Monday, April 21, 2014

Your brain and self-regulation

Our focus has been on the functions of the brain. 



The poster that has been created for each classroom has been done, and now will have final touches made before putting each one out. This idea is that we all need to be in a zone that allows all parts of our brain to function properly. This poster is a simplified explanation of brain function involving the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala. The hope with having this poster in the classrooms is that students will be able to see why the zones matter, rather than just having teachers tell them it is important.


The next project we would like to tackle as a group is a "zones day". The idea of this is to have kids recognize what zones they live in throughout the day. With these zones, and having the recognition, kids can then move to choosing tools to move between the zones. After zones day, there will be some information gathering, and some posters made up including some relevant tools and tactics to help kids regulate.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Technology as a vehicle for communicating student achievement---the way of the near future.

Many of us have become comfortable with the present way of recording student achievement with the good old 1,2,3,4 or A, B, C+, C, D system.  There is an air reluctance to brace the future of e-portfolios in regards to do we have enough technology training, what will the software require of us, how the parents will receive the new system and are we, the district and province in the position to support us in this endeavor. True the e-portfolios provide student voice and visual representation of the students achievement but how much more time will the reporting mean and will the parents take the time to view them. What about the research behind such an endeavor was the question posed and would this be helpful when addressing parents about the change in reporting? Well, we looked at some information online from Finland and we forward further reading on this topic. Next time we will look at Springpad, a program currently used for creating e-portfolios to show and communicate student achievement and see what exactly it all entails and how challenging this endeavor may be. 

By Liza

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Slow Down – We Want to do it Right!!!

What do you do when technology doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to? Give up? Ask for help? Slow down and problem solve? That’s it, slow down and figure out a way to make it work the way you want it to.

We have found ourselves at a bit of a stand still with the issue of needing consent or not needing it in order to use specific apps with our students. Why? It has to do with protection of personal information. Important, yes!!!

So where do we go from here? We find a simple way to get the permission we need in order to use these apps. It involves coming up with various formats for things like parent permission or approving use of apps, reflecting on how user friendly these specific formats are and then revamping them to make them work better. It’s a lot of work; work worth doing though because ultimately it’s for our students.


So yes, slow down; it’s okay. We want to do it right!!!

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Technology - Establishing Our Team Focus & First Steps



1. Focus: What do we want students to learn?
Question: How can technology be used as a tool to improve the learning of all students?
2. Measurement: How will you know when they have learned it?
We will use data from the following and more:
  •        Baseline data (DART, DMA, First Steps, etc.)
  •         Self assessments

  •        Rubrics
  •        Surveys

  •        Pre and post assessments
  •        Observations, journaling
  •         Feedback from students
  •        Student samples


3. Interventions: How will you respond when students don’t learn?
  •         Encourage students to try another way: i.e. on their own, with peer support, with adult support (for example, guided questions. NOT the adult doing the work for the child)
.
  •         Searching out different technology tools
.
  •        Supplementing technology (for example, with manipulatives).
  •        Setting technology aside.


Getting Started!!!

Today we explored a math game that focuses on addition/subtraction called Number Pyramid. This particular math game has several positive features:


*      Can be used with iPod/iPads as well as a version called Pyramid Addition on computers.
*      Can change setting to meet the level of students/grades.
*      On iPod/iPad can work with addition, subtraction or mixed operations.
*      On iPod/iPad can change the number of rows on the pyramid depending on how much of a challenge you want.

What’s Next?
*      Have students explore the games and reflect on how they are improving learning opportunities. 
*      For our next session we will individually reflect and share our findings with our PLC team and explore phonics apps targeting our at-risk kids.