5/20/2019 0 Comments Final Synergy Grant BlogThe following are some of the videos that were created by my grade 3 and 4 students as a final project for our SET BC Synergy Communications Grant Every Tool Has A Place. The students have been working hard all year - gaining knowledge and skills about local Indigenous Peoples connections to place, specifically looking at local plant uses. They have shown a deep level of learning and really connected with using digital technology to show their learning. I am proud to share that all students met learning outcomes set out for this project with the exception of creating digital journals on Explain Everything (EE). Although most students were adept at using the EE app, having a limited number of iPads made it difficult for the whole class to participate fully and the decision was made to switch to using Seesaw to communicate their learning. There have been other challenges along the way for both students and teacher. We have persevered through learning how to use the Padcaster and the apps on the iPads and had to adapt when things did not go as expected. Through this process students strengthened their problem-solving skills and became more resilient technology users. They enjoyed learning an oral storytelling process and became better communicators - learning that it is sometimes hard to clearly and effectively communicate in front of a camera. This led to discussions about public speaking and leadership skills. There were many more unexpected learning outcomes during the process. Some of the spin-off lesson topics included digital citizenship and environmental stewardship. It has also been a pleasure to learn along with my students and my teaching partner, Debbie Gilchrist. I hope you enjoy viewing my class videos and previous blogs about our learning journey using green-screen filming technology.
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5/6/2019 0 Comments Reflecting On Our LearningAs our SET BC Synergy Every Tool Has A Place projects near their completion, many of the students have met project criteria. Here are a few of the reflections written by some of the students. They make for great reading. Enjoy! 4/28/2019 0 Comments Filming Plant Projects - EDITINGThe editing process has begun on our Synergy plant videos. Most students have viewed the draft of their first videos and received Kind, Specific, Helpful feedback from their classmates on how to improve the quality and content. They used this feedback to improve on their oral language skills and did a second video and in some cases a third or fourth. Our next step is to use the Do Ink app to edit the green screen background with their choice of using a video or photo. We are almost ready to publish our videos and they are extremely excited to share their finished productions.
Here are photos of our display case with the finished plant based products, excluding the editable food items. 4/11/2019 0 Comments Authentic LearningThis year, our class has been going deep in our learning about local First Nations connections to the environment as part of our SET BC Synergy project. Our learning has been authentic and relevant! We have gone on field trips, created plant field guides, researched Indigenous tools, and learned from local naturalists. All of this has led us to our ultimate goal of designing, creating and documenting the traditional use of local plants by First Peoples. We are so excited to share with you pictures of the work being done by some of the students and to announce we will start filming our final videos next week.
3/10/2019 0 Comments Benefits of TechnologyThere are many positive and some unforeseen benefits to having technology in a classroom. It enhances learning opportunities and provides a more equitable access to information. For example, we have been using our SET-BC iPads to conduct research by watching instructional videos. This has opened up a whole new way of learning for both my students and myself. Students who previously waited for teacher help are now viewing information at their own pace, stopping the video to take notes or draw labeled pictures and rewinding to ensure accuracy of information. Throughout this process, they display more independence and ownership in their work. In turn, this allows the teacher with more and different opportunities to support the diversity of learners in the classroom.
Having film technology in a classroom can also have unforeseen benefits. It exposes young children to new career possibilities and allows students with strong technical skills to develop a passion for the film industry. This has been the case with some of my students who are using the Padcaster studio to film other classes. They are learning the skills of a Boom Operator & Camera Operator. The role of Director of Photography, however remains in the hands of the teacher as there are some technical issues still to be worked out. One challenge we are encountering is related to memory capacity on the iPad pro. It quickly maxes out when multiple videos and images are stored in memory. When this happens the camera screen turns white and freezes. Once images and videos are removed from storage this seems to fix the problem but this has only started to occur recently. Students who struggle to write often have a lot to say but have difficulty with the writing process. When they reach grade 4 their writing challenges becomes more complex. Peer relationships become increasingly important. Children who have learning challenges often don't want to be seen as different from their peers. Text to speech, if offered to all students in a class, has the potential to reduce stress for some of these children.
This week our whole class practiced using text to speech to write about their plant projects on the Explain Everything app. There was a lot of laughter during the lesson and I quickly realized what all the excitement was about. The text did not make sense and was not what they intended to say. Rather than seeing this as a problem, I chose to view it as an opportunity. It led to a discussion about oral language. We discussed the importance of speaking clearly and thinking before recording. As the students continued to "play" around with this function I noticed no social stigma surrounding its use. As we continue to explore and use text to speech I am hopeful that some of the struggling writers will find it as a socially acceptable resource for them to communicate their thinking. 2/16/2019 0 Comments Navigating Explain Everything AppMy class is learning how to use the templates in Explain Everything but the process is very slow and there have been a few frustrations. A few students have become frustrated when they accidentally deleted their work or loose work because they did not save it before shutting down the app.
Other issues we have experienced are that some student have many duplicates of the same file and we are not yet able to figure out how to copy images from Creative Commons to the app and so we have reverted to using two iPads - one to find a photo and second to take a picture to then insert into file on Explain Everything. I am wondering if it may be too sophisticated for grade 3/4 students. I am going to continue using the app for the next few weeks then reassess. 2/16/2019 0 Comments Deep LearningOver the past few weeks, we have been honoured to host presentations by Virginia from the Squamish Valley Education Department in our classroom. The presentations have helped students deepen their knowledge of our local Indigenous Peoples and their connections to this beautiful place we call home. Students were highly engaged throughout all three presentations on cedar tree uses, Salish wool weaving and ancient technology. It was obvious from their thoughtful questions that they had developed a solid understanding of local plants and their uses. They were transferring knowledge and skills learned earlier and were communicating in a more sophisticated manner. Many of their questions were analytical in nature suggesting they had a deep knowledge of the topic and were becoming more skilled in asking higher level questions. It was easy to see that there was a great deal of thinking and learning going on in their little brains.
2/5/2019 0 Comments Box Week ImagesWe celebrated Mamquam's Most Magnificent Thing (aka Box Week) throughout our school this week. The school was filled with lots of creative, critical thinking activities as students designed, build and reflected on their box projects. My class took the project one step further and created images of their creations with photo backgrounds using Do Ink, a green screen iPad app. They are gaining confidence and skill in using the technology this way and most are able to produce fun images that truly reflect their individual personalities and met the criteria of placing their box project in a setting specific to their creation. Here are a few of the images they created.
1/27/2019 0 Comments Tech Supports Linguistic DiversityTechnology levels the playing field for children with diverse language backgrounds. My students have been playing around with Explain Everything as a form of communicating their learning. Lately, I have observed a significantly higher level of creative, critical thinking skills with students who are linguistically diverse. They appear more independent and engaged in problem solving when using technology during writing tasks and their writing includes more details and fewer grammatical errors. I have also observed a lot of peer teaching as they offer suggestions on how to navigate the Explain Everything app. Our next step is to explore more deeply the wide selection of templates available on the app to learn which format fits best with each student’s Synergy project.
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I am passionate about inquiry-based learning and Maker Education. I strive to actively engage students through authentic, hands-on, collaborative experiences. We look forward to sharing our exciting learning journey with you so check back regularly to view our progress.
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