Knowledgehook: Building a Classroom of Mathematicians

For the past year, I have been working successfully with a mathematical based software program called Knowledgehook with my grade 3 students. Knowledgehook’s software has been recognized by Google, BNN and other outlets as a next generation of software for the math classroom.

One of the strengths I have found in working with Knowledgehook is that it is an Ontario based Company out of Waterloo, Ontario. Usually when I use software programs with my students I have to modify curriculum or lessons to match the Ontario Curriculum: Particularly in mathematics in areas such as measurement or money.  In Knowledgehook, the activities match perfectly with the Ontario curriculum expectations and there is no extra work or planning, unless I chose to add my own questions. I was also impressed at how well the questions are written and that there are open ended questions as well as the usual multiple choice type questions.

In addition to the Canadian content focus, I have been impressed at how my students engage with the software when working on the platform. Initially, I used Knowledgehook in the GameShow format where student are given questions as a class and answer them at the same time. After each student is done we look at the results as a class and examine responses. I focus on the thinking and communication and have students share multiple representations or ways they arrived at their answers. This method works extremely well for assessment as learning (formative assessment) to clear up misconceptions.

In GameShows, students are also given the opportunity to upload their thinking by taking a photograph of their work using their device.  My students loved this feature and often beg me to share their responses with the entire class. This method also provides me with assessment, allowing me to see instantly how students are working through a variety of problems and, if needed, work closely with those who may require additional support.

This year I had the chance to work with the premium version of Knowledgehook where students are given the opportunity to work through questions at their own pace via a format called ‘Missions’. The Missions feature also allows me to differentiate instruction by assigning work to students at varying grade levels including exceptional learners. Furthermore, students had plenty of think time and a chance to go back and try responses again to try to improve their scores and level up. I really like this method as it falls in line with my class focus of a growth mindset that we worked so hard on this year, particularly in mathematics.

 

The Missions’ option also allows students to work at home for extra practice which many of my student took upon themselves to do. By completing Missions students also have the chance to earn a half-mathalon and a mathalon by completing most of the expectations.  Knowledghook sent my school a banner for students to sign when they attained a half-mathalon and medals when they attained a full mathalon. I cannot express the excitement of the students when the pinny and the medals arrived at our school.

For some of my students who love using technology I was excited to see how Knowledghoook engaged them more with in the area of mathematics.  My students also took it upon themselves to use manipulatives in conjunction with knowledghook often without any prompting from myself to assist them in solving problems.

Sample of data provided using Knowledgehook.

As an educator one of the best part of Knowledghook is the data it provides.  Not only for myself, but my administrator and, if shared, with parents as well.  Knowledgehook gives me specific feedback on how students are doing based on individual strands and I found these results accurately reflected what I was seeing through other methods of assessment in my classroom.  Knowledgehook also allowed me to work in guided groups with students who required additional assistance with a specific skill; fitting in line with my classroom assessment practices of moving away from grades.

If you have not used Knowledgehook I suggest you give it a try! It is cross-platform so it is a great tool in a BYOD classroom and easy to use being teacher/student friendly.  Knowledgehook has become an important tool in my classroom to help me create a balanced mathematics program and, more importantly, build a positive relationships between my students and mathematics. How are you using Knowledgehook in your classroom? Leave me a message below.

Reflections on ISTE 2017

I had the pleasure of attending and presenting at ISTE 2017 recently in San Antonio, Texas with over 21,000 teachers from around the world. This is the second time I have attended and presented at ISTE: I was lucky enough to attend ISTE two years ago in Philadelphia. It is hard to put into words the experience of being at ISTE, but for someone who is passionate about teaching and technology it feels kind of like being at Disney World as a child. I thought that the second time around ISTE would be less overwhelming but that wasn’t the case; however, I was more prepared or so I thought. One of my favourite memories was seeing all the Canadians on the plane on the way down to San Antonio, it was like a giant pre-ISTE party and I connected with some new faces that I had only interacted with on Social Media including Jennifer Casa-Todd whose new book Social LEADia is on my list of summer reads.

