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I decided to end off the year with students working on Genius Hour projects. The plan was originally to start working on our Genius Hour projects after the Christmas holidays, but with so many other things on the go, we ended up starting our projects in mid-May. My reason to wait until later on in the year was that I wanted students to have some experience with how to develop effective questions, locate information effectively and synthesize information. These are skills that I started working on by using a gradual release of responsibility through various inquiry studies, and they helped my students when it came to working on their Genius Hour projects. To help me to prepare I read: Inquiry and Innovation in the Classroom: Using 20% Time, Genius Hour, and PBL to Drive Student Success by A.J. Juliani. I also checked out the Genius Hour Wiki, which contains a lot of resources that are very useful for teachers.

Introducing Genius Hour to Students

I introduced Genius Hour projects using a variety of texts that I read to the students to inspire them.  One of these books was On A Beam of Light by Katherine Berne.  I also shared some of my own Genius Hour projects, looked into other students projects and watched some videos to inspire us.  I also sent a letter home to parents sharing with them what Genius Hour involves with examples of projects, based on a sample letter in Juliani’s book.

To begin the process of Genius Hour with my grade 3 students, I had the students write a journal entry about the questions they had in mind for their projects and what areas they were interested in learning more about. I also offered students the opportunity to create or make something like a prototype or learn about how something is made in order to bring in elements of maker education into our classroom. At this point I met with some students to discuss their questions.

Students used their own devices as well as school devices to locate and perform research as well as make notes. Some students preferred to use paper and a pencil, other students used the school computers and programs like Word Online, while other students used to make notes on their devices. Examples of projects included “How are submarines made?” “What do I need to learn to create my own cookbook and restaurant?” “How can I become a writer?” One student who is very passionate about dance made her own instructional dance video and learned what she would need to do to become a dance instructor.

Although Genius Hour Projects are usually an hour a week, as the year was quickly drawing to a close it became Genius Hour every day, as well as some half days at times in order for students to have enough time to work. Some students never fully realized the goals they had made, but I encouraged them to continue to learn and add to their projects over the summer reminding them that “we never stop learning!” Students shared their projects in a variety of ways, including presentations, models and reports. Some of my students even shared their learning through Skype calls.  In addition, I decided to assess the projects strictly on descriptive and specific feedback both written and oral, as opposed to assigning a mark. The students really enjoyed the process of Genius Hour and it is definitely something I will try again next year.

Ever since I first heard about BreakoutEdu on Facebook, I loved the idea and I could not wait to try it out with my students! But I wanted to experience it firsthand to get a sense of how it worked and see if it lived up to my expectations. In May, I attended the GAFE Summit in London Ontario and I had the chance to try it out with a group of educators and it lived up to my expectations. As we worked through a session, I could see the collaboration, problems solving and engagement happening in the room and I wanted my students to experience it as well.

Before the end of the year, I decided to give it a try and put together a game for the last week of the school. I checked out the Breakout EDU site and adapted the game The Candy Caper designed by Kern Kelley and Kaidan Kelley, designed for 4th graders. The premise of the game is: “The custodian has asked all teachers to keep their class in their rooms for a few minutes to do work in the hallway.  They didn’t say why, but it turns out the lunch ladies hid some candy and they were hoping to be the first to find it! They left the class clues to be able to find the candy before the custodian does!”

I  adapted the game to include some of the content we had just covered in science and to meet the needs of my classroom. For example, the original game had the students use a Google Form but I changed it to include a Nearpod clue instead. The first clue had the students log on to Nearpod, which displayed a series of directions which instructed students to complete questions related our unit on plants before obtaining their next clue.

As was recommended at the GAFE summit, I had 10 students work on the task. The other 10 students watched and I had them prepare to give the other group feedback on what they saw students doing well, and something they felt the other group could improve upon (two stars and a wish) which is a strategy for giving feedback that my students are familiar with. The students really enjoyed the experience and the excitement of breaking out could be heard from afar!

Reflections for Next Time: New Learning

If I was to do this again (and I will) I would have 2 games going simultaneously, although the clues would be slightly different so the groups do not copy from each other. As well, my class has a lot of experience working together and communicating effectively so these skills definitely helped out with the game. Still it was very interesting to see the dynamics and how students responded and worked together through the challenges. It really addresses the learning skills that we report to on our report cards in Ontario.

What’s next for Breakout EDU for me?

I also see great potential in using Breakout EDU in professional development. This is a great opportunity to have staff working together at the start of the year when often there is review of general administrative policies that need to be discussed. These meetings can often be very long and not engaging  and Breakout Edu presents an opportunity to change that! In addition, our school is working on a Ministry grant with STEAM and maker spaces so we are hoping to use the Breakout EDU to build knowledge among the staff and with students in the school next year.

