Category Archives: Professional Development

Jefferson/Overseas Science and Technology Institute (JOSTI)

The JOSTI conference was held in Washington, DC from June 27^th to July 1^st 2016

Keynote Speaker

Meg Wilson, the K-12 Education Development Executive at Apple spoke of how the term “technology” is relative, and that today’s students were born into a world of instant, expansive, and portable access to information and individuals/communities around the world. She stressed the need to meet our students in their world and use it to redefine education. Some great examples of using social media, publishing applications, and interactive web platforms were introduced to illustrate a learning environment which focuses on personalized discovery, world-wide audiences, global collaboration, dynamic information acquisition, intrinsic motivation, and skills/expertise development.

It was inspiring and reassuring to hear one of the leading innovation engines discuss education as a student-centered process. What was presented aligned with my instructional philosophies, and I am excited to see the products and applications being created in collaboration with educators to enhance education in the 21^st century. I plan to explore iBooks, iTunesU, and other applications to help expand the walls of the classroom, promote independent learning, and help students create work they are proud of.

Workshops

The workshops for educators addressed a wide range of topics including Maker Education, Research and Development, Computer Science, Digital Citizenship, and several applications to support learning, assessment, distribution of information, and blended learning. Many of the workshops focused too much on web application functionality, and too little on classroom use of the application as modification and redefinition of learning (SAMR). However, some of the workshops provided detailed information on rationale, research, challenges, and how the web applications could solve those challenges in meaningful ways.

In particular, the sessions on applications to support executive functioning, visualizing the world with geo projects, and the hour of code were very informative and applicable to me.

The executive functioning (EF) presentation began with the introduction of a website that simulates the challenges students with EF deficits have. The website, Through Your Child’s Eyes, contains a substantial amount of information about differently abled learners, which can be used to help parents, teachers, and students understand the specific challenges these struggling learners face, and how to best support them.

The presentation divided EF into four main categories where deficits/challenges may arise. Each category was then broken down into identification of a student with the challenge through common behaviours, background information and research about the challenges, and specific and detailed tools and strategies to help the students build the skills to overcome the difficulties. The presentation was saturated with information and resources about support for students with EF deficits, and I look forward to exploring these resources to expand my understanding of the challenges faced by my students and the ways I can help all of my students improve their EF skills. In particular, I look forward to reading the WATI guide to assistive technology for organization.

The geo projects presentation had some great information about how to use Google Maps, Google MyMaps, and Google Earth to redefine the exploration of a topic spatially. Much of the information was familiar to me from working with Torie Leinbach on her class’ IB History project, though several other great applications were explored in the session. Some of the ideas I plan to integrate into my future lessons are the use of Street View History, GeoGuessr, Google Earth, and creating/uploading 360 degree photos. I think the tools presented are a great way to visualize information from the class, the school, and the world which can be integrated into every single subject matter.

The hour of code workshop presented coding through a teaching lens, which was incredibly useful. I now feel as though I have adequate resources to participate in an hour of code and I know where to go and what to do. Particularly, I loved the Blockly Games website (which doesn’t require the installation of any programs), and being introduced to Karel the Robot (where students can write in raw code and simulate a robot). I feel confident introducing the hour of code to my students, demonstrating the possibilities of code, and providing resources for extended learning.

I’ve composed an annotated list of apps, from the conference, indicating what each app does and how I plan to use it in the future. I will continue to organize and add to list as I become exposed to additional apps.

The presentation on Maker Education by John Kilbane validated a lot of the work I had done to initiate the Maker Space at ISD. An important point stressed by John was the initial and early involvement of parents, as well as various ways to remove the barriers to Maker Education (such as Maker Faires, Maker PDs, and a student Maker team to generate Maker ideas). I had focused predominantly on teacher involvement and student exposure, but now realize that in order to have Maker Education as a staple in my future classrooms/schools, I will need to get the parents on board from the beginning of the year and help support the parents with bringing the Making culture home. The American School of Bombay Research and Development (R&D) team wrote and published a step-by-step guide to initiating a Maker Space in schools. I have purchased the book and look forward to reading it to learn even more!

