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Earlier this year I took an assistant course within this course I learned about resources and websites that would help me with book ratings, books that are approved by Librarians in Canada etc. I also am able to check into Mrs Dickson website and use her valuable information to better what I do in our library and how to improve the space for students. I have also learned a lot this year about Gemini and Canva to create some fun things. I need to not be so intimidated by technology.

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From our Instructional Coaches Newsletter I learned that Canva keeps adding training courses and I'm working my way through "Work Smarter with AI". In one of the lessons, we used a simple prompt to get Canva to code an interactive city map with categories and filters. WHAT!?! Do you know how many websites I have crawled through in the past to plan trips to other cities - looking for family-fun locations, reasonable restaurants, iconic stops, etc. I cannot believe I can now do this in Canva! Plan a trip in a Canva design, keep all my notes organized and even with interactive maps. Mind blown 🤯!!! This is all getting so accessible and possible, and tools like Canva where there's creative control and ability to manipulate the design to suit any occasion - this is so cool!

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So many exciting things are happening at Ralston School. The farm is finally coming together and we will be starting the journey of the International Baccalaureate PYP and MYP. Farm fits the IB concepts in a seamless way. There is a lot to learn and the newest one to me is Toddle. I have been attending the classes at the school and I'm not going to lie, it's a little intimidating. However, I love a good challenge and this is my first crack at entering a Toddle course. There is so many things to know within each course outline, but as I start to learn the IB lingo it is becoming easier. Very excited for the journey ahead!

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During the Gemini AI training, we learned about using Gems. One was a storybook creator. I created a children's book about the metamorphosis of Painted Lady butterflies to use with my students. There are so many cool possibilities for using this gem.

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Over the last year I have done many courses to implement and be accepted as an IB School. All of those courses have been valuable in developing the IB Course (PPS) course for the students joining the IB program next year. I am super excieted to be part of offering this program to Eagle Butte Students next year.

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Instead of spending hours searching for articles, I used Google AI to help me narrow down some appropriate controversial biology topics and legitimate articles to use in a case study. While I still have to filter through the different articles and determine whether or not they are good to use in my online courses, it gives me a good starting point instead of navigating the search results on my own.

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In Grade 1 Math, I implement a hands-on, conceptual strategy called "Holding a Number" (EMP) to help students transition from counting all to counting on or back.

The Set-Up: When given an addition or subtraction problem, students physically or mentally "hold" the larger or starting number in their hands and head to get it ready.

The Action: From that "held" number, they use concrete tracking (like fingers, touchpoints, or a number line) to count on for addition or count back for subtraction.

This strategy builds strong number sense, reduces cognitive load, and gives young learners a tangible, reliable routine for solving basic operations independently!

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Based on my SAPDC PD on unplugged coding, I created a Map of Canada coding activity for my Grade 2/3 students. First, I had Cammie came in with the Indigenous Map of Canada to see different scales of maps and to try to determine where the provinces were located. Once divided into partners, students were provided a home province indicated with a red sticker. Partners had to use the cardinal direction coding cards to get their partner/robot to their new province on their Secret Mission Charts. They used a colored chip to show their moves/steps. Once they arrived at their new province, they had to tell their programmer the capital city of their province, and then the programmer wrote a star into their code. Robots who forgot to say a capital city had to go back and help their programmer "debug" their code for that province. The students did a great job and had so much fun. I would definitely do this type of activity again. They had so much fun learning the provinces and capital cities.

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I made this book within my AI training. Having a group of students that we are working on the Zones of Regulation, this book is now used within our classes and is available to look at anytime. I like that I can modify it and add/change it to be as specific as needed (very personal or very vague).

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Ralston School is beginning its journey on becoming an International Baccalaureate (IB) journey. Part of the process is learning about all the components of the PYP and MYP programs and there will be a great amount of PD involved. The first sessions we are being trained in involve learning about the main traits of IB which include developing inquiring, knowledgeable, global citizens. This journey is going to spark a lot of collaboration as we learn to combine the Alberta Curriclum within the IB curriculum and pedagogy of teaching. In addition, we are learning about different platforms (Toddle) which will help aid in this journey as there is much work to be completed. Very excited about the next chapter in education of Ralston School and my career.

