Are “Wants” Necessary?

Our school has done an amazing job collecting donations for a number of our most in-need families this Christmas season. It was quite a wonderful, rewarding experience for everyone involved. The generosity of the staff and some local businesses overwhelmed the parents who we supported this holiday season. If I had to speculate, I would guess that this Christmas will be one of the best Christmas’ most of these children will have (or have ever had). While I totally understand that gifts aren’t everything, but when you are a child and you never get anything on your “wish list” it can be somewhat disheartening.

Christmas for me, as a child, was often disappointing and alienating for me. It was alienating because my friends would all talk about all the fabulous gifts they got – name-brand this, electronic that, etc… I dreaded going back to school after the Christmas break because inevitably, the first question after Christmas was always, “What did you get?” That question still bothers me today, but as an adult I am much more comfortable talking about what Christmas really means to me when people ask this question. As a child, though, it was always a difficult situation. I hated listening to what everyone else got. I was so jealous of their excitement. Continue reading “Are “Wants” Necessary?”

Office as Punishment Vs Understanding

As administrators, we are often responsible for disciplining children. When students misbehave, they are often sent to the office. There are many ways administrators can deal with children when they are sent to the office. The office can be seen as a venue of punishment or of care and understanding.

Office as One of Punishment

In this case, students are sent to the office to be punished or reprimanded for something they have done. The students are very likely talked to in a stern manner and are often made to sit in isolation from others. The administration in this type of office is often viewed as the “enemy” – the one who doles out this punishment, by these students, and likely their parents as well. Unfortunately, when students, who are having difficulty, are presented with this type of environment, they often shut down and, as a result, do not really take in what is being said or discussed with them.Continue reading “Office as Punishment Vs Understanding”

Apply Confused About Apps?

Where to Start List

You now have your new iPad, but are now looking for some good apps to download. It is very overwhelming searching through the itunes App store. Here are some recommended apps/links for you to get started. Some of the links on this page were included on our District wiki for Administrators. That particular page was created by James Hogan (@SurreyConnectVP).

Some “must have” apps:

Flipboard – great app for viewing websites, blogs, newspapers, twitter etc… on your iPad.

Click on <more> on the top right hand corner to type in some of your own interests. This give you a magazine-like book you can flip through of various articles, blogs, stories based on your topic of interest.

(if you search for APPS, you will find a magazine that features new apps and stories around apps. Usually, each day there is at least one blog with a list of apps which are now temporarily free.)

TED – Ideas Worth Spreading – You will be able to view some great talks here on topics of your choice. There are often great talks focused on the area of education.

Dragon – This is a speech-recognition app. You can speak into the app and it will type for you. What a great app for our students who have written-output difficulties.

Dropbox – This is a great place to store your documents so you can access them from anywhere.

AccuRadio – Countless options for listening to the radio can be found here. You can listen to “channels” based on genre, year, artist, etc…

Dictionary – This is a useful app to be used as a dictionary, but also as a thesaurus. Very handy.

Evernote – Another app to store your notes/data in the cloud. Great app!

Zite – You can create your own newspaper to read on your iPad, based on topics you chose. This is totally customizable to your needs/interests.

Bloom’s Taxonomy for iPads

Some links to recommended Apps:

APPtic

Apptic is a directory of apps for education by Apple Distinguished Educators to help school staff transform teaching and learning. 1300+ apps! All categorized and tested!

65+ Apps for Elementary Schools!

Here is a huge list of apps previewed and recommended by teachers. All of the apps have been categorized by subject area.

100 Apps for Middle Schools!

From the same source as above… but for the middle years!

High School Apps for the iPad!

Once again, another amazing list from the teachers in Palm Beach School District. All credit to them! The apps are categorized by subject area, include short descriptions, and a link to Apple iTunes.

Teaching & Learning: Using iPads in the classroom

This article highlights several good apps for educators.

iPad Resources for Administrators

A very long list of apps for administrators. Some free & some not. Some have a brief description.

If you have any apps that you recommend, please include them in the comments below.

A Time of Giving

This season brings a variety of emotions for individuals – both positive and negative. Some have memories of the Christmas season that are not the greatest. Worse than that, for some, Christmas is a painful time. For some, getting together with family during the holiday season can be very stressful. In contrast, for others, the magic that is the Christmas season is alive and well in their memories and in their hearts.

