iPads Archive - Mathematics and Science in SD#38 (Richmond)

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intermediate storytelling at Blair

Posted on: February 22nd, 2016 by jnovakowski

Karen Choo, grades 4&5 teacher at Blair Elementary is part of our district’s Creating Spaces for Playful Inquiry series. In January, she shared her journey with a group of 50 educators – how she has been using morning provocations to uncover big ideas and big thinking in her classroom. She has a collection of loose parts in her classroom and along with art materials, provides opportunities for all her students to build and create ideas together.

Karen and her students have been learning about Chinese Immigration to Canada, reading novels, information books and having rich discussions, many students making connections to their own families’ immigration stories. Although Karen’s students were familiar with using materials to represent and idea, they had not used them to create stories. We presented a table of materials along with the loose parts already available in the classroom.

Karen noticed the high engagement with her students and also commented on the richness of the language and the role-playing that emerged in the stories. Karen commented that the concepts came alive for the students through the storytelling. It was interesting to note how the students wove in metaphors and symbols in their stories – such as the Chinese and Canadian flags and “gold mountain”.

part of this story included how the head tax kept increasing

Many of the stories involved travels across the ocean and the students created settings or symbols of the two worlds – China and Canada, separated by a journey.

The students used the iPad camera to take photos of their stories and then use the 30Hands app to narrate their stories – often going outside to find a quiet place to record. As I listened to the students’ stories, I heard many connections to the students’ own personal experiences and their strong beliefs about social justice coming through.

Not only does storytelling create an opportunity for Social Studies and Science concepts to come alive for students, it also provides an opening for students to tell their stories, to share a bit of themselves.

~Janice

intermediate storytelling at Homma

Posted on: February 20th, 2016 by jnovakowski

I visited two classes at Homma Elementary in February to introduce oral storytelling using materials to inspire stories that consider the First Peoples Principles of Learning.

Carrie Bourne and her grades 4&5 French Immersion students have been using loose parts to represent ideas. We combined their collection of loose parts with a table full of natural materials and fabrics to create story settings, paying attention to the big ideas of self, place and the power of story. We first came together in a circle and the students shared some of their thinking about stories. We discussed big ideas around immigration (a focus of what they were studying in Social Studies) and made connections to books they have been reading about Indian Residential Schools, like Shi-shi-etko by Nicola Campbell (which is available en francais). Students shared their ideas about coming, going, leaving, arriving, connecting and dis-connecting with a focus on place. Students could choose to work by themselves or with a partner, as they created stories, inspired by the materials.

After about an hour of the class circle and creating their stories, we asked the students to share their stories with another classmate or partnership. As students orally “rehearse” their stories, they are playing with ideas and language, synthesizing the theme or message their story. The students then captured their story using iPad technology by taking still photographs and using the app 30Hands to orally narrate their stories.

Here are two video clips students practicing their stories:

Shi-shi-etko

Grades 4&5 story

And here are some of the students’ stories that the captured using 30Hands and then posted to their Fresh Grade portfolios:

Grade 4&5 EFI Homma – place

Grade 4&5 EFI Homma – transition

*****

In Peter Ritchie’s grades 6&7 classroom, we began by watching a short video of Dr. Jo-Ann Archibald telling the story of Lady Louse (can be found HERE). We asked the students to pay attention to her storytelling technique and the students shared their observations about how she used her hands, varied the use of her voice and how she repeated the theme or message of the story in different ways throughout the story. They also noted how the story didn’t have a typical resolution in stories like they are familiar with, but left you thinking.

Peter had collected various plants and mosses from his brother’s property in Squamish and the students used these along with various other materials to create settings for their stories. We discussed the importance of creating an authentic environment and if they were using animals in their stories, to consider the place of the animal within the ecosystem.

Many of the students were aware of animals portraying values or metaphors in stories from different cultures and we referred to the book Sharing Our World, for students to consider animals they might want to include in their stories. Possibly inspired by the materials presented them, many of the students’ stories involved environmental themes. I noticed the students at this age (and also very fluent with using iPad technology) were focused on creating detailed settings and used different camera angles and backgrounds to make sure there weren’t distracting items or people in their photos. As with Carrie’s class, they used the 30Hands app to load their photos and narrate their stories.

The following are some of the students stories:

The Story of the Fox

Appreciate What You Have

Listen to Elders – The Hike

On the February 19th professional development day, the staff led a morning of looking at teaching and learning through the First Peoples Principles of Learning, and storytelling with materials was something that the staff engaged in themselves.

