Almost a year ago, an invitation was sent out from my school division (Regina Catholic Schools) to participate in a Connected Educator project. This invitation involved not only the acquisition of technology (in my case one to one laptop access in my classroom), but also and more importantly to becoming part of a Professional Learning Community and look at innovative and best practice with technology integration. There has been access to skype, social media, and face to face growth opportunities and a chance to share experiences and lessons learned. This experience has improved my understanding and utilization of not only technology, but of pedagogy, 21st Century Skills, and redefinition of my classroom. I'm grateful I was chosen to participate in this project and truly believe that it has improved digital, critical thinking, creative, reflection, and learning skills for the members of the project and the students we serve.
From a strictly technology/device perspective, the project was been successful. With daily access and continued improvement in wifi, the access to these digital tools has been excellent for all involved. The laptops that we have access to have been more than adequate and the students have respected and taken care of the devices. Before issuing each student their device we talk about respect, digital citizenship, and have device labeled and organized in the cart. The manner in which the students have looked after the devices has been impressive. I am grateful for the equity that the one on one access has provided and each student in my class has the ability to draw upon a variety of resources provided in class to help them with their learning goals and objectives. There has also been promotion, discussion, and reflection on the learning opportunities that these tools can provide for all learners. We have done a book study and examined The Innovator's Mindset by George Couros (http://georgecouros.ca/blog/the-innovators-mindset-book) A must read for any teacher in my opinion. A twitter chat was employed to have participants share reflections, memes, and questions to the various chapters in the book. We also read and shared our thoughts on David Geurin's 9 Ed Tech Essentials post (http://www.davidgeurin.com/2017/02/9-essential-edtech-ideas-to-share-with.html). These activities put the main goal of the project into perspective … it was not about the devices but the opportunity to innovate … to try new and better approaches to engage and empower students. We also reflected upon TIM (Technology Integration Matrix), the essential skills of 21st Century learning (7Cs), and the SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition) Model of Technology Integration. The process of filling out the TIM (http://www.azk12.org/tim/) allowed us to reflect on both teacher and student progress with technology integration. We also created and based lessons on the 7 Cs of 21st Century learning (http://gennarodriguez.weebly.com/7-cs-of-21st-century-learning.html). We also used the SAMR Model (http://hippasus.com/blog/archives/227) to examine what transformational changes are we doing with technology in our classrooms if any. The use of these three reflection models gave all participants an opportunity to develop a growth mindset and improve upon out integration of technology in our classrooms. The RCSD Connected Educator initiative has been a successful one in my opinion. My students in semester one were successful at meeting curricular objectives laid out in the curriculum, but more importantly for me they did so in an enriched, empowering, and engaging atmosphere that still has room for growth and improvement. The Professional Learning Community that has developed as a result is also a tremendous benefit (loved our edCamp style sharing). It has raised the bar for professional development and collaboration (follow and join the conversation #rcsdconnect). It is hoped that the program will grow and a mentorship process will also develop, connecting more ideas and best practice. I look forward to continuing my participation in this program and improving the learning possibilities for me and my students. If you have questions on this please e-mail me at [email protected] and follow me on twitter @vendi55.
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After two days on Monday and Tuesday of wrapping up semester one with meetings and prep time, semester two kicked off on Wednesday. I truly believe that it is important to build relationships with your students right off the bat. I invest the first few day letting the students get to know me, I get to know them, and we build a positive classroom atmosphere together. I made a very deliberate effort to get to know every students name right off the get go, try to learn and remember at least one thing about each student, greet and dismiss each student at the door, and try to understand as much as possible where each student is at and ask them questions on what a class and school looks like to them. Together we create mission statements, procedures, and a class prayer. My hope is to invest in a positive classroom atmosphere, have a unified approach to managing our class, instill family concept, and promote respect for each other, ourselves, and our classroom. It is very much an approach to be proactive and develop positive relationships that hopefully lead to a great learning experience for all. We had some good discussions about what school looks like, how relationships are important, and what it will take to be successful. I'm looking forward to working with these new groups and the journey we will take over the next five month together. I am excited about trying some new ideas, making new relationships, strengthening existing ones, and enjoying the blessing of learning. I am also blessed to work at a place that respects and loves all people, has a vibrant extra curriculum program, a love of learning, many dedicated professionals, and just an over all feeling of family and improving mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Also happy to be published in The Variable - Volume 2, Issue 1 http://smts.ca/variable-volume-2-issue-1/ … I submitted an article found on page 34 #codinginmathclass and in our division newsletter with my article on video analysis.
