Changing The Narrative Together!

Every academic year is different as students lead their learning and use their emotional journey through everyday learning experiences. Each year, I have to shift my pedagogical practice to build a respectful, collaborative, risk-taking, caring, compassionate and empathetic community. In my previous years, I have blogged about unpacking of the Unlearning to create a community that values perspectives for knowledge building and action taking.

This is my second year in Grade 7. I continue to explore the adolescent social-emotional learning of autonomy and agency of their learning. Their learning is being impacted by using creative tasks, focusing on why learning matters and what is next. The narrative of pedagogical practices shifts as I learn from the student’s needs, their reflections and how they learn.

We began exploring what thinking errors and biases we bring during collaboration. The team's collaboration requires trusting to share intrapersonal ideas, valuing all others interpersonal ideas to build knowledge, inquire, analyze, research and build connections for next steps.  Through the metacognitive process, we built a community of trust, risk-taking, valuing all perspectives, persevering with curiosity to guide students interest and care for their learning.

The year unfolded as students reflected about their thinking errors and biases that prevented them from collaborating and valuing each others thinking. We focused on perspectives and trusting themselves to share without worrying about being judged. We also focused on contributing with respect as well as respecting others.

We needed to:

• Be active listeners
• Be collaborators with a growth mindset
• Develop communication skills
• Have positive attitudes
• Be reflective learners
• Be receptive to feedback
• Understand how we learn
• Determine learning strategies
• Believe in making a difference

On a daily basis, we collected thinking errors on sticky notes focusing on how their emotional learning to collaborate and accept feedback from others was affected. Through the ladder of inference (Rotman I-Think), the students were able to interpret their data and come up to a conclusion for their next steps.

From September to November we had many documentations and reflections. The students also had the first conversation with me that was recorded and shared with parents about their process of learning skills and how they have improved and their next steps.

Throughout the process, we began focusing on self-regulation and self-management of learning. The focus was on finding strategies about the learning process and environmental strategies to guide autonomy and agency on self-regulation and self-management.  During a professional development day, our principal Mr. Sean Kelly shared the Understanding Learning Disabilities From York Region District School Board. The flow chart became an essential guide for my students to reflect on their learning and their next steps on individual perspectives about their learning process. The students developed their individual plans by collecting data, reflecting on self-regulation and the self-management of learning success.

More reflections about individual learning strategies:

It has been an amazing journey of reflecting and learning about competencies, learning strategies and building a respective and compassionate community towards learning and caring about each other. I will share more reflections about students' transformation of learning:

The process of a compassionate interdependent classroom takes time to have students collect data and reflect on how and why they are learning. With my scheduling, I am fortunate to be able to make time for reflections with the students to determine the next steps. We already had three documented individual meetings about success and how they have been achieved and their next steps. We continue to develop on, who am I and how I learn? The students will be learning about the brain and its functions and how the prefrontal cortex continues to develop especially with peer pressure.

I have so much more to explore and learn with my students on social-emotional development. We have success by using thinking models that embrace risk-taking and competencies as well as design thinking tasks that focus on problem-solving and empathy.

Pedagogical practices are always shifting and meeting students needs with the focus on emotional and intellectual practices. It is important to take time and have students take the responsibility to collect data and reflect on their learning process and how it is affecting their actions towards intellectual and social growth.

How are we building capacity for learning? How are we changing our narrative of pedagogical practices with our students?

• Reflecting on biases and assumptions
• Are students aware of their emotional learning?
• Are they reflecting on self-regulation?
• Are they finding tools to guide their learning strategies?
• Are students being active communicators and listeners?

Google Drawing And Documenting Learning

We have used many tools for capturing the thinking process and documenting our learning, from Audio Boom , explain everything and other IOS apps as well as GAPPS. In this post, I chose to share documentation of learning through Google Drawing. The students have been applying Google Drawing for explaining their thinking and learning since September. The students document their learning process by uploading it on the eportofolios. We have used Google Drawing with Keizena, attaching a link for the criteria on the drawing, checking for comprehension of a text, and screencasting for evidence of applying feedback.

Google drawing with Keizena: Many layers of sharing and documenting.

1- By commenting, this student explained her favorite photo taken during the Terry Fox walk in September at Kanata's Beaver Pond.

2- The student added a link to the same image, explaining her 2 other photos about the Beaver Pond in relation to the same image. At the top of this image the student's initials LC and next the link. 

