The Change of Education needs to consider the Teacher

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedrosz/2040577615/ 

I've been reading all these different manners of changing your educational practises, from Backward Planning, to Activating Students' Creative Thinking, and the list goes on.  With the changes in our school of "No Marks", "technology implementation", "Using Web 2.0 Tools", "Eportfolios", and many more that we are exploring, we all need to remember one thing.  Even though one of these methods looks great and alive (The exploration in our Physical Education Department is absolutely fabulous - tweet Ryan Neufeld - @teacherneuf and Jeff Vaughan - @CptKudos  for more information), this doesn't mean it will work for everyone.  Not all teachers are the same, we may have similar training, and have gone to the same classes, but the personality of the teacher does come through somewhat, in some way, or manner.  This means that not all methods of teaching will work the same for every teacher due to this personality.

The great news is that if every teacher is different from the next, students won't get use to one style of learning, and this is a reality of life - no two things are the same (look at the picture - really look - and tell me if you see the exact Flamingo twice - look at their coloring). 

So as teaches this is what we normally do  (Sorry for speaking for a group of teachers but after 25 years of teaching in a number of schools and acting as a computer facilitator of learning technology - I've seen a lot of styles) - we take what we like the most out of every learning experience and we use that.  Sound familiar?  So do students.  We do not criticize the different manners in which a student learns, we try to instigate a number of ways of learning in our lesson plans, try to touch all (or as many as well can) of the different ways students learn.  Why can't we accept the same of teachers?  We learn different, we use what we've learned, to the best of our ability.  Some of us learn quickly, some of us take more time to contemplate things, but in the end, almost all teachers have the same goal, to be the best that we can.

Think about it.  How much do you use what you've learned compared to a colleague?

It's summer time and here's the pencil....

I'm reading educational books, I'm blogging, I'm learning new crafts and skills, I'm upgrading my Java....  What is wrong with me!!!!  Then I got my sense of humour back when I found this picture on Pinterest....  I wonder which one I am....

I hope my students are the 3rd one.  Only by our mistakes do we learn....

http://iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=44715

Weebly Analysis from the Students' Point of View.

With all the summaries that I've posted last month in regards to the learning of my colleagues at the school I realized that I have not posted my own summary.  For the past 3 months I've had two groups of students  doing e-portfolios on Weebly.  The program is simple to use, lets you have 40 accounts for free, and for teachers to assess, instead of gathering up the individual web addresses of each student who creates a eportfolio web site, Weebly lets the teacher control the sites, make it private or not, and change the passwords.  See my blog entry on Weebly to understand the Pro's and Con's of the program.

At the end of the school year I asked my Grade 8 students a number of questions in regards to Weebly and doing electronic portfolios for their learning.  The following is the results of the 28 students that answered the survey.  

I was happy that students realized that reflecting on their learning through the eportfolios helped them learn more and helped them realize that they were learning.

The data below did surprise me.  I asked twice for parents to assess their child's learning with the electronic portfolios.  From these results it's clear that I need to do a better explanation to parents of the reason for electronic portfolios and what they can do for both the child and the parent in talking about the learning.

I was happy that students realized they were choosing the activities and what they added to their portfolios, giving them ownership of their learning and help them understanding their learning more.

The data below was no surprise.  I knew that by reflecting on their learning, they would learn more.  What I am hoping for this coming year is more peer assessment, opening up their electronic portfolios to their friends.

 After reading about developing curious and creative minds (John Barell - Developing More Curious Minds)

I can honestly say that I did not use the blogging section of the electronic portfolio to it's full capacity, I should target a day (Friday would be good) with a reflection question every single time, so students can get use to this and be prepared to come up with their own reflections.  Although I am happy with the results of the survey, I could of done more.

Finally, you can see from the data below that the students did not need to spend the entire class to do their portfolios, it ranged from 10 - 30 minutes, depending on what they were working on, and this was not every day, only 1 - 2 days a week.  This is manageable in regards to time for any teacher.

