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M4 Q5 The Lesson Plan - 2nd Grade - Means of Communication - Project/Learning Story

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M4 Q5 The Lesson Plan - 2nd Grade - Means of Communication - Project/Learning Story

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M4 Q4 Additional Resources - The CCL Video

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M4 Q4 Additional Resources - The CCL Video

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Teach Toddlers Colors Numbers Preschool Race Cars & Magnet Truck

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EU Schoolnet   Lisbon with subtitles Mobile

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M4 Q4 Additional Resources -  Just some videos of my classroom

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M4 Q4 Additional Resources -  Just some videos of my classroom

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A stop-motion video created by one my 2nd grade groups about Animals Reproduction!

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M4 Q4 Additional Resources -  Just some videos of my classroom

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M4 Q4 Additional Resources -  Just some videos of my classroom

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A Kodu Game created by one of my 2nd graders about Means of Transport

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M4 Q4 Additional Resources -  Just some videos of my classroom

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M4 Q4 Additional Resources -  Just some videos of my classroom

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Reflection in the CCL Project - Extended Version

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M4 Q3 Apps and Tools for Personalized Learning and Flipped Classroom 

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M4 Q3 Apps and Tools for Personalized Learning and Flipped Classroom 

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I prefer to mention one or two Apps/Toosl for each Learning Activity:

Dream: Padlet (for Brainstorming) and Classcharts (For Grouping students)

Explore: OneNote (Everything can be shared on OneNote)

Map: M8! (app) and Popplet (web-based) great tools for Mindmaping

Make: MovieMaker, PowerPoint, Photostory, Sway, Kodu, Flashcards

Show: The same as in Make

Share: OneNote and OneDrive

Assess: ClassFlow and ClassDojo (Self Assessment)

Reflection: TeamUp, OneNote and MovieMaker and SoundCloud!

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In our school, with the involvement on the CCL project we were challenged to try the flipped classroom model with 1st and 2nd graders. It was a huge challenge, since pupils were really young, dependent and not very responsible to work with autonomy at home. Then, we had the parents, that in most of the cases weren't able to assist them in the task of learning at home. But the idea of flipping the classroom is to use the students who explored the resource and learned at home to teach the others who didn't! The problem was that the kids were very young and it's not easy to a 6 or 7 years old child to teach others. So, we adapt the activities and I started creating simple videos for students to explore. The other resources were also very simple (games and simulations easy to understand). However, I must say that they did amazing things and even if we had few pupils learning at home in the beginning, at the end of the project we realized that today they are able to use what they learned to start a project, to add something to the product they are creating. With primary school students it can be a real challenge to flip the classroom, but if you simplify things, you can have good results. A good message, a simple video, a funny game can be a powerful tool for students to learn at home. Then, the rest is up to you and your students to create something with the knowledge you got. Anyway, the solution is always to create something...a presentation, a video, a story, a game or just a poster or a song! If they are engaged they will explore what you share with them... wherever they are!

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Since my classroom was strongly involved on CCL and on the second year of the project, our Scenario was "Liberating Learners - Independent Learners" the approach we had was really focused on promoting a personalised learning and giving students the opportunity to reflect about how they learn better. In the beggining of the school year we applied the VARK questionnaire and teachers and students were able to know pupils' learning styles. So, during each project, we always shared resources directed for the students on OneNote. This way students always had the chance to choose which resource was more suitable for them. For visual learners they had images, diagrams and videos, for aural, audio files, songs and suggestions of activities with colleagues, for kinesthetic we had games, materials and interactive activities and for readers we had plenty of text. This was great for them, but for the teacher was not easy, since I was obliged to find/create different kinds of resources for each subject or topic. Check the presentation I made for the final CCL conference, in Brussels. It can help understanding the way we promoted the personalised learning.

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Dear Rui

I just wanted to thank you for sharing strategies to ensure that students will be focused and on track during collaborative projects.

I found your suggestions realy helpful and posted them on my Learning Diary as well in order to use them in future.

Thank you!

Your's Kapoglou Valentina (Chrysovalandou) :-

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M3 Q3 Success factors of school-to-school collaboration projects

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M3 Q3 Success factors of school-to-school collaboration projects

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I must say that my adventure with technology and collaboration started with Etwinning. I started with one simple project about Environment with 6 partners, then we applied a project about Romans with 11 schools, after that a project about Astronomy and Art with 15 partners and our last project had 25 parners on Maths! Since 2013 we have been involved on etwinning but connected with Comenius and Erasmus+. Currently, we have a Comenius partnership with 7 schools about cities and it's great because pupils can skype with students from other countries, we create resources together, most of them, digital resources and we share ideas about everything. Of course, technology is always in the center of discussions. Then, since this year we have an Erasmus+ Project about 21st Century Skills, and that has been a great opportunity to share ideas about how we implement 21st century learning. With Etwinning, Comenius, Erasmus+ or other partnership projects what we need is to share and learn with each other, working collaboratively and producing change across the globe. Is our job to make the change and teachers are the ones who must lead this process!!