3-The link leads to  the Google Drawing that explains what is in common of the 3 photos.

4- Students also added their voices to the Google drawing and teacher's  feedback was also recorded.

Google Drawing and success criteria attached on the Drawing. 

A student explained First Nation People adaptation to the environment. When the title (Les Algonquins) is clicked  the  document of the success criteria that is attached will be viewed for feedback.  The students made a copy of the original document of the criteria, shared and attached it to the drawing.

Google Drawing and assessment for reading comprehension

The students  either labeled the events or ordered the boxes after reading a text for a comprehension self assessment. 

We were very fortunate to have the WW1 supply Line Kit from the War Museum. The students created a Google Drawing explaining their feelings about the war by using the strategy CSI ( Color, Symbol and image). One of our focuses was to improve the French grammar, after feedback from the teacher, the students recorded the evidence of the feedback by using the extension screencastify or snagit.

The following video was uploaded on student's YouTube account:

The video explaining how feedback was applied

Another video explaining how feedback was applied was uploaded on my YouTube account using my laptop as some students had difficulties connecting on the Chromebook with the extension.

Students connected  many skills when applying technology for documenting learning: 

•  Responsibility and ownership of learning for providing evidence of the co-constructed criteria of tasks and learning goals, 
•  The responsibility of planing, monitoring, assessing by peer, teacher and self-assessment,  promoting students' control of their own learning by being mindful, intentional and self-directed. 
• Relating skills to self -regulation of the metacognitive process by promoting problem solving, trying and retrying,  applying many strategies, clarification of expectations, reflective questioning for their own perspective of designing learning. 
• Collaboration for sharing, articulating their own learning .
• Organization plays a big part of this process as students document their learning and upload to their eportfolios.

We will continue building skills focusing on the learning process with many tools for metacognitive purpose and making learning visible by the students for their classmates, their parents and for a global audience. Some self-reflective questioning that guides me while planning are:

• Were the expectations clear?
• Did I set a positive environment of trying and retrying by consolidating with my students?
• Did I provide the time for learners questioning about the process?
• Did I ensure learners were motivated? (Provocation so important)
• Did I provide the resources for scaffolding and feedback?

The What, Why And How Of Fun On The First Week!

Exciting faces and laughs are a reminder of how lucky we are to be teachers and be able to work with students who become our new family in our learning shelter. 

I find it important to build this community of family as soon as the new members step in with so many wonders about their new home. It is important to immediately make this new home a happy and comfortable environment, Yes even on day one! Letting them connect and feel the ownership, the belonging, making decisions, having all voices recognized, the inventors, the wonders, the responsible and the joy of being together and respecting each other.   

The only instruction that I shared with the students were, where to line up outside for coming and leaving to and from school and how to change classrooms from French to English. I let them discover their needs as the day developed and had them make their decisions on where, how, when of daily routines and with whom to sit. Students discovered cupboards, closets, dug through school bags and around the classroom labeling in French their classroom needs. There was laughter and team collaboration. We will continue this activity by adding on questions for our needs. Some even labelled me as a need and Liam labelled himself being important for his team. Why was it fun? because it was unusual! It was a different first day, it was them moving, deciding, gathering together! 

Met my students through crumpled papers guessing names and selfies shared on Padlet of what makes them happy. 

The goals of the week where to let students explore through tasks to unpack skills of collaboration and self-regulation. Giving them opportunities to learn from and with each other on the first week. To have them feel the sense of accountability and the need to explain their thinking in second language. The videos below capture our tasks.

 Audioboo was introduced to capture voices of collaboration, voices of joy, attempting and sometimes succeeding, as well as communicating in a second language. We co-constructed the criteria on collaboration and the actions required to improve the French language. 

Throughout the tasks I was scaffolding students' attention to become the observers of their actions and reflect on team work.

listen to ‘Equipe 3 JKPB’ on Audioboo


Questions to focus on while I continue to establish the happy and comfortable environment:

Have I established the purpose of  the classroom environment?
Have I established the connections between the students and me?
Have I incorporated risk taking and ownership?
Have I thought of fun and  realistic tasks?
How will I  downgrade my control and promote autonomy?

Twitter is also my learning classroom. I am sharing a couple of tweets that I came across Saturday morning that reflect my thinking.

