Language Rotations - Grade 2 Classroom (Ms. Lori Turk)
Student rotation board 15 minute intervals, 7 groups, 5 centres a day
The IPad is used as an alarm so that students know when to change centres without the teacher having to stop and get their attention.
Centres include: Chromebook work station
Guided reading station (students struggling in reading receive guided reading each day)
Read to self: Books in their book bin are at students independent reading level. These are levelled readers as well as the guided reading book for additional practice.
Use RAZ kids for Read to Self
Writer's Workshop to practice the lesson learned from the week. Forgot to mention that the guided reading centres are only on day 2-5 because on day 1 there is whole group instruction in writing.
Word Work station - each group has a drawer with activities at their level of understanding.
1. The board has put together an IEP writing guide for teachers. This is an excellent tool to use when writing an IEP. The online version has an interactive table of contents so you don't have to flip through all the pages. There is a sample IEP for a grade 8 students that can be used as an exemplar when writing the annual goal, accommodations and transition plan. 2. "The Math Cheat Book" this sounds so much better than what I remember when I was in school. The difference between then and now. The book is used as a reference for students to go back to and remember the lesson. Then you copied the lesson and then did the work and went through many books so I never went back to see an old lesson. What about putting the cheat book on the wall - with a math map that illustrates the journey throughout the unit. Even better combine the two ideas - The math cheat book could become an online tool whereby the picture of the math wall is taken and through the use of programs such as thinglink students could add notes to themselves and export the picture to google presentation. The google presentation could become the cheat book and be shared with all! http://www.thinglink.com/scene/648206567165919234
3. I learned today that I am tenacious (and that I don't know how to spell it!)
tenacious: not readily relinquishing a position, principle, or course of action; determined.
As I helped a co-worker to restore a blog that had not been written on since last year she called me tenacious. It is true I would not give up I promised to restore her blog and that was what I was going to do!
One thing that Squares my Thinking
1. What I saw today that I completely agree with is small group instruction!
One thing still Circling in my Head
How can we come together as a school to create consistency across grades, divisions and even bigger amongst the board.
Our professional development day was focused around three objectives:
1. Lead: Sharing Best Practices
2. Learning from Others
3. Inspiring Others
Below you will find the outline for the day:
SHARE 8:45-10:00
Your time in your classroom to set up what you are going to share with staff.
Take this time to set up your classroom so it gives your colleagues a 'guided tour' of your shared area of expertise and/or a 'storefront' experience of samples highlighting your area of expertise. While preparing, you might want to label, briefly summarize or make some resources available. Remember, you won't be in the room so make it 'self- serve'. :)
LEARN 10:00 -11:30
Wander/Reflect/Learn where is your coworkers' expertise?
This is your chance to wander and explore deeply, lightly or somewhere in between. Feel free to wander to one, some or all rooms. We have included a list of the area of expertise highlighted in each room here:
We will be reflecting on and sharing our learning as part of our afternoon. Take note of questions you might want to ask your colleague later. There is some fabulous work going on in our building. Most are linked clearly to the indicators of our School Improvement Plan for Student Achievement. Please take a good look at the walls in the rooms as well.
INSPIRE 1:00 -1:30
Blogging: Why blog?
This blog post by George Couros, principal of innovative teaching, learning & leadership of the Parkland District Schools in Alberta, lists 5 reasons why students should blog. We heard him speak about how his district of 10,000 students all blog as part of their learning portfolios. Both Nicole and I try to share our learning via our blogs. This might be an easy way for students to record, curate and/or reflect on their learning. Remember, a blog doesn't have to solely be text. It can involve video, audio, photo or any combination of media. http://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/3721
1:30-2:15
Reflect on your learning
Thinking of something to write? Why not try... A. Narrate. Describe how you went about your morning. Where did you go? What was your focus going in? What did you see? What things did you note? B. a "shaping up" framework. Triangle: Three important or interesting points you learned today. Square: One thing that squares my thinking (agrees with me). Circle: One thing still circling in my head - a question I still have.
My principal used this framework as an option to have staff reflect on their learning. It could be used in the classroom or with adults and lends easily to a visual. The source is unknown.
a "shaping up" framework. Triangle: Three important or interesting points you learned today. Square: One thing that squares my thinking (agrees with me). Circle: One thing still circling in my head - a question I still have.
As an Admin you need to support staff by:
Asking questions what is going on in the classroom
Bootcamp for staff
It is going to take time
Teacher needs to feel safe
Trust staff for
How do you instil digital citizen for staff?
