Students Saying Goodbye

On my professional blog, I posted today about our school principal retiring at the end of the month. Bev Laporte is a fantastic principal that has really made a positive impact on all of the students at the school. When I told my class that Ms. Laporte was retiring, they wanted to do something for her to say, "goodbye." Below are the common craft videos that the students created in partners today. The children drew the pictures, wrote the script, practiced the lines, and recorded the videos too. This was a reading, writing, and media literacy activity, but also a thank you to somebody special.

Ms. Laporte, we're all going to miss you!

Miss Dunsiger and her Grade 1/2 Class

Happy Father's Day!

On Mother's Day weekend, I was inspired by Angie Harrison (@techieang). Angie's a Grade 2/3 teacher for the York Region District School Board, and even though I've never met her in person, I am constantly learning from her online thanks to Twitter. In May, Angie wrote about a special Mother's Day gift that her students made for their moms: they created padcasts using the Garage Band app. I thought that this was such a fantastic idea, and I commented on Angie's post right away saying that I wanted to give this a try another year. Angie then said that maybe I could do this for Father's Day instead. She also shared with me some other Father's Day gift ideas.

I was so excited to try something new! I vacillated over different choices, but eventually, I decided to have my students collaborate to make a Father's Day gift. During literacy centres, they worked on GoogleDocs to make a presentation about their dads. Children contributed slides to one of three different presentations. They had to share ideas in complete sentences, check their spelling and grammar, and find appropriate images to match their thoughts. Here is what they created:

All of the dads and step-dads in my class now have a CD with these three presentations on them. Hopefully they'll enjoy watching these presentations and seeing just how much they mean to their children. Angie, it's thanks to you that this year I tried something different other than the ubiquitous tie. Now my mind is reeling with new gift possibilities for next year!

Happy Father's Day to all of the dads, step-dads, and grandfathers in my class and from around the world! I wish you all the best on your special day!

Aviva

What A Week!

It's been a very busy week in our classroom. Between the car experiment, the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Blowdryer activity, the ladybug research, and the Prezi lesson (see the completed Prezis on the individual student blogs), the students have been reading, writing, talking, and learning all day long. Below is a short video highlighting some of the exciting activities from this week. What did your children enjoy the most? Why? What did they learn from these activities too? I would love to hear their thoughts!

Aviva

Learning Prezi: Students Teaching Students

A couple of months ago, I was speaking to Mrs. Faux (@mrsfaux), and she mentioned that she was using Prezi with her Grade 7 students. I said that it would be great if her students could teach mine how to use Prezi too. I thought that we could use the screen share feature in Skype to do this. The two of us spoke more about this plan, and even though Mrs. Faux had never used Skype before, she was willing to give this a try. We thought that June would be the perfect time!

Mrs. Faux worked with her students to create six Prezis -- each a separate mini-lesson -- on how to use Prezi. The students ordered the Prezi lessons according to what skills they thought needed to be taught when, and then they grouped them, so that they could teach two skills at a time. Today was our first of three Skype call Prezi lessons.

Last night, Mrs. Faux and I worked together via FirstClass (our email system) to set-up Skype on her laptop computer, and this morning, we did a practice call at 8:30 to make sure that everything was working well. Once I realized that I needed to turn on my microphone for her to hear me (oops!!), we were good to go!

My students were so excited for the call, and her students were fantastic teachers. They went step-by-step, explaining what to do, and they made sure to answer students questions at the end to clarify what they explained as well. I think that the sign of a great lesson is when every student is able to accomplish what is expected, and in this case, that is exactly what happened!



Thank you so much to all of the Grade 7's and Mrs. Faux too for teaching us something new, and giving us a great way to create media texts and practice our writing skills while having a lot of fun as well! We can't wait for our next set of mini-lessons on Friday.