I’m looking forward to hearing many more stories from Homma Elementary!

~Janice

intermediate storytelling at Cook

Posted on: February 14th, 2016 by jnovakowski

As a follow-up to an after school Leanne McColl and I held for grade 5 teachers (see post HERE) on Indian Residential Schools, I visited two of the grades 5&6 teachers at Cook Elementary to further explore the power of story with their students, making connections to self and place as part of their study of Indian Residential Schools, part of the redesigned Social Studies Curriculum. The teachers have been reading both picture books such as Shi-shi-etko and the novel Fatty Legs as part of this study, emphasizing the power of stories – stories that need to be told. Both Christy Rollo and Jo Fournier are also part of the Creating Spaces for Playful Inquiry series in our district and their students have been using loose parts to represent ideas and concepts.

We gathered in a circle and discussed the power and purposes of stories, along with some questions to provoke and inspire their thinking. In both classes, the students were asked to consider a story they were familiar with or to think of their own story, something that was personal to them. For both contexts, the students were asked to pay particular attention to the setting or place. I read a few pages from the book Sharing Our World, which shares the significance and meaning animals portray in Aboriginal stories. Animal figures were provided as one of the choices for the students to use in their stories. The students were presented with a “buffet” of materials to choose from, to create their stories.

The students had many choices to make – to work alone or with a partner or triad, what materials to choose, what type of story to create and tell. Some students sat with their choices and needed some time to think while others jumped to the materials and let the materials help to inspire their choices.

The following are some photographs from Christy’s class where we had a variety of stories – personal narratives, retellings of Aboriginal stories, retellings of the class novel, retellings of childhood favourites and stories created specifically around one of the northwest animals.

The students had a chance to practice telling their stories and then tell their stories to another group. The students took photographs of their story settings using the iPad camera, then importing the photos into the app 30Hands, where the students could then orally narrate their stories.

The following week in Jo’s class, we narrowed the story choices to the focus of the Social Studies topic they were studying.

The students were highly engaged with the materials, spending time developing an idea and setting for their stories. Where they needed the “nudging” was in the telling of their stories – thinking about ways to convey their message or theme. Many students drew upon familiar stories and how there was repetition of an idea throughout the story and they tried to weave this element into their own stories. Other students focused on characters’ actions and what they did and what happened to them. Some students embraced the ideas of self and place and created an interplay of these ideas in their stories.

In a few cases, students worked together to create their stories in their first language, often with much animation and expression. With support, they then practiced the main points of their story in English and recorded using the 30Hands app.

I also noticed that students at this age in general seemed more hesitant when sharing their stories with others compared to the excitement younger children show when asked to share their stories with each other. I wonder if using the iPad technology created an opportunity for students to record their stories in a such a way that seemed less “on display”? This is something I would like to ask the students about as we continue to learn about the importance of storytelling in the classroom. Christy and Jo both have the students engage in sharing circles and class discussions and have discourse structures in place to create a safe, connected community in their classrooms. I’m curious to hear how storytelling contributes to these communities and also how the existing communities provide the necessary environment for storytelling to flourish.

~Janice

elementary math focus afternoon: January 18 2016

Posted on: January 26th, 2016 by jnovakowski

On the afternoon of January 18, we hosted staffs from eleven elementary schools at Byng Elementary for our second Elementary Math Focus Afternoon of the year. About 160 educators attended an opening presentation followed by a choice of several concurrent sessions, over two time slots.

Schools were also asked to bring something to share by putting it out on display in the gym – something new we were trying and received positive feedback from schools staffs about.

Sessions available to teachers included kindergarten programming, supporting all learners in mathematics, screencasting using iPad technology, high yield routines, mental mathematics, inquiry and geometric thinking.

During the second time slot, we also tried an “EdChat” format where teachers came together around an area of interest (primary, French Immersion, etc) with a facilitator and were asked to bring something to share that they have tried since our last focus afternoon or a question that they had. This collaborative type of participatory professional learning is new to some teachers in our district and we will continue to think of ways to nurture this structure in future events.

As always, we ended the afternoon with teachers discussing with each other what they were going to try in their classrooms, connected to the redesigned curriculum and of course, there were draw prizes!

~Janice

place-based mathematics

Posted on: October 23rd, 2015 by jnovakowski

On the provincial professional development day on October 23, I had the honour of presenting the work we having been doing in the Richmond School District around place-based learning in mathematics. I was fortunate to present this session to over 100 educators from across North America in the Squamish Lilwat Cultural Centre at part of the Northwest Math Conference.

