Saturday, October 14, 2017

EdTech Camp 2017


The day started off quite early for a Saturday morning with dreary, dark, grey skies and pockets of rain. This was quickly replaced with warm smiles, high energy and enthusiastic chatter as soon as I entered Richmond Green S.S. in Richmond Hill, Ontario.


Kimberly Pollishuke and Jennifer Giffen, along with their @YRDSBdlrt EdTechCamp committee thought of everything! Greeters everywhere! iPads on the ready to greet and register guests who hacked their badges and then made their way to the photo booth! The cafeteria was set-up in the EdTEchCamp colours from signs to table top decor, stickers and more!
It was wonderful to connect with educators and students face-to-face that I have been following and learning from via Twitter! As well as reconnecting with educators & friends who I haven't seen in quite some time. A shoutout to all the TDSB presenters and guests who were there today!

Keynote Speaker Kevin Brookhouser captured our attention with a question "How do we motivate students to be problem solvers?" Focussing on the importance of providing students with opportunities to train their brain to overcome Functional Fixedness by instilling Autonomy, Mastery (not a grade) & Purpose. For students to learn beyond impressing their teachers and pleasing their parents! Creating a class community where students share bad ideas and fail... learning to work through their struggles and really be creative with their thinking. Kevin shared how he embeds Google inspired 20% time; doing passion work. Taking the culture of learning experiences from Teacher Centered to Student Centered to Audience Centered.
Then I had the utmost privilege to co-present with three of my former Grade 6 students: Student Voice via ePortfolios using Google Sites! A visual representation of students achievements, reflections and learning goals. Part of creating a pathway to success is to provide students opportunities and time in class for students to reflect on their learning, struggles and successes. This needs to be built within the classroom culture. Taking this path in an online digital environment that is organized, interactive, easy to build upon and accessible to students Google Drive tasks. Taking my students on a reflective journey and making learning transparent is important. Students have access to online manipulatives, video clips and various teacher/student generated challenges to discuss, share, document and provide descriptive feedback within Google apps (such as Google Docs & Sheets) and then reflecting on their learning goals in Google Sites ePortfolio.
ePortfolio Guiding Questions:
* What was the focus of the learning/task?
** What new learning did you gain and how would you use this new learning?
*** How might you further build upon your ideas or overcome challenges you encountered?
Students need to consider assessment for/as learning more valuable than assessment of learning; that learning doesn't end after a test, exam or culminating task.


Students own their ePortfolio!
Students build their digital presence beyond the classroom!
 
According to SociaLeadia author Jennifer Casa-Todd, by the end of high school, students should be able to google their name: “If I google search your name, what will I learn about you?” It is important for educators to model, guide and promote positive digital citizenship and responsibility.
Thank you @YRDSBdlrt for providing this forum for my students to share about their learning experiences!!!

I tinkered with arduino being provided with very much needed support from Richmond Green S.S. student leaders and Mr Alexander Laserson. This was followed by attending Austin Gagnier’s session on Coding K-8 where I finally had the opportunity to see him in action! More importantly, he introduced me to Coding with Chrome extension that I can use on my Chromebooks… thus allowing more students to code, test and then sync with our Sphero’s with less wait time!
The day wrapped up with a talented crew of educators competing in a DEMO SLAM for a year's worth of bragging rights. True entertainment, knowledge sharing and just a great time for laughs!

Congratulations Kimberly, Jennifer and the @YRDSBdlrt EdTechCamp committee for a great day!

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Sunday, September 17, 2017

Exhausted but Worth It

The week before school was spent moving into a smaller class space within the same school building and begin setting up for the new school year. I quickly realized that I needed to purge resources that were both dated and to make room for new materials. Going into my 21st year of teaching, I can confidently say two things: one, I have a whole lot of stuff, and two, I still get butterflies in my stomach in the days leading up to the first day of school.
During this week, I called all of my students' parents and invited them to visit our class space in the making. Yes, I know... it's summer vacation but knowing that several of my students anxiety is intensified in the days leading up to and including the first day of school, I have found this small get together to be both calming and productive. Throughout the week several students came by for about an hour to set up laptops/chromebooks, materials for centres, and co-plan a cooperative game to co-lead during the first few days of school.
I had the wonderful opportunity of meeting my students for the new school year during that last day of school of 2016-2017. During our short time together, they shared feedback: a space that they would be comfortable in as well as productive; they opened up about their apprehension towards using technology as a tool to share and monitor their own learning; and they hoped for opportunities to learn outside of the class/school building.
This invaluable feedback took our class space from being bare and overloaded with furniture to an open space with flexible seating and comfortable workspaces. We already have four excursions planned during the first few weeks of school ranging from visiting our local Public Library to visiting our local city parks to exploring STEM activities at YouthSpark. Students apprehension towards our class learning experiences leveraging technology is beginning to decrease as we discuss why we use certain tools to share, research and build upon our learning. They were excited to be introduced to our class Blog http://204inaction2017.blogspot.ca/ and class Twitter account @McM_MsT. Students were particularly nervous yet eager to the introduction of Google Classroom to access assignments, provide each other feedback and the ease of finding their online work.