Talking with Sylvia Duckworth on the plane from Toronto to San Antonio

The best part of ISTE for me continues to be connecting with educators and the often informal conversations that occur between sessions. Last time I attended ISTE, I had the opportunity to present and meet Bev Ladd who I had worked with before via Twitter and Skype. This year I had the pleasure of meeting and presenting with Carol McLaughlin in person who I have worked with for years virtually. Carol and I were even roommates during ISTE and it was a great experience. Although we only just met, I felt as though I had known Carol for a long time and it truly was the highlight of the experience for me.

Carol and I meet for the first time in real life after working together virtually for about 5 years.

One of the challenges of a conference like ISTE is deciding which sessions to attend as there are so many amazing speakers on a wide variety of topics. I tend to gravitate towards experiences where I can get many different view points and ideas on a topic in a shorter amount of time, so I stuck to ignites, poster sessions and playgrounds. The best part of the ignites were the student presenters.  Being a classroom teacher, I was most interested in attending sessions led by educators who offered me practical advice and could challenge my thinking and share some new ideas. As can be expected, I spent some time in the Exhibitor display area seeing what products are up and coming and listening to sessions such as the Math and technology session led by Alice Keeler.  I was lucky enough to get a copy of her book 50 Things to go Further with Google Classroom, which I enjoyed reading on my flight back and offers lots of practical suggestions. One of my favourite experiences was the international networking session put on by ISTE. I had a chance to speak with many educators from around the world about global collaborations and sharing ideas. Once again, ISTE did not disappoint! Although I had to leave early to finish off the teaching year, I left feeling inspired and refreshed to finish off my school year and I look forward to trying out some of the new things I learned next year with my class.

Running into Kyle Pace at ISTE

Skyping With Ryan Hreljac

It all began with a simple Tweet about how my class was reading a story in language about Ryan Hreljac. Ryan was a seven year old boy from Keptville, Ontario who learned in his grade one class that some people in our world did not have access to clean water to drink. As a result, Ryan started raising money doing chores around his home to come up with money to help build wells and his first well was built at the age of seven. Since then, Ryan has inspired others to get involved and the organization Ryan’s Well has been formed.

When I Tweeted out the day I included Ryan’s Well and was contacted by them asking if we wanted to Skype with Ryan. I responded “absolutely!” This is what I love about technology and being part of a global community. If I had not shared what were doing with a global audience, this experience might never taken place.

We prepared for our call with Ryan by doing some additional reading including Water Princess by Susan Verde and Georgie Badiel and One Well by Rochelle Strauss. We then came up with questions to ask Ryan. I was so impressed with the questions my young students were coming up with such as: “Why don’t some people have access to clean water?”

Ryan is a humble Canadian and speaking with him was inspiring for not only my students but myself. Ryan is now twenty five years old and continuing to do amazing work with his organization. When I asked him what advice he could give to my class of change agents, he talked about how you don’t have be special. Ryan said: “People who made the biggest difference weren’t those superheroes, they are the people sitting next to you…they are the people who do little things to give back!” Ryan encouraged us to find our passion and do something small because you don’t know where it will lead and noted you don’t have to have all the answers.

Ryan inspired us to get involved and my class and I will be making a donation to Ryan’s organization with the hope of making a small change and we hope it encourages you to do the same!

Using Nearpod School Wide

On Friday March 10 many schools participated in an event called the Great Big Crunch and Great Gulp across Canada. This annual event encourages students to crunch down on a healthy apple at the same time as other classes and to drink clean tap water from their reusable water bottles.These events were created to increase awareness about the importance of drinking Peel Region’s tap water and making healthy foods choices.

Once again this year, our Health Action Team (HAT) and Eco-Team, took part in organizing this school wide event for students. For the second year in a row, organizer Nancy Zabukovec chose to use Nearpod over the PA system to run this virtual assembly which was extremely successful. The event was even more impactful this year due to the new features recently added to the platform. The collaborate feature allows students to interact and brainstorm while sharing text and images in real time during a live session, while the 3D features allows students to interact with 3D objects.

Here’s what Ms. Zabukovec had to say about using Nearpod and the feedback she received.

Me: Why did you choose to use Nearpod for the event?