One may wonder how to change the negative feelings around this season. There are many things people can do to make the Christmas season positive. If you have negative memories around this season, take action and do something positive to change what this season means to you. Make new memories which will forever change the way you feel about this season. To do this, it is imperative to remember that this Christmas season is one of giving. Giving to others warms your heart and soul and will also make a real difference in the lives of others.

Here are a few ways our students, staff, students, and community are giving this holiday season.

1. We have two businesses who have come to us to offer support of some of our families. They will be providing some of our most needy families with both food and presents for the children.

2. One of our student’s parents has also offered to buy gifts for a family so that the children do not go without this holiday season.

3. Our staff has a Giving Tree in the staffroom. On this tree are gift tags with a variety of gift options for a couple of our families. There are items such as socks and underwear, gloves and scarves, and toys. Most of the items on the gift tags are for basic items which many of us take for granted. When the gifts are purchased and wrapped, they will be brought back to school and added to a box for each particular family. Here is a phot of our Giving Tree.

4. Each year, our school does a Food Drive for the local Food Bank. Our school has many great ways of encouraging students and staff to bring items (or money) for the Food Bank. For instance, last week, if students wanted to watch the Student VS Staff volleyball game, they had to bring a donation for the Food Bank. Another wonderful way to raise money is the Cookie for a Can event that is happening this week. All three Grade 6 classes made chocolate chip cookies today. The hallways smelled incredible! All the cookies (over 1000, I believe) were packaged up and will be sold to students and staff on Wednesday. Students can buy one cookie for .25 or bring a can of food for a cookie. What a great experience for all students! They got to bake and will get to raise money for the Food Bank as well. Win win, I’d say.

Here are a few pictures of the baking extravaganza:

The students, staff, and family members make me so proud to be a part of our school. Their generosity and commitment in helping others is phenomenal. Remember, my school is considered to be an Inner-City school, yet the children here are very excited and motivated to help others who ay need help. You can’t get much better than that.

Giving feels good, heals difficulty memories of the past, makes new memories, and changes lives. So, my question to you is, what are you and/or your school doing to help promote the culture of giving and generosity this holiday season? What are you doing to bring your community together? How are you brightening someone’s holiday season? How will you make a difference? How will you encourage your students and their family’s to make a difference?

ETA…

Thank you to @CliveSir for sharing this video, which reminded him of my blogpost.

Powerful Student Engagement

All 4 of my classes completed their 100 Minutes of Genius this week (my take on Genius Hour). It was a powerful experience for all of us. Here are some things I noticed:

Students didn’t need any direction.
Students knew what they wanted to learn about.
Students were self-motivated and excited.
From the moment they walked into our class for their teacher’s prep (their time with me), they were focused and excited about learning. I felt badly about stopping them to give them directions (about how much time they had left, etc…) because they were so engaged in what they were doing.
They didn’t want to stop learning.
The students who had the most difficulty with their “regular” school work, had no difficulty with this “work”. Not only were they focused and engaged, they displayed very little of the usual silliness and/or attention-seeking behaviour.
All students “produced” some “work”. The students whom I have worked hard with to complete their work this term, completed their projects with enthusiasm.
They can not wait for the next 100 Minutes of Genius.

So, what kind of projects did they do for their 100 Minutes of Genius?

Many students made wikis of their topic/subject.
One group of two made a poster AND posted their information on a blog post – essentially doing 2 projects.
One group made a diorama.
Another group made a cube and covered it with all things related to a particular singer.
Many groups completed posters of their topic.
One group learned how to make a prezi.
A few groups learned about the program Scratch.
One student explored Geocaching and taught his classmates about it.
One group made bracelets.
One group made a robot out of juice boxes.
Another pair of boys built things with lego.
One student made a poster about a video game that he is going to teach the students when he does his presentation to the class.

This project was so motivating, that I had a number of students approach me on Monday morning (before we even had any time for our 100 Minutes of Genius) to tell me that they had already completed their 100 Minutes of Genius project. I laughed. They decided they were going to do 2 – 100 Minutes of Genius projects.

What else did I learn?

I need to find a way to incorporate this way of learning/teaching into the rest of the curriculum for the rest of the year.
The students don’t really need me.
We need to give students more ownership over their learning.
Students are very motivated when it is something they want to do or something they are interested in.

I am so proud of my students! They worked so hard on their projects. I am looking forward to hearing them talk about their projects with their classmates next week. What fun!

Here are a few pictures of some of their work. I do not have parental permission to show the faces of my students, so that is why no faces are visible in these photos.