Also, I as I have a passion for global education and collaboration, I think it would be pretty awesome to have a clue that involves a Skype call to another class as part of the game. I also have been playing with the idea of designing a game with my students that another class would play in another part of the world. We would watch them in our Skype call to get feedback and see first hand how it went.

What have your experiences been? If you are interested in connecting with my students and I in one of my Breakout EDU games please let me know. I would love to hear your ideas.

Since February, my class and I have had the pleasure of working with the Simcoe County District School Board on a #CraftReconciliation project. This project started with a call to action from Wab Kinew inviting educators to partner “mainstream” classes with First Nation schools/classes to discuss “What does reconciliation look like?”  Students got to know each other, share a bit about each others community and culture. Then, they came up with an answer to “What does reconciliation look like to us?” together. After determining what it looks like students modeled it in 3D using Minecraft.

Our students worked through Google Hangout as well as D2L to initially introduce each other and establish a community and set of norms. We then took time to discuss the idea of reconciliation. My grade 3 students had some background on this, as part of their social studies unit this year examines some historical perspectives of First Nations Peoples. From there our calls and research delved into understanding what reconciliation meant and we examined some historical issues of indigenous peoples in Canada such as residential schooling. I reached out to other teachers in the group for books to use with my young learners as this involved tackling some large and complex issues with third graders. As a result, I used a variety of texts to introduce and lead lessons.  For example we read Fatty Legs by Christy Jordan Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, Shi-Shi-etko and Shin-Chi’s Canoe by Nicola I Campbell. These books were extremely powerful, moving, and taught students about the horrible realities that young children their age faced and helped students come to an understanding of what our project was all about and why it was so important.

In our discussions we learned what the word stereotype meant and how they connected to indigenous people as well as to their own lives. We also briefly touched upon the The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada findings and the call to action to give them some understanding of what we were building in Minecraft.

From there we had many discussions as a class and with our new community members and decided what we would build and began building our new vision of Canada. Students created a variety of items including a multi-faith church, schools for all students, green spaces, flags that represented all people, shared parks and homeless shelters. Things weren’t always perfect when building. One day my students let me know that there were other students acting inappropriately in our world. There wasn’t much I could do on my end as students involved in the project were building in different part of the province and the chat feature had been disabled. The students however, figured out a way to construct signs and communicate messages back and forth to sort it out. So many teachable moments and so many skills were gained throughout this project for both myself and my students.

Ever since I had the opportunity to attend my first EdCamp a few years ago in Toronto I was hooked! I enjoyed the teacher-directed forward thinking that I encountered and how some ideas challenged my thinking and put me outside of my comfort zone. In addition, I loved networking with other passionate educators from outside my school board. As a result, I felt passionate about bringing this form of professional development to teachers in my area, as did the rest of the team that I was privileged to work with for EdCamp905.

Last Saturday, I had the amazing opportunity of participating and helping be apart of the organizing committee of EdCamp905. It was a wonderful day and started with a inspirational keynote by Adam Mckim from CHAT to the Future. Following the keynote, several discussions were held based on the questions of participants. After lunch, participants had the opportunity to participate in a World Cafe in small groups, discussing questions such as, “Does Canada need a National Curriculum?” The day concluded with a special Skype call with the children of CHAT in Uganda who sang for us. Participants of Edcamp905 also sang with Diana Planche leading us in “Lean on Me”, a highlight for many and brought tears to some eyes. Finally, we were blessed to have many wonderful prizes donated by our sponsors. It was a wonderful day of learning, collaboration and networking. Thanks to all who attended! I can’t wait until next year! Below are some photos highlighting this great day.

Special thanks to organizers Tom Codotta, Steven Hurley, Dan Martinic, Karen Yates who were a dream to work with as well as the amazing volunteers who helped make the event a success! The feedback from attendees of EdCamp905 has been extremely positive; here is one of my favourites:

Below is the presentation that Dan Martinic and I facilitated on 5 Ways to Go Global. Thank you to those participants who attended.

Nearpod Presentation on 5 Ways to Go Global

My students have been working on writing procedures. As part of our summative task we wrote our own recipes for healthy smoothies, linking to our healthy eating unit. Students compiled their recipes in a Word Online document and we will be publishing these recipes as a Mother’s Day recipe book. I decided to have some global fun and told the students I would select one of the recipes to share with another classroom somewhere in the world. I contacted our friends in Oregon who agreed to try it out! I sent their awesome teacher @rzfarnsworth the list of ingredients and then set a date. Using Skype we contacted our friends, one of our superstars read her procedures, and our friends made the Smoothie. They then tried it and gave our superstar some feedback using this Google Forms. It was a fun way to make a smoothie across countries and talk about healthy eating!