“@pernilleripp: A great learning environment has room for all people to learn, including the teacher #satchat” #cdnedchat #ocsb
— Rola Tibshirani (@rolat) September 6, 2014

“@shaunyk: My visual notes from @shareski excellent keynote on planning for joy #gafesummit pic.twitter.com/nfzO1szGS8” #joy #cdnedchat
— Rola Tibshirani (@rolat) September 6, 2014

Metacognitive discussions on determining learning goals!

I am sharing the process of metacognitive learning by determining individual learning goals and classroom learning goals.  This process is the base of a valuable connective platform of reflective conversational classroom community encouraging thinking, communication in learning and being clear about what students have accomplished and what needs to be accomplished.

On a daily basis students are given opportunities to engage in reflections in their learning and determining their next steps. The individual goals are shared with their teams, this collaborative thinking promotes questioning, ownership of learning, clarification of any content misconceptions and students converse about their goal setting of inquiry learning and next steps. This process makes learning transparent and it solidifies the classroom as a learning culture based on what individuals have learned and will reach. 

Using one chrome book per team students share their daily documented learning on Google Calenders that is embedded in their sites. As mentioned in previous posts Google is our Learning Platform for all activities. 

This connection also takes place face to face and digitally by inviting their colleagues to reply on next steps during learning tasks. They embrace each others' learning by having students voice on how to meet goals and share learning skills and strategies.  This creates a nurturing social, transparent and intellectual culture of learners committed by caring about each other's learning. 

The following are samples of connective learning:

Teams gather to listen, react and learn about reflective learning goals. 

Student on site sharing her reflective learning.

Students' reflections on Google Calender

We have le "professeur du jour" determining our whole group goals.

Not all reflections are digital some students to choose to write them on a daily basis 

I wished I had Google glasses as I always miss capturing many rich students ownership moment. I might invest in a pair this summer! 

All this learning is also articulated in French not only they are reflecting on their learning that is written in French also enriching their oral French through conversations. Students take risks in a second language and respect all entry levels of learning. Through this process as parents and students admit not only they have learned skills, strategies and content from each other, it has also improved their oral and written French. Through rich conversations on goal setting students take full ownership of learning during their tasks.  I will soon be posting more examples of oral rich conversations learning tasks. 

 We need to provide students with these reflective opportunities online, in writing and  face to face to constantly expose perspective of learning through an engaging community.

Students' partnership in learning!

As teachers we all look for partnership to grow professionally with colleagues and connecting with professionals on social media. I have always appreciated many blogs and tweets that make me reflect on many pedagogical learning experiences.

As mentioned in several posts on voice, inquiry and the ownership of learning, all credits are given to students for their partnership in learning. I was reading Aviva Dunsinger's post on Celebrating Learning  addressing students showcasing their work and how students are amazing teachers when given the choice. In recognition of #AboutThekids and catching up to my reflective blogging this post is dedicated to my teachers of Grade 6 and Grade 5/6 who make me celebrate and reflect on a daily basis.

I am sharing an example that took place with the whole school where students were to lead learning. The reason I am sharing this learning activity  is to demonstrate that every opportunity in class or out of class should always be  reflected on with students, by focusing on learning skills and how learning skills are always applied to any situations.

Students had an opportunity for a day mentoring the primary students through Math activities organized by Mathletes.  As students were mentoring, I had them reflect on their experiences on the classroom Twitter account. I have gathered their responses and videos of the day on a padlet. I am unable to share the live link as the videos are of many students from all grades.

   

All students' reflective tweets during the Math stations are the exact reflections that makes a classroom a learning space. 

The tweets were about:

•  The importance of collaboration when teaching and learning
•   Positive feedback during activities
•  Motivating students by giving them a hint or a question to provoke their thinking.
•  Learning the Math content with the other students while teaching and explaining
•  Learning is fun when students are talking
•   Lots of fun when students were engaged with learning
•  Students listened and persevered when they were challenged
•  Students were accountable at completing their tasks and never gave up
•  Learning through games is motivating.

 Students' reflection mirrored what happens in the classroom and how important to always take advantage of all learning situations and reflect to improve learning skills. I enjoy watching students every year take full ownership and responsibility of learning and perseverance to inquire for learning and share their learning. Teachers who regularly visit my classroom or see my students in action at school or out of school wonder, how do we do it! It is about reflective learning on a daily basis by focusing on learning skills and actions taken to master tasks through skills.