UBC Orchard Garden

IMG_20150425_111200323 The UBC Orchard Garden is an inter-faculty garden project run by UBC students. The garden project aims to help connect current and studying teachers, university faculty, and UBC students with garden-based learning and teaching. The Orchard Garden created a series of formal workshops for teacher candidates interested in the pedagogies of garden-based learning, and how it relates to the current and new draft BC curricula. Teacher Candidates (myself included) who attended these workshops were awarded a Certificate of Participation for the year.

The workshops were held on the first Saturday of each month, and focused on a variety of practical aspects of gardens in teaching and learning. The workshops included, but were not limited to aspects of gardening practice, social justice, ecology, harvest, food preparation, and historical teachings. Cross curricular links were made with math, sciences, languages, social studies, and the arts.

One particular workshop highlighted the potential for garden-based education as an integrated approach. The workshop itself IMG_20150516_114915375 identified several related lessons that utilized the garden as a resource, and connected directly to curriculum. The focus of this workshop was herbs, and began with a historical investigation of the use of herbs in Canadian history with a particular emphasis on Indigenous ways of knowing. In the garden, after a period of exploration and discussions around the herb physiology and garden ecology, we were asked to find, identify, and properly harvest the herbs. Once brought back into the classroom, we explored the use of math in harvesting, and in recipes. We then used our harvested herbs to made compound butter as a group, and share eating it with butter. From there, we critically discussed nutrition and various types of diets.

The workshops were well thought out, and touched on many important skills and core competencies. I used much of the knowledge gained at these workshops throughout my Community Field Experience Practicum (ADD LINK).

EDCamp35

I attended a professional development “unconference” called EdCamp. EdCamps are considered “unconferences” because they are completely participant driven, instead of formally held with predetermined subjects and speakers. Any attendee can propose a topic for discussion and post it to the wall. Each attendee is provided with three circle stickers that they can use to vote on the topics they would like to participate in. I proposed the topic “Problem Based and Inquiry Based Learning” because I wanted to hear from experienced educators about how they were incorporating inquiry and problem based approaches into their daily lessons.

IMG_20150418_135355097

A large group of educators attended the session, and I began the discussion by telling the group that I had begun Genius Hour with my class to ease them into the inquiry based model, but was interested in learning more about the day to day opportunities to embed inquiry and problem based approaches into the curriculum. Most of the other participants expressed the same desire to learn how to better incorporate inquiry into the classroom, and many of the teachers had also initiated Genius Hour or something similar.

Some of the educators suggested presenting students with an end point (like an answer) and asking them to figure out how the end point was reached (inquiry into the process that led to that result), which could be used in any subject from Math to Home Economics. I thought this was an interesting approach, because it takes away the risk of failure. This is in stark contrast to what I have been investigating in my practicum: the importance of risk and failure in education, particularly in supporting a growth mindset in lieu of a fixed mindset (Dweck, 2006). However, some interesting discussion was brought up around the idea of this approach, and it may be something I try in the future. I plan to continually inquire into how other teachers are incorporating inquiry into their lessons as I continue to learn as an educator.

I later attended a session on MakerSpaces. I had heard of MakerSpaces once before in the coding workshop I attended, and was interested in learning more. Several teachers discussed Maker Fairs they had hosted in their school gyms, and numerous resources were discussed and recommended. Following the session, I purchased the book “Invent to Learn“, which is about giving students the space for creating and building. I am looking forward to reading it. I also began searching the web for some more resources and came across MakerEd, which had a School Edition Manual for MakerSpaces, and I purchased an Arduino microcomputer and have begun tinkering with it.

Coding Workshop

Before entering the education program, my familiarity and knowledge of computer and internet use was very limited. Other than some previous tinkering with HTML, my usage was limited to Microsoft Office and research. I have always been fascinated with the expansive potential of technology use, and was extremely lucky that my cohort was paired with the Personalized Learning and Technology cohort at UBC. My interest and passion for technology use in the classroom skyrocketed this year, and I was fortunate to attend several workshops and discussions. One such workshop was held on February 19^th in Surrey, and was instructed by Mr. Curtis Wiebe (@DivisionW).