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Copy of CONCEPT-BASED INQUIRY TEACHING PRESENTATION

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At one of the Teacher's Convention presentation by Rebecca Kroschel we learned about using a Picture of the Day to develop oral language skills in grade 1, and then using what the students observed and shared orally to get them writing sentences answering the 5 W's. Katie Nemeth

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Created a source using image creation on gemini. This was able to save me time and accomplish the task quickly. Students were able to use the source to write their essays and prepare for the diploma. This was a skill I learned from using the PD in the newsletter, specifically the Google AI blitz

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I used AI training and Canva training knowledge to make this note home. I used Gemini to create a new overdue note for parents. I revised it a few times for the text. I then added the text to canva to create the wow factor and I have a very good document to send to parents of our K-3 students.

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I watched the recorded sessions of a PD on Codingville.ca. I went through the process of setting up student accounts and passwords in advance of a visit from our Instructional Coaches to address some coding objectives in science class. I can't wait to discover and play along with the students.

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Using Notebook LM to summarize and create new resources has been so helpful with new curriculum! I have uploaded resources I currently have or have been shared to create summaries (study guides), review slides that are engaging and easy to add to Google Classroom. I've used this to create unit mind maps that students can use to help study and review topics using retrieval practice. I think that this is likely just the tip of the iceberg in terms of useful tasks that Notebook LM can assist with, but this has been a great introduction to using AI to help with planning and lesson building.

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Using to use Notebook LM for creating summaries of a huge amount of data has been a game-changer. Notebook LM uses the resources we provide it and then creates the output that we want. I needed a summary of Assurance Survey Results and PAT results for a Parent Council Meeting and Staff Meeting. It was interesting how what was summarized was also what I extracted in my own review of the data.

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In between meeting with students when school was closed in October, I completed an ADHD coaching certification. I thought it would be a good addition to my practice and help me determine if I wanted to pursue a different and costly certification I've been interested in. While I can't provide direct evidence of using my knowledge from this course with students, I consistently use it working with students diagnosed or suspected to have ADHD as well as support school staff who work with these students.

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During SWATCA, I attended a session about board games in schools. Shortly after, I created a board game club once a week at lunch recess. Students had the opportunity to explore different types of board games where they are challenged with vocabulary, comprehension, higher order thinking, etc.

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I always get new ideas from the Coach's newsletter! My favorite this year was the Try-A-Trade kits that are available free to teachers. I definitely learnt that you need to be on the computer right when they are released to snag one! My students loved putting together these basketball games, and now I am waiting for my masonry kits to arrive.

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At the Division wide PD day in May I attended a session hosted by Sonia Stanton called Play Matters. On a colony these kids are so work driven, that sometimes you get caught up in all the book work/class work/assignments and forget these are such young kids and they can learn so much from playing. I have been trying really hard, with the resources that I already to have to create some centers and let the kids learn through playing as well!

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At the division wide PD in May, I attended the Science Energy Workshop that was hands on. Even though it was most useful for the old science curriculum, I was still able to use one of the experiments at school the following week. It was useful in my middle school Freshwater and Saltwater systems unit and in the grade 6 Climate Change unit. What is the experiment? We had hot water and cold water in separate cups both dyed red then we added ice cubes that were dyed blue and watched the reaction.

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After attending one of the Math sessions at the May PD day, I began incorporating a math starter at the beginning of each class. I divided the class into 2 teams and created a baseball diamond within the class. I had a player from each team go the batter position and whoever correctly answered the basic math fact equation first got to advance to the next base. The other player goes to the end of their team line. The game continues and the team who scores the most points win. The students were so excited and realized the importance of developing their mental math.

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I attended the Science Council convention in Canmore in November. During the Inside Education presentation, we played Rock, Paper, Scissors using the life cycle of different animals. The winner moves on to the next life cycle stage. (egg, larvae, adult) They used body movements to represent which stage they were at. After several rounds we debrief by discussing questions like: Why might some larvae not make it to adulthood? and How can humans help?

