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Saturday, December 31, 2016

Social Media has changed me...

Social Media has changed me as an educator. My ideas and practices are validated on regular basis making me more confident as educator in my school community. I am always struck by the number of people who willing to share their ideas when researching to validate my thinking to find better ways to run the school. 

When I need help, I always got to Social Media for my answers. The large variety of contacts are always willing share their knowledge and expertise and don’t feel hampered by the requests(s). The support is out there you just have to look and ask for it. These resources are widely available, they are current, and the exchange of ideas help me grow as a reflective learner.

Communicating through social media in our school community has increased the engagement piece. Having teacher’s share their students learning took some time setting up with consent forms. However, the benefits of this change has made our school learning transparent, reflective in sharing the successes and challenges.

Friday, December 16, 2016

Hour of Code


Coding is an instructional tool that some teachers use to help children learn logic-based reasoning and other problem-solving skills.  It was great see all the classrooms participating in "Hour of Code"  as students were engaged with plenty of new learning going on.  Classrooms made reference to various education sites as they prepared for this day: https://code.org/ https://www.tynker.com/hour-of-code/ and used the #HourOfCode hashtag on social media. 
I spent some time in the Year 1 Year2 classroom where students were making 90 degree turns with square patterns. Their decisions were methodical and reflective and they were learning and having fun.
Feedback from some of the parents were positive and as their children shared their learning during that day. Inquiries were: How many times does this occur a year?   Is this part of the curriculum?  It was hard to answer our parents even though evidence suggests Back to school: Canada lagging in push to teach kids computer coding as there are no plans to make computer coding lessons mandatory in Ontario schools. The current curriculum is lagging with the 21C demands as in 2007 the Science and Technology curriculum  and in 2005 the Mathematics curriculum were revised.  Moreover, any PD it has been done by teachers own time through education sites as they recognize the importance of this coding process.
The direction that a school takes reinforces the collaborative culture that is embedded with its community. As we move forward with our Learning Space in the New Year, we will make attempts to address some of these ways of new learning. 


Check out some highlights on our Hour Of Code Twitter Moment!