After discussing the importance of place-based learning within our redesigned curriculum here in BC, we also discussed many of the pragmatics of taking students outside for learning as well as ways to incorporate these types of projects within a math program.

Whistler is full of inspiration for mathematics.

What mathematics lives in this place?

The powerpoint presentation is shared here as a pdf file.

Place-Based Mathematics NW October 2015

~Janice

elementary math focus afternoon: September 28

Posted on: October 14th, 2015 by jnovakowski

On the afternoon of September 28, about 220 educators from 15 Richmond elementary schools converged upon Steves Elementary for our first of two elementary math focus afternoons.

After an overview of current updates to the redesigned curriculum in mathematics and some thoughts to connect us as we work together, there were many sessions for teachers to choose from during two “break-out” times. Each sessions focused on at least one of the key aspects of the redesigned curriculum such as Big Ideas, a core competency or the First Peoples Principles of Learning. All of the sessions were facilitated by Richmond teachers – math mentor teachers, teacher consultants and some of the teachers from Steves.

Here is a link to the program for the afternoon and an overview of the sessions provided:

Elementary Math Focus Afternoon Sept 28 sessions

Please contact the presenters or myself through Richnet if you are interested in more information.

Three professional resources that were recommended throughout the afternoon are:

We have a growing number of educators in Richmond becoming active on twitter. Any tweets tagged with the hashtag #sd38math for the day are archived HERE through Storify.

Some of the resources shared during the afternoon:

introduction_math Aug 2015 – Introduction to BC Math Curriculum, K-12

whatsnew_math – What’s New in Math, K-9

BCAMT BasicNumberFacts1 – BCAMT pamphlet for parents on basic facts

The Sum What Dice Game Jan2013 – Sum What Dice Game

FH final Turtle Pond coding – Fred Harwood’s coding resources

Financial Literacy primary resources – Primary Financial Literacy Resources (QR codes)

High-Yield Routines September 2015 – High Yields Routines, SD38, K-8

We are hoping that this afternoon was a great launch for the school year, especially for the 17 Richmond elementary schools that have math as a school goal or professional learning focus. We all know that an afternoon like this can be inspiring and teachers take away ideas to use in their classrooms but professional learning takes time. At the end of the day, we asked teachers to turn to each other and commit to trying one or more new ideas that they heard about during the afternoon. We hope that teachers will continue the conversation we began by sharing what they are trying on twitter, through blog posts or conversations at their schools so that we can make our professional learning visible and learn from each other.

Looking forward to the second event on January 18th!

~Janice

#summertech38

Posted on: September 11th, 2015 by jnovakowski

Our second Summer Tech Institute for our district (with lots of guests from neighbouring districts) was held last week on Thursday at Westwind Elementary and was coordinated by teacher consultant Chris Loat. 193 educators spent a day of their summer holidays learning all about ways to integrate technology into their classrooms.

Apple “geniuses” and “creatives” joined us for the first time and this added a new dimension to the day!

A link to the program with links to some of the presenters’ handouts and presentations can be found HERE.

I presented two sessions.

iPads in Math for the Primary Classroom

The first one was one the use of iPads for math in the primary classroom. Now, there are many not so good math apps out there, so I wanted to recommend some ones that developed conceptual understanding, provided meaningful practice of skills and concepts with visual tools and allowed for differentiation and choice.

The list of apps can be found here along with some links to blog posts Summer Tech 2015 Primary Math Apps list.

The apps I recommended are all free and all happen to be developed on the west coast. Some that will be new to teachers are the TouchCounts app developed by SFU Education researchers. It has English, French and Italian capabilities. Also, any of the apps from The Math Learning Center in Oregon correlate well with our curriculum. Their apps are available for different devices, including web-based apps. On their website find the app information under the Resources tab.

Place-Based Digital Storytelling

I shared the project I did with four Anderson teachers this spring, connecting their focus on the First Peoples Principles of Learning with their school’s innovation grant focus on iPad technology. A detailed outline of this project can be found HERE. Apps that we used included Google Earth, DoodleBuddy and 30Hands.

Congrats to Chris on another great tech institute! It was such a positive day and the synergy in the building was amazing!

