Aviva

I just finished my own presentation a few minutes ago on Using Web 2.0 Tools In The Primary Classroom. I was amazed when the numbers in the room went up to almost 80 participants. Even more incredibly, there were people from all over the world attending the session: from those in Australia and Israel to those around the corner in Hamilton. Wow! These are all passionate educators and administrators that really want to do everything they can for children. These are people that inspire me every single day on Twitter, and these are people that I’m so glad I can connect with online and/or in person. Thanks to everyone that attended today, and thanks for all of your support in the Elluminate session itself and on Twitter afterwards.

Click on the image above to see the slides from my presentation today. Here’s a link to a recording of the presentation.

An educator that I love following on Twitter, @thenerdyteacher, has created a fantastic hashtag called #SchoolDidAGoodThing. I think that the Reform Symposium is full of great examples of “school doing a good thing,” and I’m so glad that I spent this beautiful weekend being involved in such great professional development!

I know that so many of us were involved in the Reform Symposium, so what are some highlights of the weekend for you? I hope that we can all share here what we learned and did as part of this outstanding conference!

Aviva

Then today I was amazed! Just as we were boarding the bus this morning, one of my Grade 2 students said to me, “Miss Dunsiger, I’m so excited! I packed a notebook to bring with me on the trip. I’m going to write down everything that I learned today!” Wow! What a great idea! I figured that this student might record one or two points that he could share once we got back to school. On the bus ride home though, he showed me his notebook. He had 10 pages full of notes detailing what he learned today. I was amazed!

Click on this photograph to take you to an online book of this student’s work. Please note that some pages may be difficult to read because of the glare.

I never asked any of my students to do this, but based on interest alone, this child created one of the best field trip activities ever! He made this day about learning, and it’s clear that he learned a lot. To me, this is a great example of why we have to give students control over their own learning, for often they will amaze us with what they can do.

On Monday, we’ll be reflecting on today’s trip. Thanks to this student, I’m not going to just give one follow-up activity, but instead I’m going to make some suggestions and see what the students do. I can’t wait to see what they share!

Aviva

I’ve been trying to think of the perfect way to say, “goodbye.” I started to think about what I might want when I retire, and I realized that the best gift of all would be to know that I made a difference. Bev, you’ve made a difference. Here’s my Top 5 List (in no particular order) of What You’ve Taught Me Over Your Years At Ancaster Meadow:

1) You taught me that students come first. Every decision that you make, you make with the students in mind. You really showed me the importance of thinking of students and their needs, and planning based on what is best for them.

2) You taught me the importance of having fun. Whether getting a pie in the face at Spring Fling or helping to paper mache dinosaur eggs in the classroom, you always saw the importance of laughing and learning.

3) You taught me that learning never stops. You model this in all that you do too. You always read the blog post links that I send you and the ideas that I share, and you’re always willing to try something new. You see the importance in “change,” and you helped me see this as well!

4) You taught me the importance of slowing down and really listening. I’m a talker. I didn’t start talking until I was almost four, and my parents love to tell me now that I’m “making up for lost time.”:) Sometimes as a talker, I forget the importance of stopping and listening. The two of us have had so many wonderful conversations over the years, and it was by listening that I learned the most!

5) You taught me to set high goals and do everything that I can to achieve them. Even when the goals seemed out of reach, you were always there to let me talk and encourage me along the way. You believed in me, and you reminded me about the importance of believing in my students. We both benefited!

Bev, you’ve helped me become a leader, and you’ve encouraged my students to lead too. I know that I’m a better teacher because of you!

Aviva

I’ve been teaching for almost 10 full years now, and until this year, I always felt like it was my job to be the “expert” on everything. The students were looking to me for all of the answers. My job was to have them. Then things changed. Thanks to my amazing Professional Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter, I learned that it’s okay if I don’t know it all. I learned that students can teach each other too and that it’s okay to ask for help.

All of my students know that I have limited artistic skills. When the year started, I used to demonstrate all of the art lessons, but my demonstrations often led to more questions than answers. I was frustrated, and my students were too. Then I started seeing how many talented artists I have in my class. I started to get help from these students. I would let them model what to do, and the quality of all of the art improved.

Tonight though, I realized the value in admitting that I need help. As the year comes to an end, I’m trying to get some student work organized to send off to the Ancaster Fair. I brought home the work tonight along with the fair tickets too. After I finished filling out the tickets, I stared at them and at the work. Then I looked again. I just couldn’t figure out how to attach the tags. I tried all kinds of different options, but nothing seemed to work. Finally I emailed the staff and asked for help. As I sent off the email, I felt this funny feeling inside. I felt like a failure.

