Global Connections

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

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

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?

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

 

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!

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.