Another semester is in the books. I had another great semester filled with many opportunities to learn, laugh, and grow. I truly do love my job and the school I'm at. I tired once again to strengthen relationships with my students and really enjoyed the groups that I worked with this year. The new room was also fantastic ... what a difference! I was also very happy to 'ditch' my desk in the classroom ... I definitely felt more connected to my students and didn't miss the urge to sit behind a desk. Working with an intern again was a rewarding and growth experience. I hope I was able to provide some sage wisdom, a chance to develop positive teaching practices, and help install a growth mindset. I thank my intern for helping me reflect on our profession, sharing new approaches and ideas, and fostering my own growth mindset. I once again really enjoyed the TIFA experience and really fell there is a need for video analysis in education. This was the first semester as a RCSD connected educator. The access to the technology was quite welcomed and I felt gave many new opportunities to innovate and incorporate 21st Century skills. The use of One Note in the classroom was a positive experience and allowed the opportunity to share information, new ideas, and better learning opportunities. I was able to expand upon my use of coding and Minecraft and was very happy with the results of using both. I loved seeing students create, take risks, and learn in new ways. I know I reached some students who are usually not as motivated to try something new. The play, struggle, and collaboration I witnessed was worth the time spent for sure. I will continue to hone my use and understanding of the flipped classroom concept. It worked well with my work place 20 math class and really gave me an opportunity to connect with the kids building relationships and delivering content. Still a ways to go with this including getting more students to watch the videos. Hour of Code, Bread Out Edu Boxes, Skype opportunities also added to the fun and learning. I'm still trying to work on effectively using technology tools like Formative and Plickers for formative assessment and the mini whiteboards continue to get more students sharing work and providing feedback opportunities. As I corrected the CFD exams it left me with more questions than answers of how to effectively get students motivated and measure understand and objectives met. Sometimes I feel I'm stuck in two worlds. I would like to be more innovative and provide students an opportunity to grow and challenge themselves, but sometimes the current system does not allow for som of the changes I'd like to see. I tired to grow my education leadership position by providing support and offering resources. The basic requirements have been met for this position, but I'd still like to see it grow into a tru PLC with more talk and sharing of best and innovative practice. Still a good challenge. I have enjoyed my work as part of the Communication Committee trying to spread and share the great things going on at our school through our digital signage, twitter, and our web site. The new semester should provide some new and exciting experiences with reboots to the website and in door digital signage. Working with the assembly committee was once again fun and challenging always interesting to put on a 'show' for over 800 people. Our TEDed group is moving along slowly but surely and hopefully we can pick it up a bit in the next semester. I'm also going to try and boot up a Titan News team and get some strong content going for the digital signage and school you tube channel. The O'Neill 50th anniversary is coming up and there will be lots of work with this too. Got some positive feedback from parents with the efforts I made to stay in touch through e-mail and Remind ... was happy that my efforts to do a better job of communication had positive results. Second semester should be great. Really enjoyed going to lunch masses once again ... really helps put things into perspective and always good to feed the soul. Look forward to a new challenge with a new class business/tech 9 ... we are going to have some fun and try lots of new ideas out with this class ... stay tuned. Have some great PD opportunities coming up this semester too as well. So blessed to have a great family and health too. New semester ... new adventures ... bring em on
I recently had the good fortune to work with an intern recently. It is always great professional development and a chance to impact the future of teaching by working with an aspiring teacher. Our internship journey had a unique, reflective, and what I feel is a game changing twist. A twist that is commonplace in many other professions and that is video analysis. Just like a football team would get the game film and break down what happened on offense, defense, and special teams and look for tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses in order to learn from and improve on last week’s performance, this process was very similar. We embarked on what was know as the TIFA (Teacher/Intern/Faculty Advisor) program lead by Dr. Kathy Nolan of the Education Math Department at the University of Regina. The process involved recording an interns lesson, editing and submitting a 10-15-minute portion of a lesson, then getting together with the Faculty Advisor, other educators, and other interns to break down, reflect, and discuss what was in the video. First the video was shown in it’s entirety with the group writing down different elements of what they noticed in the lesson and the delivery. Noticing points could be on content, classroom management, student response, and more, but the key thing was to just notice and not make judgement statements in the first round of open reflection. We would go around and make statements like ‘saw head was down’, ‘heard you say cancel out’, or ‘the students had many questions on that problem’. After a round of noticing the intern that was videoed was able to make reflective comments on what was noticed, offered explanations, and made connections to all elements of their teaching. Finally, we had a round where we could drill deeper on an area that stood out and have a deep meaningful conversation with all involved. The atmosphere created for this type of reflection was safe, open, and trusting. We had two meeting that were face to face and we these days participating in meaningful professional development for all involved. We also did one session via video conferencing where we previewed the videos on our own and came to the meeting having seen the videos and did our noticing before hand. The face to face was more personal and intimate, but the video conference was also effective as the technology worked well and was time and cost effective. During the last session, cooperating teachers we also invited to share a clip of one of their lesson. I took this opportunity to get feedback and share some of my practices. I appreciated the candid feedback and the ideas that it generated for me. Overall it was a great experience and enriched the internship process for me and the members of this group. This process involves having a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. This opportunity is not meant as a way to judge, but rather a way to improve and reflect. We can all get better at our craft. I would also like to see this at a school level with teachers working together and sharing ‘game’ film and having conversations about teaching. I have reflected on this experiences and would invite others to consider this type of professional development. Looking for a couple resources to help you explore this opportunity check out https://www.edutopia.org/blog/video-pd-power-of-observation-nira-dale or Focus on Teaching Using Video for High-Impact Instruction by Jim Knight. As always feel free to e-mail me at [email protected] or follow me on Twitter @vendi55. A couple of weeks ago I saw a call from George Couros for a reporter/blogger/connector of people named Jam Gamble that was looking to interview teachers for a blog series she was putting together. I answered the call and contacted Jam ... the result was a great opportunity to share my thoughts and reflections on what I do ... here's a link to the blog post http://www.msjam.ca/blog/how-do-you-do-it-6-dean-vendramin
Honoured to have my Hour of Code article published on page 6 of the STF Bulletin.
