results in rewards for the entire system.

Teaching Students about Fake News

Teaching kids about fake news today is essential in critical literacy and media skills. Introducing it in the primary grades: however, can be a challenge due the age of students. Today I planned a lesson that went successfully and I thought I would share my experiences and resources to help other teachers who might be looking for a starting point.

I introduced the topic by a shared reading with the students about a Tree Octopus. This is a well known fake website that I have used in the past. I told the students that I wanted to share something I felt passionate about with them. We read through the website together and one of the students commented that he had heard of the creature and shared some of his experiences. It was not until the section on “Trick or Treat Octopus” that some of the students started to question the validity of the article and I came clean about it being fake. We then discussed why they thought the website was real and the list included large words and pictures.

 

I then showed them a video from Common Sense Media  that discussed how to spot fake news and we created an anchor chart which we plan to post in the hallway to share with other students in our school. Following the video, I had students visit a website from National Geographic Kids where they read 5 articles with a partner to determine if the story was fake or real. Students used the anchor chart as a guideline. Students opened up additional tabs and looked for other sources, reverse checked photos and used the questions on the common sense media page such as is this credible? We then gathered to discuss the articles and if students thought they were real and fake and their rational. Students realized that sometimes determining fake news can be difficult and I told them that this is the case for adults too sometimes. Discussing and teaching fake news is an area that I hope to continue to integrate and use throughout the rest of the year in media literacy, especially when conducting research for our inquiry studies.

 

What are your experiences with teaching fake news? Any lesson ideas? Here are some additional resources and sites I have found:

 

To Test your Fake News Judgement, Play this Game

Battling Fake News in the Classroom Edutopia article

Helping Kids with Fake News 

Teach your Kids to Detect Fake News by National Geographic

 

 

My #oneword for 2018

I have been giving a lot of thought to my #oneword for 2018 and decided my #oneword is  Presence. As teachers, our minds are constantly making decisions and choices. Now factor in the role of being a mother to two young children and that adds to the monkey mind—a Buddhist term meaning unsettled or restless. Over the last couple of years, I have been working on being quiet in my mind and meditating. Due to my focus on student wellness, I have even tried it with my grade 3 students. While meditation is not something all students seem to enjoy, many have commented on its benefits and how much they enjoy it and I add myself to this group. For myself, however, it is one of the most challenging things I have ever done. I enjoy busyness, action, moving and doing things. I enjoy fast-paced environments and challenging myself, but I also recognize the need to stop and turn everything off and how much better I feel afterwards.

As a result, my word is presence to try to give to those I meet (student, parents, colleagues, strangers) in 2018 my full attention and to be present to what they are saying. To really listen with my heart with compassion and empathy: To not judge and to instead try to really understand what it is someone is trying to tell me. I have been reading one of my favourite books to my son each night entitled The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and I came across this great passage last night which fit perfectly:

“The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according to the teachings, confident that God loves his children. Each day, in itself, brings with it eternity.” (Coelho, 104).

What’s your #oneword? I would love to hear your thoughts as always.

Happy New Year to my #PLN who pushes me to be a bit better everyday and challenges my thinking in new ways. I am, as always grateful, for you all. Wishing you and the world more peace, good health and happiness in 2018.

 

 

Twitter Chats in Primary

Today, I had the chance to participate in my first ever Twitter chat with my grade 3 students to celebrate the end of our class journey with the Global Read Aloud. We have been reading Fenway and Hattie with classes around the world for the last 6 weeks. Along with way, we have collaborated with some awesome teachers in the United States including Carol McLaughlin and Amanda Walker from Birmingham, Alabama. Carol suggested we have a student Twitter chat and we decided to invite the author Victoria J. Coe to join in the fun.

 

Skype Call before our Twitter Chat

To our delight, Victoria J. Coe was able to participate! Amanda also created a digital poster to share on Twitter and invite other classes around the world who also joined us. We used the hashtag #kidsGRAchat and Amanda agreed to moderate the chat and ask the 3 questions. As well, we met prior to the Twitter chat via Skype to introduce our classes. The Skype call gave us an opportunity to learn where our friends that we chatted with are from and we spoke about the distances between our classes and the weather. Then we left our Skype call and hopped on Twitter to start the chat. I prepared for the call by having my students complete the questions prior to the call via a Google Doc. I also explained to students how Twitter chats work and how I have found them a great way to learn how to do the things I’ve tried in the classroom with technology. On the day of the call I had them open up their files so they remembered what they wrote and I typed their responses into the Twitter chat. They were very excited to see their ideas on Tweetdeck but learn new ideas from students in the United States. We even had new classes join us for the chat, enriching our discussion. We also reviewed digital citizenship before the call, speaking about Skype Etiquette and how we should post things on social media that are positive and respectful. It was a wonderful learning experience for both myself and the students and something I will definitely participate in again. You can read our conversation below from Storify. Have you tried having Twitter chats with your students?

