Sunday, December 11, 2016

Maple Leafs Community MVP

A few days ago I received an email from Alessandra, EverFi School Implementation Manager sharing that she had herself received "some fantastic information from the Toronto Maple Leafs that you have won an award for your outstanding work with the Future Goals program!!!
They have invited you and a guest to attend the Leafs game on December 11th vs. Colorado to be presented with their Community MVP award."

What ?!? This is so exciting! It has been years since I have attended a Toronto Maple Leafs game! But  I couldn't do anything without my students being adventurers, explorers and risk-takers in going beyond the expected!


I have been inviting Alessandra to launch the Future Goals Hockey Scholar in my class community for three years now. Students enjoy being immersed within the realm of all things hockey but more importantly they are engaged in STEM related activities! During the online course, students are working at their own pace through various modules to review, strengthen and practice math skills learned in class. Students are able to access their online tasks in-class and at-home. "The (online) course utilizes an exploratory learning approach, exposing students to foundational STEM concepts, scientific thinking and data/graphical analysis through real-life STEM applications". Student feedback has always been positive, although they (and I) often remind and recommend that more Canadian content is needed within the course.

I am not entirely sure how I was nominated for this opportunity to be recognized by the Maple Leafs. However, I am honoured and humbled to be recognized for seeking out alternative ways to have students excited about their learning.

Thank you @MapleLeafs @MLSE Alessandra, and Russel for the opportunity to be part of a great evening!





No comments:

Monday, November 28, 2016

FDS Innovation Leader Certification


This learning journey was inspired during the #GoogleEI #TOR16 Google Innovator Certification when @LesMcBeth enthusiastically presented the Design Thinking process. Design Thinking embodied the mindset process of problem solving and prototyping, which aligned with my class program sparks, sprints and prototyping! Only, we take our ideas to production all leading up to our class annual @McMBusinessDay event. I needed to learn more and further refine my understanding and class program. So, I registered and started a month ago when I excitedly entered the MaRS building @MaRSDD, into the small office space of Future Design School @fdesignschool. There I was greeted by several other educators who also wanted to continue promoting an innovators mindset in their own classrooms.

Following short introductions we launched into a collaborative group icebreaker of stacking cups with the provided supplies. This was followed by a timed individual task of drawing a systems model for ‘How to Make Toast’ capturing how each of us represented information visually with variations of steps/procedures (I can’t wait to go back to class and do this activity with my students!).

This is when I realized that we were going to be ‘doing’ the Design Process as part of the learning within the certification course: beyond just talking about it.  Awesome!

@LesMcBeth took us through defining a challenge while going through ideation, validation and rapid prototyping. Throughout this process there is time embedded for the opportunity to test, offer feedback/critique and rethinking: leading to several iterations of a prototype.

A refreshing take on this is looking through the lens of empathy. Identifying the needs of the user and to continue to be inherently optimistic.

Our next group task was to each individually complete a ‘User Needs’ template addressing “How might we…”. The focus for us was “How might we provide constructive feedback in assessment that encourages intrinsic motivation in students?” This was followed by a Crazy 8’s challenge to come up with various ways to approach the challenge. This is a timed task, 40 secs per section and the brainstorming is done in 5 minutes, thus allowing us to pull out ideas under the clock without overthinking or second-guessing ourselves. From here, we transferred our individual ideas from Crazy 8’s and created our storyboard. Each of us presented our storyboard to the group and then co-constructed and create a collaborative group flow chart. Awesome! Through each unique “How might we…” our team Systems Model encompasses positive/optimistic doable elements that remains focused on the ‘user needs’.





We wrap up our day with a design challenge presented to us:
What do you love? What breaks your heart?
Our prototyping will be in the form of an app created in marvelapp.com, which gives us the flexibility to create digital or paper screenshots of screens within the app design for others to test.