Then I got this lovely email from an Educational Assistant (EA) that works in the classroom. She said to me, “Aviva, don’t worry! I’ll help you with this tomorrow.” I know that this is a small thing, but this EA’s email made me feel so much better. She didn’t make me feel like I failed. She reminded me that it’s okay to ask for help.

That’s when I thought of my students. I think that students need to see us asking for help. I think that we need to model that we don’t have all of the answers. This doesn’t make us failures; this makes us better teachers. Tonight, I know how my students feel when they’re struggling, and I hope that I always give them the same wonderful support as this EA gave me!

When have you struggled? How do you think that this has made you a better teacher? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Aviva

As a teacher, I want to make connections with my students. I want them to love school, and I want them to want to come each day. Over the years, I’ve had many student teachers, and I’ve told all of them the same thing: “You need to be genuine with the students. They need to know that you care about them. Forming these relationships is important.” Seeing this student yesterday reminded me of this. In education, we can be pulled in many directions, but there’s only one thing that really matters:

the children.

Thank you to this wonderful student that reminded me of the importance of this. As the year quickly comes to an end, I want to thank all of my students for making each and every day at school a wonderful one.

Aviva

As many of you know, I was a Kindergarten teacher for 8 years before I moved to Grade 1, and now to a Grade 1/2 class. I loved teaching Kindergarten. When I started teaching it, I thought that I would never move out of it. There were a number of reasons that I chose to change grades, but a bit part of it was the Full Day Early Learning Kindergarten (ELK) model. As a Grade 1 teacher last year, I was part of group that offered feedback on the program expectations for the ELK Program, and I had some reservations. Yes, I had some problems with full days of “play.”

Please don’t get me wrong. I have always been a teacher that sees the value in hands-on learning. Up until this year though, my vision of hands-on learning always meant structured play. This hands-on learning was always very teacher-directed, and even though I always differentiated activities, I always did the differentiating. To me, I saw a play-based Kindergarten program as organized chaos, and I couldn’t understand how students would be academically ready for Grade 1. I knew the philosophy behind the ELK Program, but I wasn’t sure that being a part of it was right for me. Even though our school doesn’t have full-day Kindergarten yet, I knew that it was coming, so I thought that it was better to leave before it did.

And then Thursday came along. I had an epiphany on Thursday. As a culminating task for our Structures Unit in Grade 1 and our Simple Machines Unit in Grade 2, I had two different Science activities set-up for the afternoon. The Grade 1′s were working in partners to make a straw, stick, or brick house that would protect the Three Little Pigs from the Big Bad Blowdryer. The Grade 2′s were making a wind-powered car: applying what they learned about wheels and axles. (Please visit the individual student blogs for videos of these activities.) As the students went off to work, I sat back, and I started taking photographs. Then I went around, sat down with different groups of students, asked them questions about what they were doing, and helped them when necessary. The classroom was bustling! There was lots of activity, tons of talk, and all kinds of awesome teamwork. Students were being creative, they were coming up with new ways of solving problems, they were creating some of their own extensions, and they were “playing” while also learning too.

That’s when I knew: students can learn through play. Play doesn’t need to be chaotic, and it doesn’t need to just be screaming, car crashes, and knocking over blocks. Students can direct purposeful play too. They can experiment, they can explore, they can question, and while doing all of this, they can learn. Even with the activities that we did in class, the students drew diagrams of their plans (science and art), labelled their work (writing), and discussed what they would add or change the next time (oral language). They even extended their learning, like this one student, that went home that night and created a video of testing her car at home. She almost created her own advertisement for this car too (media literacy). The possibilities really are endless!

So knowing what I know now, do I want to go back to teaching Kindergarten? No, because I would love to extend the play-based learning that the students are getting in Kindergarten into the early primary grades too. I’m glad that I had this epiphany though, and that I now see things the way that I do.

What do you think about play-based learning? How does play-based learning look in your classroom? How do you want it to look? I would love to know your thoughts!

Aviva

Last year, I thought that I changed a lot. I went from teaching Kindergarten for 8 years to teaching Grade 1. I started using Web 2.0 tools on my own and in my classroom, and I started sharing my learning with others through my website and on my blogs. I even started leading some professional development both online and in person. I was feeling good! I think that I may have even convinced myself that the big changes were over for me. I was wrong.