The final question was a question of preference that I had asked my class and it was completely different then the response I got from  my 1st term class.  The 2nd term loved Weebly more then Webnode, whereas the 1st term students like Webnode more then Weebly.  The only difference was which web designing site was introduced first to the students.  Students liked the 1st web site introduced to them best.  In the 2nd term I introduced Weebly to the students first, and here are the results.  Interesting to look into more.

I hoped these results helped you as much as they intriged me.

New Procedures and Ideas for Professional Development.

Sullivan Heights continues to think and learn with new ideas procedures for professional development. We'll continue to make Individual Learning Goals our goals.  Most of the school's goals last year were in regards to learning new technology or new methods of assessment using apps, Web 2.0 tools online and growing with learning networks online using Twitter.  Below is a slide show from Jane Hart (excellent blog to follow) on the impact of social media on the workplace (and relevant to the educational field of learning).

The impact of social media on workplace learning

(View more PowerPoints from Jane Hart)

It's true, our school has been crazy with learning last year.  Everyone wanted to try something new, learn something new, do something new.  We've explored numerous areas of learning with technology, but we've also examined new ways of teaching and/or assessing with our students in regards to this technology.  With all the learning last year, this coming school year our school needs to look more closer at the impact of this learning on both our teaching styles, our new manners of assessment, the learning done by the students and ask ourselves if these changes that have developed are actually helping our students.  

Change is good but it can also be stressful, the handling of the impact and  logistics of change.  Change can sometimes be uncomfortable because it forces us out of comfort zone; even when the change is good. Not everyone embraced the learning, but some recognized that they needed to change with their fellow colleagues.  The difficulty has to do with the rippling effects of change in the school. It forces teachers to create new routines, new ways of thinking or believing and new perceptions of the world around them. With any sort of change one needs to sit back and reflect on these changes:  Has it made a difference to me, to my students, and/or even to parents?  Has it improved my/student's situation in the school or even outside of school? Has it been beneficial?  

The changes in our school with Twitter was like a tiny pebble thrown lightly in a pond, the ripple effects went farther then anyone really thought it would, in our school and outside to PLNs most of my colleagues at school have made.The only way to recognize this effect was to stop for a moment, take account of events and the situation around you, reflect and document what you have learned, to actually take the time to assess the change in the students and in your environment, and note what has come about with the change.  


This is where we need to go for this next year.  We need to reflect on the effects and affects of our learning.  We need to assess our learning and the learning of our students:  is it worth the change?  We also need to realize that this change may be affecting our students as well, in ways we should look at.


With all this change happening in our school, we need to ask the questions:

• Why are we doing this?
• Why are we making this effort to change?

Because the world is changing, the students are thinking differently (their experiences in today's world have taught them to think differently), and working in today's world is a lot different as well.  Thus we need to understand what changes we as a school need to make as well, and you as a teacher need to consider.

There is a  deeper issue at work here that Sir Kenneth Robinson so eloquently underscores in his book "Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative?" At the heart of most schools Sir Robinson believes is our obsessive preoccupation with academic ability and the confusion of academic ability with intelligence. To Robinson there is "much more to intelligence than academic ability and much more to education than developing it." John Bareell agrees with him in "Developing More Curious Minds".  Both point out the truth, that it is not so much the academic ability to memorize and recite what is learned as much as the importance of teaching students to be creative and to be curious about learning, to develop further the love of learning, and instilling in students a curiosity to continuously learn or want to learn.  That's what this change is about, to change and help students become more creative in exploring new information on the information highway, to collaborate and learn form each other, and to question what they learn, be it questioning the sources, question the books, the Internet, even the teacher.  This means different ways of teaching (backward planning, project based, differentiating, collaborate group work, etc), assessing differently (no marks, skill sets, rubrics, etc) and grabbing students curiosity (through the internet, web tools, blogging, critical thinkings, etc).

That's a lot to ask for.

As my mother once said to me and I have repeated numerous times to my students "There is no such thing as a stupid question, it's just stupid not to question". 

so that's what I hope our school continues to do, not just change but to question our change and see if it not only develops a curious and creative mind in our students but to show the students that the teacher as well is curious and creative.