Whole School Philosophy (Digital Citizenship)
-What do students need to know grade by grade starting in kindergarten
-Ottawa Crescent UGDSB
Google Forms: Making Communication Between Home and School Simpler
In this session, you'll create a basic Google Form that tracks events and behaviours observed at school (ex. a student helping out a younger child on the playground or an incomplete homework assignment). Then, you'll learn how to use a fantastic script from the Add-ons gallery called FormMule to automatically send this information directly to parents in an email. It's a huge time saver and parents really appreciate it. Plus, once you start sending home all those positive notes, you'll feel great! You’ll get the most out of this session if you can come prepared with a spreadsheet containing your students’ first and last names, as well as their parents’ email addresses.
Wicked Problems:
-deforestation
-lack of water
-substance abuse
As a teacher you have to be optimistic - create an environment where we motivate students to solve problems of the future.
How do we motivate our students to become better problem solvers?
2 problem types
1. Algorithmic problem solving: there are formulas and answers to these problems we know there is a solution ie what there do we use? Teachers are good at teaching and motivating students to answer algorithmic problems. How do we motivate them? with grades!
2. Wicked Problem Solving
Kevin shows us the game Limbo - grades 4 and up real life problems -
Why do children like playing video games:
-immediate feedback
What is Functional Fixedness: When we come across a tool we think that the tool is used in one context ex. from game - crate before pond is used to get across the pond - but that was not its use the crate had to be dragged back to get to the tree.
The game Limbo - teaches students about Functional Fixedness
What does this have to do with the real world?
Wicked Problem: Getting internet in remote areas of the world
Google's Solution to the affordable Internet around the world
Use a tool with a known purpose in a different context. Functional Fixedness Google is looking at using a balloon
What are we doing when we use the extrinsic awards: We think we are motivated to solve problems with monetary (extrinsic) awards. But in theory the profit motive slows people down. Kevein's theory: The group that is offered money to solve the problem the group develops "focus" a tunnel vision. The group without a bribe is more relaxed look at the problem through play they will come up with the solution faster.
If Bribes don't work to motivate people what does:
Autonomy - give people more freedom
Mastery - give them the skills
Purpose - make sure the work has a purpose outside the work place (classroom)
Google and 3M depend on these motivating factors for the companies to function
Look at the invention of a Post-it - The result of a bootleg project a guy at 3M was trying to create a super sticky substance but it didn't work it was sticky enough - that night when his bookmark fell out of his book his not-so-sticky substance came into use and thus the post-it was created
What does Kevin's grade 10 English classroom look like?
Kevin uses 20% Project in his classroom #20time
What does it mean to brainstorm?
-No kid wants to put up the worst idea
Kevin mandated "The bad Idea Factory"
-brainstorm the worst ideas
What was the purpose - to bring the power of play
What came out of the bad idea list - good ideas the class can reject or accept the projects on the board
For example - one of his students wrote spend a month in a wheelchair - the kids/teacher said it was a great idea student spent a month in the wheelchair and the bad idea morphed into the student realizing that there were areas in the campus that were not wheelchair friendly
The Proposal
-Needs and Opportunities
-Audience
-Monthly deliverables "what are you going to show the teacher"
-Product
-reality check
-conclusion
Students must blog 150 words a week they state what they have done where are going they include a picture of what they are working on in their blog
What are little mistakes?
-Do we credit little mistakes
-Do you choose when to ask your students to strive to perfection - algorithm problems you can strive for perfection but when you are being creative can we strive for perfection what will that lead to? incompletion
-Done is Better than Perfect
Moto: Failure is an Option Failure to Deliver is Not
At the end of the year students present their projects in a TedX fashion
-Teachers presentation skills
-instead of a final exam
Example TedX presentation: Teaching a Generation
-slides simple
-practice and rehersal
-these students hated the idea of the 20% project they wanted the teacher to tell them what to do
-these girls said they were not passionate about anything so they had a difficult time getting starting
Kevin doesn't focus on passion anymore but instead PURPOSE - tell me a time when you did something that helped someone else
-these girls had "medical" stage fright they were absolutely terrified of presenting in the front of the school
-these students were able to do this even with their diagnosis Why? because they had a story to tell that was important to them seniors reconnected with their families
Shift from Teacher Centred Learning to Student Centred Learning
Change the goal of the learning from impressing the teacher to serve the good of someone else Audience Centred Learning
Below are Google Drawings to be used as fill-in templates or pre-made activities for graphic organizers. These Drawings are view only so you will need to make your own copy of each (open the Drawing, click File, then click Make a copy). You will then have your own copy of the Drawing that you can edit.
