Over the past week I have been able to try out another activity that I found engaging for students. The activity was using Breakout Edu in a variety of math classes in a variety of ways. Breakout Edu is a lot like escape rooms where basically students work in teams to solve questions that help give clues to open locks to a sealed box. It seems like a pretty simple set up but I observed a lot of great teamwork, question asking, engagement, and problem solving in using this game. I used it along with other solving math questions but this is only one way to do it and I believe that the possibilities with this game are endless and could be used in any class or team building situation. One can go here for information on the kit http://www.breakoutedu.com/ (option to buy pre-made kit or can get list of materials and buy the items yourself) also many examples at the site of how to use it in a variety of ways or can again make up your own activities Here's another good link for some breakout edu ideas http://blog.mariventurino.com/2016/10/student-created-breakout-edu-games.html?m=1. If you have questions or this blog inspired you to try your own ... please let me know. Thanks
. Dean
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I have been part of #IMMOOC study group since it started (http://immooc.org/). I listened to each of the episodes, followed on twitter, and read a few others blogs. I had also done a book study on Innovator's Mindset with a group in my division #rcsdconnect. I had also read the book on my own before either of these two sharing opportunities came out. I got so much out of each experience. I agree with the themes of the book 'bigly' (is that a word now haha). I feel that through my career that I have professed and practiced the #innovatativemindset, #growthmindset, #risktaking, and #relationshipbuilding that is necessary for growing in our craft. I have attempted to share as many of the experiences with anyone that would listen. Sometimes I have felt alone in my journey but I have been fortunate to have many experiences to meet like minded educators that have really inspired and kept me going. It hasn't been the easiest journey but definitely worth it. I have had so many great experiences due to following the path less taken. I will continue to go down this path and continue to share and listen. I really feel that I have become a better teacher and person because of this. I try to provide my students with the best possible experience they can have when they are in my class. I try to grow and risk take because if I expect my students to do that I must do so as well. If I ever thought I had teaching all figured out ... I would go do something else. The students are worth it and I think so is education. My big take away from this experience is to see the growth and momentum for positive change in education. The other day I tried something new by doing an #edubreakout experience with my students ... kids were engaged, working together, and active. I have some more work to do with this and see it as great learning opportunity ... more to blog on this.
I'm currently involved with three great professional development opportunities. Each have made me think and have made an impact on how I look at the art of teaching and how I can better serve my students in the classroom.
Today I will be going to an inservice at my division's tech training facility. I'm fortunate to have been selected as a #rcsdconnectededucator. This has allowed me to have access to devices, resources, and more for me and my students. Today's inservice will cover topics such as 21st Century Skills, TPACK, and SAMR. I have been familiar with many of these topics for awhile and it is always good to revisit, reevaluate, and rethink how these topics affect the classroom and how I have been incorperating into my teaching. One area we will focus on is the SAMR model. I would like to think I understand and staying afloat in the SAMR swimming pool (https://www.thinglink.com/scene/672615962238779393) I find in math that it is sometimes hard to get to the deep end of the pool as much as I'd like with some of the constraints that are present, but I'm trying my best to innovate and redifine what is happening in my classroom. Yesterday I was at the University of Regina with my intern as we are participating in a TIFA (Teacher/Intern/Faculty Advisor) research project. This project involves video analysis of intern teaching. The process involves viewing, noticing, and discussion phases and really helps one look at the art of teaching. There was much to learn and talk about whether it was classroom management, math language, student time on task, questioning skills, group work and more. This is a process that I wish all teachers would engage in. Many other professions employee this type of professional development and I think it would improve our craft and open opportunities to do a more effective job for our students. I'm current also doing the #IMMOOC. It has been a great experience watching videos, read tweets and blogs, and revisting the book.. One of this week's blog prompts is ... What are your connections to the “School vs Learning image? What would you add or modify? I would add reflection and professional development ... as learning requires reflection and the desire to further learning and professional development provides this opportunity. I think this brings my blog together as both the #rcsdconnectededucator and TIFA project have done just that made me reflect and provided rich and robust professional development that help me reflect on learning and take that passion back to those I serve. Hi. I’d like to share my Saturday morning with you on September 24, 2016. Usually I try to get a little extra sleep on a Saturday morning especially when the weather is blustery. But this morning I was excited to get up as I had a great morning of professional development planned.
