Showing posts with label collaboration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label collaboration. Show all posts

Wednesday, 4 June 2014

Chromebook Workshop: Collaborative Spring Poems with Heather C’s Class

Aargh! I wrote this post yesterday during EQAO testing and then promptly deleted it this afternoon! I have tried several ways to revert to the earlier post, but can’t figure it out.
Heather C's 1/2s joined us for a Collaborative Poem writing workshop. In Room 209, we love writing poems together, especially on the Chromebooks!

The steps for writing collaborative poems were as follows:
1. Big Buddies from Room 209 paired with Little Buddies from Heather C’s class.
2. The Big Buddies became “Co-Pilots” and the Little Buddies became “Pilots”, in charge of what was going on
3. Pilots selected a topic related to spring
4. Together, Pilot and Co-Pilot began writing a poem on the Google Drive, focusing on using sensory information, alliteration and rhythm to make their poems very powerful
5. After five minutes, Pilot and Co-Pilot virtually “passed” the poem to another group by sharing the doc on the Google Drive
6. Pilot and Co-Pilot then took five minutes to read and continue the poem they received
7. Poems were passed five times
8. After adding to a fifth poem, Pilot and Co-Pilot returned to their original poem and edited and revised it, making sure they liked the sound and feel of the poem
9. PIlot and Co-Pilot then formatted the poem, changing the font if they wished, adding a photo to enhance the poem, and adding an optional photo of the poets who started it.

Please enjoy their work!
Butterflies, a poem started by Hunter and Noah
Butterflies, a poem started by Laryssa and Amira
Blowing, a poem started by Camden and Grayson
The Ceiling, a poem started by Jack and Charlie
Trees, a poem started by Ellis and Orayo
Hello and Goodbye, a poem started by Johnny and Trey
Spring Makes Me, a poem started by Molly and Ava
Spring Flowers, a poem started by Nat, Mackenzie and Annika
Spring Flowers, a poem started by Erika and Rowan
Spring, a poem started by Aaron, Madi and Ian
Sun, a poem started by Vickie and Frances

These workshops have been so valuable for the Rainbow Eggheads. It’s been great to share  our skills and resources with other classes and collaborate to create interesting projects.

Tuesday, 3 June 2014

Chromebook Workshop: Collaborative Poems with Erin's Class

We led a Chromebook Workshop for Erin's grade 1/2s. This is a class of poets who just had an Evening Coffee House for their families. We helped them to work on poems using the Chromebooks, sharing them every five minutes.

For details on the process, see this post.

Enjoy our collaborative poems:
Butterflies, started by Hannah and Kaia
The Ceiling, started by Charlie and Jack
Tiger, started by Alia and Yaro
Radioactive Underwear, started by Pat and Felix
Dogs, started by Dia and Gabby
The Trampoline, started by Nils and Stuart
Playing, started by Fiona and Sarah
Peacocks, started by Addie and Madi
Trees, started by Olivia and Vickie
Monkeys, started by Nat and Dilan
Cats, started by Kaleigh and Mia
Soccer, started by Alex and Emmett

Star Wars, started by Jackson and Keenan
The Magical Bunny, started by Clara and Sonia

Friday, 16 May 2014

Chromebook Workshop With Alena's Class

Today we did our first Chromebook workshop with Alena's class! They did the "Collaborative slideshow" one. What we did is I (Pat) made a form and three sideshows related to the grade two/three curriculum and Alena's class with a room 209 buddy voted on witch slide show they want to do and worked on a slide on that one. The three slideshows are below.



Clara and Leah took some of their Chromebook workshop time to create a form. Please answer their "Favourite Animal" survey below:

Friday, 9 May 2014

What Stuck With Us Today? We Loved Training 207!