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Managing Executive Functioning Skills in the Classroom

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Managing Executive Functioning Skills in the Classroom

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Back in November I attended PD sessions put on by the ATA at the Fall PDC confernce. One that I have used extensively in my High School Biology class this semester is tips for assisting students with Executive Functioning challenges. I have a large group of very active students that have a hard time staying focused and completing their activities withoug disrupting others. I have used many of the techniques found in this session to help keep them on task. These incude, teaching emotional literacy (mini lessons on how to talk to others respectfully as they arise), chunking sections for the students saying I will check in with them in 5-10min inturvals and giving them a goal to be completed by then, and explicitly starting an explaination with "when I say go" so they pay attention to the entire set of instructions.

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I used teacher time machine AI to generate an outcome specific group activity for my Foods 10 classroom. Students discussed the importance of healthy food choices, what healthy food choices means, and brainstormed what essential nutrients a person might need to sustain a healthy body.

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Last summer I took The Writing Revolution course! It was awesome. I've been using the program throughout the year and now have my students brainstorming, writing paragraph outlines, and then completing a paragraph independently! This is such a great way to have students organize their thoughts.

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During the Innovative School's Summit, I attended a session that simulated dyslexia so that educators would gain a better understanding of how some students may struggle. It was pretty incredible to be asked to complete exercises that should have been easy but were actually very hard to do. When I returned to school, I had one student that I thought this pertained to in particular. When I had his mother in for a meeting, I ran her through some of the exercises to share what I had learnt. It was very valuable for both of us.

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ADDitudemag.com - ADHD science & strategies

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ADDitudemag.com - ADHD science & strategies

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I have been a subscriber of this newsletter for many years and have often recommended it to parents of children with complex ADHD needs. I have also used some of the information to support teaching staff with students who may struggle with executive functioning skills in the classroom. I recently shared some of the information in this ADHD iceberg poster with a staff member to help foster understanding and hope.

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After attending the WeWillWrite AI after-school session, I decided to introduce the program to my grade 3 classroom and test it out. It was a huge success! All the students were very engaged and worked diligently. The program even identified an onomatopoeia in one student's work, which was exciting since they were learning about this concept; it served as a great review for them. After our session, we noted the statistics, and I challenged the students to try to beat their previous scores next time. They eagerly asked their teacher, Mrs. Robbins, if they could play again right away.

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I attended an afterschool session with Cammie early in the school year, where she introduced me to school AI. I then took a project that my students often found difficult to research. I used school AI to build a tool that students could use to ask questions and generate responses from. The responses were shared in such a way that it made it much easier for students to complete the project. The purpose of the assignment was not to assess their research skills, but rather to become more informed about the topic and to learn to represent information in charts and other graphical formats to build an infographic. This tool allowed students to more easily work on these skills.

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Elly Berger- Understanding Communication as EA'S

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Elly Berger- Understanding Communication as EA'S

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I learned during this PD session the importance of good Communication when working with all students. I presently work with an Autistic, Non-Verbal student. Through the use of Visuals, modeled language, non-verbal cues and time, this student is able to communicate some of his needs and wants effectively with me. He has developed good eye contact and his use of words is exciting for us all.

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I used some centre ideas for what I seen at Friday's PD with Sonja on play within our classroom and then used those ideas in Fox's Den.

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I attended a two day training course to be re-certified for SIVA with instructors Cara Motz, Cathy Hynes and Carol Carlson. We updated our student's WISE plans and I also created a student safety plan for one of my students. We focussed on incorporating as many of the de-escalation techniques as possible. We included a large team to create the plan including teacher, EA, LST, admin, Cara, and parents.

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I became fascinated with retrieval practice after attending a Coach's session at Convention a few years ago. I picked up the book for some professional reading with I did last year, and my PGP goals have surrounding retrieval practice this year. I am not doing things very different than I did before, but am continuing to add to this practice with little bits all the time. Recently, I have been working on improving vocabulary understanding and have been using AI to help build some student resources and activities surrounding vocabulary practice. I used Quizizz to help build a few practice activities (after seeing more Coach's sessions via Google Meet) and have tapped them for addressing a learning challenge in my classroom as well surrounding this work.

Every stage of this work has been supported by Coaches. Initial interest, initial discussion, connecting me with someone else who had been working on this practice, hooking me up with ideas to work on this practice, and now some of the smaller pieces that will make up a larger practice.