Now this was an amazing Day 1!
Over the next few weeks each of us worked on our “How might we...”. A much appreciated form of communication was connecting and sharing in Slack: one stop messaging, collaborating, and archiving links, pdfs and so much more.  Furthermore, encouragement throughout this learning journey was the opportunity to participate in weekly Google Hangout sessions to share ideas, ask questions and set up for the next tasks of the Design Process for prototyping our app.


Day 2:

We start off the morning with a 4 corners icebreaker focused on our ‘comfort zone’ engaging us in valuable discussions from fixed to growth mindsets based on life experiences.

Laura @msharrison10 walked us through a design sprint she engaged her students in during #dotday @FablePaul @peterhreynolds taking in ideas from students which lead to the collaborative creation of a class mural. Reminding us that the Design Process can vary based on time commitments depending on the challenge presented to students.

We then spent some much needed time to discuss and then independently create our “How might we…” statement for integrating the Design Process into our class programs. We focussed on our ‘user needs’ being the student(s), made curriculum connections and then created our storyboards. The best part is each of us left with a new collection of ways to integrate within various grades and subject areas. We received feedback and held further discussions on instructional strategies and practices we haven’t considered or not yet heard of (my personal favourite resource is Artful Science of Instructional Integration).

Then, each of us steps up to present our 3-minute pitch our empathy prototype giving everyone a chance to take in our app design and business model.  Mine had undergone several iterations and I received even more effective feedback to bump it up further. Kinda wish I could bring the app into the production stages.

We wrap up our day with the presentation of certificates recognizing each of us for the completion of the Future Design School Innovation Leadership Certification course.

It has been an honour to learn alongside so many passionate educators who, like myself, seek out ways to engage & enhance students’ learning experiences through design thinking and innovation.
No comments:

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

TLP Entrepreneurial Adventure Launch 2016

It is an honour to be invited back to The Learning Partnership Entrepreneurial Adventure to present our journey with TLP these past 2 years and 12 years with Kamla Rambaran in our class program.

 Today we started off with a great video by Derek Sivers "Obvious to You, Amazing to Others" simply because we are our own harshest critic. How can we possibly expect and encourage students to take risks sharing ideas when we ourselves keep our own ideas in isolation? Be bold, share and let the idea go! It may take new life on its own or someone can use it as a launching point to feed into their own idea.

Our project has grown over the years and it lends itself to create opportunities for authentic tasks and blended learning. Ours is a 4 month long project-based learning/entrepreneurial venture where students use a variety of skills and web 2.0 tools to develop 21st Century Competencies. Students are engaged in a series of mini lessons facilitated by the teacher for whole class or small group instruction.  However new learning is co-constructed among the students within their teams/companies using various online environments.

Constructivist-based instruction is often explored in groups and the teacher role is reserved for facilitation as opposed to traditional lecturing. (Schmidt, 2003)

 Students create a business that makes a difference not only in their own lives through the experience, knowledge and reflection on learning; but in the lives of the children who will benefit from building awareness in the community while proceeds are donated to Free the Children, Pillar of Education.

Building a collaborative relationship with a business partner brings in expertise and students appreciate alternate perspectives as discussions around decision-making become even more meaningful.

As a teacher, we need to guide students through the design thinking process and the inquiry process. We need to make the shift from “knowledge as habit”. It’s the ‘how’ & ‘why’ that will allow students go about their learning to engage in inquiry; it's not just about the “what”. To make relevant, cross-curricular connections starts with knowing the curriculum inside-out; rereading the front matter of the documents provides valuable information, guiding questions and so much more (e.g., Social Studies). There are many different flavours of inquiry: knowing how to balance inquiry along with other pedagogical teaching strategies will take time to establish but it will yield positive results in student success both emotional and academic as they learn to think about thinking.

