Teaching Independence

Becoming a facilitator of learning has been an eye opening experience. I did not realize how dependent students can become through a traditional approach to teaching. Students quickly learn that conforming to the expectations of their teachers and jumping through specified educational hoops that rely, for the most part, on the regurgitation of facts, results in being labelled a successful student. Carol Ann Tomlinson in her book, "Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom" suggests that "so long as we teach as though 'the students' were one student, we can get by with enabling student dependence." (p. 47) Students were understandably taken aback when I invited them to take charge of their own learning and to delve into tasks and topics at their own rate and capability. At first, many students were intimidated by the process and were unwilling to try a path that was outside of their comfort zones. It became apparent, very quickly, that independence needed to be taught. Students also needed to be convinced, through the scaffolding of tasks, that this new approach actually created more windows of learning and could help students become deeper thinkers and curious lifelong learners. Tomlinson also suggests "that students should develop autonomy as learners ought to be a primary goal of all classrooms from preschool onward. Failure to ensure that students become progressively more independent learners constitutes educational malpractice. (p.47) That statement really hit home and convinced me that I was on the right path in my hunt to become an increasingly effective teacher. Teaching independence is not an easy journey; it is a necessary one.

In School Planning Time: A Team Teaching Necessity

I have been very fortunate to be granted a significant amount of support to effectively teach in a 1:1 computing classroom. When I took on the 1:1 computer classroom challenge, I didn't realize just how necessary these supports are for delivering an effective learning program. However, as the year began, I realized just how critical a team approach is to effective 1:1 computing implementation. The core team consists of our division's digital learning consultant,(DLC) our school's differentiated instruction facilitor (DIF) and myself (the classroom teacher). During the first two weeks of school, the DLC played a prominent role in the classroom; instructing the students and myself how to use our classroom's wiki and how to use Moodle to access assignments in the different subject areas. Learning how to use Moodle to design instruction was foreign to me and for the first month, I was pretty overwhelmed. The DLC modelled the process for the first lesson and then, with guidance, I began creating my own lessons. At first I tried to create all of my lessons in all of the subject areas in Moodle which prooved to be a daunting and exhausting task. I decided to set a more reasonable goal of planning only the ELA units. The DIF has been an invaluable resource and has played a team teaching role in the preparation and the teaching of ELA. Along with scheduled after school planning time, the DIF and I have also been granted one afternoon a week, in school planning time, which has helped us create ELA units which authentically incorporate technology. This time is not only used for planning lessons that include a number of differentiation choices, but it is also time to create effective formative and summative assessments. Without this planning time I believe that the DIF would become a glorified EA when team teaching in the classroom.

The Document Camera: Wonderful Presentation Tool

I have discovered my newest favourite thing in the classroom... the document camera. Next to my mounted digital projector (a must in any 1:1 computing classroom) the document camera is quickly becoming a must have tool by both me and my students. Although we have only started using it two weeks ago, each day we are discovering new uses. The document camera has been used to display and analyze the text and focus on different text structures as a class. The drawing feature, where different text structures can be circled and highlighted is excellent for focusing students' attention. The document camera is also becoming invaluable as a presentation tool. Students are able to present hand made posters and diagrams to their grade 12 buddies using skype. The students are also finding it beneficial in math. Students use metacognition to explain their thinking to the class when they present how they solved a math problem. The ease at which the document camera can be used also needs to be noted. Setting it up for use takes moments. A substitute teacher even commented on how wonderful the document camera was during music class. He had asked a student to get an overhead and the student quickly responded that "you don't need an overhead, you need a document camera. Here let me show you." The substitute teacher was very impressed with the tool and the student.

Benefits of Online Collaboration Between Grades and Schools

My grade 5 class has had the opportunity to buddy with a grade 12 Biology class in the neighbouring town. The grade 12 class has access to a class set of netbooks so that the students have the opportunity to skype with their buddies and to journal with their buddy using a wiki on a regular basis. It has been a wonderful experience for the students to get to know another group of students who are a lot older and who, on the surface, do not share many apparent commonalities. Modelling was needed for both groups of students on how to use skype and how to journal effectively with someone you don't know. The students caught on very quickly to the technique of asking someone that you don't know questions that are open ended and that do not allow for a yes/no answer. To help structure the interaction of the two groups and to provide purpose for the students, we (grade 12 biology teacher and myself) met and linked outcomes between Biology 30 and grade 5 science. The students were working on a unit in plants and as a culminating activity the grade 5 students were to present photosynthesis in a digital format that could be presented during a skype session with the grade 12 students. I was amazed at the myriad of ways that the students came up with to effectively present the process of photosynthesis. Some of the ways were: a rap, drama, interview show, glogster poster, hand drawn poster and song. Each presentation show cased the students' multiple intelligence learning style well. Each morning we skyped for about 15 minutes where each grade 12 student had the opportunity of presenting a "Wonder Why?" based on biology and then 10 interesting biology trivia. The grade 5 students had the opportunity to ask questions based on the presentation. The grade 5 students took turns each day presenting on photosynthesis. The grade 12 students were expected to take notes and then had a quiz based on what they learned. The grade 12 teacher commented that the students in her class did very well on their photosynthesis quiz. It was fortunate that the grade 12 students were able to have access to netbooks over a six week period because it allowed for the connection between the students to be established. In fact, the power of the relationships created was very well illustrated when a student in my class who struggled in math mentioned to me that her grade 12 buddy (who is also female) commented that her favorite subject is math and how she wants to study to become a doctor. That comment from her grade 12 buddy affected my grade 5 student so much that she said that she didn't know that girls could be good at math and that she was going to try to concentrate during math and to do better. This side benefit of collaboration with an older student group is something that I didn't ever imagine happening.