For the students in my class, what did you think about using Prezi? What are you excited to learn next? For other educators that have used Prezi with their students before, how have you used this tool? What did your students think about using Prezi? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Aviva

How We Use Technology In Class

On Friday morning, I got an email from Teresa Nickell (@tnickell) asking if my class could help her with a presentation she's doing on Thursday. Teresa teaches in Texas, and she wanted my students to Skype into a session she's doing on using Web 2.0 tools in the classroom. The problem is that I'm not in class on Thursday. I offered to have my students create a video showing what tools we use in the classroom and how we use them. Teresa was excited by this idea, and I was too! Today my students created these two videos:

As a class, we brainstormed a list of six different tools that we frequently use in the classroom -- a SMART Board, computers, PALM Treos, Livescribe Pens, iPod Touches, and iPads -- and we listed some ways that we use these tools. Students then got into partners and decided what they were going to talk about. The groups had about 20 minutes to prepare, and then the filming started.

It was great to see what the students did, and even more exciting to hear what they said. They really understand how to use these tools, and more importantly, they understand why they are using these tools too. I also learned a lot about myself too, and about what I need to work on in future videos:

1) I say, "excellent," way too much. I was so thrilled with what the students shared that I think I got caught up in the excitement of the moment. I need to think about exactly what I'm going to say and make my words count.

2) I sometimes forget to give enough "waiting time." I know about the importance of waiting time, but when the minutes count and the responses seem to be delayed, I often follow-up with more questions than I need to. I need to remember to give students lots of time to think.

3) I do not multi-task well. I find it hard to control the camera, ask the questions, and see everything that's happening around me too. I need to hand the camera off to students. Usually the children are the ones that do the filming in the classroom, but since I wanted to create a seamless video and not short little segments, I thought it would be easier for me to do the filming. The next time, I will give up this role to the people that do it better: the students.

I hope that you enjoy these videos, and a special "thank you" to Teresa for pushing me out of my comfort zone and trying something new with my class. This was a great oral language opportunity, a fun media literacy activity, and a wonderful way to give students leadership in the classroom. I feel confident in saying that this is only just the beginning in more videos to come ...

What are some videos that you've made in the classroom with your students? What are some things that you've noticed about students and about yourself when creating these videos? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Aviva

What would you want your students to write?

In math right now, my Grade 1 students are reviewing probability. For one of our math centres today, some of the students completed this always, sometimes, and never writing activity, and it was all on me: their teacher. Reading their answers had me smiling all day long!

My teacher always is nice to me.

My teacher always makes fun days for us at school.

My teacher always is very nice.

I got to thinking tonight though: if you're a teacher, what would you want your students to write about you? What do you think they'd say? It really is amazing how a kind word or a thoughtful sentence can inspire us!

Aviva

Imagine The Possibilities

Tuesday night, the Primary Choir had a special performance at our school in the library. Many of my students are in the choir, and I wanted to be there to hear them sing. I'm so glad that I went back to the school to watch! I was amazed by how many people were there. The room was packed!

As I sat and watched the performance, I was moved by both the singing and the environment. Music connects us! Watching what was happening around me made me realize just how much things have changed since I was in school. I remember singing in the Primary Choir when I was in school, and often parents came with their cameras to take photographs, and some parents even took videos too, but these photographs and videos were really just meant for personal use. No one was going to share them with a larger audience, but now, thanks to the tools we have, we can do just that!

The whole back row of the library was full of parents with their smart phones taking photographs and videos. With a click of a button and the wonders of social media, this evening performance could be shared with the world. Imagine if there were multiple schools from around the world, singing on one night, and maybe even singing together thanks to a tool such as Skype. Consider this: we could all have a global audience for our performances. The possibilities really are endless!

On Tuesday night, families came together: the listened, they sang, they connected. And with the tools of today, others from around the world can listen, sing, and connect with us too. I think that this is really incredible, and I think that our two wonderful choir directors, Mrs. Ledroit and Mr. Mitchison, deserve a big thank you for making a night like this such a memorable one for so many people. Congratulations to you and the Primary Choir for an evening to remember!

Aviva