Problem solving, critical thinking and entrepreneurship are a few of the many skills students will continue to develop. One thing we cannot forgot and must always feed is that our students are kids and as kids they are naturally curious (we as adults need to feed our own curiousity too). Creating opportunities to immerse within learning to foster curiousity, critical thinking, optimism and risk-taking because we are:
-naturally curious
-rational
-committed to making sense of our world

 As Kamla and I continued to share today we encourage new teachers to The Learning Partnership Entrepreneurial Adventure to start with a question when launching this project with their students: "What problem do you want to solve?"

 To end our presentation we share another great video, this one by Google 'A Question Waiting to be Answered'.  For our students to be entrepreneurs, let them question, seek out answers and question some more. Share their successes and celebrate their reflections.


No comments:

Thursday, November 3, 2016

MindShare Learning #cdnedtech16 Leadership Summit

MindShare Learning #cdnedtech16 7th Annual Conference Canadian EdTech Leadership Summit!
Although I was able to attend the second half of the day... it did not disappoint!
  1. Brian Aspinall's talk about learning alongside students and creating opportunities for students to be 'doers' in their own learning
  2. Maya Burhanpurkar's inspiring endnote focussing on the hidden genius in each and every child that educators and communities need to find (or help find) and bring it out!
What a great opportunity to connect and reconnect with educators and industry members who (yes, are promoting their own product) took the time to have a discussion. Where they were truly present and listening to needs, ideas, obstacles teachers and school infrastructures are working to overcome while continuing to focus on the student and 21st Century competencies.
Stakeholders coming together and all this to address, promote and inspire students from K-12 to be creative, critical thinking, innovators in the present and into the future. I can't think of a better way to spend the day!
I am proud to be an educator with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and it is always comforting that leaders like Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Peter Singh are actively involved in discussions with teachers (yesterday at the TDSB DLL meeting) and today with industry members. It is very much appreciated that he shares a clear vision and is seeking out solutions to overcome or address challenges to continue building a strong infrastructure. One that supports our IT departments and teachers to ensure students have access to resources to support 21st Century competencies.
TVO had a talented crew of educators who relentlessly work towards building relationships with school communities: Katina Papulkas, Ting Ginglo, Sandra Chow and Jane Silva. Together they shared their focus on Math in Ontario and the pilot launch of mPower, Grade 4-6.
Microsoft and FairChanceLearning was well represented with Nancy Teodoro, Dustin Jez and Brian Aspinall sharing their energy and passion for coding via Minecraft and LittleBits to promote innovation from the drawing board to building/prototyping.
It was definitely cool to finally meet Brian Aspinall face-to-face after all this time dialoguing via Twitter! And again, Brian thank you for taking part in the Coding & Student Voice co-presentation with students held at the TDSB Ward 11 meeting hosted by Trustee Shelley Laskin back in September!
Being a bit sentimental but it was awesome to run into #TOR16 #GoogleEI cohort Jeffrey Humphries, Sandra Chow and Leslie McBeth. Clearly we are continuously listening and connecting with others to dialogue about student opportunities for learning/innovations.
And let's not ever forget... my friend and co-teaching partner Kamla Rambaran who is my soundboard, and partner adventurer. I can't wait to check out what we jump into next!!!
Thank you Robert Martellacci for the invitation to be a part of #cdnedtech16!
 


 

 

No comments:

Friday, October 14, 2016

Full Circle: Find the Spark

When you take time to catch up on tweets missed over the long weekend and you come across this... Thank you to our Parents & Students in the McMurrich Junior Public School community (@McMurrichParent). Truly honoured and humbled.

What happens when a teacher believes in you... finds your spark and guides you by letting it shine in all areas of learning?

Weird to have one's name appear in the local newspaper showing appreciation. This has only ever happened one other time... back in high school when OAC (Grade 13) was around the Principal nominated me for my achievements. Please note that my academic experiences turned around in Grade 11 when I meet a team of talented Art teachers, Ms Jalsevic, Mr D'Arcy & Ms D'Arcy (no relation) who each had a SpecEd background. They recognized my struggles as a student with LD and helped me take my spark as a young artist and apply it in other academic areas. With this I transferred from the Basic to General to Advanced stream. I had to work twice as hard to move forward after each fail, appreciate small strides and get ready for the next day.
Thank you to all teachers who never give up in finding the spark in every student and letting them shine!!!

