Goat PSA

Some students of mine were interviewed for a video project they completed.  The article never made it to press, but I was able to secure a copy.

Portfolios: Day 1

I found this image shortly after my class began work on the actual digital portfolio today.  I see it as something of a continuum on a couple levels.  The first is from real to imagined.  The second is more along a time continuum.

We are a big pile of Lego.  There were a number of students with varying degrees of technical expertise. There are some students who know a bit of what's happening and some who seem as though they are at the bottom of the pile wondering why their world looks all randomly coloured.  Adding to this messy pile were numerous technical glitches: some computers wouldn't power up, others couldn't find the internet, while others lost all graphical content (it's really hard to navigate in a text-only environment).  Some students got as far as logging on to their digital space while others were able to surge ahead and were able to build their portfolio structures.

But this is only the beginning and we still have much to learn.  I envision older students helping younger students.  I see teachers getting excited about students getting excited about their learning.  I also don't really imagine an end goal at any point.  And I think that's fine.  What I do see, however, is a journey and we have made a good start in the right direction.

Screen Capture Scavenger Hunt

Anticipating having my students create their own student portfolios, I'm thinking about giving them meaningful ways to learn about collecting evidence from their learning.  A simple way to document this is by taking screen captures of their projects both completed and in process.  So to have some fun with it, I created a screen capture scavenger hunt which mixed a bit of fun and a bit of their current learning, and they had to place the evidence into a presentation.  I tried to build in some difficulties to mimic some of the challenges they would face when building their own portfolios and I was surprised by the resourcefulness with which some of them completed the task.

Digital Portfolios

General:

• Authentic Assessment Resources
• Five Ways to Use Online Portfolios in the Classroom
• Curriculum, Content and Assessment for the Real World
• The reality of assessing ‘authentic’ electronic portfolios [PDF]
• The Beginner’s Guide To Creating Digital Portfolios
• Using ePortfolios for Engaged Learning [PDF]
  

Assessment:

• E-Portfolio Assessment Rubric
• EPortfolio (Digital Portfolio) Rubric
  
  

Student Resources:

• Weebly Help Centre
  Adding Pictures to a Site
  

Daily 5

So here it goes--The Daily 5.  Not sure what I'm doing.  I'm going to go with 'Work On Writing' for the first day and build from there.  We'll begin with recounting narratives of what happened on the weekend.

• Daily 5: Quick Start Guide
• What is the Daily 5?

Change

SmartBoard: How to Draw a Cat

SmartBoard Sample: Division

SmartBoard Session: October 24, 2014

TIC Report: October 9, 2014

Neil Gaiman on Writing

I first began to appreciate Neil Gaiman with the story of Stardust.  I find his eight rules for writing enlightening.

http://breathingfiction.com/2012/09/29/neil-gaimans-eight-rules-for-writing/

Multiplication Tables as Art?!

Taken from: http://sharynideas.com/?p=706

A few years back I took the workshop Mathematics in the PYP in The Netherlands. One of the learning experiences I took away and still use today was turning the multiplication tables into spirolaterals.

By doing this the students can:
-practice and learn their times tables
-see patterns in their times tables
-inquire into why some times table spirolaterals look similar to others
-predict how other times table spirolaterals will look based on the tables they have already done
-Have Fun!

I will share with you the process as well as some student samples.
I will use the 3 times table.
First list out the times table on paper.

3
6
9
12
15
18
21
24
27
30

Now we are only looking for single digit numbers, so any two digit numbers that appear, you need to add together until you get a single digit. Keep going until you see a repeated pattern.
3
6
9
12 = 1+2= 3
15 = 1+5=6
18 =1+8=9
21 =2+1=3

I can stop for now I see the pattern is 3, 6, 9

Now I take my number pattern to the graph paper.
Pick your starting spot and then draw a line 3 units right
Then 6 units down.
Then 9 units left.
Then 3 units up.
Then 6 units right
Then 9 units down
And so on and so on , UNTIL you get back to your original starting point.

This image created is your 3 times table spirolateral.
You can add color to it as well.

Student Examples

As the students continue they begin to see similarities between certain times tables and you can have them inquire into why that might be.

They also begin to think about larger times tables like the 27 times table, and predict based on what they know, what the spirolateral will look like.

Through this learning experience, students are:
-constructing their own meaning
-transferring meaning (into symbols)
-understanding and applying their knowledge

I have done this with grades 3, 4, and 5. Each time the students truly enjoy the experience and are engaged in their thinking and learning.

What do you think the 9 times table would look like? Have a go!

Star Wars Education Posters

Check out these fantastic Star Wars education posters

Everything You Need to Know About Planet Earth

Track

This is the long result of some class projects we worked on this term.  If it's meaningless to you, that's fine.  It's more for me than it is for anyone else.

Summer Project: mini documentaries

The learning goal this summer is to created a series of mini documentaries--one per week!  Ideas so far:

• camping with kids
• flying with kids
• mountain biking
• running
• hiking with kids
• road tripping with kids
• Brackendale

Resources:

• How to Make a Short Documentary Film

Critical Thinking

Runaway Lessons

Sometimes lessons have a way of getting away from me and taking on a life of their own.  I like to think I have pretty good ideas.  What I sometimes don't always account for is the termination of a lesson.  In some cases, I think I could conceivably take an idea--like perimeter for example--and run with its tangential themes all year long.  I find sometimes there's just so much to learn about a single topic that I'd like to explore all its nooks and crannies.

Such was the case with perimeter.  It began small and innocently and my class has now taken to using satellite images to create maps.  And they're quite good!  I hate stifling good learning (as if there was any other kind of learning) and therefore have a hard time transitioning to new concepts.  It helpful, though, when one concept leads naturally to a new one, but I don't always build really great transitions.  This seems to embody concepts of the emergent curriculum, though I have much to learn of this idea.

We blended concepts from PowerPoint (essentially a building tool) with mapmaking concepts.  By taking screen captures of our school grounds, we let that be the background for our map.  We then simply used shapes, lines, and text fall upon that framework till the map (or more technically: diagram) of the school was complete.

Shapes, lines, and text with satellite image

Once the various shapes, lines, and text were in place, they simply removed the background satellite image.  The result was a map.

School map

I believe my students have a much deeper understanding of perimeter (and area) and what that looks like in real life.

Maps

You're Getting Old!

Not super educational, but this site reveals a bit more of your life than you might want to know.

You're Getting Old!

Randall Munroe: Comics that ask "what if?"

I just love his thinking.  Check out xkcd.