For more details, see these help resources:
Help Guide - "Google Drawings for Graphic Organizers" - Docs Link
Slideshow - "Google Drawings for Graphic Organizers" -Slides Link
Training video - Recorded December 4, 2014 - Video Link
Free for:
-Admin Console
-Google Classroom
-You can customize
Google Form simple anecdotal form with student name, subject and notes- Use voice to speech to create anecdotal note
Go Off line with google chrome - What happens when the Internet goes down what do you do? You can still access your email and calendar need to set it up bit.ly/offlineslam
texthelp - new keyboard for Ipad
Read and Write for google
accessible keyboard that works anywhere on the device
Itunes store- Install the app and authenticate through your cloud account
Go to settings and turn it on (ipad)
If you have IPad and you use google drive you can use google read/write
Open Google Docs and you can use the Read Write keyboard that has prediction built right into it
http://peardeck.com/join
Available at chrome webstore (you need to purchase a licence)
Interactive Presentation tool - Like clickers
You can lock students out!
Push Bullet
you can push text from your phone to your computer
You can push a map location in google maps to your phone
letmegooglethatforyou.com
type in the question that you want to ask - copy the link and email it to the person asking you the question
Try the following type in a google search:
60 second timer
equation and it will solve (4x6) + (5+5)
What is the tip for $45 - tip calculator
convert miles to km
convert m to cm
If you want to find the past google demo slams go to G+ and search "google demo slam Lee Webster" and the past demo slams will show up
Google Certified Educators and Trainers from around the world use google hangout to have a google demo slam:
Donnnie Piercy
Michelle Armstrong - Calgary "Education Trainer"
Nick Cusumano
Lee Webster
Chris Betcher - Sydney Australia
Trevor Beck - Google Enthusiast "Education trainer"
Sarah Woods - Ted Ex
Screen Share - allows you to share a screen you have open in a google hangout
Smarty Pins.com
game with trivia questions where you need to know the answer and the city it comes from you have a maximum number km
Geoguessrcom
Places you somewhere in the world and you need to guess where you were placed in the world
You place the pin where you think you are in the world
http://pursued.nemesys.hu/
The game drops you somewhere in google maps and you need to find out where you are
Donnie Piercey
Some places where the google car can not go
Google Views: https://www.google.com/maps/views/home?gl=us
You can upload photos from your computer Students can map out their neighbourhood
Google photo sphere camara - app to take a photo sphere
You can capture your entire surroundings with the simple press of the shutter button. Enjoy a new world of images you have never experienced before.
ITunes App - Photo Sphere
As of last week - you can watch 360 video interactive video in youtube
Trevor
FormLimiter - Add On for google forms that keeps up to date
Chris
Draftback - works with google docs get from chrome store
Once you get the extension - it shows you how many edits you have done in that doc. When you click play it will show you all the edits that have been done in that Any google doc you can run draft back and it will show you the revision history. It is great for tracking plagiarism - you can see if the kid has copied and pasted a large section of text.
Sarah
PDF mergy when you need to print a bunch of PDF documents or if you want to connect all the documents as one to send them
Add the app Click on the App Now you can add pdf's from your drive or your computer, you can re-organzie them into the correct order then you can save them to your drive - When you go back to your drive you have one document with all the pages. You can use different page sizes.
Chris
Google Sheets - Student name and last name in the same column you can split the cell and into two columns first name and last name Copy and Paste special so that you can delete the first column of names
Add On - Random Gerenerator Allows you to generate random numbers
Format - Conditional Formatting Colour Scale is new so you can change the colour to scale You could always change
Power Tools for the split funtion
Proper - this function will capitalize proper names
Nick
Tab Resize (Extension) split screen layouts for chrome books. You can change your view and split your screen
"Alt" Square Bracket "[" will split your screen on a chromebook
Join.me
Street View in Google Maps - Charles Darwin Research Station
-Students can look at what is being researched on in the station
-Ocean Views "Buraco Das Cabras"
John Bailey Iditarod -for example of a video at 360
Device Friendly Activity is Prodigy 
Student rotation board 15 minute intervals, 7 groups, 5 centres a day
Centres include: Chromebook work station
Use RAZ kids for Read to Self
Word Work station - each group has a drawer with activities at their level of understanding.
Training video - Recorded December 4, 2014 - 