what stuck with me today was working with tiiu's class because i realized that things don't always work out. Madi
What stuck with me was the training tuiis class because its awesome to let them have the same experience that we had.Thomas!
The morning routine stuck with me today because I forget what else we did.Jack
today what stuck with me is chromebook training.
our class is teaching tiiu's class how to use chromebooks!
nopeErika
Today what stuck with me today was Chromebook Training. I liked to train fellow students and I think it'll be just as fun with Chromebook training for other classes and younger students.Clara
chromebook training bender {ellis}
leadership club was fun and cant what to get started molly
Today teaching Tiiu's class about the chromebooks stuck, it was hard sometimes to connect or whatever but it was still a learning experience for both classes.nope.Vickie
Whats stuck with me is, when we did the chromebook training for room 207. It was cool and I'm actually happy that they get to use it and also I could tell that my buddy, Grace was happy about it.Have a good rest of the day!Hannah
The thing that stuck with me today was the Chromebook training. I really liked training Tiiu's class. I like the idea of sharing our Chromebooks with Tiiu's class. The other thing that stuck with me today was the math. I really enjoyed doing the math and my buddy was really into it (she usually gets bored.)Fiona
that a most every time we try to do something special it doesn't work at this timeKaleigh awesome
chromebook training with tiiu's classAaron McLeod
some people can learn really fastnophilip
The worm presentation at the wits sharing. I learnt tons of new things about worms.Nope.Pat
math buddiesYOLOJ4CK$0N(Jackson)
I had a good time with Chromebook training.Johnny
What stuck with me was helping Tiiu's class because maybe we can collaborate on docs with them at some point!Camden
It was fun working with zane doing the chromebook training.Yaro!
honestly the chromebook troubles M!guel
Tiiu's class got new fish for their aqua thigy majigHUNTER!!!
The chromebook training and the leadership club shark-finning project!Millie

Thursday, 8 May 2014

Advertising Strategies

In Room 209, we are analyzing and creating ads and looking at the strategies advertisers use to sell a product. Ads are used to persuade people to purchase or do something. They can also be used to entertain and inform.

We have explored Persuasive Advertising Strategies like:
  • Amazing Toys/Amazing Abilities
  • Avante Garde
  • Bandwagon
  • Bribery
  • Cute Characters
  • Excitement
  • Facts and Figures/Expert Opinion
  • Family Fun/Ideal Kids and Family/Plain Folks
  • Heartstrings
  • Magic Ingredients
  • Patriotism
  • Put Downs
  • Scale
  • Snob Appeal/Are You Cool Enough?
  • Star Power
  • Transfer
  • Weasel Words
For more information on our advertising unit (integrated Language, Science, Health, Social Studies, Math and Art), check out our working document. This includes notes from class discussions and Success Criteria for each step of the process.

Below is the slideshow that we are currently working on.
Success Criteria:
-select an interesting ad
-write down the message the advertisers are communicating (the deeper the better!)
-write down whether you think this is an honest advertisement or not and why
-add a shape with the advertising strategies(s) used

Cozy Coding - Collaborative Slideshow About Computer Programming!



A few weeks ago, we had our highly anticipated "Cozy Coding Day". Room 209 came in jammies and brought stuffies and blankies and we coded for a big chunk of the day.

Check out the slideshow we collaborated on about our experience!

Sunday, 9 February 2014

About the Authors

My desktop is COVERED in photos I've been meaning to put up on the blog - some of them for months!

Remember when we read all the different About the Authors and you all did a "Graffiti" activity, moving around the classroom and commenting on the different samples?







What We've Done So Far This Year

On Friday, in preparation for our upcoming Student Led Conferences, we collaboratively worked on a document called: What We've Done So Far This Year. Some students had iPads out to look back at what we've done on our blog and twitter account, others had laptops out and we added to this document at the same time. It was an awesome collaboration and made us all so excited for the Chromebooks to arrive - we'll get to do this all the time!

Tuesday, 14 January 2014

Looking Forward to Working with Miss Robin's Class

We have started to work with Miss Robin and her grade 5 class in Los Altos, California to share about our similar Social Studies projects.

Her students blogged about our first Skype chat. They explained about our Mystery Skype call. They were really interested in the degus. They learned about how much we love to eat Beaver Tails.

It will be great to Skype more with them in small groups and to share our ideas!

Check out their class blog posts and leave a response so that they know we were there.

Our first meetings will be starting next week.

Huge News!

As always, we've been keeping very busy in Room 209. So busy, in fact, that this poor little blog has been rather neglected as of late. Not for long, however. This blog is about to get a whole lot more contributors, maybe before next month!