Here is a robot that three students made out of recycled juice boxes.

Here are two students learning the program Scratch. If you have heard of it, you should check it out. Students can create their own video games using Scratch.

A couple students made bracelets during their 100 Minutes of Genius. They wanted to make bracelets for everyone on the class. They even surveyed all their classmates about their favourite color.

Here is a wiki another couple of students created, about the singer Katy Perry.

These students created a poster about singer, Selena.

This student learned more about Geocaching. He will teach us all about it when he presents his project to the class this week. Looking forward to it.

This student created a wiki all about Trevor Linden – his all-time favourite Vancouver Canuck’s player.

These two girls focused their efforts for their 100 Minutes of Genius on learning more about Pit Bulls.

This student completed a poster about her favourite singer.

Powerful Digital Discovery

This past Thursday afternoon/evening, our district hosted our first of three, Digital Discovery sessions for administrators for this school year. I am fortunate to be one of the Digital Coaches for this series. What a night it was. There were over 200 administrators and other district staff who actively participated in the evening. You could feel the excitement in the room. It was truly electric.

This evening was meaningful for me because this past summer, I blogged about the importance of getting administrators more involved in the use of technology. After becoming re-acquainted with Twitter in July, I realized just how important administrators are in the use of and implementation of technology in the schools. To be honest, I hadn’t really thought of it too much before July. In fact, I was actually one of those educators/administrators who believed that technology wasn’t really that important. After a short time on Twitter and after attending the Reform Symposium (online World-wide conference), I really started to understand the importance of our role as educational leader in the area of technology and 21st Century Learning skills (and, as a result, student/staff engagement).

On August 5th, I wrote my blog post about Being a Tech Change Agent in my district. This post was written as part of the Leadership Day 2011 challenge given by Scott McLeod of bigthink: Dangerously Irrelevant. Every year, for the past 4 years, he has challenged administrators to think of ways to help assist and educate our fellow administrators in the area of technology.

Below, I have summarized my initial thoughts included in this blog post I wrote in August, followed by my progress since the blog was posted (in italics).Continue reading “Powerful Digital Discovery”

Beautiful Day in Vancouver

It has been quite a few weeks since we last went on our family walk along the seawall. With our double stroller, our mittens, our scarves, our toques, our winter coats, the rain cover, our umbrellas, and our rain jackets, we headed downtown (we live in a suburb). Yah, we our weather can be quite unpredictable here and it’s important to be prepared, especially when you’re with children. We were pleasantly surprised that all of the above remained at the bottom of the stroller.

Here are some photos of our lovely day walking around the Stanley Park seawall (click to view enlarged photos).

This was the start of our walk.

There were a lot of little waterfalls all along the seawall

because it rained so much last night and this morning.

Look at the beautiful fall colours. Vancouver is so photogenic!Continue reading

100 Minutes of Genius

I am in the midst of completing individual conferences with my students about their learning this term (and their grades). The end of the term is coming. It is a natural break in units and the focus on prescribed learning outcomes. Sure, I could start a new unit with my 4 classes and work on that new unit for 3 weeks before Winter break, but instead, I we are going to do something even BETTER!

There has been a great deal of talk about Daniel Pink’s book, Drive, recently and about what motivates people. Take a look at this video that was shared with me by@arlenegeres. It some of the main points of Pink’s book Drive.

Continue reading “100 Minutes of Genius”

So Fortunate

As a teaching Vice-Principal, I am truly amazed by all that I get to experience each day. Not only do I teach Health & Career Education and French to intermediate students, but I also have the opportunity to be the Early Literacy Teacher in our school. During my Early Literacy teaching time, I work with students in Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2.

Today, as I was working with my 6th group of Kindergarten students for the morning (15 minute blocks for each group), in 3 classes, I came to a wonderful realization … Continue reading “So Fortunate”

My Grading Journey – Part 3

As I continue along my Grading Moratorium journey, and having my students take more ownership over their learning (and the grades they receive for the term), I am surprised often.

I am surprised at the honesty, self-reflection, realism, and insight of my Grade 5 students. I was concerned that everyone would say they deserved to receive an A for the term. That is so far from my actual experience. So far, out of the 46 students with whom I have conferenced, only 1 student indicated that she deserved an A for her grade for the term. 1!

Here is the breakdown of letter grades for the term for 46 of the students in my 2 Grade 5 French classes (with about 10 more conferences to go):Continue reading “My Grading Journey – Part 3”