It's official! I'm Permanent!

An official "permanent" marker.

ICT in Primary Education: Transforming Children's Learning Week 1

Have you ever heard of a MOOC before? It is a massive open on-line course. I heard about these on Ted.com and have wanted to do one for a while. I kept waiting for the perfect time. I have learned that there isn't a perfect time. I just have to do it...so here I am! Doing it!

This week I introduced myself on the forums. It was astounding to read where all the particpants are from! It is literally full of people from all over the world - every continent!

Week 1 got me to sign up for diigo.com. I learned about this at an apple workshop I went to, but I never did sign up because I couldn't quite see the benefit. Funny how these things seem to come around again and again.

It's simply amazing how much kids can learn by using technology. Check out this video. It is a great intro to the many things they learned: teamwork, lifecycle of the butterfly, as well as all about different types of butterflies.






This timing is really perfect because we are going to be doing a project on animal life cycles using Ipads. I've seen a number of different ways to identify the levels of learning that kids do with technology. One idea is the SAMR model. This MOOC defines different types of learnin with technology in these categories:

Acquisition	Reading books, papers; Listening to teacher presentations face-to-face, lectures; Watching demonstrations, master classes.	Reading multimedia resources, websites, digital documents and resources; Listening to podcasts, webcasts; Watching animations, videos.
Collaboration	Small group project, discussing other students’ outputs, creating a joint output.	Small group project, using online forums, wikis, chat rooms, etc. for discussing other students’ outputs, creatng a joint digital output.
Discussion	Tutorials, tutor groups, student seminars (students leading discussion), discussion groups, class discussions.	Online tutorials, tutor groups and seminars, email discussions, discussion forums, web-conferencing tools (synchronous and asynchronous).
Investigation	Using text-based study guides; Analysing the ideas and information in a range of materials and resources; Using books, people, field trips, to collect data for analysis; Comparing texts, searching and evaluating information and ideas.	Using online advice and guidance; Analysing the ideas and information in a range of digital resources; Using digital tools to collect and analyse data; Comparing digital texts, using digital tools for searching and evaluating information and ideas.
Practice	Doing practice exercises; using tools; doing practice-based projects, labs, field trips, face-to-face role-play activities.	Using digital tools, models, simulations, digital games, microworlds, virtual labs and field trips, online role-play activities.
Production	Producing their own representations of what they have learned, using statements, essays, reports, accounts, designs, performances, artefacts, animations, models, videos.	Producing and storing digital documents, representations of designs, performances, artefacts, animations, models, resources, slideshows, photos, videos, blogs, e-portfolios.

This module got me thinking about the animal life cycles project we are going to be doing next week. Students will definitely do acquisition, and production and perhaps some collaboration and discussion. After reviewing the information in this module, I decided that I will make a little change in our project. Students could get more practice/discussion if they share their information with more than one person, rather than share it one time with the whole class. I think we will have a sharing day where I ask students to view four presentations and grade them. This will give them a chance to give feedback to their peers, be accountable for the information they receive, and the presenter will get four chances to share their information.

The more I learn about technology in the classroom, the more I realize it can be used in almost every area of learning. Learning using technology is becoming essential in the classroom.

The cool thing about this MOOC is how people in the MOOC are collaborating. Check out this google doc!

Book Club - How Does It Work?

I often get questions about how I run our Grade 3 book club. I thought I'd create a post so that when the question gets asked I can send people here. I really love book club. Check out the "Book Club" label for more book club posts.

• The book club is at lunch time, once a month. I have often thought it should be part of our regularly scheduled day, but if we did that the school would have to buy all the books. 
•  I do a book talk on two books. Sometimes I show a book trailer and sometimes I just talk about it. I try to have read the books I present ahead of time. Although, I don't always keep that rule. The kids vote on a book. I do the voting during DEAR time and invite all grade 3s to come into my classroom to vote. We usually do the voting on the same day we've had the  book club meeting.
• Students bring their lunches to my room and we eat and continue on through lunch recess. The voting happens after lunch recess, during DEAR, so that students who didn't read last month's book, who think they want to join us next month, can have a say.
• I'm pretty flexible about being part of book club. Often, with clubs in school, we tell kids once they commit, they have to stick with it. I think some books appeal to some kids and some don't - although, when they don't like a book I really encourage them to still come to the meeting because it makes for a great discussion when not everyone is a huge fan of the book. Plus, as the year goes on, some kids get interested because of the "talk". I want to always be encouraging them to read.
• I have way too many kids in book club. It's a challenge. I've thought about ways to divide it into smaller groups - but none have been long lasting. One month we read both books that were presented in book talks, and that made for a little smaller crowds. It might be the way to go.
• I try to pick books that are easily available at the public library or at book stores. I go to United Library Services to buy books for the kids as well. I send home a notice about what book we're reading that month and tell them if they bring the money in by a certain date, I'll go pick up copies. United Library Services gives us a discount if we buy more than 10 copies of a book.
• I have a laminated card with discussion starters that I pass out at the beginning of our meetings. Kids usually discuss the questions in small groups while they eat their lunch. Once it looks like those discussions are finished we discuss the same questions, and anything else that comes up, as a large group.
• We usually have an activity to go with the book. We play the name game (put a character's name on one person's back and they can ask yes/no questions), which is a big hit. We might do a craft. We might watch a bit of the movie, if there is one. We might have a treat that goes with the book....anything goes, and it varies from month to month. It's extra fun when we can connect with an author on twitter. I'd love to skype an author in some time. So far that hasn't worked out though.
• I make up quizzes for the book and put the quizzes on Edmodo in the Grade 3 book club group. The day before book club I tally how many correct answers each person got (easy to do with the grades function). I put all the names on a spreadsheet and then we use a random number generator to pick a winner. The winner can choose a book from my box of new books I keep in my cupboard.
• We have small discussions on Edmodo as the month progresses. Kids love to post when they've finished reading the book and that's often where the discussions start. I think next year I will start posting questions as the month progresses.
• I make a book mark with suggested reading goals (by this date be up to this chapter) to help keep some kids on track.
• If they have not read the book, I tell them they cannot come to book club. Sometimes they come to me to ask if they can come because they're almost finished and have really been trying. I am usually a push over in those cases.

