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So here we are, friends. The end of an arduous yet rewarding journey for COETAIL and the school year. The beginning of what will definitely be a new way of doing life and school in the months ahead. And as I sit down to write my final blog post for this course, I'm feeling a range of emotions. Fatigue and exhaustion from 14 weeks of online learning and being displaced from my home. Nervousness about closing out the year and preparing for the very real scenario that this might be how we have to start a new school year. Pride and elation at accomplishing a goal and completing this COETAIL journey. I'm sure I'm not the only one dealing with all of these thoughts and emotions though; it's been a long few months with lots of time to think and reflect. But enough with all that for now. Let's turn our attention to this final project and how I had to forego previous my plans, pivot in response to distance learning, and move in a new direction to finish.

Best Laid Plans

Back in Course 4, we spent a lot of time and energy looking at the final project guidelines and thinking about how we would bring the culminating experience of COETAIL to life by transforming a unit to reach that redefinition stage of learning with technology on the SAMR model. Much like everything else I had planned in life and work for the past few months, I was forced to rethink my final project when faced with the reality that online learning would be continuing and the opportunities to carry out the new unit in the way I'd planned was no longer an option. Not only did I have to rethink my own engagement with teachers and students as an Innovation Coach, but I also had to support 30+ teachers in rethinking how they would deliver lessons, assess learning and connect with students in new ways. For more on how that went, scroll back through the last few months of blog posts. That's exactly what I did to begin reimagining this project and it was a great place to start.

As the weeks passed and the Course 5 project approached, I spent a good amount of time in reflection and asking for feedback from my colleagues, coaching partners and administrators. I went back and re-read some old blog posts, connected with previous colleagues from before my move to AISG, and asked my husband to remind me of what was happening when this journey with COETAIL began almost 18 months ago.

In the end, I decided to pivot and look at how my role as an Innovation Coach has changed in response to the school closures and highlight the ways in which COETAIL has equipped me with the mindsets, skills and resources to adapt to these changes. Looking back at my early blog posts from Courses 1 & 2 before moving to AISG helped me realize just how far I'd come and how much I'd grown and it seemed like a great place to begin the video and project.

Photo by Dylan Sauerwein on Unsplash

Looking Back

In January of 2019 my life changed rapidly. I had been working as a Technology Integration Specialist and was tasked with helping the school redesign their approach to teaching and learning with technology from one that held stand-alone computer classes in a lab to one that used technology in authentic and meaningful ways to deepen learning experiences across the curriculum. But then one day we lost a teacher to a heart attack and I was asked to step back into a homeroom setting to get the kids through the remainder of their year. This coincided with the start of my COETAIL courses and helped me so much to see how each module and topic was applicable in both of those positions (homeroom teacher and tech integration). I didn't realize how similar the last 2 years had been in some ways until I relived all of those memories. The sudden mid-year shift in roles, the traumatic underlying experience, the ability to be responsive to a changing situation; it all felt so similar to what I was going through this year. And as painful and challenging as both experiences are and have been, there is a tremendous amount of growth to come from them, so that's where I wanted to take this final project. The challenge was... how could I possibly condense all of this down into a 10-minute video that meets all of the criteria and guidelines? Did I have enough evidence to paint a picture for an audience? Would I be able to show the connections to all of these things in a way that made sense to an audience? Could I highlight the ways COETAIL had shaped my practice and meet all of the standards for the project? I wasn't sure where to start. But just like I never really know where to start when I have a lot to say for a blog post, I just sat down and started. And if that wasn't enough of a challenge, I decided a final project was as good a time as any to teach myself a new video editing platform 🤦🏼‍♀️

So, without further ado, I present my final COETAIL video:

Final Thoughts

As much as I tried to edit my video down to 10 minutes, I just couldn't do it. In fact, I could have easily gone up to 15 minutes by adding in more about my work with the grade 5 students in helping them plan out and select the best ways to share their projects for exhibition. But deadlines are deadlines and the kids' shareout is still weeks away, so I had to make do with what I had. Overall, I think I managed to capture the essence of my work as a coach to support teachers and students both before and during school closures and connect that work to my learning in COETAIL, especially as it connects with the ISTE standards. I'm actually planning to use some of this video as part of my evidence for my portfolio in the upcoming weeks since there are so many parallels between this project and that certification.

And while this might be my last blog post for COETAIL, I have really enjoyed the way that blogging has forced me to be more reflective about my teaching and coaching practices, so I hope to continue this even after the course wraps up. My plan is to embark on a new website this summer where I can transfer all of this content over and keep adding to it as a professional portfolio. As always, I hope to receive some helpful feedback from my peers that will push my thinking and challenge me to try new things. Feel free to leave a comment here or find me on Twitter to continue this conversation. Until next time...