Nancy Zabukovec: Nearpod was chosen for this year’s Great Big Crunch and Gulp event for a couple of reasons. First, we wanted to present the importance of healthy eating and drinking with students and staff in a creative and engaging way. Every year, students hear about the importance of eating fruits and vegetables and drinking water. But we never get a chance to find out, during a school wide assembly, what students already know about the topic. We wanted students and teachers to be actively involved in sharing their ideas during this year’s presentation. All too often, students are asked to sit and listen during assemblies, but rarely do they get to share their opinions or knowledge on the topics being discussed. By using Nearpod’s ‘collaborate slide’, classes were able to take some time to discuss what they already know and then post it on a live collaboration board. Classes were then able to read posts from other classes and learn from each other. Students were more engaged than in previous years and felt their opinions and thoughts were valued and heard.

A second reason we chose Nearpod for the event was because it saved time. Throughout the year, there are many school assemblies. Although assemblies are informative and a way to gather as a school community, they do take away from student learning time in the classroom. For a school of our size, 600 students to enter the gym takes quite a bit of time away from the morning/afternoon. By using Nearpod, the Health Action Team and Eco Team were able to present the Great Big Crunch and Gulp presentation in less than 25 minutes. We were able to eliminate time wasted during travel time to and from the gymnasium.

Ms. Zabukovec also spoke about the importance of student voice. Using Nearpod was a way to gather student voice through the use of the new collaborative feature in Nearpod from the entire school. I know that my class was excited to see the different answers from the different classrooms around the school. They were far more engaged and attentive than I have seen them in other assemblies. The event was such as a success that I have been thinking of how this would be a great tool to use at the beginning of the year with our Open House event. Stay tuned!

MiEE Reflections on E2 Education Exchange Toronto Canada

 


Imagine 240 of some of the most innovative teachers, from 83 different countries in the world, gathered together for three days of learning and collaboration. For someone like me who is passionate about Global Education E2 was a dream come true! It was three days of learning, networking and growth. I enjoyed working with an international team of educators to  #MakeWhatsNext as well as learn about some innovative ways teachers are leveraging Microsoft tools in their classroom to meet the educational needs of diverse learners.

Although, we face linguistic and cultural differences as an international community, we share many challenges in meeting the needs of students and we were able to share these successes and challenges. I enjoyed hearing from Megan Lawrence and Martha Jez speak about accessibility and technology and gained a great deal of practical solutions and ideas.

I really enjoyed learning about Micro:Bit, building on my coding skills in the STEM workshop and building a Robotic Arm. I am already putting plans in place to pair up with our learning commons teacher and a grade 6 teacher at my school to try this activity out, as I know it will be a wonderful learning experience for my students.

As a Skype Master Teacher I was thrilled to meet the others 16 educators’ present at the conference. I was also able to make many international connections for future Skype calls but this time I meet these educators prior to the call, an event that has never happened to me before.

Another highlight was attending the Minecraft workshops where I was able to gather further ideas for classroom activities and meet Meeno Rami the Manager for Minecraft Education at Microsoft and author of Thrive, which my class was extremely excited about. Using this tools in my classroom and school has been extremely powerful and I gained new ideas for my classroom and school.

Finally, meeting fellow Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts and Fellows from across Canada and being part of this amazing team was thee most valuable experience. The talent and collegiality of this great team makes me grateful and has inspired me to continue innovating and pushing boundaries to hopefully transform education for the betterment of all our students.

Thank you to Microsoft and Lia De Cicco for organizing this amazing experience!

Finding Your Digital Balance

Lately, I have thinking a lot about digital balance. What am I speaking of when I say digital balance?  For me it is self-regulatation (i.e. not being on your device all the time) and learning how to leverage technology to enhance my life.

As a teacher passionate about the use of technology, I see digital balance as an area that we will continue to discuss in education. Students need to understand that, yes, technology is wonderful and can help us learn in some amazing ways, but so can a variety of other activities such as physical exercise and connecting with others face-to-face.

Digital balance is about teaching students how to use technology for learning in purposeful ways that address modern pedagogy. It is one of the reasons that I am a big believer in introducing BYOD into the primary grades. It is an opportunity to teach students to build that balance before they pick up many of the less effective habits I have witnessed in older students. For example, learning how to have your device on your desk and not be using it unless we are using it to learn.