Let the questions continue.... with the learning ;) and the assessing of our learning.

Blogging in Science

My "Guest Blogger" today is K. Phillips @Phillipskerri, a Phy Ed Teacher and Science teacher who really took an interest in the iPads.  The following is her story:

I think that the biggest challenge was not knowing if my ideas would work on the classroom scale.  I found that I could try something on my iPad or laptop and it would work and then in the bustle of the classroom with 30 kids trying to produce something there were inevitable problems.  Essentially, the iPads are not meant to be a shared device, and we had many problems with students logging onto apps and not being able to log off.  Scary, when they are then shared with another class the next block, and there is someone's blogger or twitter account ready to be posted from.  Yikes.

We also had problems once the work was completed, not being able to access that work from outside the iPad since the students were not able to email or tweet their work to me.  We all started blogs and were able to post work to our blogs from the iPads (thanks to the open wireless at our school) even as drafts that could be published later.  We also had trouble posting video - and thanks to some help from the students, were able to upload video to our own YouTube channel.  Pretty cool.

I think that the biggest learning experience in this process was to trust the students.  They were very patient and helpful in troubleshooting and problem solving.  Even though not all grade 12 students are digital natives, we were given the opportunity and freedom to create solutions together - collaborating with each other, trying things, failing at things until we found ways to make it work.  It is hard as the teacher not being completely "in charge" of what is happening - things not going to plan, changing on the fly.  It makes it very easy to quit a project or assignment that is not turning out the way that you think that it should or taking way longer than you think that it should to complete.  But I don't think the failures should be a reason to quit - if we think like scientists, we learn from all of our experiences, and it brings us closer to finding something that will work.  If I had tried to work all the bugs out before implementing the iPads in the classroom, I would still be waiting.  

Okay - some of the apps that I would recommend:

SHOW ME - it was very cool - I have been using video as assessment, having students explain concepts with manipulatives, white boards etc., and this app takes that to the next level.  You record voice and writing on a white board simultaneously (like that guy with the brown marker).  You need to create an account and these are posted directly online - either public or private with a web address as a link that some students then posted to their blogs.  It was especially good for students who aren't as comfortable in front of the camera - this is just voice and drawing/labelling etc.  Lots of possibilities.

http://johnrondina.files.wordpress.com

SKITCH - basically drawing/typing over a picture (either taken with iPad or downloaded).  Can also draw shapes and labels on white background (we did RNA/DNA with labels).  The jpeg is then saved to the camera roll of the iPad and we posted them to our blogs.

BLOGGER - a good app that allows students to sign in and out (and is free).  Simple to add posts or drafts and easy to post photos from the camera roll - students with iPhones can use the app and post pictures from labs and classroom activities with a short description really easily.  Students couldn't find a similar free app for android/blackberry.

I have lots to say about the use of blogging in Biology as well - just need to think about it a bit more first...

Ms. Phillips was my biggest blogger with students.  In another post we'll put up some of her student examplars.  

Working with Communicating with Students & Parents.

My Guest Blogger this time is S. Brine, a Social Studies Teacher at our school who loves trying anything new that engages the students.  The following is her research and learning today.

My goal: a website

During the Pro-D at the end of summer in 2011, I set my goal: to create a website that would meet the needs of students and parents.  Using Webnode as my template, I put together a site that allowed students and parents to view a weekly run-down of what to expect in Social Studies class, check homework assignments and due dates, view test dates (along with what to expect on the test), and have access to links that connected them to important documents (unit overviews, course outlines, expectations, etc.)  The website also provided numerous ways to contact me and strongly encouraged both students and parents to do so at any time. 

What really happened: a website and Twitter and a document reader

Upon completion of my website, I proudly wrote out the address for the students and asked them to use it often to keep themselves informed throughout the course.  One of my grade 10 students respectfully informed me that they didn’t really ‘use the Internet’ but rather relied on Twitter for information.  This particular class made it clear to me that if I truly wanted to be technologically savvy with my students, I would need to use what they used.  I created an account and tweeted reminders about homework.  More importantly, I sent out tweets that informed students the website was updated.  This helped remind them of my website and they began checking it on a regular basis.  So my goal became larger and I was able to both complete and manage the website this year and become familiar with Twitter and how it can be a wonderful tool to further connect me with students and my larger educational community.  I am now in the process of learning about my new document reader and how it can provide an opportunity to not only aid instruction, but record photos and video that can be uploaded to my website.     

