Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Building Learning


Today we finished our fourth workshop in 2 weeks. We  spent the last two weeks involved in a series of First Nations workshops courtesy of our Aboriginal Program. We  learned about the importance of salmon; what potlatches and button blankets are; and their importance to the First Nations people. We  made button blankets, learned to draw oviods to make crests, and to weave on a loom.




What a great way to learn. What an opportunity to experience the culture and to share our learning. There is much more to come as we will be drumming and dancing; studying, writing and filming  creation legends; and hosting a celebration for Aboriginal Days this year.

One of the best parts of teaching grade 4 is the opportunity we have, here in Surrey, to experience such rich learning opportunities without ever opening a textbook. We listen to our First Nations, learn from their words, and experience their culture as we participate in all of these activities. We will be honoring their teaching as we chronicle the journey through blogs, photos, videos, and our creations. We are building a treasure to share in June when we celebrate Aboriginal Days.

Its an ambitious plan.
 We will be very busy.
    We will participate, create, collaborate, and share.

       ---And we will learn.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

In Flanders Field

Today we made our first video of the year. It was actually a slideshow made with iPhoto and soundtrack made with Garageband. I wanted to use an App but I could not find one that let us do everything we wanted.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Month 2,October Reflections

Blogging, again.

We are up and running again and have restored most of our lost work. We have just finished our Global read Aloud novel and are now busy looking into the endangered status of elephants and gorillas through the World Wildlife website. We have been skyping weekly with our new buddies from a neighbouring school. It has been exciting to meet with them weekly and share our pictures, blogs, and predictions.

This was my first Global Read Aloud. It has been a lot of hard work, but we enjoyed the book,  made new friends, and learned how to blog. We are going to work with the other school to create a joint final project. If all goes as planned we will make our first 1 minute video on the book.  This is our first inter school collaboration. It has encouraged us to take the time to share and provided  new pupose and deadlines for our hard work.

We have also started to use Book Creator to publish our first ebook on Ivan, and made a slide show with Animoto as a pre-read prediction activity.

I attended the first dinner meeting with @shaeski  on Digital Storytelling and I tried to use ideas from the session during October as part of my commitment to Designs For Learning. Usually I have students write about their reading and then create illustrations to add to their writing. For October, I flipped that. I started each reflection on the book by having the students make a picture to show me what Ivan or Stella felt, who their favourite character was and what their favourite part of the reading was. After we drew we wrote about our drawings. During this time we also did a impromptu write on Halloween. One thing I observed was that my weaker writers did better with the picture to jump start their thoughts. It gave them a tronger, more visual starting point than a word web or a brainstorm, or a class discussion. I think I will use this more often and next time I will extend it by getting students to focus on describing the setting and characters from their illustrations to add detail and enrich their writng.

As November starts we will be having a seies of First Nation workshops on drumming, weaving, salmon, drawing, potlatches and button blankets. We will be writing about our learning and recording our expereinces with video and photographs. I will take most of the footage and pictures as they work. Usually the students journal or blog about the workshops. This year I will have the students make a video or a digital collage to describe their experiences and then use them to present what they learned as well as blogging like we usually do.

Our next project is Remembrance Day. We have made torn paper poppies and we will spend time finding pictures of the war and using them to make a slide show to remember. We will share with the school at our assembly as our contribution to the service.

I am excited to begin November.