Like all good teaching, modelling the behaviours we want to see in our students is very important. This is one of the reasons I use social media in the classroom. We talk about what I am Tweeting and we Tweet together. I spend time in September teaching them to understand that the person they are in real life should the same person on social media. We learn that  words can have power and we can use our voice to spread positivity and learn with the world. It is imporant to also teach students how to disagree with others online, in an effective and respectful way.

Working globally online is important as well, as I try to model how I network and create relationships with other classes and teachers in respectful ways; however, I make sure I speak about the importance of turning off the devices and giving our brains a break. Students need to understand the importance of other activities such as getting outside, playing,  being connected to nature, exercising and eating well. It is all about finding that balance, which is different for each and every one of us. Sometimes in education we speak in dichotamies: should we ban cell phones in class or should every child have a device? How are we preparing our students to utilize and tap into the power of technology while learning to strike a balance with other activities?

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts.

The Best Tech Tool to have in Every Classroom

So what is the best technology tool that should exist in every classroom? My response would be: what are you intending to do with the tool to leverage learning? What are the students like in your classroom? What are your needs? Have you asked your students what type of tools they know and would like to use?

For me, I feel it is important to have a variety of technology tools in the classroom so I can differentiate and meet the needs of my students. I am lucky to work for an institution that has GAFE, Office 365 and ipads (with some variety of applications to use). Depending on the group of students and interest and what I am working on, I sometimes choose the program we will use or better have the students choose what they would like to use when learning.

I have heard the argument that too much choice can be overwhelming for students, but in my experience this has not been the case. In fact, I find students are quicker to grasp concepts than I am and find myself learning from them. I am comfortable with this approach and I don’t wait until I know a tool inside out before attempting to use it. I co-learn and work with my students at the same time to test and find out how it could be beneficial and what the limitations are. Sometimes this results in failure, which is growth and learning and never time wasted.

As well, given the pace of digital technology it is unlikely that when my students graduate they will be using any of the tools they are currently learning about. I think back to my days as a student their age and much of the technology is obsolete. This change is happening more rapidly now than ever before. The ability to be able to work with different platforms and trouble shoot and problem solve is critical to learning modern pedagogy and will benefit students in the real world. As well, I think it is a disservice to my students to only be able to operate in one platform at a young age. I don’t want them growing up thinking that only one platform exists or to be bought into only one company at an early age.  I want students to think critically about the technology they consume and its purpose and I want it to be meaningful.  I am also aware of my own biases in technology: I have the products I love, however, students need to have opportunities to explore and find the tools that best serve them to learn.

As leaders of technology, we need to model this behaviour and ensure that we are differentiating and encouraging staff and students to show their learning through whatever tools works best for them and their students. I recently read an article by Anthony Carabache entitled Technology = Pasta in the OECTA Catholic Teachers Association magazine where he makes the comparison of technology in the classroom to pasta.

“It only takes a few seconds to come to the realization that they’ll all provide the same service” and later writes “pasta is pasta until you add the sauce”.

We spend far too much time discussing the tool instead of working and experimenting with the tools and seeing how they can be used to differentiate and assist students to learn. When I plan a math lesson I use manipulatives that vary depending on the strand: I wouldn’t use a calculator to teach geometry. I view technology the same way.

My #oneword for 2017

My #Oneword for 2017 is Elevate! Elevating my students by challenging them to continue to learn and improve. Elevating my co-workers and PLN by co-learning, networking, encouraging and praising the amazing work I see, hear and read about on Twitter. For myself, I want to continue to grow and challenge myself professionally. I want to elevate all students and advocate for those students who voices are often silenced or not heard. In elevating those that are marginalized, I believe we all benefit. I want to continue to encourage teachers and students to see themselves as change agents and leaders so that together we can continue to grow and improve our system and the greater world we live in.

I read recently in a blog article by Micheal Fullen called “Find your own Finland” and he talked about creating a culture that “establish[es] teaching as a respected and attractive profession.” In the article he articulated that cultural changes does not come from top down but rather “bottom up, the middle out, and all around.” I hope 2017 is an era where we can create this culture. A year of working together and elevating each other while continuing to challenge ourselves to co-learn, improve because all of our students deserve it.

