Our Mission

Our mission is to create models of learning that support and inspire collaboration in a cross-curricular, inquiry-based community.

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Movers and Shakers with George Couros


Yesterday I had the amazing opportunity to attend the SD36 Movers and Shakers day with George Couros.  I left with a lot to think about, and a bit of homework.  Below is a post I wrote for sd36learns.posterous.com  Here you can find reflections from the people who attended the session yesterday.  It's worth a read.  These people have such a passion for learning and truly inspire those around them.

What I learned Today and what I will do Tomorrow:

I often feel a bit overwhelmed during pro-d when I am bombarded with information and tools to use in my classroom.  George’s presentation was different though.  The way he made us think changed the way I view my practice.  George asked us “Why?”  I always knew that I try new things, embed technology and try to be creative in my classes because it engages my students, but I never actually asked myself “Why?” and definitely never shared it.  Asking this question really stressed me out, because I couldn’t actually answer it right away. It made me feel as though I was just doing stuff for the sake of doing stuff.  When I started writing and talking with the people at my table, I began to realize that I have several reasons why I use technology, but George’s voice was echoing through my head: "I do it because it is what’s best for the kids.”  Isn’t that why we are educators?  They are using social media anyways, so why not teach them how to create a positive digital identity? 

It is also our duty to give our students a voice and motivate them to reach their full potential.  As George said, we need to give kids a voice and share their work with an authentic audience, otherwise, imagine all of the talent and creativity that goes unnoticed. 

I challenge myself to make this change in my classes.  I will give my students a voice, and work harder to do what is best for my kids because “Kids often defy expectations, if given the opportunity” (Shelly Wright, @wrightsroom)

Thanks George and everyone else for the amazing discussions.
- Jess Pelat

Sunday 3 June 2012

Calgary Science School and ConnectEd Canada

While sitting on the plane I remember wondering what to expect.  I knew I was going to an innovative school, but honestly, I wasn't even sure if I knew what that even meant.  I have been working with a wonderful group of teachers on various projects around our school, but I always felt a bit restricted by different structures such as schedules and curriculum.  Needless to say, my visit to Calgary Science School opened my eyes to new possibilities, inspired me beyond comprehension, and changed the way I see education and how I teach.
But, I guess I should start from the beginning so that you consider my naivety, and thus understand the learning I experienced.
I was approached by my principal, Sheila Morissette ( viewfrommyschool.wordpress.com/ ) about 2 weeks before ConnectEd, asking me to accompany her and Elisa Carlson (http://innovativelearningdesigns.ca/wordpress/ ) on a trip to Calgary.  As a member of the FH Innovative Learning Design Team, I thought this would be a great opportunity to see inquiry based learning in action.  Two weeks later I was on a plane headed for Calgary.  About an hour after we landed, I was face to face with people I had only heard about on twitter.  This was my first A-Ha moment.
As a teacher of Information Technology, I have been working to help my students understand the educational power of social media.  I am new to twitter and blogging, but I worked with my classes to uncover the potential of these tools in research and collaboration all year.  However, I wasn't experienced enough to truly understand it myself, until now.
At the "tweet up" I met some of the most interesting people, who were just as enthusiastic, if not more, to witness innovative teaching practices.  Here, we not only met for the first time face to face, but also discussed some of our interests and ideas around inquiry based learning.  It is amazing how collaboration on twitter can create relationships, partnerships, and connections that can change your practice so profoundly.  I realized, in meeting these educators, that there were people out there who share a similar passion with me.  There are others who want to see change in education, and give students a chance to succeed.
The following day was spent at Calgary Science School.  Again, I had no idea what to expect.  I figured it would just be another seminar, where we sat in a room and someone told us about the "next best thing in teaching."  To my surprise, we were given an opportunity to walk around the school all day and actually watch collaborative, technology-imbedded, inquiry-based learning in action.  I was immediately struck by the way the school was organized.  Groups of students stayed together and moved from class to class.  The classes also incorporated several subjects in various projects.  In particular I was fascinated by the Humanities class that was studying Canadian History.  The project was to create a monument.  This was a project for which they were obliged to understand Canadian history, develop a symbolic representation of one aspect of it, draw and develop it using technology such as Walkabout 3D and Google Sketchup, and then enjoy the work that they had produced.  The kids were essentially given the learning outcomes and had to develop their project step by step, using various skills they had learned from their teachers.
The school, teachers, and students made me really contemplate my own practice.  I do a lot of project-based learning, and I try to collaborate as often as possible, but I feel as though it needs to happen on a wider scale.  I incorporate technology in order to engage my students more, but that isn't always what is best for the project, or my students.  My attempts to engage my kids often leads me to develop projects that incorporate play, and other popular themes that my kids mention along the way, such as my QR code scavenger hunt that was a massive hit, and a repeat is still requested almost once a week.  Yet, it all seems so miniscule.  I want to go bigger.  I want to incorporate more subjects, more skills, more brains.  I want to eliminate the structure of the schedule and develop a place where students are using their own brains (not one the expectations of the current education system have led them to assume is "'A' quality").  I want to create a place where skills and understandings are used to tackle real world problems.  I want my students to think for themselves.  I want my students to challenge themselves.
At lunch on Friday I was inspired, yet again, by another presentation.  George Couros blew my mind with his powerful words and emotional connection with social media and education.  George's passion for learning and teaching our kids the value of social media as a tool in education made me want to learn it, try it, and know it all.  I probably signed up for a dozen different things online, and quickly realized that I needed to just sit back, take it one step at a time, and not get overwhelmed with the possibilities for enhancing my (and my students') learning.  However, George reminded me of that passion I have for learning.  He reminded me that student engagement and choice in learning is necessary if I want my kids to be successful.  And most importantly he reminded me not to be afraid to share my ideas, my learning, my successes and my failures because that's the only way I'm going to grow as an educator.  Read George's Blog at  http://georgecouros.ca/blog/ and follow him on twitter @gcouros
On Friday night we heard from four amazing speakers: Susan Eaton, Dr. MaryAnn Moser, Dr. Alex Bruton, and Shelley Wright, who again made me want to do better.   And on Saturday we sat in various seminars and had rather enlightening conversations.  I was sad to have to leave early, but so excited to get home and start planning.  I am currently working to maintain many of the connections I made in Calgary via twitter, and can only imagine how this collaboration and this experience will improve my teaching practice.
I will end this post with one of the most memorable moments from CSS and ConnectED, which pretty much sums up the way this innovative school engages kids and guides them towards successful learning:  I was standing outside of a grade 4 class by myself, about to walk in, when a little girl walks out of the classroom and stares at me for a moment before very confidently saying "hello."
I replied and she asked me, "What are you doing?"
I told her I was about to come into her classroom to see what they were working on.  She stared at me for a bit longer and said "Well then come in.  I am going to show you what I am doing."  She walked me over to her desk, looking back at me and explaining some of the project to me with a steady voice and solid eye contact.  She then opened her computer and tugged on my arm for me to bend down to get a closer look. "This is what we learned, this is my project, and this is how my project explains what I learned." Amazing.