~Janice

primary math mornings at Quilchena

Posted on: June 13th, 2015 by jnovakowski

I have spent most Monday mornings of this term at Quilchena Elementary, teaching in the primary classrooms and meeting with the teachers during a collaboration block. The school principal brings all the primary students together for a block each week for choir which provides time for the teachers to come together to collaborate and plan.

The teachers wanted to focus on number sense and over the weeks we looked at the importance of understanding number in different ways.

In Jessica Preswick’s Kindergarten class, we often began our classes with a short number talk involving dot cards or ten frames. Through the students “subtilizing” what they see and then describing it, we are able to get insight into the students understand of number. We also had students use materials to decompose a quantity into parts, for example, showing all the ways to make seven.

After much work with subitizing, decomposing and counting, we connected what we had been learning about number to think about measurement by comparing. The students used the language of longer than, taller than and shorter than to compare objects. They ordered objects from longest/tallest to shortest. They also measured some of the objects using cubes and figured how much taller or longer the objects were, compared to another.

We also compared the capacity of bowls and cups by filling them with cubes and then comparing the “towers” of cubes.

In Marla McPherson’s and Karen Maeir’s Grades 1&2 classes, we focused on number talks, developing the students mental math strategies for addition and subtraction. I did need to demonstrate some of the strategies and remind students about the range of strategies they could use sometimes. We focused on students naming the strategies they were using as they explained them to create a consistent awareness of the strategies in the classes. Both teachers created strategy posters for their classrooms. It was amazing to see the students’ confidence with the strategies develop over the weeks and their increased ability to discuss the strategies. We also played card games that focused on them using the strategies to help them develop computational fluency.

In Andrew Livingston’s grade 3 class we began looking at multiplication and division and then moved on to fractions. Approaches we used to learn about these concepts included number talks, use of concrete materials, visual representations, games and use of iPad technology to represent our learning.

Using Cuisenaire rods to learn about fractions…

Using the ShowMe app to explain what we know about fractions…

In June, we introduced some geometric language and materials to the students, focusing on comparing the attributes of both 2D and 3D shapes. The students used the camera and PicCollage app on the iPads to collect examples of one shape.

The teachers felt it was a powerful professional learning experience to have the weekly visits and discussions as a group. It was an opportunity to plan next steps for the week ahead as well as make connections between concepts at different grade levels. An ongoing professional inquiry like we had at Quilchena this term reminds me that collaboration and making time for reflection and professional learning is essential to professional growth.

~Janice

diversity of life inquiry at Lee

Posted on: June 11th, 2015 by jnovakowski

During third term, I have spent part of Thursday mornings at Lee Elementary, learning with Sandy Rasoda and her grades 6 & 7 students. Sandy has been teaching this grade level for many years and asked me if we could look at a science unit she has traditionally done by using the science text book and instead, look at the topic of “diversity of life” through an inquiry-based approach.

I looked at the three prescribed learning outcomes for this life sciences topic for grade 6:

•demonstrate the appropriate use of tools to examine living things that cannot be seen with the naked eye

• analyse how different organisms adapt to their environments

• distinguish between life forms as single or multi-celled organisms and belonging to one of five kingdoms: Plantae, Animalia, Monera, Protista, Fungi

After looking at the learning outcomes, I tried to think about the big ideas we needed to get to and what experiences we might provide to the students to help them get there.

On my first visit to the class, we had a short discussion about what makes a living thing a living thing and then went for a walk in the neighbourhood looking for different examples of living things.The students were very curious about the names of many of the plants we found in gardens and along the ditches. We were lucky to hear a frog croaking and to see mushrooms, lichen and moss just outside the school. I took photographs along the way.

What makes a living thing a living thing?

What living things can we observe in our community?

When we got back to the classroom the students recorded the living things they observed and added questions they were wondering about.

The next week, I brought a ditch dipper so that we could collect some water samples along with other specimens to look at with magnifying glasses and microscopes. We had petri dishes and pipettes available and there is something about using real science equipment that elevates students’ engagement. We discussed the difference between viewing something with the “naked eye” and with a magnifier of some sort. The students were hesitant with the microscopes and had difficulties adjusting the focus and had to move the illuminator around to get enough light. The students recorded their observations, comparing what they could see with and without a magnifier/microscope.

What tools can we use to examine living things?

During another class, I gave each group of students a set of photographs of different living things we had observed outside. I read a simple picture book introducing the big idea of classification and the five kingdoms and then the groups worked together to sort their photographs into kingdoms. During this task, the idea of sub-categories within a kingdom emerged and students began to consider how to categorize different types of plants and animals by their features. We had given the students the three learning outcomes on a sheet of paper at the beginning of our study and they had this in their science notebooks and used it to record notes and new learning during our investigations.