The first day of school, students arrived with smiles as they met up with friends in the school yard.

 Our morning began with us being locked out of our classroom (wink, wink) when I realize that I have mistakenly placed my keys in the BreakoutEDU box. The students were up for the challenge of solving “Oh, The Places We’ll Go” to retrieve the keys! Why would I do this on the first day…. for FUN of course. This was an opportunity to let the students know that I will make mistakes and will ask for help from others. What I needed from them was to work as a team to unlock the box for the key to our class space reveal! It was wonderful watching all 26 students working within their teams to solve the puzzles and piece together clues, each team taking turns to unlock a lock from the BreakoutEDU box. What I saw was teamwork, I heard words of encouragement and this all made me even more excited to begin our learning journey together.

On Thursday evening, #tdsbEd Twitter chat (co-moderated by Larissa Aradj and Arianna Lambert) was abuzz with how many educators set-up their class space and established class routines around student voice, choice and needs. This reaffirms the value of building upon the feedback and revisiting student needs to create a space that is safe and promotes creativity. Check it out in the archives Your Learning Environment.

At the end of the first week of school, I make a phone call to all my students parents sharing one cool things I learned about their child and inviting them to our Curriculum Night.  I have done this for many years and when I read this, among many other ways to invite Parents into the class community in Kids Deserve It by Adam Welcome & Todd Nesloney; it just reinforced that need for positive connections between teachers, students and parents.

BUILDING OUR CLASS COMMUNITY

Several other icebreaker activities were held throughout the day, co-lead by a student in the class. Students also completed a questionnaire based on George Couros’, Five Questions to Ask Your Students To Start the Year allowing me to better understand my role and their needs.

As the days go on, we continue to establish our routines and guidelines based on trust and respect. We have begun discussions around a Growth Mindset, our flexible seating guidelines were created, we used Tribes to design posters for our 4 Class Agreements: Mutual Respect, Right to Participate/Pass, Attentive Listening and Appreciation/No Put-Downs. As we continue to build our class community, students designed Motivational Posters to the question: “What does success mean to you?” These will decorate our walls and inspire us throughout the school year. Over the next few days, students will design our bulletin boards with messages for Growth Mindset and another focussing on You Matter statement (inspired by Angela Maiers).


I truly believe that investing the time to build a class culture of trust, respect and community that students will feel safe to take risks, go on learning adventures and produce some amazing pieces of work that they have received feedback and reflected on with pride. Yes, there will be ongoing reminders and refreshers of all the community building throughout the school year... but this far outweighs back-peddled, minimizes power struggles and focusses on the well-being for both students and teachers.


Our class Curriculum Night was a success as students offered tours of our class community set-up, centres, materials & equipment use and shared how we model positive social interactions. Building a positive partnership between my students, parents and myself is an integral part of students recognizing that we are all in this learning journey together.

What better way to end the week than participating in the International Dot Day activities! Colouring pages, building drawbots and a Dot Day BreakoutEDU!
I can’t wait to see what the rest of the school year brings!


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Tuesday, August 22, 2017

TDSB BT Summer Institute 2017


With the new school year just around the corner, let's not forget that it is still summer vacation, yet several educators from all levels of the board came together and hosted another successful Beginning Teachers Summer Institute to a full house!
I would like to thank and congratulate Jennifer Watt, Heba Noureldin and David Hawker-Budlovsky from Teachers Learning and Leading, who provide ongoing support to TDSB Beginning Teachers and their mentors. The question to keep in our minds that was posed by Jennifer truly reflects the importance of our role as educators and that yes, our actions, bias and perspective is political and that we need to not only be aware of this but how it affects our teaching pedagogy: "How can you influence others to positively impact your school community?"

Resources are available through TDSB AW bit.ly/2wgtnpY. Sessions offered today offered opportunities to listen, discuss, reflect, get hands-on and build PLN; ranging from Culturally Relevant Pedadogy with Farah Rahemtula and Sharla Falodi to Engaging Students as Assessment Partners with Wendy Terro and Rupali Rodgers to Mathematics through Spatial Sense K-8: Inclusive Math for All Learners with Usha Shanmugathsan and much, much more!