What worked:

What worked for me was having the time to develop the website and the time to learn how to format it so it looked the way I wanted it to.  I enjoyed having my own time during Pro-D to put it all together and ask for help when needed.  The goal was mygoal and it was very satisfying to meet it.  With the updated wireless and the strong support from Nicole in particular, I was excited to experiment with and play with technology.  This school year, I have had more contact with parents than ever before as more are willing to contact me via e-mail and check the website to stay informed as to what their child is doing in my class.  It has made the whole teaching/learning experience much more open and transparent. 

What didn’t work:

I would have found more value in working with a small group of people who had similar goals to mine.  Having the time alone to concentrate on my goals was appreciated, but I would have enjoyed the collaboration with other staff members as well from time to time.  I also would have enjoyed a session where teachers would be able to show what they had accomplished or report out their experience with technology.


I agree, the teachers need to share and show their learning.  Next year, the Pro D days.

Innovative Grant Data - on communicating with staff, students, and Parents.

The following is a Prezi designed to show you some of the data gathered for our grant.  IT covers the growth of technology usage in our school as well as the growth of communication through blogging, twitter, etc.  Please take the time to see this presentation.

Collaborate, Communicate and Educate on Prezi

Research Summary in January 2012 - you are stars, all of you!

Many of the teachers in our school are looking/investing/ exploring one area or another on how to communicate with students, assess students, have students engaged, trying different manners of learning, and so many other areas.  In January Jennifer Spain went around to each teacher in our school and asked them what are they learning, where are they interested in going.  I've been posting the results but I never posted this summary in January and although some have moved on to new goals (as you see from the previous blogs) this summary does show that the passion for learning extends to our staff as well as to the students.  Below are the links to emails for you to contact these people if you are interested in the area they are exploring.  Thank you.

Bases

Sue Fuller                    Email: fuller_s@sd36.bc.ca

Blog: http://buzzinbases.blogspot.com/

Using blog to

·       Write about highlights of the week

·       Display student work

·       Post photos of weekly science experiments

·       Talk about what’s upcoming

·       The theme: come into our classroom via the blog.

·       Keep parents informed of what is happening in the school.

Yearbook/Science

Alyssa Becker             Email: becker_a@sds36.bc.ca

·       using Dropbox for yearbook sharing/file sharing.  Going to use SEND TO ME to have students email me attachments that will save directly to Dropbox.  This will be great when using garage band on the iPads next semester (can email sound files directly to me).

·       Use of Google forms for collecting yearbook survey results

·       use of Google docs to collaborate with other teachers to create a science 8 exit interview

·       Used the iPads to do school wide yearbook surveys.  4 hours, 850 kids.  Not too bad :-)

·       Next semester I look forward to using the iPads with the science 8's and 9's for storybook building, possible claymation comic strips and podcasts

·       Personally, a lot of the technology I tapped into this semester was technology of convenience.  Dropbox, Google Docs, and the portability of the iPads were all used for the sake of collaboration and/or efficiency.  Though a heavy user of technology in my personal life, I am hesitant to use technology in my classroom that feels more like a gimmick than something that increases creative and critical thinking (for example, Glogster).  I'm constantly on the hunt for apps and tools that will achieve this (and of course whether they do or don't is often trial and error).  As with everyone else, it's a work in progress.

PE

Jeff Vaughan               Email: vaughan_j@sd36.bc.ca

Ryan Neufeld              Email: neufeld_r@sd36.bc.ca

Marilyn Miles              Email: miles_m@sd36.bc.ca

Kyle Pederson             Email:pederson_k@sd36.bc.ca

Website: http://sullivanathletics.wikispaces.com/

·       Twitter feed – 300 followers for athletics twitter feed. It started as professional development and has grown. It has become more than just announcements and now their goal is to create a model of a 24 hour teacher and modeling social relationships that exist outside of school as well as within it. All teachers in PE have a Twitter account.