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I've been taking PD through MBA on PowerSchool. It helps me better customize reports for our overseas schools. It gives me the ability to select only UK Students over set number of attendance etc. I've learned how to better customize which in turn has saved time & paper (since i'm not printing for every student). Bonus points for not pestering Krista with questions non stop :)

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I attended a workshop on using the strengths-based performance profile with the researcher who developed it. I adapted the language using AI to better fit high school students and have implemented it with my teams.

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All staff (teachers and EAs) at Ralston School are working with Cathy Hynes on math vocabulary needed from JK-grade 9. We are then using the vocabulary to help build on skills for problem solving which was identified as a need through PAT analysis. The problem solving will be the bases for the Exhibition of Learning in the spring. In addition, "I Can Statements" were created for all grades in JK-grade 9 and they will be referenced during the problem solving. Cathy has worked with the staff during SI days and staff meetings.

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Incorporating Rich Tasks in Math class- Laura Smith

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Incorporating Rich Tasks in Math class- Laura Smith

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This year I attended the MCATA Conference at Medicine Hat. We learned about the value of incorporating rich tasks and opened-ended rich tasks in math class to promote thinking classrooms and student engagement. The few weeks before Christmas was the perfect week try try these for the first time. I will plan more of them for sure. It was really cool to hear their math thinking and have them justify and argue their answers.

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At the ACEC conference I attended two sessions by author Sigmund Brouwer. They were both on encouraging students to write and he had visited many colonies so he was familiar with our teaching context. He shared the way he plans his novels as this "circle-best-idea-wins" basically when an idea comes to him, one that he thinks is interesting he gives it the first circle. From that circle he thinks of various things that could happen, and makes more circles branching off. Then he looks at what he's brainstormed and decides which would be the most interesting as a reader and eliminates everything else. He carries on this way each circle becoming a plot point/chapter.

I immediately went back to the classroom and tried it with a few short writing assignments, and even tried to use it in social studies when mapping decisions that were made in the fur trade so that my students would become familiar with it. We don't do a traditional writing unit until after the break but I was so excited by it I wanted to give it a shot. I think this type of brainstorming works good for students as it doesn't limit them to a five paragraph method, or a three part; beginning, middle end. Using these circles they never throw away their ideas just choose the ones they find most exciting = motivation for writing.

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ACEC - Teaching multi-graded lessons to the whole class

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ACEC - Teaching multi-graded lessons to the whole class

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One of the challenges of Colony teaching is having to teach EVERY subject for EVERY grade in the school. I am the only staff member at my school, but I need to deliver programming for students in three different grades.

One of the sessions I attended at the ACEC (Alberta Colony Educators Conference) in late October presented a variety of strategies for managing a multi-grade classroom space. One suggestion the teacher made is to look for curricular overlaps between grades and then teach a lesson to the entire class on one topic.

The photo above shows how Diffit helped me create a multi-grade learning experience that addresses Science 2 outcomes on properties of different materials and Science 5 outcomes about the states of matter. The grade 2s were already fascinated by the Science the older kids were working on, so I taught a whole-class on states of matter, then had the two different grades connect their new learning to what they had learned previously.

Teaching this way allowed me to single-task teach, allowed my students to support each other's learning across grade levels (each age group had something different to contribute to the class' understanding that day).

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BTC-Building Thinking Classrooms and Math Mindsets

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BTC-Building Thinking Classrooms and Math Mindsets

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Over the last couple of years, I have incorporated the strategies in Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl into my non-mathematics classes. This year, I was thrilled to pick up my very first math class! I have been actively using BTC strategies including visibly random groups, writing at non-permanent vertical surfaces, and using highly engaging tasks. I have had some amazing classes where students had major breakthroughs in their mathematical mindsets. They were using positive language in reference to their "mathematical ability" and really seeing themselves as problem solvers. They have enjoyed the process of sitting with problems and thinking them over. I have had some of the best classes of my career as I watched them develop a more positive relationship with math. I am going to continue with my learning about math anxiety by reading "The Math Guru's" book and continuing to incorporate strategies from The Building Thinking Classroom's framework. It's going to be a great year!