The workshop focussed on the use of coding in the classroom: how to introduce coding to students, multiple uses for coding, and the cross curricular benefits of coding. Curtis recommended introducing coding through non-computer means, and focusing on the applied logic of sequencing and planning. One such example used a kinesthetic approach where children physically move another person, writing down each movement they made in order to complete a given task, emphasizing the basic step by step nature of coding. We were exposed to several websites and apps to help students practice the concepts, such as Scratch Jr and Hopscotch. The apps and websites emphasize the continual need for revision, persistence, patience, and attention to detail required in coding. These transferable skills and competencies can be carried into numerous courses and subjects.

I was at first nervous to even entertain the idea of exploring coding in the classroom due to my lack of experience. However, as Marva Collins, Carol Dweck, Yvonne Dawdiak (@yvonnedtechtalk), and numerous other experienced educators have echoed throughout the year, “a good teacher is one who continues to learn along with the students” (Dweck, 2010). I am excited about the potential for learning that coding can bring into my future classroom for both my students and myself. I am excited to further explore the use of microcomputers, such as Arduino , and websites such as tynker.com and madewithcode.com. I recently began teaching myself Python, designing skeleton units for computer science, and have explored some potential uses of code in the classroom with a colleague. I plan to continue my own learning to maximize the impact of coding within my future classrooms.

A few ideas shared between colleagues. I am hoping to expand on these ideas as I learn more.

Teacher Night at Science World

There were two main takeaways from the Teacher Night at Science World: amazing resources, and great ideas.

I discovered that Science World provides free, teacher contributed, curriculum linked, science-based resources, lesson plans, and activities for educators. Additionally, Science World offers a program that connects teachers with scientists, engineers, technologists and tradespeople to enhance classroom teaching through workshops. I found the idea similar to the Skype classroom where you can invite guest speakers into the classroom through Skype.

I was also able to pick up some great resources for the students in my class. Based on the interests they expressed through their Genius Hour Projects (provide link), I collected information about starting a recycling program at our school and about programs offered at the local film production school. I think the students will be excited to receive the information.

The Science World staff presented several great inquiry based demonstrations that could easily be modified for the classroom. The demonstrations focused on discovering science through the active alteration of variables. They were similar in concept to the “undemos” we created in our Science class. One of the examples that I thought would make a particularly great inquiry-based demonstration was the Come-Back Can. It would be similar to a black/mystery box lesson in that the students could try to guess how the Can worked, and perhaps extend the activity by getting the students to attempt to recreate it.

British Columbia Association of Mathematics Teachers (BCAMT)

The BCAMT Conference was held on Saturday November 29th 2014

BCAMT New Teachers Conference outline

BCAMT New Teachers Conference 2014 poster

Keynote Speaker

The Keynote speaker for the event was Dr. Ann Anderson. She expressed the importance of connecting math to everyday life to enhance student engagement and comprehension of applicability.

Workshops

The first workshop I attended explored the use of games in math. A key takeaway from this workshop was that games are a way to modify content and vary instruction for learners. We explored ways to minimize luck and enhance strategy in the games to optimize student thinking during the activities. We played numerous games from the Math Games for BCAMT, exploring objectives, strategies, and variations to make the games more or less difficult depending on the class and lesson objective. The games were great, however, I noticed that many created to be competitive. As a strong advocate for collaborative learning, I tried to think of variations of the games to promote a common goal for the students within the framework of the game. Focusing on a common goal, individual accountability, and positive interdependence, I came up with variations for some of the games that would promote collaboration as opposed to competition.