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M3 Q2 Challenges of Collaborative Work - How do you keep your students focused and on track during collaborative projects? How do you ensure all students contribute to the task? If you have organised a similar project share your experiences (positive and negative) here.

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M3 Q2 Challenges of Collaborative Work - How do you keep your students focused and on track during collaborative projects? How do you ensure all students contribute to the task? If you have organised a similar project share your experiences (positive and negative) here.

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I have some strategies to ensure that students will be focused and on track during collaborative projects:

1) Participation: They participate in most of the decisions about the project: what to do? How to do? For who? and With who? (I believe that when students participate in decision making they get more engaged);

2) Involvement: All the pupils must feel they are valuable for the group. The tasks of each student are crucial for the success of the learning process;

3) Attention: Not students attention, but teacher's attention. The teacher must follow carefully all the groups, asking questions, giving advises, suggesting resources to explore or changes in the work;

4) Reflection: Students (and teachers) must reflect about what they are doing. At the end of each day of a project we ask pupils 3 questions (just 3) - What you did? What's missing? What problems did you face? Team Up is a great tool for reflection. This activity allows students to keep focuses on what they are doing and lets teachers understand in which phase of the project groups are.

5) Assessment: During the process of creating a product (there's always a product to create) students have moments to show what they are learning and we can have a clear idea of everything they aren't understanding. Usually I use Class Flow (my favourite one, no doubt) to monitor what students are learning but there are lots of tools to assess students during a project.

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Most of the time my students are in groups, however, as Deirdre said on the video, that doesn't mean that we are always working collaboratively. Anyway, my pupils (the ones on the video above) are permanently challenged to work that way and the goal is always to produce something at the end of each group activity: from just a simple idea, to a mindmap, a presentation, a video or any other resource. To group them, I don't have a formula, but I have Class Charts (web-based tool and W8 App). With it, It's possible to group students by gender, by behaviour (based on their scores) or by Pupils Interaction. But sometimes, I don't use this tool and I let students choose with whom they will work. Usually I let them decide if they have to work in smaller groups (pairs or groups of 3). Some other times, I decide the groups. This happens when I want to disperse similar students and I want that each student in the group be responsible for a task. In this approach I "control" the formation of the groups and who will do what, but even if it's the one I do less, it's very important when I want that some specific students develop some skills. In terms of number of students for group, usually I work in groups of 4, but as always, it depends on the work we are doing. That's why we need to have a flexible space to move students all the time.

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This week, I'll introduce my students to Sway. This is an example that will allow them to understand how the tool works and its banefits. Here is my Sway about Means of Transports .

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Explore the Mind Map to learn about Means of Transports

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M2 Q2 What kind of content can you create with your class?

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M2 Q2 What kind of content can you create with your class?

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Throughout the year my 2nd graders (7/8 years old) are permanently challenged to create content to share with their colleagues. During each learning story, several products are created. In the Dream and Explore phase we usually create Padlets for Mindstorming and to share ideas. In the Map phase most of the times pupils create Mind Maps (on M8! and Popplet) that are shared with everyone. On the Make phase we challenge pupils to create what they like. Sometimes they use technology, sometimes they prefer non-technological products, such as drama plays, movement games or drawings. Some other times they want a digital product. Besides Popplets (one of their favorite resources) they also love to create Games (with Kodu), Stop-Motion Videos (on Movie Maker), Powerpoint Presentations, Flashcards (with Flashcards Education Labs), Songs and Stories (on Audacity).

We also have a YouTube Channel where we upload all our videos (their videos and the videos I create for them) and a Sound Cloud Channel to share our audio files.

In my perspective, the whole process of deciding what to do, how to do and for whom, as well as the planning process is very rich in terms of the acquisition of 21st century skills, so we must challenge students to reflect and to create what they feel that fits better for their work and to achieve the goals they expect.

This month I introduced them Sway and now they want to start creating their first sways. Let's see the results soon.

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Jogo Kodu e a Alimentação - Screen Capture