E-portfolios: Beginning of a student's Academic Journey

November has been incredibly busy with report cards and student led conferences. I have done portfolios with my students in the past so that they could showcase their growth as learners. Because of the students' access to netbooks, I thought it would be worthwhile to create an e-portfolio that the students could add to as they progress through the grades. We decided to use Google docs to create the e-portfolios and I was amazed at how fast the students caught onto creating an organized online portfolio. Students were able to write about each piece of work that they selected and upload to the e-portfolio for viewing. They could also scan pieces of written work and then upload it. We didn't begin creating the e-portfolios until the third week in October which made it difficult for the students to be creative since the e-portfolios had to be completed by the beginning of November; in time for student led conferences. Although, I was apprehensive at first; not really knowing how student led conferences using e-portfolios would work, I was very pleased with the outcome. The classroom was set up into four stations. The students and parents started at a station with me where we could talk about how the year was going and any concerns the parents and students were having. After the brief discussion, the students invited their parent(s) to one of the stations that had a netbook. The students logged onto their e-portfolios and were able to present what they were doing. I was very impressed with the level of dialogue that was created between the parent and the child. The parents had a lot of questions and the students were able to answer the questions well. I was also impressed how the interviews flowed. Because of the stations and the students being in charge of the presentation, three groups could be presenting at one time. I became the facilitator who answered questions but remained on the sidelines, allowing the students to shine. At the end of the conference we gave the parents the opportunity to provide us with written feedback about their experience and thoughts about e-portfolios. From the comments, the parents were very pleased with the process and how excited the students were about their work. It was also interesting that parents were pleased to see that the students scanned some of their handwritten projects. It was apparent that some parents had difficulty letting go of the idea that learning can only take place using textbooks and looseleaf.

The Connection: Home and School

One of the exciting aspects of teaching using a 1:1 computing system is the new ways in which students are becoming connected to their learning. No longer does learning take place within the four walls of the classroom. Now, students can access the subject areas from anywhere that internet is available. Recently, one student was hospitalized for over a week and while she was recovering, she was able to complete all of her work. She even had the opportunity to stay in contact with her peers and myself through our wikispace. When she came back to school, she said that it really made a difference to be able to stay connected with what was happening in school. She never felt that she really was gone. The transition back to school was made a lot easier because of her ability to stay connected to the classroom and to be able to complete tasks in the different subject areas while she was away. Another student was gone from the classroom for a two week family holiday in Scotland. Again, the student's comment was that it was great to see what the class was doing while away and that it made coming back a lot less stressful. From home, students are also able to view when assignments are due on our wikispace and to preview our classroom schedule using google calendar. One student commented that he likes using google calendar from home because by viewing the daily and weekly schedule, it organizes his day and it makes him feel more prepared. Parents are beginning to also access our class's wikispace and they also like being connected to what the students are doing in school.

Substitute Teachers and the 1:1 Computing Classroom

I have recently been absent from my classroom and different substitutes have had the opportunity to experience a 1:1 computing environment. I am quite interested in the reactions of the substitutes who have come into the classroom. One substitute teacher did not feel comfortable using technology and altered the day plan to accomodate pen and paper. Another substitute felt that because the instructions for the different subject areas were explained sequentially and in detail in Moodle, then the students should be self sufficient and would not require monitoring. I am quickly understanding that substitutes in my classroom require advanced preparation apart from a written dayplan.

Another issue I am finding is that substitute teachers in our school division need to have usernames and passwords created for them before they can access our division's computers. This needs to be completed by our system's administrator and although it is an easy task, it takes time and if I am away suddenly it is difficult for me to orchestrate. Once the substitutes have a username and password they then need to be registered in Moodle and on Wikispaces. Again, this process takes time. Currently, I have given them access to my username and password so that they could access the sites needed to provide instruction for the students. I have not felt comfortable in providing this information; however, because of time constraints and not knowing who was coming into my classroom until the last minute, this appeared to be my only option.

To alleviate this problem, I have asked the administration if I could make a list of 4 substitutes who will be called on first to come into my classroom when I am away. I am planning to meet with these four substitutes and go over my expectations for them when facilitating tasks to be completed using the students' netbooks. The majority of substitutes have never had the opportunity to teach as facilitators and find it quite unnerving and definitely out of their comfort zones to teach in this way. By having four constant substitute choices, usernames and passwords can be created ahead of time and, through our advanced preparation meeting, substitue teachers will have time to practice logging onto Wikispaces and to Moodle to access the different subject areas.