No comments:

Thursday, October 13, 2016

It's official! I'm a Google for Education, Certified Innovator #TOR16

It's official! I'm a Google for Education, Certified Innovator #TOR16

Bringing this here from my FaceBook account ...
Day 2 of #TOR16 #GoogleEI Innovator Academy

It was full steam ahead as Coaches were ready to guide us through a variety of Sprints & Sparks today! If ever given the opportunity to go on a Google tour… GO! It’s fun, colourful, dynamic & you meet more great people along the way.

Construction not Instruction projected across the screen as Afzal Shaikh discussed the legacy Seymour Papert has left behind and ahead of us. We are challenged to use #LittleBits and build a machine to communicate a message for others to piece together, within teams and collecting missing pieces from within the cohort.

This is followed by Wendy Gorton who revisits the Design Thinking model and Prototyping thus gently launching us into visually testing our idea. Steps of prototyping: Storyboard, Rapid prototyping, Get feedback, Integrate feedback and Iterate. Time was limited but precious. The room was abuzz with energy, an almost calm-before-the-storm when we would have the opportunity to later share & pitch our projects to each other.

Aaron Brindle in Public Affairs for Google Canada shared his 20% using google.ca/mymaps to map out communities from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada to Surui Territory, Brazil by creating a cultural map to share within the community.

Culturally responsive pedagogy was the focus shared by Sandra Chow emphasizing considerations from various perspectives to better understand impact of the project on others. Suggested resources to check out include The Missing Voice in Tech by Rafranz Davis, The Culture Map by Erin Meyer, geert-hofstede.com and Harvard Project Zero - Visible Thinking.

The Talent Myth: A relationship between talent and success debate is ongoing… well, let Sylvia Duckworth guide you in demystifying nature vs nurture. Sylvia’s The Iceberg Illusion: Success is an Iceberg sketchnote sums up what people see and don’t see when they encounter someone who is successful. A recommended read is Bounce by Matthew Syed which highlights 3 conditions necessary to achieve excellence or success:
-Intrinsic motivation
-Unusual circumstances
-Deliberate practice
A new book coming soon but for now definitely check out sketchnotes created by Sylvia on her flicker site: flicker.com/sylviaduckworth

Les McBeth sets us up to prep our prototype ready to display and receive feedback from #TOR16 educators:
-This is a repeatable process
-Keep focussed on your USER
-Innovation is an attitude
I have my collection of post-it notes ready to reflect upon over the next few weeks to further ‘zoom in & zoom out’ of my project.
Share and support each other, asking questions, connecting with our coaches and soon to be partnered mentors, Michelle Armstrong encourages all of us to continue to touch base in Hangouts and Google+. Save the date for the next #PubPD maplesyrupedu/pubpd twitter chat October 27th focussed on Student Leadership.

Becky Evans & Wendy Gorton engage us in whole group reflections prior to sharing our pitch: the essence of our project. A moving moment for many of us as several projects went thru several iterations (discovery-interpret-ideation-experimentation-evolution).

How else to better end the Google Innovator Academy then coming together in our teams, as we Graduate to the tune that best captures our team energy! One by one we were called upon the stage to receive our certificate! Yes, my name was announced correctly and yes, I am still smiling (cheeks are sore) because this endeavour, this journey is far from over… I can’t wait for what the next 12 months brings!!!


 


 


Make no mistake... I could never have reached this far without the support and encouragement from TDSB  Coaches & Digital Lead Learners Julie Millan, Andrew Schmitt, Kevin Bradbeer & Sandra Chow
No comments:

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Boom.. Snap.. Clap.. Innovate!


