We will be holding our unmaker fair on Tuesday November 29th in the afternoon.
We would love to have some parent volunteers to help take apart our electronics. Let me know in your child's agenda if you can come volunteer for part or all of the afternoon.
Also, we will be looking to borrow some tools and work gloves on the day of. If you can lend us some please send them in with your students. Make sure to label with tape so we know what belongs to who.
Monday, 21 November 2016
Saturday, 12 November 2016
L'électrcité
We are starting our second science unit this week, electricity and electrical components. For the next few weeks the class will work in shifts on two separate learning goals or projects.
1. Students will read about static electricity, simple circuits and safety while doing a few hand on experiments such as constructing simple circuits with a few components.
2. Students will prepare for a debate where they will have to prove that their type of electric (hydro, geothermic, solar, fossil fuels, etc.) is best (cheaper, better for the environment etc.)
Here is our electricity padlet with videos, links and curriculum expectations.
Évaluation biodiversité
In their science folder students have a received feedback and an evaluation on the caractère progression we co-created. Three important things to mention about these assessments:
1. While I normally make it a priority to communicate in French to students I wrote the feedback in English so parents and guardians could also read the feedback and have a good idea of how they are doing and where to go next.
2. While we created the caractère progression together, the original progression is not age or grade specific. Thus, very few students will have achieved the highest level of achievement. This does not mean that they didn't get a level 4 or their project. For our purpose, we were aiming more for the 2nd or 3rd row.
3. You will find no grades. I do this because the students tend to fixate on the grade and the really useful feedback falls on deaf ears. You and your student should be able to tell by the feedback whether they demonstrated deep or vast learning. For many of the students the next step we will be working on is collaboration (more to come on this subject!)
1. While I normally make it a priority to communicate in French to students I wrote the feedback in English so parents and guardians could also read the feedback and have a good idea of how they are doing and where to go next.
2. While we created the caractère progression together, the original progression is not age or grade specific. Thus, very few students will have achieved the highest level of achievement. This does not mean that they didn't get a level 4 or their project. For our purpose, we were aiming more for the 2nd or 3rd row.
3. You will find no grades. I do this because the students tend to fixate on the grade and the really useful feedback falls on deaf ears. You and your student should be able to tell by the feedback whether they demonstrated deep or vast learning. For many of the students the next step we will be working on is collaboration (more to come on this subject!)
Thursday, 3 November 2016
Unmaker faire
We are winding down our biodiversity unit and I am trying to prepare for our electricity unit. Last year one of the highlights of the unit was our unmaker fair. Students and parents brought in old electronics and we took them apart to get a good look at how they work and the electrical components behind them. As such, we are looking for any broken electronics you have lying around at home or might notice being thrown away.
Things such as:
- hairdryers
- clocks
- electrical toys
- phones
- music devices (stereos or the like)
- computer and components (keyboard, mouse, monitor)
- kitchen appliances (blender, electric tea kettle)
- flashlights
- remotes
- cameras
etc...
As the day approaches we will also be looking for parents willing to help us safely use tools and take apart our loot. Thus, more info to come!
Things such as:
- hairdryers
- clocks
- electrical toys
- phones
- music devices (stereos or the like)
- computer and components (keyboard, mouse, monitor)
- kitchen appliances (blender, electric tea kettle)
- flashlights
- remotes
- cameras
etc...
As the day approaches we will also be looking for parents willing to help us safely use tools and take apart our loot. Thus, more info to come!
Tuesday, 25 October 2016
Caractère/Biodiversité
We've been hard at work on our biodiversity deep learning journey! I must say that this class has taken to deep learning like fish to water. Most students are really excited to learn about a topic of their own choosing. We are developing classroom experts in; climate change, ocean conservation, energy conservation, tropical/amazonian forest ecosystems and conservation, medicinal plants, illegal and big game hunting and the arctic ecosystem to name, solar panels and many more interesting ideas!