Being invited to share along with Melissa Seco and Annika Pint just made the day a whole lot more fun as we shared various entry points to focus on pedagogy and a culture of of #makerspace from a K-12 regardless of your space. The conversations were inquisitive but filled with ways to bring ideas and new learning back into their own classrooms. Educators brought with them the most valuable tool: a positive attitude and an open mindset whereby they considered how today's exploration could be modified to meet not only curriculum but the needs of their students to promote perseverance, design thinking and problem solving.

Continued ongoing Professional Development such as the one shared today is invaluable! The take-a-away: building experiences, engaging in relevant discussions and items like our drawbots or minibook paper circuit provide tangible entry points for teachers to further build upon in their own learning and teaching.



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Sunday, April 30, 2017

Two Venues, Two Conference Styles & One United Vision of Learning!

As Digital Lead Learners setting up in another location for the day, we were able to check out presentations happening over at the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) via live streaming in the auditorium at the ROM.  Kevin Bradbeer our Senior Manager of Client Relations, kicks off the 2nd annual Unleashing Learning conference with his warmth and sense of humour to a full house at the RCM.  He never looks over the opportunity to thank and appreciate all educators in the spotlight and behind the scenes who make days like this awesome!
Chief Academic Officer Manon Gardner shares her appreciation for all educators continuing to build a professional learning network, building upon passion to support our students.

Keynote speaker TDSB Director of Education John Malloy shares his Vision for Learning with a powerful speech that has several key phrases that stood out:

"Trust is hard to build and easy to lose"
"Relationships are the heart of everything we do!"
"We need to check our privilege and power. Recognize students experiences and voice. Ask, discuss and change in our class, school & system bias we bring in."
"When we look at our students we need to focus on these (in order): Strengths; Interests, Passion and Needs."

I didn’t make it to the Royal Conservatory of Music to attend the awesome selection of breakout sessions offered by a talented group of educators. They were run as an open-session format, first-in first seated, standing or peeking in at the door. I heard wonderful reviews from many educators but there was just too much for me to miss out at the Marketplace over at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).

 As a Digital Lead Learner (DLL) I had the awesome opportunity throughout the year to work along 120 other TDSB DLLers, as we came together to compose a collection of resources focussing on TDSB’s Vision for Learning, Global Competencies. Each of us sharing our best practices, lessons and assessment. These resources are organized in a way that will provide teachers an entry point to implement, build upon or refine as we bring continued learning opportunities of developing global competency engagement in our class programs.

 I am honoured to be part of the writing team to finalize the resources in preparation to launch at the Unleashing Learning Conference & Marketplace Kate Miles,  Iniyal Hryhorczuk, Chelsea Attwell, Whitney Baker , Marlena Rivett, Kevin Bradbeer, Carlo DiFelice and Shelley Lowry. I can’t think of anything more exciting as an educator than sharing the collaborative work created by teachers for teachers promoting teaching and learning. Showcasing the Google Site, our cool TDSB Vision for Learning logo highlighting the Global Competency categories and having discussions with teachers on reflective practices and how we teach students to be risk-takers, innovators and change agents for the present and future.

I was able to sneak away and visit a few of the surrounding booths with awesome setups. Checking out student samples, teaching pedagogy and extensions for growth. Just to highlight a few BUT oh, so many more showcased throughout the day that you can check out at Unleashing Learning Marketplace hosted by TDSB DLL. Listening to students sharing their learning and making connections with educators across all system levels of TDSB filled me with goosebumps! If you ask students what they are learning and how they will use this learning to move forward as global citizens… and they proudly share their understanding, connections and ideas… well… it doesn’t get any better than that.  Check out Mira Campbell, Diana Hong, Larissa Aradj, Sophie Young, Rupali Rodgers, Renu Mann & Josie Nanfara-Grande !


 I am shamelessly proud and humbled by my students who showcase their Entrepreneurial project with co-teaching partner Kamla Rambaran. The Director of Education and CTO Peter Singh, Superintendent Ian Allison and many other educators, get a tour of their Company Google Site, highlighting how they are building global competency, using the design thinking process & inquiry to delve deeper into understanding the world around them and how they can have an impact as a global citizen.

Shoutout to our @TDSB_IT for bringing the day together for all of us to enjoy with ease.


We wrap up the day the same way we started: back in the auditorium, watching the live streaming of Closing Note speaker Maya Burhanpurkar a young dynamic, learner and leader whose theme was Unleashing Potential in all children. "Raising the bar for students based on passions & interests." She shares the value of the design thinking process, learning from mistakes and iterations. The importance of teachers providing a culture in the classroom that allow mistakes to be made and keep the learning growing.