It’s June now, and as the school year quickly comes to an end, I can’t help but reflect on my teaching and learning this year. Despite what I may have thought at the end of last year, this year has been an even bigger year of changes. Here are some of the ways that I’ve changed over the year:

1) I now teach a Grade 1/2 split, and I LOVE teaching a split. Having two grade levels in one classroom has really forced me to change my teaching style. I now spend half of my day teaching Language, and half of my day teaching Math, and I fully integrate Science, Social Studies, Health, and the Arts. By having students explore these other subject areas as part of Language and Math, I think that they are actually learning more about these other subjects, and in a meaningful way too. The students are also getting even more opportunities to read and write, and I think that this is so important too. I have definitely started to see the power in integration!

2) I now give my students more control over their own learning. Even though I always differentiated in the classroom, I still had basically the same activity that all students completed, and then I just made some slight changes to this activity. I never really gave “choice,” and I never really saw the value in this choice, until this year. By providing more choices of tools and topics, the students are taking ownership over their own learning and getting even more excited about the learning process too.

3) I now let the students “lead.” I can’t thank George Couros (@gcouros) and Shawn Ram (@sram_socrates) enough for helping me see the value in doing this. Student voice and student leadership is so important in the classroom and school community. Now when my students have questions, I can often keep quiet, and they can help each other. They have even started to identify on their own some different “experts” in the classroom, and they will consult these people when they have difficulty. The students realize that they can often learn just as much from each other as they can from me, and I couldn’t be happier about this!

4) I now understand what collaboration is really about, and I think that the students do too. Collaboration is not just about working in a group, but it is about learning, producing, and creating together. Watching the students now, I see that even at this young age, they are doing just that!

5) I now know never to underestimate the skills and abilities of students, regardless of age. As I watch my Grade 1 and 2 students use a variety of tools from blogs to Glogster to Prezi, I continue to be amazed by not just what they’re doing, but how much they understand too. Yes, the students are using these tools to help them develop their reading, writing, and math skills, but as they confidently discuss finding HTML code here and embedding there, I realize that they’ve developed a whole new language too. These are 21st century learners, and they are learning the language and literacy behind 21st century skills.

Change used to scare me, but now I know that changes are good, and I’m thrilled that I’ve made all of these changes over the year. I can’t wait to see what changes next year brings. What changes have you made this year? What changes do you hope to make next year? I would love to hear!

Aviva

It’s always great to see another classroom and hear new ideas. Last night, as I was getting organized for today, I made sure to pack my digital camera, video camera, iPad, and Livescribe Pen because I knew that I wanted to capture as much of Edita’s classroom as possible. With all of the tools that I brought, it really was the Livescribe Pen that I used the most. I needed to avoid getting faces in photographs, so the camera wasn’t the best, but with the pen, I could go around and talk to the students and have a record of what they were saying too. Best of all, I could record a discussion within a group, and hear multiple ideas as well as the ideas generated as the students worked and talked together.

Click on this photograph to hear some pencasts from today.

What I loved about Edita was how much she was willing to share, including what she still wanted to learn. As my principal, protege, and I conversed with Edita, her teaching partner, principal, and vice principal today, we all discussed our successes, but we also discussed our next steps. The learning never ends, and I love talking to other educators that feel this way too.

Thank you to Sir Adam Beck Junior School for allowing us to visit today, and a special thank you to Edita Tahirovic and her students for welcoming us into their classroom! After our visit today, my principal asked me, “Aviva, what are your goals for next year? What do you want to learn next?” I said that I would like to learn more about eBook options for the primary classroom, and how to use the iPads, iPod Touches, and laptops more as part of guided reading. Then I continued to think on my way home tonight. I would also like to learn more about how to incorporate literature circles into the primary classroom. I did some literature circles this year, but hopefully I can continue to improve on what happened this year, for next year.

So what are your goals for next year? How have other educators helped shape these goals? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Aviva

Just before we left, I asked some of the students if they wanted to bring the iPod Touches, digital camera, and Flipcam to record their learning. Then two students suggested bringing the iPads too. I was skeptical, but my students thought that they could use the Audio Memos app to record some discussions with the Grade 4′s. Why not? We might as well give this a try.

Video Links – Video 1, Video 2, Video 3

What happened in David’s classroom really was incredible! Students were teaching students, and as teachers, we could just sit back and watch. Giving students these tracking tools (i.e., the cameras, iPads, and iPods), made them feel like they had an important role in the classroom, and they really took this role seriously too. The Grades 1, 2, and 4 students were asking questions of each other and engaging in meaningful dialogue. George Couros (@gcouros) and Shawn Ram (@sram_socrates) taught me about the value of shared leadership, but seeing what was happening today, really made me realize the value in this!

Congratulations to David’s Grade 4′s for being such fantastic teachers, and to my Grade 1′s and 2′s for asking such great questions and allowing the conversations to evolve. Have you had any similar experiences before? I would love to hear about them!

Aviva