First up at 8:00 AM was a live YouTube stream from the Innovator’s Mindset #IMMOOC that I am currently participating in (and you can too by going to http://immooc.org/). This learning opportunity is based on the book “The Innovator’s Mindset” by George Couros (a read I highly recommend). The video started off with an interview of two passionate educators (names) whose underlying theme was that you can take risks and be innovative and still meet curricular objectives. They both agreed that both the students and educators need to do things that are both new and better. The live stream continued with the host George Couros (@gcouros) and Katie Martin(@KatieMTLC) reviewing some of the book’s opening themes of seeing ‘change as an opportunity to do something amazing’ and ‘if students leave school, less curious than when they started, we have failed them.’ Both statements are powerful and poignant. During the presentation on could also reach out to other educators through an interactive chat feature, twitter, and facebook. All of this made for a rich, engaging, and thought provoking experience. I’d encourage anyone reading to join in on the conversation (never too late – follow #immooc). At 9:00 AM I switched over to a great live webinar with plenty of interactivity called Hack The Classroom hosted by Microsoft. It was an event that was open to and attended by educators all over the world. The first keynote was John Kao (@johnkao check out edgemakers.com) who gave another passionate speech about innovation in education and the opportunity to ‘take wicked problems and turn them into wicked opportunities’. This resonated with me as this what education should be about and we owe it to our students to teach with this mindset. He also talked about finding the ‘sweet spot’ in implementing innovation in education. He stressed the need to find a balance between a fixed mind set and going too far in that only a few might understand what you are trying to do and that this requires practice. The webinar went on to highlight the tools of One Note, Skype, and Minecraft but for me the underlying meaning was to increase a student’s ability to read, communicate, and create (check out #hacktheclassroom to find what was trending). There were great stories of educators like you and me providing transformation and redefined opportunities for their students. They also highlight STEM activities that could be done like creating a wind reader with basic supplies and hooking them up to devices to create a connected and real-life experience (even compared wind strength from locations around the world). Again there were educators from all walks of life sharing and discussing how to make their classrooms new and better. And after all shouldn’t that be the goal of all educators … our students deserve this! It was a great Saturday morning! Check out my storyify for my tweets / retweets from the morning https://storify.com/vendi55/my-saturday-morning. These are only a couple opportunities out there to learn, share, and grow. Thanks for allowing me to share and taking the time to read this. I truly hope it inspires someone to try something new and better. Good luck. Feel free to contact me at [email protected], follow my blog at deanvendramin.weebly.com, or connect on twitter @vendi55. “Change is an opportunity to do something amazing.” How are you embracing change to spur innovation in your own c… http://sumo.ly/p1vQ
I totally agree with this statement in fact it has been the mantra for my entire teaching career. Change for the sake of change is not what I'm talking about here ... I'm talking about change as an opportunity to evolve and grow. If I thought that I had teaching all figured out ... I'd go do something else. We expect the students to learn and grow ... should we as teachers not model and embrace this as well. I'm not saying abandon best practice or things that have worked nor to drop everything and start anew ... I'm saying seek out opportunities to grow that push you a bit out of your comfort zone and take a bit of a risk. Not everything that I have tried to change has worked but each time I learned something and have always tried to maintain a growth mindset. I know at my school this year I am living up to my mantra by being a part of a #rcsdconnect program that connects educators in my division and has given devices to utilize as tools with my class everyday. I am taking coding in my math class up a notch (game my students an integer program made in scratch and told them to just PLAY with what they see) and integrating Minecraft into my class more to (making roller coasters right now to teach slope)I am also excited about this #IMMOOC opportunity to promote change and innovation . I am fortunate to have a great young intern to work with this semester and I feel I need to model a growth and innovative mindset to help him and his future students as innovation in education will continue to move forward. Great start to what promises to be a great year full of learning, risk taking, and relationship building. I really believe that it is important to establish relationships, a positive class culture, and expectations of the entire class including the teacher. I have enjoyed the absence of a traditional desk already and know that it will continue to provide more learning opportunities in our classroom. I'm enjoying working with my intern ... he's a good person and I feel he will blossom as the semester rolls on. We have had many good discussions about the art of teaching and relationship building. Technology has had a few hiccups at the start but I'm looking forward to getting that rolling with my students and making transformation and redefining changes in the classroom. I was playing around with Minecraft and have come up with a new idea for a project to demonstrate slope by building roller coasters. Looking forward to continuing my professional development through my participation in #rcsdconnect and in the #IMOOC exploring the Innovator's Mindset. Lots on the go and looking forward to the adventure. Follow me on twitter @vendi55