Day 1 of #TOR16 #GoogleEI Innovator Academy
Today we focussed on our project thru various lenses with the foundation that it:
-should drive change in education
-should be replicable and or accessible
-should fall under one of Google’s Pillars of Innovation (check out Sylvia Duckworth #sketchnote below)

Several guests lead us through Sprints with an emphasis on the bigger picture, focus on the user and life/work balance. Liz Anderson, Mark Wagner, Wendy Gorton, Donnie Piercey and Jeffrey Humphries each leading the way to moonshot thinking!

Each team was introduced: The 7 Wanderers was us and we launched into our group cheer (Boom.. Snap.. Clap..) and handshake (baseball hand signals).
Les McBeth guided us through the Design Thinking model to tease out ideas, considerations and ideation. Rafranz Davis immersed us in discussion of Your Signature Story emphasizing how our life experiences change us and how do we use that to drive positive change. Sandra Chow reminds us that while working on your project…. Zoom In & Zoom Out. Figure out how to wrap our head around the big picture. Sylvia Duckworth modelled #sketchnoting benefits to capture the message using images via drawing on devices. Becky Evans shared the importance of optimism & reenforcing a positive work / school culture.
I thank all the educators from the #TOR16 cohort who shared a Spark today. I only wished there was time to visit each of the sessions. I know I had a great time sharing the fun I am having with students when creating paper circuits.
The sharing, feedback, making various iterations to our project ideas to fine tune, focus on the user and the big picture was challenging! Connecting with educators who had similar projects while meeting with others who offered a fresh perspective/questions was definitely rewarding... They really pushed the kind of thinking that is needed when considering viewpoints, identifying a problem & ways to solve it.
You can only imaging how awesome this day was like in person and the anticipation of waiting for what the next day would bring!



No comments:

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Kensington Market, a School Tour & Innovator Academy BreakoutEDU

First, I would like to thank Larissa for organizing a warm welcome meet-up in Kensington Market for #TOR16 educators who arrived earlier in Toronto for the Innovator Academy. For me, it was a blast from the past being surrounded by many unique shops, restaurants and cafes. Several #TOR16 educators joined us, taking in the sights, purchasing souvenirs at Blue Banana and enjoying a hearty lunch at Urban Herbivore. From there we made out way to Larissa's school Lord Lansdowns Jr/Sr Public School where she gave us a tour, highlighting its history and transformation to a K-6 French Immersion School. 

 An unseasonably warm, beautiful day was just what we needed as a small group we made our way through Chinatown a few teachers picked up Bubble Tea, taking photos of Toronto's Moose in the City statues, passing by the AGO before making our way towards Google Headquarters at 111 Richmond St.

As we entered the building it quickly became a photo-op with every Google signage on the wall and poster of the Innovator Academy! Everyone was excited, introductions and hugs going all around.

Pre-Day 1 of #TOR16 #GoogleEI Innovator Academy 
It would be an understatement to say that this afternoon and evening was great.... I had the honour to meet face-to-face #twitter PLN that have been mentors unbeknownst to them: Rafranz Davis, Sylvia Duckworth, Sandra Chow, Michelle Armstrong and Jeffrey Humphries.

I also had the opportunity to connect face-to-face with educators from around the world sharing their inspiring journey as educators and life-long learners/adventurers. 
As introductions began the #TOR16Canucks cohort surprised everyone with some entertainment to the tune of Canadian Dance Moves... followed by Poutine flavoured potato chips, Canadian temporary tattoos, stickers and #TOR16 buttons!!!

The BreakoutEDU sessions to connect, build relationships and teamwork were as challenging as they were insightful. Thank you to my team for sharing your stories with us. It was truly awesome being part of the #TOR16 cohort on this day and I couldn't wait to see what the next day would bring! 

Thank you to the #Google team Becky Evans, Michelle Armstrong, Mark Wagner & Wendy Gorton for the warm welcome and support!






