Reflections on Coding

This past week, my grade 4 class participated in the "Hour of Code" and we learned so much! For many of my students, it was their first time hearing about coding. They were super excited to see famous faces in Code's launch video advocating for coding and the importance of computer science. We watched tutorials and students worked collaboratively to code. There were many obstacles along the way, but students used their critical thinking skills and solved it on their own. They had to "ask 3 before me" for our coding session. I told them that they were the real experts and I am no more of an expert in coding than they are. Students were engaged and loved seeing how their favourite apps and games used computer science and knowledge power from all subject areas in the process of creation. We created a "Flappy Code" and our own game using "Play Lab". We had a great time and learned lots! I highly recommend participating in the "Hour of Code"! 

Resource: www.code.org

Digital Citizenship

Image from :http://www.prn.bc.ca/ss/k5DL/?p=206


We started our health unit on looking at technology, how to have a positive digital footprint and being safe when using technological forms of communication. To my surprise, students had difficult time coming up with ways we can safely use technology or what type of precautions we need to take when online. This turned into a great teaching point about how technology is everywhere in our lives, but not very often do we talk about what precautions we need.... I think my students saw the importance of the topic at hand just by seeing how stumped they were in generating precautions/factors we need to think about when online! 

Digital citizenship is so important in the lives our children, especially since I think we sometimes take technology for granted or assume children are tech-savvy at a young age - we cannot forget to educate the impact and importance having a positive digital footprint has in their lives. 

Happy Wednesday!

Saw the video of Adam Levine and Jimmy Fallon singing kids songs - made me smile! Check it out and I hope it helps put a smile on - Day 2 being done! Completion of 1st week almost there... :) Happy Wednesday!

Exit Tickets as Assessment

This year, I created a "parking lot" poster in my classroom in hopes that it will be used for quick assessment "for" and "as" learning. Students will need to answer a quick question or quick 3,2,1 (i.e3 things I learned, 2 wonderings, 1 question - many variations are possible!) on a sticky note and park it on the poster before leaving class. I hope to do this everyday, but not, definitely an end of the week as a culminating self-reflection piece on our learning. I think this will serve as a good indicator of where my learners are and serve as a touch point of how to plan for my next lessons.

What are some of your favourite self-assessment tools?

New Year... New Beginnings!

Welcome to a "revamped" Chung's Learning Space!! I am very excited to start the new school year with an updated blog look and a new promise to post/blog more in this upcoming school year (i.e busy is no excuse)!! I will be working with a wonderful group of Grade 4 learners this year. I am looking forward to learning and working with them and cannot wait to share what we are learning... stay tuned for updates :)!

Inspirational Idea: Re-imagined Guided Reading

Came across this great article that made me reflect on my own guided reading practice. There are some great points raised. My favorite idea for rethinking guided reading is to ask students to determine the most important information but also discuss where students can access tools to learn more/gather more information about the topic! Definitely worth the read!

Re-imagining guided reading in the 21st century http://zite.to/1kqJlxZ

Accountable talk

What are your strategies for accountable talk?

Making Thinking Visible

What does making thinking visible mean to you?

Inspirational Idea: Closing the achievement gap

Great article in today's Toronto Star on closing the achievement gap....  

http://www.thestar.com/bigideas/experts/2014/02/25/work_together_to_close_the_achievement_gap_chris_penroses_big_idea.html

Inspirational Find: The Importance of Fostering Curiosity

This TED talk by Ken Jennings (the infamous Jeopardy gameshow champion) was a find that caught me by surprise....

1) Who knew Ken Jennings was such a charismatic and good public speaker? 
2) His experience and insights from being a gameshow contestant speaks to 21st century learning and my passion of life-long learning 

Through a bit of humour in retelling his experience of being a champion on Jeopardy and then losing to IBM's "Watson" robot contestant, Jennings makes a compelling argument that human knowledge can not become obsolete to the world of technology and computers because we will lose the human shared connection that we foster in relationships. We cannot foster human relations by "googling" facts about each other or knowledge to have a conversation/exchange with someone. Knowledge can be found with a google search and online everywhere, but Jennings makes the argument that as teachers we should strive to do; foster curiosity in students to discover the knowledge themselves. We need to create the motivation in students to want to learn and continuously learn! Take some time to watch this talk, his experience of being defeated by a robot is a really interesting perspective and makes great points for student motivation in the classroom. 

Inspirational Find - Collaboration At It's Best!

Last week, my friend Shelly, sent me a link to Joesph-Gordon Levitt's collaborative company, (also known to both of us as JGL- we are huge fans of his work via his acting career in Hollywood cinema) HITRECORDTV's first episode! Attached is the first episode of the company's season long TV series appearing on Pivot TV channel and has apparently been renewed for a second season. 

The idea behind Levitt's company is genius! Everyone and anyone can collaborate on a single project or multiple projects via online uploads that appeal to Levitt's call for specific topic/theme submissions. Take the the time and watch this first episode - the theme is on the "number one" and the variety of mixed technology and forms of media is incredible. 

After watching this episode, I immediately thought about 21st century learning and how this episode is a prime example of collaboration and remix at its' best. Artists, innovators, creators, people etc.! can create works of media globally because of the web! It's about taking bits and pieces of work and putting it all together to create one product. If we connected students globally or even locally with neighbourhood classrooms to collaborate on any themed/topic project, we would have our very own "HITRECORD TV" look-alike! The best part of it is that students can submit any piece of art form, literary work, musical piece, graphic art etc. (the possibilities are endless!) and it would be work that represents their best achievement. 

Looking forward to watching more episodes and continue to being inspired! 

** Thanks Shelly! You probably would have never thought that a link to JGL would lead to an educational blog post! :) 

The Importance of Getting Students Engaged!

http://www.thestar.com/life/2014/01/05/skateboard_school_is_vehicle_to_success_for_teens.html

Getting students engaged is a huge part of motivating students to learn and a huge component of 21st Century Learning. The article above (see link) discusses an alternative school programming that has managed to spark curiosity in teenagers who would much rather be at home playing video games. I think this article/story is a great example of how interest sparks engagement and motivation in learning. Connecting students love for arts culture and skateboards with the curriculum and real-world experiences (Recipe for success!). I also think it is great that schools can form a mentorship relationship with local businesses to create programming that is meaningful for students (we need more of it!) Take a read! 

First Inspirational Find of 2014 - "Amanda Bennett: We need a heroic story for death"

Happy 2014!

One of my resolutions for this new year is to blog more and to find time to get through my list of TED talks and inspirational finds that I collect on the daily basis and keep on the "when I have time" list. This year, I am going to make time to learn and grow from the finds and try (really hard) not to keep a never-ending list of things to get to!

In this inspirational TED talk find, I thought Bennett's story had a great message about how to deal with troubling times in our lives. Bennett argues that the emotion of "hope" is actually interchangeable with "denial" and many of us miss the chance to really be in the "moment" or "feel in the moment" because we are in "denial" in that search for "hope". Her story of losing her husband to cancer argues for a different discussion about death or the journey to death. To search for a narrative that discusses the battles/triumphs that is experienced by the person on the journey and his/her family members rather than the ultimate plot of "to live" or "to die".

This find also made me think about how difficult times in our lives is really a "difficult" discussion to have with anyone and especially children....and that maybe there are always many different opinions in approach... but really no "right" way.

Interesting perspective to listen and explore.... Enjoy!