As you know, we applied for a grant from EdTechTeam after I attended the Google Apps for Education Summit in Montreal. Students worked incredibly hard, even with me out of the school, to complete an excellent application. We've been waiting, crossing fingers, toes and eyes, hoping to get news. Every day, several sentences begin with, "If we get ChromeBooks, we can...".

This evening I got wonderful news. Room 209's grant was accepted and ChromeBooks will be on their way shortly! Students and parents got the news minutes after I did and my inbox promptly filled with enthusiastic replies:
Aaron is "over the moon", as his mom says;
many students, like Millie and Mel wrote obviously enthusiastic replies in all caps;
Hannah was concerned with details and made sure that EdTechTeam knew about our new student, Philip, she also thinks we should have more cake (after two days in a row already!);
Skye's mom filled an email with more than 10 exclamation marks for only two sentences of text;
Vickie used her mom's email to say that she was speechless (for once!);
Fiona is floored that out of potentially hundreds of applications, we won;
Erika wrote a 5-line exclamation to show her excitement;
Hunter's email was completely incoherent, from excitement, I hope;
I don't think Miguel could believe the news, as he confirmed with a quick, "So, we got ChomeBooks?"reply;
Apparently both Molly and Clara nearly made their mothers deaf with their happy screams;
Gabby told her mom she couldn't believe it.
I can't really believe it either. We thought we'd be getting the news on Thursday, and after not hearing for so long after when we thought the "official" announcement was, we figured we hadn't gotten the grant.

I've never seen so many "OMG"s in one night. I feel the same way, Rainbow Eggheads. I feel the same way.

We have SO much to talk about and so many lists of Success Criteria to come up with! We have lots of work to do together before we even get the ChromeBooks (which I think will be very soon!).

Something else that I've been thinking about tonight is how we can share with others. I know that we'll be blogging and tweeting about our adventures with the ChromeBooks, but we also need to think about how to share our learning with other students in our school and be role models for the use of technology. After all, this grant is designed for for classes doing "pilot projects". How can we share our learning with our Buddies and our friends who help make up "Room 208", the other grade 5/6s in Room 207? I look forward to coming up with all kinds of generous, creative, thoughtful ideas with you!

I can't wait to see your smiling faces tomorrow!

Thursday, 5 December 2013

Living Museum Kick Off

After our amazing Timeline Activity, the Juniors got together in two groups today to kick off our third annual Living Museum! The discussion was rich and engaging and the Curators (Owen, Tiiu, Andrew, Ray and Shauna) can't wait to see what you come up with!

Students are to start deciding on groups and topics and to work on their Proposals. Proposals are due by Thursday, December 18th, but will be accepted and even possibly approved before that! Please share your proposal with the homeroom teachers of all group members.

For your proposal, you will need to refer to the curriculum.
Grade 4 expectations - Medieval Times
Grade 5 expectations - Ancient Civilizations
Grade 6 expectations - European Explorers and First Nations

Inspiration from last year's topic selection!

Possible topics to get your started from today's discussion:
Daily Life
-I’m wondering how much the life of Haida people has changed over all of that time. - Millie, Sharky
-What was life like in the Industrial Revolution and in the heyday of a civilization - Ben
-I am wondering how the jobs compared between civilizations?
-Marin is wondering what life was  like before the Haida civilization?
-What happened in other places when the Dark Ages happened in Europe - Madi
-William is wondering why Christopher Columbus and all the European explorers are so famous if others found America first?
-Heather is wondering why the Aztec civilization was so short
-Cayley is wondering what things would have been like if the Dark Ages had never happened.
-Quinn is wondering what makes a successful civilization?
-Bexster is wondering how some civilizations were around for a longer time
-How was life in the Dark Ages and Medieval times? - Gabi
-
Structures
-Xavier is wondering how  the buildings in Ancient Rome held up in comparison to those of the Mayans?
-Kenny is wondering what was the tallest Mayan building - Johnny, Kenny


Geography
-Melodee is wondering what our current geographical location might have been like when we were inhabited by First Nations People
-Gavin M is wondering where the Haida are and who they are?
-Anna’s wondering when they realized the world wasn’t flat?
-Braeden’s wondering when Galileo made his discoveries, why did other people have other beliefs?


