Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Cyber Safety Campaign

Our learners have been involved in various cyber safety activities with their class teachers.  All students participated in cyber safety lessons and some produced interesting resources which could be shared with other classes.
Here are some of the lesson ideas we made use of:
-Role playing cyber situations
-Creating Top 5 Tips on how to be cyber safe
-Making up and deciding which usernames are appropriate or not
-Learning about cyber safety through Professor Garfield
-QR Code scavenger hunt
  

Skills For A Modern World

Grade 10 English Literature students use online tools TurnItIn for various English Writing tasks. Here is a little look at Ms. Sandy's lesson.



Modern Skills for Modern Times from Nadene Jennings on Vimeo.

Authentic Learning in Financial Math

Secondary students work on authentic math problems in Ms. Kelly's Financial Math class.  They were set a number of tasks; one of them being to calculate how paying for college with a credit card would effect the costs.
Financial Math from Nadene Jennings on Vimeo.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

More On Differentiated Reading

Earlier this week I posted an entry about an app called Raz-Kids and discussed how teachers were using it at an elementary student level.
Adding to the Raz-Kidz program,Ms. Laura, our Grade 4 Language Arts and Science teacher has introduced her students to Newsela, a site which offers real-world articles relating to various subjects. Ms. Laura has her Grade 4's integrating their reading session with their Science once a week when she selects a number of Science articles for them to choose from. These articles can then be read at various reading lexile levels. 


This view shows how you choose the reading lexile on the right of the screen. 



Learning More Than Mental Arithmatic

This morning I had the pleasure of visiting a Grade 2 class in which the students demonstrated how they learn in this day and age.

Ms. Kim's students were able to:
access online resources,
work individually or with partners,
make recordings of their understanding for the teacher to access later,
learn how to create and write titles,
work on a whiteboard app to help save paper,
use their IT skills to take screen shots and upload to their Showbie app...and most importantly review their understanding of adding doubles and leave evidence of their understanding for their teacher.
All this, within half an hour!

Here is a little clip to show you what it looked like.

A Modern Look At Mental Math from Nadene Jennings on Vimeo.

A Modern Look At Mental Math from Nadene Jennings on Vimeo.







App solutely Amazing Night Sky

For Science Grade 5 students are studying a unit on objects in the sky. As part of their tech integration activities they have been asked by Ms. Dareen and Ms. Jenninfer to use the app GoSkyWatch .

I look forward to recording some of their comments and will share it on this blog.

If you have any other interesting "space" related apps please share your ideas here.





Thursday, September 25, 2014

Online Surveys On Career Day

Grade 6 students participated in their first online, career aptitude survey this week. They were able to relax within their classroom reading environment with Ms. Cheryl, their Language Arts teacher, thanks to the convenience of being able to use their devices at school. 



Reading Made Accessible At Different Levels

Many of our elementary classes make use of a program which can be found at http://www.raz-kids.com.
Through Raz Kids, students can access readers at the level recommended by the teacher. 
Students can:
Listen to the story
Record themselves reading the story
Complete a comprehension quiz on their understanding of the book
Earn points for the activities which they do. 
The teacher can:
Set a band of appropriate books for access by individuals
Listen to student recordings
Send comments to students concerning their progress.







A teacher account must first be purchased before teachers can assign readers to her group.







In this Grade 1 class, when the Raz-Kidz app is used as a class activity, students are all engaged in reading appropriate text for their own levels and the adults in the classroom are available to work with individuals or in small groups.
























And for those who choose.....the traditional method of reading is also always available.

Reflecting on Understanding of Art Techniques

Grade 4 girls share their understanding of the tie-dye process by creating an informative movie clip to share their knowledge and use of appropriate vocabulary linked to the unit.
Watch A Sample Clip