Caine’s Arcade: Making our Own Arcade

In late September my class and I participated in the Global Cardboard Challenge. The challenge encourages creativity and making, as well as STEAM by encouraging students to create anything they wish out of cardboard and recycled materials. We began our provocation with watching the Caine’s Arcade video and generating ideas and creating sketches.  Students were interested in creating their own arcade games. We then began collecting boxes and then the real fun and messiness began!

arcade

As our school has a TLLP Grant with the Ministry of Education to embed and develop STEAM/Makerspace experiences. I decided to tie in our work in science on forces into the arcade project and ask the students to think about “How they see forces at work in their arcade games?” Many students connected their games to gravitational force as well as muscular force and used examples of push and pull forces. Then the real fun began with building our arcade games!

We also had the opportunity to Skype with Steve Auslander’s class in Indianapolis and share each others games via Skype in the Classroom.

arcade2

When our arcade was complete, we created a letter together to send to classes to invite them to come try out our games and requesting a donation for charity.

arcade3

We encouraged students to provide feedback and give us suggestions for ways to improve our games. Our arcade raised almost $300 in donations.

arcade4

As a class, we decided to donate the money to a local food bank in our community called The Compass.  We then started to prepare for a shopping trip to buy items to donate by examining grocery store flyers. We discussed media literacy and how advertisers use colour to sell their products and how everything tends to look perfect in the flyers which is not realistic. Since students are expected to work with amounts up to $10 they were instructed to create a shopping list of items to buy at the store after we did some research on what food was most needed. Students then created their own shopping lists for our trip to the store.

arcade6

We headed out to one of our local grocery stores to do our shopping and brought reusable grocery bags, the eco-friendly thing to do which also saved us money as there is a five cent charge per grocery bag. We also discussed grocery store etiquette which included: don’t block the aisles and return any items you don’t buy to their original location. At the store, we examined where food was from and how buying local supports our local farmers and is the environmentally conscious thing to do. We discussed things like price matching, and how companies pay to have items placed at eye level, reading labels and how the healthier food tends to be placed around the perimeter of the grocery store. Then we headed upstairs to make our own lunch and treats at the PC Cooking School.

Back at the school we demonstrated our learning by using the Explain Everything App to document our learning as well as what we would have done differently.

arcade5The students’ engagement and the learning opportunities provided were amazing! I am grateful for the opportunity to co-learn and be able to do something positive for our local community.

Student Led Minecraft Club: Day 1 Reflections

Today was our first meeting of Minecraft Club For Teachers facilitated by some of our grade 4 students at lunch time. The idea to have students run the club is due to the fact that from my experience, students are the experts when it comes to playing Minecraft. My specialty is finding the curriculum connections and facilitating the collaboration piece. As well, I wanted some younger students to develop leadership skills. To ensure a gender balance I picked one female and one male student but as it turns out the interest grew and we have approximately six student facilitators.

The plan is to meet approximately once a month on Wednesday which seems to be the day that works for most of the staff that were present at the meeting today. Meetings are very relaxed and informal with no experience required. We started today with exploring the tutorial world in MinecraftEdu (which I recommend as a starting point even with students, as not all students have experience with Minecraft). As well, teachers got excited (like students) with the ability to collaborate together in a shared space. As teachers worked I shared some tips and experiences that I have encountered over the last few years but mostly today was just about play!

Play and PD are probably one of the most successful ways to get teachers on board with new tools. I am a big believer that teachers need to experience what our students would go through in order to gain an appreciation, as well as “buy in,” of new technology or tools. My favourite moment came when one of the students said: “Miss…this is so fun teaching teachers. I love it…”.  It was such a powerful teaching moment and made me realize that power shift that was occurring in having students teach the staff.  That is exactly the kind of classroom and educational environment I want to work and teach in. It is also the way, I believe, that change can occur with professional development to make it more meaningful and create systemic change in our educational system. If we want to create authentic learning communities than we need to become comfortable learning with and from our students. I am looking forward to next month with the hope of seeing even more staff present now that the word is out!