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Because of the CCL project (and also because of the iTEC) I got the chance to learn about Learning Scenarios and Learning Stories and in the past 2 years I've been implementing a PBL approach based on these two main ideas: it's essential to define what learning scenario we want to implement (in our case, for the project we used Flipped Classroom and Liberating Learners, but content creation and School to school collaboration are always present in our school). More than the Scenario what the CCL brought us was the idea of the Learning Story. Today, for every subject, for every topic, our students are challenge to travel through a Learning Journey that starts with a Dream in which they decide what they want to do, what kind of product they want to create, for who and the groups are made. The second phase is the Explore, where they learn by exploring different resources shared by the teacher. These resources can be videos, games, texts, diagrams or others. All the resources are shared on OneNote and are available 24/7 for every pupil. In the Phase Map, pupils start planning what to do and usually they use Mind Mapping tools and apps (Popplet and M8!) to start the process of creating a final product. The Create activity is one of the longest because in this phase they make a product and at the same time they learn more things and teacher is always following students to check if the students are learning what is supposed. Reflection is permanent but formative assessment is crucial for the success of the learning process. That’s why we apply an assessment on Class Flow in the middle of the Learning Story, and another in the end. After the prototype of the project is ready, pupils present it to an expert (phase Ask) that will give them a feedback to improve their work. Then, they Remake the prototype and Show it to the class, or in some cases, to other stakeholders. After all the products are presented they are shared on OneNote and in the school platform for everyone access them. A final assessment is done to evaluate the learning outcomes.

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M1 Q3 What classroom challenges do I already face or do I anticipate facing when using tablets?

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M1 Q3 What classroom challenges do I already face or do I anticipate facing when using tablets?

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I use the tablets in the classroom every day. It's an important tool to implement the scenarios for learning. Every subject, every topic is worked on a project-based learning approach, so the students can be challenged to work together, to discuss and most important of all, to create resources and products to share with others. During the past 4 years this is the way I work with my primary school students all the time. However, sometimes, it's hard to implement these ideas and approaches: the wi-fi is slow, the devices have problems, the students forgot to charge the batteries of their tablets, or they even forgot their devices at home. On the flipped classroom model, the student didn't explore the resource at home or because they are very young, they didn't get the point of what was supposed to do at home. Adding to these problems, parents, sometimes, don't understand this kind of work. Culturally, they don't see this way of learning as good as the way they learned, 20 or 30 years ago. Then, we have testing, rankings and results fighting this kind of methodology and parents feel that project-based learning is not preparing their children for exams. From my point of view, I think by working this way, we won't be preparing the students for exams, but we'll be preparing them for life...and if they learn with projects, they will learn better and the results will be good anyway!

If we want change we will have to face some real obstacles...but no one said that the path for change is easy!! We just need to believe in it and keep innovating!

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I know Edmodo for a long time but since it wasn't available for W8 until last year, I use to have other tools for evaluation and communication (Classflow is the one I use more). Now that is available on W8 I will try it or sure! It can be a good way of combining different kind of activities and tasks in just one app.

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Colégio Monte Flor is a private school founded in 1973. In the past 10 years has been involved in several national and international projects related to innovation. It is an Eco-School since 2004 and environment is in the center of all the learning process. Since 2010 the school became more focused on the use of technology for learning and on the 21st century learning. In 2014 was distinguished as Microsoft Mentor School and Currently is a Showcase School. We have partnerships with several organizations and Etwinning, Comenius, Erasmus+, iTEC and CCL are an important part of our "Learning Story" in the past years. As a school, our goal is to keep improving and that is only possible if we keep learning.

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My name is Rui Lima, I'm a Primary School teacher and Head Teacher in a private school in Lisbon, Portugal.

I was Lead Teacher in the amazing CCL project and I've learned so many things with it. And because I believe this project is not finished, that you can teach me so many other things and that we can share ideas, knowledge and thoughts, I decided to join this course to keep involved in the change our school systems need to do. Let's share, communicate and learn together.

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M1 Q1 Why do you use or want to use tablets in your teaching?

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M1 Q1 Why do you use or want to use tablets in your teaching?

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I use tablets in the classroom because our students are surrounded by technology 24/7 and they are permanently in contact with devices that connect them with the world. Outside the school they use these devices to communicate with others, to play, to learn. The schools must provide to their students similar learning experience or the students won't feel connected with real life.

Tablets can be a great tool to create products and to collaborate with other students, no mater where they are. The school should promote activities where students collaborate in the creation of resources and content and during that process they will learn in a more significant way.

If someone needs to be convinced of the benefits of tablets and technology in the classroom we should say that by forbidding this kind of devices in the classroom we are not preparing our students for a future and that we are teaching disconnected with the world. If the main goal of school is to prepare the students to understand and to live in our world we must give our students the chance to be connected!

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M1 Q2 What whole-school challenges do I already face or do I anticipate facing when using tablets?

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M1 Q2 What whole-school challenges do I already face or do I anticipate facing when using tablets?

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As a teacher, Technical Support and Wifi are the biggest obstacles on the implementation of tablets. We have several technical problems and as teachers, we don't have time and knowledge to solve most of them. Since our students are only between 6 and 10 years old, it isn't easy to create a technical team to help us.

In what concerns to whole-school approach, the main challenge is to find the balance between preparation for exams (a national disease in Portugal) and a project-based learning, focused on 21st century skills. For a private school as mine, it's not easy to convince parents that this is the right path, when many of them are only concerned with results on national tests.