Well another new school year is up and running. The first week was busy but good. Many meetings discussing start up and discussion centered around our division's grading / assessment guidelines (which I'm excited about how this hopefully help us all re-examine our current grading practices and look at ways to make them more meaningful and engaging for students) We also had a great opening liturgy followed by two very good speakers that focused on mercy something we can all focus on giving and receiving. There is much to look forward too this year. I plan on doing weekly reflections on the #rcsdconnect program I'm part of (see https://flipgrid.com/8d3171d2 for the goals of the group members), working with my intern and reflecting on our practice, issues and challenges that will come up, and more. Should be a great year!
I had the good fortune of presenting at stemfestnl in St. John's Newfoundland recently. My presentation topics were on Coding in the Classroom and Minecraft in the Classroom. I see both of these as important initiatives to increase student engagement and understanding in my math classes. I am still earlier in my journey incorporating these learning opportunities in my classes and there is much to learn, share, and experiment with. The conference gave me an excellent opportunity to reflect and research. I enjoyed sharing my experiences and insights and the attendees were passionate and engaged educators who inspired and energized me. I was able to grow my personal learning community, my commitment to create more engaging and meaningful experiences for my students, and understanding of coding and Minecraft. I am excited and enthused to continue implementing these experiences for my students and share my findings along the way. The conference was well organized and offered a variety of STEM related topics. The attendees were warm, friendly, and appreciative. We had some great conversations and hands on experiences. The city of St John's was also excellent and hope to make my way back there again. For my presentation notes go to deanvendramin.weebly.com/eportfolio
Sharing is caring. I feel it is vital that educators follow this motto in their relationships with staff, students, and parents. It is through this motto that we grow, learn, and collaborate. Sharing can come in many forms and it can be as simple as sharing a smile to sharing a unit to sharing an idea. Sharing allows good ideas and good practice to spread and flourish. Sharing can come in many sizes too. It does not have to be a 390 page report ... it can be a quick thought as even a mighty oak comes from a small seed. As educators we need to be role models for our students and sharing is definitely something to demonstrate and encourage. That's why creating and posting to a blog is a great place to start. Blogging is a great way to share ideas, materials, experiences, and reflections. Your sharing can inspire, assist, and affirm others. You never know when something you share will make a difference but if you don't share it will remain still and lose that opportunity to become bigger than you can imagine.
How do I view change? Well I feel pretty lucky. Go through the 'Strength Finders' process one of my strength is that I am a Futurist. I am constantly looking for that next project to try, next tool to test, and new strategy to employ. I feel that change has been one constant through my teacher career and it has kept me engaged, motivated, and humble. I feel that one of the great benefits of the teaching profession is that there is always more to learn, explore, and evolve into. I'm not saying that I have don't have may habits or dismiss good practice that has happened in the past, but if we expect students to change especially in these interesting and exciting times than so should we. Change requires and open mind, but positive and beneficial change require reflection and a strong sense of self. Change can and does involve risks, can be messy, and sometimes results in failures, but these are the events that allow you to grow, challenge your mindset, and come to new and wonderful understandings. Change can be tough if it is thrust upon us and we don't have much say but if you have never initiated change or have tried to find the positives in change then this type of change will be more difficult to accept and learn from. Our students are going through a lot of change in their lives and some more than others and some more difficult than others. If we as teachers recognize this and internalize this we can better understand our students and be able to provide them the guidance or bridge that they may need as well. As with most things we have a choice in how we deal with, accept, and move on from change ... one's attitude can make all the difference.
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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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