3D PRINTING STUDENT INQUIRY

When I started at my new school this past year, one of the things that quickly caught my attention was the small black box sitting quietly in the corner of our printing room.  The coloured cords and misshapen shapes drew my interest further and I soon found myself being trained in using a Makerbot 3D Printer. 

What is 3D Printing?
3D printing describes a process in which solid 3D objects are created, one layer of material after another, from a single digital file. Students and Teachers start the process by eitherCreating an entirely original object with a 3D modeling program like Sketchup 

1. Creating an entirely original object with a 3D modeling program
2. Downloading a modifiable 3D template from sites like Instructables, YouMagine, and the MakerBot Thingverse community.

3D Printing and Education
With a sweeping focus in education on critical thinking, problem-solving and inquiry tools like 3D printers and their software have never been more necessary.  Drawing on skills found in Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and Literacy students can use this understanding to solve real world challenges.  If we as educators are seeking to provide students with meaningful learning tasks, then it doesn't get much more authentic than 3D design.

As the first day back draws closer each day, like any good teacher, I am thinking of ways to improve and prepare for an even better next year.  With a strong interest in infusing the Maker ideology into my classroom, I look forward to really exploring this hardware and how I can use it to empower my students.

DID YOU KNOW? OSAPAC AND YOU

What is OSAPAC?

The Ontario Software Acquisition Program Advisory Committee consults with the publicly funded education system to assess provincial priorities in the areas of required software titles recommended by teachers in support of learning. They maintain a web-enabled database, in both official languages of all provincially licensed software. OSAPAC provides additional support, including professional development opportunities, where appropriate and available for the implementation of provincially licensed software.  They are responsible for maintaining a web-enabled database of Ontario curriculum expectations linked to provincially licensed software titles. Finally they consult with the publicly funded education system to assess provincial priorities in the areas of required software titles recommended by teachers in support of learning.

How To Access The Resources?
Each Board/District has a designated “Operational Contact” for Ministry-licensed digital resources. Teachers have access to an online community (eCommunity) from which they can download software titles and access necessary codes.  Once they have accessed the resource, teachers may share the access with students and parents through sharing their class code or via email.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE ONTARIO DIGITAL LEARNING RESOURCES

Trouvez La Moyenne Avec MinecraftEDU

This reflection is based on my experiences using the lesson I adapted from 

Teaching Student-Centered  Mathematics Grades 5-8 (Van de Walle & Lovin: 2006) Drawing on the Big Ideas. from the Grade 5 Data Management strand, of organizing and displaying data, the learning goal for this lesson seeks to instill mastery of the mathematical concept of Mean and to introduce the skill of capturing screenshots.  

The context of this lesson follows prior lessons on bar graphs. Students will be familiar with data sets and will have made their own bar graphs using data sets. Therefore, students will understand how to create a visual representation of data in a set. This lesson precedes lessons on mode and median. Follow-up lessons will explore how the mean changes when data changes. The students have had prior experience using MinecraftEDU, but will learn the new skill of capturing and printing a screenshot. This transferable skill will be used throughout the unit and connect to bullying prevention discussed in Health class.

The use of tech within the lesson seeks to augment the learning experience for the student.  By adding the 3D environment, the student is able to spatially interact with their solution providing a deeper understanding of the shift between the columns as the “moyenne” is solved. The online chat aspect allows the teacher to consolidate the learning with the entire class present at the site of solution, enabling full class participation. While explaining their understanding, the students are also able to practice written communication in French, which is an area of great need for this grade level.  

Finally, the students are able to blog about the experience and include the screenshot of their work to accent their explanation or print and paste their screenshot into their math journal to write a reflection reinforcing their learning.

After first teaching this lesson, I made a few modifications to the technology involved. With the increased functionality of ePortfolio on the Desire2Learn LMS, I started using online screen capturing tools. This way I could have the students capture their entire process from start to finish and discuss the challenges and "ah ha moments" along their path to the solution.  

Things to consider when modifying the lesson this way:

• Network: Using programs like Screencast o'matic draw a lot from you network. Considering that MinecraftEDU will already be pulling a lot, you should test this in advance to using it in lesson.
• Student first names will appear in the chat that is being recorded. While this has not posed any concern for privacy in my experience, each board is different and policy should be considered.