Now that they are trying it out! Hope they like it! @SkypeClassroom @MicrosoftEduCA #dpcdsb pic.twitter.com/A81OXhXQ1V

— Mrs Morgado (@MrsMorgado1) March 30, 2016

They liked it! https://t.co/JZgXQlLtzT

— Mrs Morgado (@MrsMorgado1) March 30, 2016

This weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the first ever PioNear Summit in Austin, Texas with the NearPod team and other PioNears. It was an amazing summit filled with great learning, networking and collaboration.  The day started with a very motivating talk by CEO Guido Kovalskys which provided a background on Nearpod as well as many great take away for the day. Kovalskys talked about leadership and teamwork but one statement that resonated with me most is (below): students learn best when they’re engaged. I have experienced this first hand as an educator and the power of seeing students connected with their learning is inspiring.

Following the opening session we began some training looking at the what of  Nearpod and discussing some best practices in terms of pedagogy and technology. As well, we had a chance to share some Nearpod lessons and trainings we had facilitated getting constructive and useful feedback from each other.

One of the highlights of the summit for me was the collaboration and networking. I gained some great tips and insights from wonderful educators who were more than willing to share best practises when using Nearpod. For example, I loved hearing from Cathy Yenca and her ideas in how to document students learning using the draw feature in her mathematics class, something I am going to try in the very near future. As well, Nick Sun talked about how he used Nearpod as a unique brainstorming tool, incorporating music into his activity to engage his learners. I added many PioNears to my increasingly amazing PLN and learned about their passions for education like Heather Sanders and Amy Roediger. Most of all, the fun and collegiality formed between our group in such a short amount of time was amazing and no doubt in part due to the fun and engaging facilitation of Karrah Phillips and David Havens from Collective Capital sessions.  It really was a such a wonderful days! Thanks to the entire Nearpod team for an amazing opportunity and I can’t wait until the next Summit!  

I have been working with BYOD with my own grade 3 class over the last month and a half and thought I would share some quick reflections and tips to help other educators who might be on the same journey. Below are my top 3 tips with reflections.

Tip 1: Do Work Around Digital Citizenship First!

Before I began working with BYOD in my classroom I spent a great deal of time working with digital citizenship which included lessons on: safety, footprints, etiquette, and privacy issues. I began by asking students what they know on these various topics and was amazed at how much they knew at such a young age. We spoke about things like what happens if we come across an image that make us uncomfortable? How much time is enough on a device during the day? How do we stay safe on our devices?  It is important that students have an understanding of how their devices will be used as a learning tool and how to be safe and create a balance with technology.

In addition to having students understand their devices are now learning tools and not just platforms for playing games on, parents need to understand how their child will be using them in the classroom. To assist with this I sent a letter home to parents outlining some ways we would be using the devices effectively to learn. Also, I provided some tips on ways to take ownership at home and become responsible digital consumers.  Parents will have many questions at the start of the journey and it is important to remain open and be there to answer questions or concerns.

Tip 2: Digital Management

Before going BYOD you need to consider how you plan to manage all the devices in your room. This is easier with older students but with 8 year olds it was a concern that I had initially, especially since I follow a responsive classroom design model. That is, students can chose where they sit each day when they come in and we move around frequently. I chose not to lock up students devices for two reasons.  First, I did not want to be responsible for the devices of 23 students. Secondly, I wanted students to learn to be responsible and self-regulate with their devices. I want them to learn how their device can be in front of them and they do not have to be on 24/7.  As such, students keep their devices on their desks or in their book boxes during the day. I keep my room closed and locked when we are not in the room. Students have also taken ownership for helping ensure the door stays locked at all times.

Tip 3: Don’t be Afraid to Fail/Co-Learn with Your students

It is really important to be open to learning with your students. They know their devices better than you do sometimes. Be prepared to co-learn. For example, when writing I had a student ask me if he could use his spelling App on his device to assist him with his work.  I asked him to show me the App and learned about it and he uses it regularly now to assist him and it works for him.

Going BYOD will present its challenges. These can include devices that don’t charge, WIFI issues and students forgetting to bring devices or are unable to for a variety of reasons. In addition, I have attempted several lessons that I have scrapped and had to try again. Some worked well and others didn’t. It is all part of the journey. But I do not regret going down the BYOD path my young learners. Devices are just another tool that I can use throughout the day to help my students learn. I encourage you to try new things and co-learn with your students. When your students see you fail and persevere it will teach them they can do the same.

I would love to hear your thoughts? Are you using BYOD? What successes have you encountered?

Recently, I was lucky enough to participate in my first ISTE in Pennsylvania as both a participant and presenter.  I’ve been looking forward to this experience for months and tried to prepare myself by networking with my PLN on Twitter and Voxer and reading as many blogs on ISTE as possible. The experience was amazing! My long days were filled with learning, networking and collaboration.