[View the story “Twitter Chat for #GRAFenway” on Storify]

Moving Away from Grades

About two years ago I started seeing educators Marc Barnes and Starr Sackstein tweeting about going gradeless and I was intrigued. I started following #TTOG on Twitter and watching Starr’s periscope videos as she conferenced with her high school students. I wanted to head in the same direction with my own assessment practices and bought and read her book Hacking Assessment. After meeting Starr at ISTE two years ago, I reaffirmed my desire to move away from traditionally grading; however, I was nervous and unsure of how it would be received by parents and administrators and how this might be perceived in a primary classroom in Ontario which requires graded report cards. I continued to reflect and made small changes to my assessment practices, such as providing more choices and allowing for students to redo work until a skill was learned.

Then I had a conversation with Jonathan So who was working with going gradeless in his grade 6 classroom. We discussed it privately and I raised some of my concerns and wasn’t sure where to start, but decided to try it out with his encouragement. I am also a visual learner and Jonathan provided me with a sample of how such an assessment would work. This past school year I began the process to move away from traditional grading and rubrics and I feel it has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. This was a huge shift for me as I am a rubric queen, but moving away from grades fits perfectly in a classroom culture that focuses on learning. In my class I am committed to try to focus on an inquiry, creativity, problem solving, critical thinking and fostering a growth mindset environment where I connect globally with other educators and focus on collaboration.

In Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing our Kids for the Innovation Era authors Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith discuss assessment and note that:

Today, assessment in our school has become the bitter enemy of learning. It is perverting the school agenda. It is killing curiosity and motivation. It is driving our best teachers from the profession. Assessment in our schools has become the single biggest threat to our nation’s long-term national security (206).

 Although the authors are speaking about the American system, many correlations can be made with the Ontario education system. I find that the older students get in our system, they often play the system to work towards a certain grade, as well as identify themselves based on grades and internalizing this as their self-worth.  I believe this to be on the reasons that as students get older, many of them often become more disengaged with our current education system. Even as a parent, I often catch myself focused on the grade and remind myself to look at the assessment and see what my child has actually demonstrated and focus on what they need to improve on so I can assist them at home.

So what does assessment look like when moving away from grades? As a grade three teacher, I will often share standard-based expectations in a child-friendly way with students as learning goals at the start of lesson, and then move to defining success criteria with the students.  This then becomes the foundation of what we do in class which can take a variety of forms depending on the assessment. Here is a look at an assessment I used near the start of the year in mathematics in conferences. In addition, I am focused more on assessment as learning (formative assessment) and guided practice. I feel that through this method I really come to know my students as a learner and more importantly they come to know themselves.

In this style of assessment there is far more dialogue a chance to discuss thinking and truly understand where the learner is coming from and how they devised their answers or drew their own conclusions. There is a chance to debate and challenge and therefore provide the opportunities to change their answers based on our discussion and prompting seeing their errors or rethinking their initial response. In addition, there is a greater focus on self-assessment and having students understand their strengths and areas for improvement.

The challenges of this type of assessment are that it is often more time consuming and messy, in addition I still have to write a traditional report card. I often take the assessments and record a mark in my grade books with the other data I have collected. Jonathan So has his students write their own variation of a report card asking them to provide a rational for the grade and conferencing with them.  This is something I would like to work towards this year.

So what about parental input? When I started this journey I received two notes of praise for this form of assessment and the parents were teachers. I feel like when students are happy and parents know that you are genuinely invested in providing the best education system for their child and will do whatever it takes to help them learn they are on board.

The benefits of moving away from grades are that students have a greater voice in their education and it is more equitable. Students are more engaged with their learning and therefore more successful.  As Wagner and Dinetermsmith note in their book: “Done right, learning and assessment are two sides of the same coin” (206).

What are you thoughts ? I would love to hear what you think and what suggestions you can offer to moving away from traditional grading practises.