CLICK HERE FOR LESSON PLAN

DIFFERENTIATED ASSESSMENT USING THE D2L GRADER APP

I have been using D2L as my LMS for a few years now.  It is a great way to develop a Blended Learning or eLearning scenario in you classroom and I am learning new things each day.  The game changer for me was the Grader app for iPad. It really helped me in supporting my students success and made my life a lot easier.

In the classroom we would work collaboratively to unpack the learning goals and develop the success criteria.  I would then set them loose to begin their work.  Throughout the process, students would submit sections for feedback through the dropbox option.

Screenshot Class List

I could then access each student individually and monitor their progress from my iPad.  No longer was I using breaking my back carrying stacks of   writing home, nor (heaven forbid) was the work going missing or becoming my daughter's newest art canvas.

I could use the app to draw, markup, highlight, underline, and add inline audio comments anywhere in the assignment.  Students were able to choose the method of feedback they best connected with. I was able to offer specific, timely and personalized feedback to support them in their final product. Students with special needs were able to improve their work through the clarity of the feedback structure and my time spent correcting French written grammar eventually decreased as a result as well.  

Screenshot Class Progress

Once completed, I was able to immediately upload it to their ePortfolio. They were able to receive their results and marks would be instantly uploaded with the rubric.  I could then go back and track their work throughout the year to monitor improvement and document the learning.     

I was also able to share this ePortfolio with their parents and other teachers. I was also part of a panel of other boards looking at how this can be used to replace the hard copy of the ALL ABOUT ME portfolio each student in Ontario is to have.

I have yet to tap into all the possibilities this LMS and App hold and look forward to the fruits further exploration will bring.  

BLENDED LEARNING ACROSS THE DIVISIONS

As stated in other posts, Blended Learning is an area of great interest to me.  Furthermore, if the stars align and the horseshoe above my door works, I will be running my class this year using this model. But why use Blended Learning? How will it better serve my students? What exactly will this look like and what is it?

According to the Ministry of Education, Blended Learning is

Blended learning uses the tools of a learning management system (LMS) to teach and support learning in a face-to-face class. Through blended learning, K-12 students can access high-quality course materials, course calendars, and assignments during and outside school hours.

Students can also take part in face-to-face lessons and communicate with their teacher and classmates using a suite of secure online tools […] These tools help students learn or review key concepts, stay organized, show what they have learned, submit assignments, track their achievement, and communicate with others.

Having taught in all three divisions, I have been "lucky" to have experienced the various challenges each division presents.  Below is a look at how I have explored using Blended Learning in Primary, Junior and Intermediate classrooms.

Primary Division:  In primary, which is my current division, I have been looking a lot at using the flipped classroom aspect of Blended Learning to support my students.  Using our LMS (D2L) and the Showme app for ipad, I create mini-lessons that introduce or pre-teach the concept I am covering in class the next day.  When the students enter the classroom, they are already coming equipped with a general idea of what we are covering, an understanding of the big idea and a confidence through familiarity with the material.

The benefits of this have been significant to both my practice and my students success.  Students special needs are able to access the material easier because they are coming to class with their "minds on" to the concept.  This familiarity has also reduced the anxiety a number of my students faced to new concepts and thus enabled them to engage in the class.  As a French Immersion teacher, this addressed an FSL concern for reinforcing the vocabulary of study as well as supported listening for understanding.  The students in my math and literacy support groups are then instructed to use these videos to discuss with their parents.  Teaching their parents builds self-efficacy and is a powerful way to learn.



Junior Division:  While working in the Junior division, D2L was still in its infancy with our board and so I decided to continue using Edmodo.  I really like the "Facebook" look of Edmodo and it is extremely ease to use for both teachers and students.  I liked that it functioned like a shared blog and the students could share their work and it was immediately presented in the feed.  It was really easy for the students to embed their work from Storybird, Popplet and Voki.  The ease of ability for students to upload audio and visual pieces, provided students with special needs an access to sharing we had not before experienced.

However, the real learning came from the students ability to provide feedback both at the carpet and online.  We began by creating success criteria for an assignment in class, collaborated in their Tribes to develop a plan and then applied the criteria to the work online. Our in class discussions, made for powerful online feedback...powerful and timely.  The students were not only helping others, but they were learning from them and in turn bettering their work, their French language skills in oral, listening, reading and writing and creating a Blended Learning community.

Intermediate Division: The thing I miss the most about teaching Intermediate is all of the awesome things you can do with these kids.  They are able to work independently and their ability to use feedback is significantly more advanced.  Using D2L as my LMS, I was most pleased with using Grader app for supporting my students success in a Blended Learning scenario.