·       The professional development has been very important using the driving philosophy of decentralizing learning. It should not be controlled by the teacher or require large expenditures on technology.

·       Focus: affect the teacher so that the effect trickles down to the students.

·       Student side: BYOD took off with the expansion of the wireless

·       TV allows access to Twitter feed for those who don’t have technology & reduces the gap between the haves and the have nots.

·       Wiki duplicates what’s on the TV: Twitter feed, Google calendar, list of coaches

·       Plan; to introduce students as authors and implement digital portfolios

·       Next step: Apple TV and projector to use in hub to communicate with students. Has direct mirroring for all connected devices (exactly what’s on your screen will be on the Apple TV)

·       Focus: looking for opportunities for student authorship. Engaging technology with formative assessment and student authorship.

Learning Assistance

Paul Sharples              Email:  sharples_p@sd36.bc.ca

·       Investigated the usability and positive influence of the Smartboard for learning in a small classroom environment of ESL students.

Languages

Aaron Davis                Email: davis_aaron@sd36.bc.ca

Website: http://mrdavisfrenchclass.wikispaces.com/

·       Has a Wiki where he posts student homework

·       Projects, homework, assignments can be accessed and completed online

·       Uses blogging with his students

·       Uses GarageBand to record conversations and posted on Wiki for other students to respond.

·       Using student input on creation of criteria and rubrics

·       iMovie projects

·       Musique mardi: weekly French music videos/songs from a variety of French countries

Jacqueline Alvarado-Cruz      Email: alvaradocruz_j@sd36.bc.ca

Website: http://snfteacher.blogspot.com/

I'm trying to bring technology into my classroom as much as possible. This semester I succeed in using more technology that I have in previous semesters,  although it was difficult at times due to the library booking schedule or the lack of a class set of good working laptops but somehow I managed.

My students used the following websites to create some fabulous projects:

·       Storybird - to write a story in Spanish using concepts learned in grade 10

·       Mixbook - to create a childhood scrapbook using preterite/imperfect  in grade 11

·       Toondoo - to create a comic strip using reflexive verbs/present progressive in grade 11

·       Voki - to send an avatar in which students spoke  Spanish for grades 10/11 

·       Prezi - to hand in projects that use superlatives/ or any other project that required using a poster but students chose to do a Prezi instead. - French nine

This is what I'm hoping to do for semester 2

·       goanimate - to create a video

·       urbanbarn.com - to create a project on vocab related to the home

·       ipads - to create small projects using comics or any other useful tool

·       website - create a website in which students can give each other feedback on language learning

·       as well as continue to develop other projects with websites I have used before

I think that what I'm doing is affecting my teaching in many positive ways. It's helping me take risks and trying things with students that may or may not work or may or may not be liked. It's also helping me feel more confident about using technology and not be afraid to say to the students that I don't know that much about technology. 

I'm having been finding that most of my students are very engaged in the projects that involve technology. For example the Storybird was a project that took almost a week and many of the students were very focused on the task. It was incredible to see how engaged they were and how hard they worked on it. I was worried that after various days of working on it some would be bored, but at the end I heard a lot of positive comments such as 'that was fun' 'I really enjoyed doing that' or 'I can't wait for you to read my story.' It's helping my students demonstrate their language learning in a variety of ways and in ways that they can relate to.

Jennifer Spain             Email: spain_j@sd36.bc.ca

Website: http://digitallanguagelearning.blogspot.com

·       Using student input on feedback and assessment criteria. This gave students a sense of ownership in the assessment process, and made them far more effective in providing peer feedback than they ever had been before.