Inventions
-I’m wondering about why the Ancient Mayan calendar came to an end?
-I’m wondering about different inventions that came from different civilizations


Weaponry/War
-the Chinese invented gun powder but the first firearm wasn’t invented until much later. I wonder what they used the gun powder for and what happened between those two inventions until they met
-Sohail is wondering how the weaponry during medieval times compared to that of ancient civilizations?
-Jamie is wondering what is the most common medieval weapon


Religions/Belief Systems
-I’m wondering about religions and how so many people can find faith in symbols like a person or a book?
-Sharky is wondering about Native Storytelling and if the stories have changed as time goes on


Art
-Kaleigh is wondering if the First Nations and European Explorers did art


Transportation
-Pat and Colin want to compare European and Viking boats and how they changed how they made them and the general construction
-Kenny was wondering which ancient civilization had the biggest ship


Food
-Ethan is wondering how the Haida got their food and resources
-Hunter is wondering if Australian natives actually cannibalized


Personalities
Fiona is wondering about names and figures of famous Natives


Homes

-how did they built their houses before they had nails? - Leo

Wednesday, 27 November 2013

Today's Tasks in the Computer Lab

Hello Room 209 students,

Welcome to the Lab! I hope you're having a great day with Eric. Andrea and I are at a workshop at Confederation today and we're looking forward to hearing all about your day!

Please use your time in the Lab effectively today. Here are your tasks:

1. About the Authors 
-finish writing your About the Author on the Google Drive. Make sure your work has your name in the title and that you have shared it with me
-Check out the rubric we collaboratively created below before you say to yourself, "I'm done." (You can also go to the rubric and suggest other addtions!)
Criteria
Neon Green
Green
Yellow
Red
Details
-include interesting, relevant information
-pizazz
-totally unique voice
-a lot of details
-juicy
-tying things together: making connections
-some listing is there
-connections are unclear
-listing “I like...I like...”
-using the words stuff/things
-squeezing the juiciness out of your writing
Structure

-sentences are varied and interesting lengths


Conventions

-spelling is correct
-proper nouns are capitalized
-end punctuation is used


Written in third person
-it really sounds like someone else wrote it!
-name is used often, or “she/he”, “his/her”
-using your name and sometimes using “I”
-repeating name over and over and over
-”My name is...”
-”I”
-excessive details used
Layout

-computer typed
-looks professional


Image

-photo or drawing includes: message, symbol, space, colour/hue


-Share your About the Author with a classmate and have him or her share his or hers with you
-Go through and make comments on your partner's work
-Return to your own work and make any corrections or edits needed

2. Human Poster Research - you may continue to answer the questions you need to discover for your Human Poster. Make sure you have the list of requirements in your Social Studies duo-tang

Have a great, productive time in the lab today!

Tuesday, 26 November 2013

Getting Started with BANSHO


Based on the amazing Michael Wendler's BANSHO lessons, I decided to teach our Patterning and Algebra unit completely through BANSHO style, or three-part Math lessons.




Each task is organized in ABCD order (can you tell I love acronyms!). We start each lesson with an Activation, followed by our group-work Bansho question, and followed by Consolidation and then some individual Doing. Activation entails an introduction to the topic, and sometimes we look back to some of the strategies used for the last question. Bansho is the collaborative work to solve the open-ended problem. Consolidation happens once the groups are ready to share their strategies. We talk about which ones are similar and different and decide what strategies were most effective and efficient. The Doing usually requires students to work alone to practice their new skills. Sometimes, the Doing is taken home as homework.

Above is the slideshow we've been working with. There are some very challenging questions included, as well as some that feel like more of a review, especially now, since we've had a lot of practice.

Students have showed a remarkable range of skills through this unit. They are, of course, practicing their Math skills, but they are also building collaboration, communication, problem solving and perseverance and confidence. Watching them work together through challenging problems and then sharing them effectively is incredible!

Below are some shots from our first BANSHO lesson of the year:







Thursday, 3 October 2013

Today in the Lab

Hello Rainbow Egg Heads,

  Welcome to the Lab. You have several jobs to do today.

1. First, log into your TypingWeb account (your username is your first name and the digits of our classroom, and we all have the same password, Shauna reminded you of it in class). You will work on there for 10 minutes.

