Vimy Ridge

The students had an opportunity to Skype with a staff member from the Vimy Ridge, Canadian Memorial Site in France. To prepare the students for the chat, we discussed the... who, what, where, when and why we have monuments and memorial sites.

We traveled to Northern France using Google Earth and studied the area. We also looked at the city of Arras, where the Canadian staff and university students live.

Our students had a chance to watch a slide show of the site, clips of culture and war from the BrainPop app and video clips from the National Film Board (NFB) app. Once they had a basic understanding they were able to ask effective questions.

The students were well prepared for a great Skype chat.

Do you Skype with your students?

Steps to Implementation!

The iPads are here!

We have 10 iPads in our school. They are being used in classrooms as supplement to the school's laptop (20) cart.

There were so many things for us to consider when setting up iPads for the school. Our beginning steps started with:

1. Set up with school network
2. Purchase covers to protect the iPad
3. Purchase a rack to store and carry iPads to classrooms
4. Open a school gmail account and a iTune's account
5. Assign a number to each iPad

On each iPad in settings, under general, we changed:

1. Restrictions- Installing Apps-off and Deleting Apps-off
2. Accessibility - Speak Selection - on
3. Location Services - Find My iPad-on

Apps purchased:

Keynote for presentations
Pages for word processing
iMovie for movie making
ComicLife for writing and sharing

Stay Tuned---More to Share!

Inquiry Learning in a Primary Classroom

This inquiry began with a read-aloud about animals in winter. The students had many questions and while their teacher had other plans she decided to let the students drive the inquiry. It turned out to be a successful week long investigation with lots of learning!

Twitter - My Virtual Staffroom!

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Funny thing about Twitter, you either love it or well, snicker at it! I must admit, I once thought it was a trivial tool...who cares about what I've had for breakfast? But that's not it at all!  I now consider it to be one of the most valuable and powerful tools, that I use for personal and professional development. 

Twitter is my virtual staffroom! It helps me keep up with the latest trends and ongoing professional discourse. A quick skim through my tweet thread can lead me to more relevant Professional Development than a day or two sitting in a workshop. This online community provides me with a unique opportunity for quality learning that is ongoing, timely, interactive and personal. It is where I find great links, resources and ideas. It's where I share my work, communicate and collaborate with amazing and inspiring people from around the world! 

While I continue to build my network, I enjoy following and learning from:   @dougpete @Stephen_Hurley @shareski @cybraryman1 @tomwhitby @heidiSiwak @tonyvincent @techieAng @acampbell99 @royanlee @SNewco @whatedsaid @web20classroom... 

If you’re resisting Twitter- DON'T- give it a try. Open yourself up to the possibilities of what a professional online community has to offer. You won’t regret it. 

Tweet Soon! 

Steps to Inquiry

Step 1: Teachers gather and collect as much information as possible on the subject in order to help students with research, investigations and inquiries. Our grade one teacher gives each group, small clip boards to take notes, a basket to organize material and sticky notes to post information on charts.

Finding great websites for research

 

Step 2: Teachers help to develop background knowledge for students. Creating a graphic organizer such as a Know-What-Learn-Find (KWLF) chart can help build knowledge. This process helps a student develop questions and helps to develop a curiosity for the subject.

Gr. 1 What I know & Questions I have

Grade 5/6 KWLF

 
Step 3: Teachers share mentor texts and model lessons. Pete and Danielle spend a good deal of time building background knowledge, asking questions and demonstrating the inquiry process through mini-lessons.

Mentor Text

Teacher Models

Step 4: Teachers give students a choice of what they would like to learn more about. In the grade one class students were learning about animals. They brainstormed a list, then each student selected the animal they wanted to investigate. 

Student selects an animal for inquiry project

Step 5: Students explore and track their thinking around their understanding and learning of a subject. During the grade one animal study, these boys were focused, engaged and very excited about working on their inquiry project. It's interesting to note that even though the text was beyond their reading level, they were able to use charts and graphics to learn about their animal of study.

Step 6: Students collaborate and work together to gather and share information.

Collaborating!

Engaged and Motivated

Step 7: Students present and share their learning. As peers listen to presentation, they take notes and list their questions on post-it notes and prepare to give positive feedback.

Listing questions for presenters

 Step 8: Public sharing! 

Sharing our learning!

Celebration!

Check out the movie clip I made about the grade 1 inquiry using the Animoto app - http://animoto.com/play/dh39oAbzuCsVdtpZZfrwnA

Inquiring minds want to know! Please share your steps to inquiry!

Our TLLP Experience!

Pete shares his thoughts about our year long project with the Ontario Ministry of Education's Teacher Learning and Leadership Program (TLLP). The TLLP is an annual project-based professional learning opportunity for experienced classroom teachers.

Year End Bulletin Board

Great way to reflect on a year of learning together in a grade 1 & 2 class!