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So here we are, friends. The end of an arduous yet rewarding journey for COETAIL and the school year. The beginning of what will definitely be a new way of doing life and school in the months ahead. And as I sit down to write my final blog post for this course, I'm feeling a range of emotions.

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LINK to SlideDeck with full teacher interviews and project information, including reflections and student evidence

Background

Moving into the 2019-2020 year I knew that a growth area for our school was Digital Citizenship (DC), especially in the elementary panel. There had been some work around DC in the past, but never in an organized and logical manner. When I met with the elementary leadership team it was decided to utilize the lessons from Common Sense Media on DC. In the middle school we also decided to use the lessons from Common Sense Media. The Head of PE is Common Sense Media Certified and had been using the lessons prior. These are well organized, backed by research, and tied to the ISTE standards.

We decided to start with grades 3 to 5 as these students use devices regularly. In grade 3 students are introduced to Chromebooks and they continue to use them through grade 5. For the purposes of this project, I will be speaking to my experiences with grades 3 and grade 5 and the student learning that took place around the digital citizenship lessons and the ISTE standards. With these grades, I had the opportunity to co-teach many of the lessons and be part of the classroom experience. The grade 4 teachers were teaching the Common Sense Media DC lessons as well, but I did not co-teach those lessons, as I have children in two of the three classes.

Photo by James Toose on Unsplash

Anticipated Impact

One of the first things I noticed about our ES students at ISC was that many of them had cell phones. Of course they were not allowed to use them during the day, but as soon as 3:30pm hit, phones were out of bags and students were on social media, namely WhatsApp, Instagram, and TikTok. Common Sense Media rates WhatsApp, 14+, Instagram 15+, and TikTok 15+. So I knew we had some work to do, with both students and parents. This being the first time Digital Citizenship lessons were being introduced in a formal way into the ES classrooms, I knew we had nowhere to go but up.

The anticipated impact for grades 3-5 was simply: to have them think about their actions, have planned conversations around digital citizenship and social media, and begin to make small changes in their behaviour. Additionally, it was to have them go home and have conversations with their parents around Digital Citizenship and their use of Social Media. To encourage parents to be part of the process, I co-presented with our Literacy Coach to parents on Literacy in a Digital Age to raise awareness with the parents about the importance of literacy and the impacts of screen time, and to send parent home with conversation starters.

The intended outcome in introducing these lessons and this program would be that over time we would have more conscientious students and parents when it came to Digital Citizenship and Social Media. Furthermore, this would be part of helping to create a school where these learnings and expectations were part of ISC culture.

Photo by Faye Cornish on Unsplash

Reflections on Project

Unfortunately, I did not reach my goal. The goal from the outset was to get through all six lessons for grades 3-5. Unfortunately, we only were able to get through half of the lessons before we went virtual and left campus. My original plan was to take the last three lessons and begin filming parts of them, along with student interviews now that the students were comfortable with me in the classroom. On the bright side, we got through 3 of the lessons, and I have good relationships built with the teachers and students; a good jumping off point for next year.

The project would have never have launched without the buy in from grades 3-5 teachers. Time is always precious in an elementary classroom, so these teachers not only had to see value in what was being proposed, but also allow their spaces to be opened up, so I could co-teach alongside them. I initiated the conversation by reaching out to grade level teams and asking to join one of their meetings. There was no resistance from any of the teams, which is great. Additionally, as mentioned above, I met with the middle school advisory team, and brought the grades 6-8 lessons to them, these were also incorporated into their program this year.

For me this certification has not caused me to move away from traditional approaches, but reinforced my belief and resolve to do so. I would consider myself a non-traditional educator on many fronts; I don't believe in testing, I believe in authentic, student driven assessment, I think feedback is more important than scores, and I believe in standards referenced grading. COETAIL has provided many opportunities to put this into practice, and to open up a dialogue with other educators around this belief.

Next year I would like to collaborate with the teachers and develop a pre-assessment for the classes prior to starting the official lessons from Common Sense Media. This of course would be to assess where the students are, but also to help me to begin to build a relationship with the students. Additionally, I would add in a reflection tool at the end of every lesson. This would be to better assess the learning that took place, and where gaps might exist. Then allow us to re-teach and reinforce key concepts.