·       Using Twitter and Google Docs for student homework assignments and study/supplementary resources

·       Using www.socrative.com for student input/participation (similar to iClickers but using any internet enabled device)

·       Using www.storybird.com for collaborative storytelling

·       Using www.voicethread.com for online discussions and responses to questions posed by students

·       Technology–related tools were chosen on their ease of use for all students (i.e. not having to spend a lot of time teaching the tool), their privacy policies, and their ability to work on multiple platforms (i.e. iPod, iPad, cell phones, desktop computers, etc.) I deliberately chose as many tools as possible that were not specific to languages, but rather had a range of possibilities for students to use in other courses too. When they saw the usefulness of the tools they were using, they became enthusiastic adopters of the tools, and many of them did their own trouble-shooting by looking for YouTube videos etc. on how to use the tools if they were having trouble with them.

·       I used Google Forms to survey my grade 11 students at the end of the course, and asked them to tell me one thing they liked about French 11. Many students commented on how different the collaborative, technology-based projects were and how much they liked them, but many also commented on how much they had enjoyed all the speaking they got to do.

·       Exploring the use of student choice in format of assignments. All students receive the same guidelines on content but can choose how they would present it. Some examples chosen by students included traditional posters and essays as well as Prezi, Glogster, PowerPoint and SlideRocket.

·       Next semester will be including use of iPads and Dropbox to hand in assignments.

English

Margo Freeman          Email: freeman_m@sd36.bc.ca

Website: http://englishsullivan.blogspot.com/

Twitter

• Use to update homework etc.
• Used it for a character project with students
• collaborate with other teachers about the changing landscape of education

Live Binders

• started keeping my bookmarks from the Internet that I use on a regular basis with students
• share students’ work
• plan to put all my resources on it

Document Reader

• live brain storming with students
• model my thinking
• edit students’ work with them

Use various other online/computer-based formats for project choice: Prezi, Powerpoint, Toon Do, etc.

Heidi Nielsen              Email: Nielsen_h@sd36.bc.ca

In the English department, we have each been working on tech goals (many have created webnodes, used Twitter for assignments - Margo used it with Taming of the Shrew, Erin uses it to tweet homework, Melissa uses it as well, several teachers are using Livebinders (we would like to create a department binder so any teacher could add / take from it).

As well, the document readers are being used to present and critique and revise student pieces and to have students present final projects (they used the readers to show the class what they had done - ie. presenting a newspaper or a board game).

I have converted all of my Literature 12 notes into more interactive PowerPoint presentations which include pictures, video clips, and sound bytes.  I also had students use power point to present author's lives and poetry to the class.

My plans for this semester include:  updating my webnode to include "gifted / talented" and trying to use twitter for a Shakespeare assignment.

Kate Law         E-mail: law_katherine@sd36.bc.ca

Social Studies / English / Home Ec

Website: http://ms-lawswebsite.webnode.com/

At the moment it is largely a resource for my classes both for homework and assignments as well as for extra info and Socials/English resources. As I get further into the semester, my hope is to build it and use it as an online portfolio of student work that will updated with examples of class work/projects. This year I was adamant about getting a signed outline back with parent emails and assigned students the task of teaching parents how to use email in cases where I was told that nobody at home had an account. So far I have contacts for about 75% of students and am actively hunting down the rest. The hope is that I can get most parents visiting the website and receiving updates to encourage fluency of communication between me, the students, and the parents/guardians.

I am trying to get the blog section up and running and to keep it updated with where we are in classes and how students are demonstrating their learning.

I'm still developing it and working on how to integrate it more actively into what we are doing in class so that it is not just an online agenda so I'll keep you posted!

InfoTech

Nicole Painchaud       Email: painchaud_n@sd36.bc.ca

·       Explored and continuing to explore the use of e-portfolios for students assessment, peer assessment, and the development of their learning line (improvement) in what they are doing.  Explored Facebook as well as Webnode and now presently looking at Weebly.

·       Have used different organizational programs (id venn diagrams) for assessment

·       Have used Parent assessment in different situations.

·       Using different Web 2.0 tools in classrooms.

·       Exploring Apps, and their uses.

Bryan Bucci                Email: bucci_b@sd36.bc.ca

Website: http://mrbuccisblog.blogspot.com/

·       Presently working on AppleTV for the projector and IPads.