The drive home was filled with awe, laughter and inspiring discussions about moving forward as a teacher & learner. Thank you all for yet another day of building relationships, reflecting on my teaching practices and providing opportunities for students to share their voice! Want to read more snapsnots of the day, simple go to twitter @TDSB_TLT or using hashtag: #tdsbvision #tdsbdll


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Monday, March 13, 2017

TDSB Google Camp 4.0 SOLD OUT!

So, I didn’t win the Demo Slam, the crown nor bragging rights for a year. Competition and talent was fierce but I was glad to be a contender. That was the end of a long, mind-blowing, adventurous learning day.  
TDSB Google Camp is a great conference for TDSB educators by TDSB educators looking to further develop a positive growth mindset, build a Professional Learning Network while leveraging technology like Google Apps. An opportunity to seek out like-minded educators or not and engage in discussion to push ideas to new limits or create new ones altogether.
There was a strong Elementary panel presence in both presenters and attendees, while the Secondary panel is growing with teachers sharing their best practices leveraging GAFE apps. This year, there were a few sessions hosted by Administrators leading through example; for both teachers and administrator on the effective use of ‘working smart’ with various GAFE apps.
The morning began with the hustle and bustle with last minute set up of Thank You cards for presenters; teachers, administrators, board-level and IT members. The registration table line-up was moving smoothly as over 500 educators picked up their lanyards leading to the hack-your-badge table, a light breakfast snack and photo booth to entertain while building memories.  
I meet with my Social Media Crew, a talented team who were always ready to provide support Diana Hong, Shawn Spencer, Mahfuza Rahman, Gerry Corrigan and Tim Barker. Throughout the day we Tweeted out from the @TDSB_TLT #tdsbcamp account capturing the learning, sharing, and ‘a-ha’ moments. We were able to capture a few sessions and live stream them via Periscope for educators unable to attend, to watch from the comfort of their homes.



Keynote @JesseBrown asks us to consider disruption as a positive, and that as educators we need to provide students with experiences where they “build an array of skills to surf thru chaos.” He challenged us to consider how we might apply the strategy of how “Google built failure into their model” into our own classrooms. How might we harness passions in what we do? Perhaps looking further into providing opportunities for passion projects Google 80/20. All of which I believe is a part of my class learning community but so much more growth is needed for consistency and addressing the boundaries (if needed at all) of ideas/resources. Jesse Brown ended his keynote with “I wish you wonderful failures.”


I was proud to present during the second session with Kamla Rambaran focussing on Student Voice: ePortfolios using Google Sites. A great topic, yes, but that was not the highlight. Two Grade 6 students honoured us by co-presenting as they gave educators a tour of their ePortfolio; what they get from reflecting on their learning and how they will use this to continue making plans toward achieving their set goals, both academic and personal. From here, students provided support to our guests in setting up their own Google Sites. I believe that an integral part of student voice is provide students opportunities to speak to educators and be leaders in discussions or responding to questions on how we can all learn from one another. This was the proudest part of my day: stepping aside and letting the students step up.



The biggest challenge of the day was selecting which of the sessions to attend which is why I, myself reviewed the periscope sessions over the days that followed Google Camp. This was a wonderful way to get a glimpse of the sessions offered throughout the day. But to highlight a few, sessions ranged from beginners using Google Keep with Kate Miles to being Innovative Entrepreneurs with Arianna Lambert to Digital Breakouts with Larissa Aradj to effective Gmail Workflow with David Hann.  

As the day went on, educators made their way back to the auditorium for closing activities including prizes for high attendance from a school, school Google Camp spirit and a randomizer app to select winners from the audience.

 But, what better way to end a day of learning, being overloaded with new information to take back into our classrooms to further explore than a Demo Slam! Each of the Demo Slammers pitched a 3-minute tech demo, while getting the audience all hyped up and excited was a success. This year, I put my name forth and took part in my first Demo Slam... I was nervous, stumbled and then with a bit of help from the audience I just had fun with it!


The impromptu challenge put upon, Peter Singh, CTO was to select the winner. With grace and much audience noise the Demo Slam Queen Larissa Aradj was announced!



With that, they day came to a close and all the ‘behind-the-scenes’ Google Camp crew members packed away equipment wrapping up another successful TDSB Google Camp. Looking forward to TDSB Google Camp 5.0.



Thank you Kevin Bradbeer, Carlo DiFelice, Shelley Lowry, Marlena Rivett, Lisa Weaver and TDSB_IT Services for the opportunity to be a part of the Google Camp crew and all of the awesomeness that made this day great!

A shout-out to the TDSB Google Camp Committee I was proud to be a part of: Lucy Chan, Holly Sharpe, Iniyal Hryhorczuk, Maleka Kaderbhai and Lisa Rubini-Laforest for making the day even more special with your support and attention to detail.

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