In the classroom we worked collaboratively to unpack the learning goals and develop the success criteria.  I would then set them loose to begin their work.  Throughout the process, students would submit sections for feedback through the dropbox option.  I would then use the Grader app to draw, markup, highlight, underline, and add inline audio comments anywhere in the assignment.  I was able to offer specific, timely and personalized feedback to support them in their final product.  Students with special needs were able to improve their work through the clarity of the feedback structure and my time spent correcting French written grammar eventually decreased as a result as well.  I will be looking to draw this tool into Primary this year as we explore the use of ePortfolio in D2L.

CLICK HERE FOR THE D2L GRADER APP

As the stigma around technology in the classroom becomes decreases along with the price, Blended Learning is becoming a much more popular approach to student success.  I am excited about the possibilities this will bring to my students and my personal growth as an educator.  

MEASUREMENT AND MINECRAFT: A DIAGNOSTIC

Most teachers find it a daunting task to cover the entire curriculum in the time we have with our students.  As a Grade Three teacher, I also have the time consumption of preparing for and administering EQAO.

Instead of teaching my students how to use Twitter and also the grammar structure of passe compose, I might have them collaboratively Tweet about what they did last night and then as a class discuss the success/struggles of the tool and the language.

Given the time constraints we face and the massive amount of expectations to cover, I rarely explicitly teach any technology skill.  Rather I seek to implicitly teach it through exploration within the integrated context of other subject expectations.  I have found the most success for this pedagogical approach through the MinecraftEDU program.

For four years now I have used MinecraftEDU to teach my measurement unit in primary and junior mathematics.  I have researched the influence this virtual environment can have on student success and am constantly looking to integrate it into the other subjects I teach.  For further information on this amazing program, check out the MinecraftEDU page on this site.

To illuminate the implicit approach fostered in the MinecraftEDU environment I have attached a brief explanation of my approach and the handout for my measurement diagnostic to be completed using the program.

CLICK HERE FOR DIAGNOSTIC BREAKDOWN   

CLICK HERE FOR DIAGNOSTIC HANDOUT ENG

CLICK HERE FOR DIAGNOSTIC HANDOUT FRE

NOW HIRING: SOCIAL MEDIA PROFESSIONALS

As the education arena looks to empower our youth with the necessary skills to find success now and in the future, the reality of a social media skill set becomes ever more important each day.  Now as a primary teacher this might all seem a little silly, or is it.  After all, I am using Scratch and Scratchjr to support early an early coding capacity, which also supports a great understanding of spatial sense in mathematics.  So why then, if social media skills are now being taught in university, would I not seek to empower my tiny tweeters and baby bloggers now?

While formulating the "social media skills to pay the bills," I had a few interesting revelations.

• Collaboration - The term social can refer to an interaction between the individuals and a group. Currently, there is a strong push to promote collaborative inquiry and discussion within the learning process.  Group work is becoming more and more a common practice, and thus the need to teach these interaction skills have too.  Interestingly, many of these social skills are the very foundation of developing a social media skill set.  While the physical presence may be removed, the necessity to promote active listening, mutual respect, positive sharing and a right to pass/participate transcends the physical into the digital

• Purpose and Main Idea - In literacy, we spend a great deal of time looking writing for purpose and drawing out the main idea of an article or story.  These skills take years to effectively develop and are integrated throughout the curriculum.  Given the confines of tools like Twitter or the necessity be concise in a headline, once again there appears a transference between the learning in the physical classroom and that of online collaboration.  According to Social Media Wunderkind Marc Guberti, "to effectively share a message one must use the main idea, that in itself will grab them to learn more."

• Assigning Importance - We have Math clubs, basketball practice, science tutoring, reading programs because we believe effective practice makes better and instills importance.  We track success of student growth and encourage the importance of studying.  If we make something vital to functioning effectively, then we invest ourselves in that thing to ensure success.  Committing to your class blog, twitter, student portfolio etc is no different than the sought results explained above.  This year a teach said, "I gave up on a class website because no one was going on it."  After discussing the importance they assigned to it for the student to find success, we quickly realized they were not consistently using it, the students had no investment in it and they did not commit to making it vital piece of their class.  If we model the importance of active social engagement in social media for success, then our students will inherently replicate this so as to be part of the collaboration.

While we need to teach online safety, I wonder how necessary it is to explicitly teach social media skills? Rather, are we not already doing this and these social skills are thus able to be reinforced through the integration of the electronic media?