2. Next, log on to your IXL account (you have your username and password on your password card). Work on either: Number Sense and Numeration, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication or Division, wherever you feel you need to spend time. You will work on there for 10 minutes.

3. Then, visit Edmodo and log in to your account (you have made up your own log in and password). Ensure that you have joined all these groups: Rainbow Egg Heads (wzc75u), Global Read Aloud 2013 Grade 5s and 6s (7tmn9x), Fifth Grade Out of My Mind GRA 2013 (ayj7vc), GRA13 - "Out of My Mind" (d9q4h2), and Out of My Mind - Pineville, NC and Ottawa, Canada (j9ibm9) . The codes to join these groups are posted here (but only temporarily!) If you need help with Edmodo, talk to Millie, Camden, Fiona, Hannah, Yaro, Hunty, Madi, Kaleigh, Miggy, Thomas, Mel or Pat, and they'll support you in the lab!

4. Finally, go onto the different groups about the GRA that you have joined. Read what is going on. Respond to at least one post, poll or assignment.

5. If you finish all this, continue to visit the Edmodo groups and add to the conversations or search the hashtag #GRA13 or #GRA13OOMM on Twitter.

Wednesday, 11 September 2013

Our First Post Together

Greetings parents and kids!

We are sitting here as a class in Room 209 writing our first blog post of 2013-14.

 In our class this year, we have 28 students (or "eggs"), 3 pets, 1 sock monkey, 1 puppet, 5 octopuses (not counting Squidward) and 1 teacher. We have 11 grade 5 students and 17 grade 6 students. There are 11 boys and 17 girls. There are a bunch of EPIC people who like bacon. There are also a bunch of people who like flying ponies, rainbows and dublacorns.

 Shauna's class likes to always have a class name and we are called the "Rainbow Egg Heads" this year. Our class is the "Farm of Rainbow Egg Heads". We have picked this name because Shauna started off with ADD EGGS. ADD EGGS means accountable, driven, dynamic, engaged, grateful, generous and supportive. We are students who demonstrate ADD EGGS every day, hence the "Egg Heads". We added rainbow to the beginning of our name because we all love rainbows and Shauna rainbow coated the tables for the first day of school.

   There will be a Class Meeting for all parents and guardians of the "Rainbow Egg Heads" It is on Thursday,  September 19th in "the Farm" (the classroom, room 209). It starts at 7 p.m. and will take about one hour.

Sincerely,
The Rainbow Egg Heads

Wednesday, 8 May 2013

Our Tech Innovators Slideshow


Students in Room 209, especially Hunter, Vickie, Rickie, Thomas and Fiona, worked really hard on this slideshow that we shared with an organization called Ottawa Network for Education. They wanted to learn about innovative technologies that are being used in schools around our city. After ONFE saw our slideshow, they selected us as one of three finalists to possibly win a $5000 grant to spend on technology for our school! This will be presented at an EduGala event later this month. On Monday, May 13th, a camera crew from GAPC will be coming in to capture some of the exciting things that we are doing!

Below, check out last year's three finalists.
http://www.onfe-rope.ca/programs/capital-educators039-awards/attend-edugala/innovation-award

Tuesday, 9 April 2013

The Lip Dub is Up!


I.S.S. The Lip Dub from shareski on Vimeo.

Remember when we recorded a few lines from the International Space Station song? Well, the Lip Dub is ready!

Check it out above!

I've already tweeted it at Commander Hadfield. Do you think he'll watch it? Will he hear OUR voices bouncing off the moon?

Do you want to know how Dean Shareski (Anna and Daniel's teacher) put together the video? Check out his post.

Saturday, 9 March 2013

Singing O'Canada in Sign Language


We noticed that we hadn't heard "O'Canada" very often in the mornings, so our class decided to join up with Dana's class to start off the day with our national anthem. The really cool thing is, they know it in sign language! They were awesome teachers and I think we picked it up pretty quickly!

We use a tiny bit of sign language in our classroom - to ask to go to the washroom and get water, but it was pretty wonderful to learn a whole song!




Friday, 8 March 2013

Dear Pandas: We Can Tell We're Gonna Be Friends




Today, we got together with Dana, Owen/Andrew, Ray, Natalie and Tiiu's classes to play music and sing to welcome the Chinese pandas to Canada!