What was most memorable about ISTE?

The most memorable parts of attending ISTE were getting to meet as many of the people in my PLN on Twitter and Voxer that I know in a virtual context but have never met in person. It was wonderful to connect face to face with many of the people I follow or network, especially my partner Beverely Ladd whom I presented with at ISTE. Beverely and I have worked collaboratively with each other for two years through Twitter, Voxer and Skype but ISTE was the first time we’ve met in person.

Although I had an initial plan of what sessions to attend, I ended up making many changes to my schedule. I anticipated this based on my personality and the advice I received from PLN. One of the biggest challenges of attending a conference like ISTE is that there are so many wonderful sessions that you want to attend so it is difficult to choose.  I really enjoyed the poster sessions since I was able to view many different presentations and ideas during a relatively short period of time.

In addition to the poster sessions, I had a chance to view the ISTE 1 in 3 sessions where I had the opportunity to hear 18 presenters on a variety of topic speak each for 3 minutes on their best technology integration moment. The other sessions I gravitated towards were those with student presenters. There is nothing quite as powerful than student voice when it comes to learning and I was able to hear from students in other countries including a group of students in Mexico who used Book Creator to write a book as a school.

Exhibitor Hall

In addition to the wonderful sessions, the Exhibitor hall was another area I made sure to spend time in. It was overwhelming with over 550 exhibitors and it was full of great freebies and information on new products as well as companies whose products I already use.  One of the highlights for me was having a chance to check out the Google Expedition experience which may highlight where technology is headed in the classroom.

Life after ISTE: looking ahead

I am still trying to sort through all the information I obtained at the conference and the conversations continue with my PLN.  I was absolutely exhausted for the few days that followed ISTE but it really inspired me to continue to make changes for next school year such as using more STEM in my science program and perhaps creating a Tech Club. I will continue to work on collaborative projects globally with my classroom in the coming year and work with members of my PLN.

I hope to attend ISTE next year and continue the learning as well as meet even more of my PLN. I am also inspired to continue to make changes in my practice around technology and learning, creating innovate environments based on student need and interest.

For the past month I have been exploring the use of Voxer as a form of professional development. I first heard about Voxer on Twitter and how educators where using it to create smaller groups of professional learning networks. Voxer is described on their website as “…a live messaging application that brings push-to-talk technology to smartphones. Our service features live and recorded voice – if a you push the button to talk, you can be heard on the other end as you speak, but everything is also simultaneously recorded so you and the recipient(s) can play back any message later.” It also has some added features such as text and photo. It is a free service however, if you want to create a group of people you need to have a pro account which costs about $3.00 a month.

In the first month, I have been able to join a few groups including the Instructional Coaches and BFC Lounge. At first, I was nervous to record my voice and just did a lot of listening. I basically “lurked” like I did originally on Twitter, but then I just put myself out there and my experiences have been really positive. I like the fact that on Voxer you can actually hear people talking (i.e. voices, expressions). On Twitter, you need to be careful in how you Tweet as comments can be easily misinterpreted. On Voxer however, you are given more space/time to provide your comments and get more into discussions/debates, as you are not limited to 140 characters. One tip I read on a colleague’s blog of general Voxer etiquette recommends messages no longer than two minutes. On Voxer, I find that you can get into longer and more deeper conversations. I hear the phrase “I am going to push back on your commment…” a lot of Voxer which is the polite way that people are engaging in dialogue. Lastly, I have been finding because the groups are smaller on Voxer you develop some deeper relationships. I know it sounds strange but I feel like some educators have become mentors and friends on Voxer. The community is very supportive and encouraging!

I have not had the opportunity to use Voxer in a classroom but I love how other teachers are sharing its uses such as using it to communicate with other classes around the world. For example, Beverely Ladd shared how used Voxer to work with a class in Australia and students sent messages back and forth to each other. As well, Ashley Hurley shared with me how she uses it to teach reading fluency. Students will record themselves reading and then listen to themselves in order to listen for fluency and then self-reflect on areas for improvement. There are also high school teachers that are using Voxer to provide feedback to their students on their written work as assessment as learning (formative assessment). All of these are wonderful examples of talented educators using the power of the tool in pedagogically innovative ways.

One of the challenges I have experienced on Voxer is time! As someone who is an enthusiastic Twitter user already I now have another form of PD that does require additional time. I find that I am on Twitter less but it does take time to listen and reflect and then respond to your groups on Voxer. I usually listen to my messages on my way to/from work or while doing errands around the house. But for now, I will continue to use Voxer because of all the positive networking, ideas, and inspiration it provides. I encourage you to step outside your comfort zone and give it a try!

If you have been on Voxer I would love to hear your thoughts and how you might be using it in your classroom or as part of your professional development.