The second workshop was called “Creating a Thinking Classroom,” and it was based on the research of Dr. Peter Liljedahl. The basic concept is to get rid of note taking, minimize instruction, and focus entirely on constructing learning by struggling through problems and debriefing/discussing the thinking process. The key factors in this methodology include many vertical, non-permanent surfaces, random groupings, and relevant tasks created through problematizing the curriculum (A great article written by the workshop leader, Mr. Michael Pruner outlines the idea). The methodology provides ample opportunity for teachers to conduct ongoing formative assessments, and to praise strategy and thinking over results. The teacher values the struggle, and the thinking required to solve the problems. After the students have struggled through the problems, the teacher facilitates a debrief where students discuss what strategies they used and why.

Mr. Pruner tends not to give repetitive homework assignments, but instead talked about how he uses journaling extensively to reflect on students’ thinking, and end of term assignments. He provides the students with resources they can use if they want to practice or read up on the task further. He says that this is part of the students taking ownership of their learning, and developing intrinsic motivation. I liked the idea of taking pictures of the boards when students were finished, and helping them create portfolios of their thinking. Mr. Pruner said that at the end of a unit or term, the students would get to choose one of the problems, and do a more extensive assignment on it. He showed us some of the creative ways in which the students demonstrated their learning. I appreciate the methodology in that it illuminates student process, and encourages students to talk out the problems.

Technology in Transit

I participated in the Technology in Transit event organized by the Educational Technology Support staff of the UBC Education department. The intent of the event was to showcase a technology-related project that could be used to enhance student learning in the classroom. I chose to showcase Explain Everything as I had recently created an educational video about the evolution of a flatworm with the app, and incorporated the app in my practicum classroom. I wrote a brief description of the app and a bio for the ETS website, and created a handout for students and staff (Explain Everything handout)

The event consisted of presenting the app’s functionality and demonstrating several potential uses in the classroom to student passerbys during lunchtime in the Education building at UBC. Several staff members showed a keen interest in the app’s abilities, and many students took copies of the handout. At the end of the event, I was awarded with a certificate of participation.

Computer Using Educators of British Columbia (CUEBC)

The CUEBC conference was held on October 24th 2014.

Keynote Speaker

The conference began with an excellent keynote speaker named Will Richardson. Mr. Richardson emphasized the pivotal role that technology has begun to play in our classrooms, and highlighted the importance of embracing technology as a way to transform education. Much of what Mr. Richardson spoke of resonated with me, and has influenced the way I approach lessons in my classroom.

Mr. Richardson discussed the importance of fostering conditions that make students want to learn more. He shares my belief that promoting discovery of content through problem solving, building, playing, and creating will better result in long lasting comprehension due to the constructive nature of the learning taking place. Mr. Richardson had an excellent idea about creating integrated “missions” for students instead of specific subjects. For example, “the elimination of hunger,” which can be approached from biological, statistical, and humanities perspectives.

In order to maximize discovery, classroom walls need to become much thinner so that students can reach out and communicate to experts, a feat possible with current technology. With the radically changed classrooms, student self-regulation becomes increasingly important as students learn to navigate through, and use the information online.

Workshops

The first workshop I attended was held by Bryson Norrish, a Google Certified Teacher in Vancouver. Mr. Norrish explored just over 20 apps/websites that could be used in the classroom to support learning. I plan to test out and try as many of the apps as I can in search of those that fulfill the “Redefinition” category of the SAMR model, promoting transformation in education. Mr. Norrish also mentioned that we could apply to the Google Teacher Academy, and if selected, we could go to Google for a 2 day workshop. I would love to do this, as I have a strong passion for technology integration in the classroom.

The second workshop I attended was held by Bryan Hughes, a North Vancouver teacher. Mr. Hughes explored the potential for iBeacon use in the classroom; Bluetooth beacons which connect the physical world with digital devices. Unfortunately, these particular beacons required Macintosh Operating systems. However, upon watching the presentation I was able to relate beacon use to QR codes and began brainstorming many ways in which QR codes could be used in the classroom to facilitate Total Physical Response activities.

The final workshop I attended was on Digital Citizenship and Social Media with students. The workshop touched on adolescent brain development as it relates to social media use, an awareness of social media driven envy, and the importance of constant critical analysis of what is seen online. With reference to Juan Enriquez’s TED talk, the workshop reinforced the permanency of online behaviour.