How do we classify living things?

In-between my visits Sandy provided opportunities to extend their learning about both microscopes and the kingdoms and were given choices as to how they might show what they had learned. Some students did powerpoint presentations, some did booklets or posters and some use movie apps on the iPad to create their presentations. The students had opportunities to teach another grades 6&7 class how to use the microscopes as well as one of the primary classes in the school. Sandy was clearly able to see that they “got it” and this just came from repeated experiences actually using the microscope.

We had such great weather this spring and during one of my visits, Sandy suggested we take the microscopes outside to the picnic benches. The students learned how to safely carry the microscopes and their confidence was growing. One student even commented how great it would be to have a fine adjustment on the microscopes – they were learning the different functions of the microscope and its potential. The students looked at previously collected specimens and also found some new ones to examine.

We also looked at some amazing images taken through microscopes, including some amazing electron microscopes

We then used a Zoomy digital microscope to take our own images of various specimens, including a fly the students found in a windowsill and a ladybug and spiderlings the students brought in from outside.

Using some local examples and examples from recent news items, we discussed how living things have adaptations, focusing on structural and behavioural adaptations. Using the app HaikuDeck, the students created a slideshow of what they had learned about different adaptations.

How do living things adapt to their environment?

The following is one pair of students’ project.

Animal Adaptations – E.K & N.S

I brought in glass slides and cover slips, tweezers and pipettes so that students could prepare their own slides to view under the microscope.

The students also has an opportunity to view prepared slides under the microscope, including microscopic organisms from the Protista and Monera kingdoms.

What do microscopic organisms look like?

At the beginning of June, we asked the students to consider a mini-ecosystem or habitat in the neighbourhood and we went outside with the iPads to take some photographs. The students were asked to synthesize what they had learned about the classification of living things as well as adaptations.

What have you learned about living things in our community?

The minimum criteria for this project was to include living things from two different kingdoms and highlight an adaptation. The students could choose from using the Skitch or Popplet apps.

The following are some examples of the students’ projects:

Throughout this experience I have heard comments from students such as “science is so fun!” and of course this makes my heart sing a little. Learning can be fun…complex concepts and big thinking can be fun. Meaningful engagement with any content begins with the students…where will they find connections? what will make this learning important and purposeful to them?

I think we got there with this class. High engagement and students able to fluently discuss concepts such as the classification of living things and structural and behaviour adaptations of animals and plants in their neighbourhood. The students were all able to confidently use a microscope and teach other students from other classes about how to use a microscope.

“This unit traditionally for me would be a ‘textbook’ unit with possibly one or two experiments. Instead, Janice took us on nature walks where we were out in our environment exploring and learning about Living Things. The students eagerly found specimens they brought back to look at through the microscopes. Every lesson was a hands on lesson where the students questions led them to finding answers and solutions through experimenting with materials from the real world. It was great for me to see how much the kids “loved” being scientists.” ~Sandy

~Janice

place-based digital storytelling

Posted on: June 7th, 2015 by jnovakowski 1 Comment

Four grades 3-5 teachers at Anderson Elementary came together for an Innovation Grant project, wanting to look at how they might integrate iPad technology into their First Nations curricular focus. I met with the teachers and we brainstormed ideas together, looking at the First Peoples Principles of Learning and focusing on the principles of self-identity, story and connectedness to place.

I met with each of the classes and we looked at an aerial map of Richmond and its surrounding waterways. We asked students to try and determine where Anderson Elementary would be on the map, trying to get a sense of their awareness of the place where they live and go to school. We talked about the formation of our island delta and the arms of the river surrounding it.

We also looked at the Musqueam place names map on the Musqueam website and discussed how the names of places were descriptive or purposeful – such as the “boiling point” – the place where people gathered to boil clams and crabs over a fire or the driftwood beach – the place where large logs and driftwood accumulated along the river. We then visited the neighbouring Garden City park and students thought of a special place there that they felt connected to or had a story to share about and considered what they would name that place. Using the camera app on the iPads, the students took photographs from different perspectives of their special places.

To create the students’ digital stories, we did some “app smashing” using the camera app to take photos, taking screenshots of maps on Google Earth, using DoodleBuddy to create title slides and 30Hands to put the images and student narration together to create stories of their special places.