No comments:

Monday, October 10, 2016

Let's Go Back a Bit

Before I share my reflections about the Google for Education Innovator Academy, let me focus on how I got here…

 As a life-long learner I always seek my own professional development. My “go-to” over the past few years has been my PLN on Twitter. There, sharing is short and focussed, while discussion is honest and based on teacher experiences and/or opinions. I seek out who to connect with for further information, support on a new idea or transforming an old one.

As the school year started to wind down, there was new discussion and a sense of excitement about educators preparing to take the Google Certification Level 1 and Level 2. It was great reading how supportive teachers were in sharing tips and strategies to prepare for the online modules and assessment.   So I decided that this would be a great way to ease out of the hustle & bustle of the school year and ease into summer vacation.

For the first two weeks of July, I navigated through the training modules at my own pace, reviewing sections as needed and completing quizzes before each unit assessment. By the end of the second week I registered for the online exam feeling pretty good about myself. Once I received the email that the Performance Based Exam was ready for me to take, I gave myself a day to just breathe before beginning.

 So, I set myself up in the kitchen and sent my boys to their own spaces so that I could have some quiet time to take the exam. Of course, they (both teens) interrupted me a few times, all of a sudden forgetting how to fend for themselves… needing snack, a moment of my time and my favourite “whatcha doing?”. Once I had them settled into something away from my space I sat down again only to find the WiFi icon looking for networks! UGH! I waited patiently but felt like I was unable to complete one of the tasks as well as I had hoped. So, I moved on. After two and a half hours, clicked submit and I was spent. A few minutes later I received a message indicating: Examination Unsuccessful. I felt defeated. So I let it go for several weeks… focussing on my boys and summer time.

 Then, in mid-August out-of-the-blue my boys asked me about the Google Certification exam. I told them I didn’t pass after much preparation and feeling good about it at the time. They responded with “so, you took it again and then what?” and I replied with a “no, I didn’t”. Their response, “mom, this is going to be a teachable moment from us to you”. Oh, how the tables have turned as they reminded me about getting back up and following through. So, I did. I sought out feedback from other teachers online and came across “How to Pass Google Certification Exams” by Sylvia Duckworth. Feeling revitalized I reviewed each of the Level 1 units as suggested and passed the exam. The following week I took my time and went through each aspect of the Level 2 unit lessons, reviewed quizzes and unit tests before taking and passing Level 2.
**NOTE: this time I had the boys at home very busy while completing the examination. NO one watching Netflix or playing any online games.



Shortly after this I shared my success on Twitter showing off my new digital badges! Then I started receiving DM messages from educators suggesting I look into the Google for Education Certified Innovator application especially with it being right here in Toronto! Now, I have been in awe of the many amazing educators who have had the opportunity to collaborate within this cohort. What the heck would I have to offer? Then my co-teaching partner mentioned that one thing most teachers in our Family of Schools have been visiting or requesting to visit our class has been our Business Day venture. This only seemed like a natural progression of sharing our project further beyond our classroom walls. So… within a few days, I completed the application, my Vision Deck and Vision Video… I shared it with several teachers who I trust would be honest in their feedback and based on their feedback I made several iterations prior to my submission on the eve of the deadline.

 The next few days were filled with gut wrenching anticipation. Then announcement time came and went. As educators started sharing their excitement on Twitter that they were invited to the Innovator Academy. Feeling disheartened all I could do was focus on the excitement of others... after all they will be the educators I would be following over the next few months to learn more about and be inspired by their projects. Then I saw messages stating... check your spam box. What? A glimmer of hope. Could a message be waiting in my spam box? Well... there it was, waiting for me to accept the invitation to attend the Innovator Academy. AWESOME!



 From here, I can't even begin to explain how amazing it has been as we #TOR16 #GoogleEI cohort began to collaborate, make connections and build relationships leading up to the Academy dates. Maybe, another time.
No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)