Submitted a vlog as part of my #30daysofblogging and #edu2017 goals. Really need to work at just getting things done rather than waiting for perfection or the right time. Sometime I overthink what I should post. One tends to worry if it will be good enough or will others find it intereseting rather that see it as a chance to share or even some might just be for oneself. I will continue this journey and hope others just get er done too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Psqwxlw-EL8&feature=youtu.be
Ok just accepted 30 days blogging challenge found at http://ajjuliani.com/30-days-blogging-challenge/#comment-220253 . Just have to write and keep in mind it doesn’t have to be perfect it just has to get done (a mantra for many things). I have attempted to be more consistent in my blog posting but sometimes have left gaps between entries so I will try again to maintain frequency and just get er done. I remember keeping a teaching journal in my first year of teaching many moons ago and was able to keep that up (I actually found it and may try to use some of those 'posts' in future entries here.
My Blog Goals Are Write 200 words per day, every day for 30 days Publish at least on post per week Thanks for opportunity to reflect and share. The Hour of Code is an initiative the has been promoted around the world to get more people to experience, understand, and play with code. Hour of Code events will be taking place around the world the week of Dec 5-11, 2016. To participate, all one has to do is go to hourofcode.com and register. You do not need to be an expert at code, but you do have to be willing to let students explore and play with code for at least an hour. There are many benefits associated with examining and constructing code. Many job opportunities, many which don’t even exist yet, will require coders and research shows that there will a demand for workers with these skills in the future. Just like the importance of understanding another spoken language the understanding of code will help students understand the world they live in and provide important 21st Century skills. Most importantly it will help students become producers rather than consumers and show them they have the ability to make their own programs instead of waiting for someone to do it for them. There are many ways and resources in which one can use to ‘get their hour in’ and more. Code.org is a great place to start. There activities and coding opportunities for students of all ages. Using platforms such as Minecraft, Frozen, and even the new Disney movie Moana, students can access opportunities to program code and make many of the characters in these popular games and shows do what the students code them to do. Many of these opportunities are in the form of block coding, so it is much like putting a sentence together in order to make objects move and do other actions. There are many tutorials and many opportunities to learn and have fun. Two block coding programs that are also great starting points for code are Scratch and Hopscotch. Both are free and allow students to formulate ideas for programs and actualize them. There are many tutorials and ‘how tos’ for both. Scratch is web based (although there are Scratch apps too) and can be found at scratch.mit.edu. It has a vast database of pre-made programs as well that one can examine and remix. Hopscotch (https://www.gethopscotch.com/) is an app for iOS devices and offers users a friendly environment to create and experiment with code. Both of these block coding programs are fun and easy to use and develop strategies and skills that are transferable to higher level programming codes. There are other great resources that can be used to promote coding. Spheros (which can run about $150 for a Spheros 2.0) are programmable robot spheres. There are many resources at http://edu.sphero.com/ that have coding ideas. You would need to download an app (both iOS and android) to play. Another creative and innovative programming product is a Makey Makey. Makey Makey information can be found at http://makeymakey.com/ (and can cost about $75). This programmable control can turn items such as fruit, tinfoil, and even ketchup into cool and creative inventions. Again letting students play, ponder, and program with these resources gets them producing and experimenting. So if you get a chance sign up and participate in the Hour of Code. If you miss out on this specific event, I would still encourage educators to look into and implement coding in your classroom. It can be done at any age, you don’t have to be an expert (not just for computer science class), and there are many resources available. There are many ways to implement coding in a variety of classes and met curriculum outcomes. Thanks for reading and happy coding. I have been trying to integrate technology into my classroom throughout my career. I have also been looking into the the use of robotics and coding in my classroom. I was also looking for something new for the tech club I supervise. I had done some research and found some of the cool things one can do with a Sphero. A Sphero is basically a durable, programmable robotic ball of engagement and fun. I was recently at a local edCamp and was able to play with one of these and see the possibilities that using a tool like this can do, I also found that there are many ideas to use in a classroom found at https://sprk.sphero.com/remixes . I was able to secure some funding for two units (they are about $150 each for a sphero 2.0). Now it was time to put these devices to work. After talking with my esteemed intern about using this in our work place 20 class, he and another intern came up with a great idea of a lesson. We decided to do a math lab involving students exploring right triangles using rulers, projectors, and Spheros. Students collected data and shared their findings. It was great to see students come up with their own rules, look at programming with the Sphero, and share their findings
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AuthorDean Vendramin has been Educator for over 20 years. He is the 21st Century Education Leader at Archbishop M.C. O'Neill Catholic High School. He has a passion for all things in education with emphasis on technology integration, assessment, professional development, and 21 Century Education. Archives
April 2022
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