Most students have recorded a lot of their learning in folders or slides. They have now moved on to choosing/creating a final task. At the beginning, most of the class was solely interested in creating google slides to present what they had learned. However, we took a second look at the Character progression and noticed that at the most advanced level students use their knowledge to come up with solutions which improve their own lives but also the whole worlds. Thus, I am trying to get students to come up with final tasks that make a difference. This has been our biggest challenge so far as climate change or the destruction of the rainforest are complex problems and it's hard to come up with a solution that WE can do. So far final tasks vary from websites to inform the world on a particular issue, creating a book to put in our classroom and school library, raising money as a class to "adopt" an animal through the WWF, writing a proposal on the possibility of installing solar panels on the school. I am really trying to open the student's eyes to the possibility that there is more to life than Google slides.
We will hopefully be working on/finishing up our tasks/projects this week and slightly into next week if need be.
Most students have recorded a lot of their learning in folders or slides. They have now moved on to choosing/creating a final task. At the beginning, most of the class was solely interested in creating google slides to present what they had learned. However, we took a second look at the Character progression and noticed that at the most advanced level students use their knowledge to come up with solutions which improve their own lives but also the whole worlds. Thus, I am trying to get students to come up with final tasks that make a difference. This has been our biggest challenge so far as climate change or the destruction of the rainforest are complex problems and it's hard to come up with a solution that WE can do. So far final tasks vary from websites to inform the world on a particular issue, creating a book to put in our classroom and school library, raising money as a class to "adopt" an animal through the WWF, writing a proposal on the possibility of installing solar panels on the school. I am really trying to open the student's eyes to the possibility that there is more to life than Google slides.
We will hopefully be working on/finishing up our tasks/projects this week and slightly into next week if need be.
Friday, 30 September 2016
New pedagogies - Caractère
New Pedagogies are a new way of thinking about teaching and learning for the 21st century in a highly complex and ever-changing world.
In this model, the role of the teacher is "that of activator of learning who designs learning experiences that build on learner strengths and needs, creates new knowledge using real-life problem solving and help all students identify their talents, purpose and passion." .
Six competencies guide the learning (les 6 Cs) ; creativity - créativité, critical thinking - pensée critique, communication, citizenship - citoyenneté, character - caractère and collaboration. With every C comes a learning progression or a way of evaluating where the students and educator are in their learning journey. My goal this year is to unpack some of the learning progressions with the students. As a class, we are discussing what they mean in order simplify the progression to student friendly language. Students should be able to evaluate where they are on the progression, set goals and find ways to improve.
This week we went over the character progression which is all about deep learning, self-regulation, and taking responsibility for your own learning. It was a great way to launch our biodiversité research projects! Here's our student-friendly version of Caractère.
In this model, the role of the teacher is "that of activator of learning who designs learning experiences that build on learner strengths and needs, creates new knowledge using real-life problem solving and help all students identify their talents, purpose and passion." .
Six competencies guide the learning (les 6 Cs) ; creativity - créativité, critical thinking - pensée critique, communication, citizenship - citoyenneté, character - caractère and collaboration. With every C comes a learning progression or a way of evaluating where the students and educator are in their learning journey. My goal this year is to unpack some of the learning progressions with the students. As a class, we are discussing what they mean in order simplify the progression to student friendly language. Students should be able to evaluate where they are on the progression, set goals and find ways to improve.
This week we went over the character progression which is all about deep learning, self-regulation, and taking responsibility for your own learning. It was a great way to launch our biodiversité research projects! Here's our student-friendly version of Caractère.
Tuesday, 20 September 2016
la biodiversité
We are starting our biodiversité unit today by exploring our padlet and defining what is biodiversity. Students will get their first taste of a really open project when they get to inquire about a topic within biodiversity that interest them. I find that the first project is always anxiety producing because by grade 6 students are really used to being told what and how they are going to learn about a subject. However, once they discover how much more motivating and enriching it is making their own way they obviously love it. This week we will also be discussing our first C: character/ caractère (post to follow with more info on this).
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