For more information on Calgary Science School visit www.calgaryscienceschool.com/
For more information on ConnectEd Canada follow #connectedCA on twitter or visit http://connectedcanada.org/
Thanks to @gcouros, @Neilstephenson and @ErinCouillard

Friday 1 June 2012

Poetry - A Grade 10 and 8 Collaborative Project







Many teachers at Fraser Heights have been experimenting with more collaborative, cross-grade projects.  We have found this experience to be extremely beneficial for our students, not only educationally, but also socially.  They are able to not only learn from each other, but also build relationships with peers in other grades, and thus develop a greater sense of school community in the process.

The Project:
Ms. Pelat's Humanities 8 class paired up with a student in Mrs. MacRae's English 10 class to create a collection of poems which illustrate 4 themes: School grounds/nature/neighbourhood; people (students, staff, etc.); The school building; Events/experiences/things that happened.

For each theme, the 2 students created a poetry response, demonstrating their understanding of various types of poems such as: Haiku, Diamante, limerick, villanelle, sonnet, free verse, tanka, etc.  They were expected to figure out what form (if any) to use for each theme, and also decide how to divide up the wiriting tasks.  This lead to conversations around trying to figure out with each partner was thinking.

After a 30minute nature walk, and once all of the poems were written, each pair of students presented their work to the class.

Our Observations:
Many of my grade 8s had trouble parting from their friends.  On the field, they clumped together and nearly refused to speak to their grade 10 partner.  However, after much separation anxiety, they were eventually able to walk around and write some of their observations down.  Some students made instant connections, while others still struggled with the idea of working with someone new and older/younger. 

In the classroom, we encouraged students to sit alone with their partner.  I believe this is where much of the bonding happened.  Many of the grade 8s (who hadn't had any poetry lessons at this point) asked many important questions regarding rhyme, syllables and types of poems.  This was a great experience for the grade 10s because their knowledge was tested as "experts" teaching their partners.

The Presentations:
When it came time to present their poems, all groups were very well prepared.  They had agreed on who would type out the poems and who would read what.  The grade 10s usually took control, giving introductions to each poem, and also gave their grade 8 counterparts encouragement to speak as well.  The classes were both very attentive as audience members, and many of the poems included verses describing their newly established relationship with their partner. 

Assessment:
This assignment is a summative assessment piece.  Both classes were engaged in formative assessment activities prior to the project, so they brought their own knowledge to this activity.  This project demonstrated their understanding of various types of poems and devices, as well as an ability to share understandings and knowledge.  During the presentations, Julia and I marked our students separately.  We then read through the poetry together, and came up with a mark that both students were given.

Summary:
This collaborative experience was quite positive for our grade 8 and 10 classes.  The students were able to build new relationships with students in grades they normally would not encounter socially.  Furthermore, the work that was produced was a joint effort.  The students were able to write about their experiences, as well and learn about someone else's.  They also had an opportunity to learn new styles of writing from their partners, and were motivated by their partner to complete the work creatively and with high expectations.

Now What?
Collaboration is a positive force in education.  Students and teachers are able to share ideas and understandings, leading to even greater learning.  As inquiry-based learning becomes more popular in education, collaboration is increasingly more important in the way we teach.  On a recent visit to Calgary Science School, I was inspired by the collaboration among teachers and learners.  See Learning from Calgary Science School for more info.  To learn more about my visit to CSS, check out my latest blog post on the fhsslearn homepage.  

Fraser Heights Secondary is working on various projects to increase collaboration in our school.  More and more teachers are working together to create projects, lessons, units and courses.  One example is a projects developed between our ELL course and Shop http://db.tt/EJYuTVMg You can also find a summary of the project on the fhsslearn "projects" page.

Technology?
It is a constant challenge trying to engage all students.  With the availibility of technology, we are able to develop more innovative ways to do so.  Using the iPads with this project can provide students will an opportunity to showcase their work in an alternative way.  Rather than using pens and paper, students can take the iPads outside, record what they see, feel, think, and also take pictures and video to display their encounters during their presentation.  They can use programs like Keynote as a presentation tool, and also create digital storybooks of their poems with apps such as iBook Creator.