·       Explored the option of giving students Digital Choices and personal learning in presentation of learning on different subjects.

·       Used different Web 2.0 tools in the classroom and continuing explore this field.

·       Used Learn360.

·       Exploring Apps, and their uses.

Home Ec

Shelley Blackwell       Email: blackwell_s@sd36.bc.ca

·       Using Learn360.

·       Has started taking tourism movies & downloading them to show to class instead of going to library. They are more useful because they are up to date and allow her to incorporate current content.

·       Trying to incorporate downloaded videos into foods too, but most of those are really outdated, so she is using YouTube for sources and creating new demos using document cameras. This is very meaningful for students.

·       Using document reader for teacher and student presentations in sociology.

·       She really enjoys seeing technology being integrated in a non-traditional way or in a non-traditional department.

·       Also using LCD and SmartBoard for teacher and student presentations.

·       Beginning to integrate LiveBinders into gathering teaching resources.

·       Also incorporating Facebook into Sociology for 2 assignments (social self portrait), building on the HACE presentation from Jesse Millar and continuing that dialogue with students.

·       Trying to include some iPad use as well and will be building in second semester.

Math

Mustafa Gocmen        Email: gocmen_m@sd36.bc.ca

Website: http://joysofmath314.blogspot.com/

·       Explored using smartboard technology with a template.

·       Explored the use of different cognitive learning styles in the classroom, ie visual with videos, audio, etc.

Science

Lisa Leonard / Warren Edwards         Email: leonard@sd36.bc.ca,        edwards_w@sd36.bc.ca

·       Explored Gizmo Program with students, evaluated content, explored testing of this program, and usage of students in independent studies.

·       Exploring the use of iPad Apps in Science.

·       Explored and continue to do so different web sites for review of work.

·       Explored the use of Smartboard technology in the classroom, and use of it for independent studies.

·       Explored use of document reader and considering possibility of videoing lessons created on the document reader.

·       Exploring using Podcast in science.

Social Studies

Sandra Stevens           Email: stevens_s@sd36.bc.ca

Ann Harris                   Email: harris_m@.sd36.bc.ca

One of the major issues for these two teachers is that many of the videos they have used over the years are no longer available, don’t work with modern technology, or are in such poor shape that they are no longer usable. The A&E biography of Napoleon is so old that they can’t show it anymore. They searched unsuccessfully for another copy of it, but then with the help of Roger Hayward, our librarian, they were able to find it on Learn360. They will now be learning how to hook up to an LCD projector to a computer to show movies in class, as well as save movies to files so they can find them again. These movies are most relevant with Grade 12 as it is a content-rich course. Using the movies and being able to assign them as homework provides a lot of scope to be able to assign them as homework. That way, students can cover the content outside of class, and assignments focusing on critical thinking and analysis of that content can happen in class. As well as its applications in grade 12, the use of these videos means that more viewing for all grades can happen outside of class and students who are away can access information as well.

Stacy Brine                 Email: brine_s@sd36.bc.ca

Website: www.mrsbrine.webnode.com

·       Using www.mrsbrine.webnode.com and Twitter to post notices about updates to website.

·       Planning to use iPads & student devices in classroom to look up information.

·       Students use laptops from the Cow and cellphones to gain access and openness. The improvements to the wireless have made it possible to use these tools without any problems most of the time. Students are enjoying this and there is lots of participation.

·       Teacher attitude is more relaxed and is finding that students are more respectful of the rules (i.e. things like accessing Facebook or texting when they are supposed to be working on class assignments).

Robert Dewinetz        Email: dewinetz_r@sd36.bc.ca

·       Using a lot of BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology – asking students to bring their own devices to school to access the internet via the school wireless) with great success. Some students were reluctant at first but then became willing adopters.

·       Still using Twitter to communicate with students and has modified student contact form to ask for student Twitter handles.

·       Planning to do a “FedEx Day” for Geography 12 where students have 24 hours to deliver a product.

·       Will be using Wordpress blogs/physical/digital portfolios to present finished product.