That's about it! As I think of more, I'll add to this post.

Digital Citizenship

Sometimes the kids are smarter than me on these things.

Today we were talking about animal life cycles and how animals care for their young. Some animals look after their young, and some animals, like reptiles, lay eggs and never see them again. As we were talking about mammals and how they nurse their young, one of my students got thinking (you could see the wheels whirring!), and said, “If male mammals don’t help care for their young, why do males have nipples?”

I commented that that was a great question and said perhaps he could take on the assignment to find out for us.

 

He said to me, “Actually, Mrs. Ackroyd, I’m not allowed to google nipples because all sorts of bad stuff will show up.”

 

Oh ya. Oops!!

 

I’ll take that one on J

 

 

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.....And in case you're interested. You can read here to find out why men have nipples.

Reading Buddies

Loved watching these two debate which kind if butterflies we have while they compared them to butterflies in their books. They had so many questions! 

Operation Save the Caterpillars!

As part of our animal life cycles unit, we raise butterflies in my classroom. We order caterpillars from a place in BC and make daily observations as they change. For some reason, this year, a lot of our caterpillars made their cocoons and then fell off the lid of the jar they were in.

Today I had a volunteer in the classroom and I asked her to transfer all the cocoons from the little jars into our terrarium. We talked about how odd and sad it was that so many had fallen. I figured there was no hope for them.

Not so!! My amazing volunteer came up with a plan. She tied a string around the tip of each cocoon and hung them from the terrarium.

I never imagined so much effort going to saving our caterpillars.

Good thing for volunteers!! They make our school a better place, and clearly make this a better place for caterpillars!!

Reading Aloud

I seem to have come across a lot of articles lately on the importance of reading stories aloud. It has caused me to stop and try to figure out how I could fit this into our daily schedule more often. I have been a little disappointed in the book we picked for book club this month. It is too easy. Many of the kids finished it in one day. And I haven't really found the story compelling.....until I started to read it aloud. It has suddenly really come to life. There are lots of groans when the bell goes and we have to put it down for another day. We have been doing a lot of writing lately in preparation for the provincial achievement tests coming up. Yesterday, for the last period, since everyone had worked so hard all day, I let them vote in what we should do for last period: continue working on the fantastic stories they'd started, do some handwriting (cursive is very popular in our room!), or read our book.

They chose to read another chapter.

Who can argue with that?! 

Busy Week

I have intentions to blog daily. Sometimes the week gets away from me. We were making Mother's Day stories this week as well as preparing for out PAT next week. We threw in a few fun things too:

We each adopted our own caterpillar, which will, in time, turn into a butterfly!

Bunnies visited our classroom!

We built skeletons of 3-d objects.

We spent some time reading outside in the sun.

We shared successes!

What a great week!

Notes

I often get notes left on my desk from students.

This was today's: 

 Love it.

Connections to Reading

The power of story!! I love it when kids make connections to stories we have read.

This week we have been reflecting on our experiences with Rachel's Challenge. One of my students wrote about how Rachel's Challenge is similar to the book that we read called The Ant and the Elephant. I was surprised to read his entry because we read the book a long time ago and really haven't talked about it since.

I also love that he underlined the title. This week I mentioned to them that when you write the title of a book in a sentence, we usually underline it.
 

Cochlear Implants

We had such an interesting day! We had a presentation for our Hearing and Sound unit. We had someone talk to us about cochlear implants, about what it is like to be deaf and how delightful it is to hear again.

This is our guest showing us our cochlear implant. She had her surgery in November just this past year.

It was interesting to Students to watch someone sign and listen to someone who is speaking. Today her cochlear implant wasn't working. The battery was dead! 

This is the lady who came to interpret.

Our presenter could hear when she was born, but when she was a teenager she became deaf after being sick. She has not heard anything for 30 years. She said hearing again was very shocking.....and very exciting.

Some of our questions:

What does it feel like to be deaf?

How does the cochlear implant help you hear?

What is your favorite sound now?

What sounds do you not like? (Babies crying....it is a very high pitch and it hurts)

Why do you make sounds when you are signing?

What languages do you speak?

Were you sad when you became deaf?

How long have you been deaf?

Can you go swimming?

Are you used to wearing the implant?

Does someone have to stay with you to help you?
If someone screams in your ear how come you still can't hear it?

Will you ever become undeaf?

Question to her son: 

When your mom is deaf can you sneak things easier?

Just like last year, the children really have a hard time getting the idea about what it means to be deaf. They often ask the same question again and again: well could you hear someone scream? Can you hear us clap? Could you hear a fire alarm? Perhaps it's because we don't often meet deaf people. Not sure. It is really a difficult concept for them!