Some of the lessons have extension activities for home, but I think more targeted follow up after each lesson with our families would be a great extension activity. As I mentioned earlier, the Literacy Coach and I did present to parents, but that only reaches those parents who chose to attend at the school. By sending home extension activities or conversation starters for the home, and putting these in our LMS, the reach would be further, and hopefully keep the conversation and learning going at home.

Photo by Tomasz Frankowski on Unsplash

Future Thinking

Our school has not formally adopted the ISTE standards, as a Leadership Team, this was our year to "play with them", so to speak. With so many grades in ES and MS using these lessons, and they being tied to the ISTE standards it makes sense for us to move forward with them. Additionally, we have recently hired our first Curriculum Coordinator for ISC, which is highly exciting, and she is on board with these standards as well. We have spoken about ISTE certification too, which will be powerful for our school.

Another way that my knowledge will continue to thrive will be with mentorship with our Design and Tech Integrationist, as well as out IT Team. Models such as TPACK and SAMR have been shared with our integrationist and she is now using them to help her frame lessons/units. As we are a small school, from time to time I utilize our IT team for trainings with staff. Teaching them about design principles has helped immensely in how they design and deliver material. Additionally, two of the concepts from Deep Learning conversations that were impactful were PBL and Design Thinking. Both of these are incorporated into how units are planned at our school.

For me the greatest learnings to come out of this experience was the growth of my Professional Learning Network and the realization that there is never an end point in the journey. The ideas, concepts, Twitter chats, materials, and camaraderie to come out of this will help me continue to grow, and to challenge what I do.

in Course 5.

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Well...what a year it has been. I mean that in the 2020 sense, and in the just over a year of being a part of the COETAIL course.

Since starting COETAIL I've made cheese, learned how to use new tools, confronted my discomfort with filming and recording myself, and reflected on my practices, teaching, and integration of technology. It hasn't been easy, and at times I have to admit that COETAIL took the back seat on the loooong bus of priorities that I had on my plate, but here I am at the end of it all.

2020 started off rough and only got rougher as the world spiralled into a global pandemic. As a result, my final project doesn't look quite the way I had anticipated. But that's OK. If there is one thing I have learned being a teacher, it's that things never go as planned, and part of the excitement is going with the flow and taking what life (or the kids) throw at you.

My original plan for my final project had been a rethink of the structure of our math teaching and learning in my Grade 4 Community. You can read a bit about it here in my last Course 4 post. By March, I had only made limited progress in planning it when we found out that our school would be closed due to COVID-19. Fortunately, we were also in the middle of a brand new unit we had redesigned, and the move to online learning only reinforced the plans for effective technology integration and deep learning.

The Unit

Here is my video about the unit in all of its raw glory. You can read about it in finer detail here in the UbD Unit planner.

Redefining Learning In Course 5

I don't think that it would be exaggerating to say that every student in the world has had their learning redefined over the last few months. The very nature of moving learning online redefines it in a way that would not be possible without technology. That being said, we certainly had to redefine our thinking around this unit to make it work.

The in-class collaboration and media creation that we had planned was the biggest challenge. In the classroom, it is easy to support group work and ensure that students are moving forward together with shared understanding. Trying to facilitate this work online was a challenge, as students missed calls, disappeared for days at a time, and struggled to organize and share their thoughts, ideas and work with each other. The collaborative tools in Google that we enjoy using in the classroom became indispensable as our students sheltered in place. While it was a struggle to coach students through the process remotely, the alternative was for students to work independently, which would have been a significant loss to the unit.

Students created collaborative videos using green screens

What Did I Learn?

I have trouble differentiating the learning that I have had coming out of the closure of schools from the learning that I would take away from this unit. The reality is that the situation has really been defined by necessity, and we have all spent the last months in a reactive mode, trying to solve problems and fill needs as they have arisen.

So what did I learn from this unit and this experience? I learned that we are capable of making incredible changes in education on the fly in huge part because of the deep integration of technology. I learned that students are incredibly resilient, and enjoy the learning process just as much if not more when they can very clearly see that we are all learning and struggling together. I learned that it is ok to try things and fail (like some of our early attempts at video lessons). I learned that with a strong idea and motivation, things will work out even if all the plans fall through, and it's when the plans fall through that we do the best learning ourselves.

One of the biggest practical lessons or tools that I have taken away is the power of a short explanation video. You can try to type out answers to students' questions, or explanations of how to use tools, but short and to the point video with a voiced over explanation will help more students, be more accessible, and probably save you time in the long run. I hope to use these more in the future. This experience has inspired me to look more into a semi-flipped learning environment, where students have the tools and resources to drive their own learning. This would hopefully give me the opportunity to provide more tailored support for those who need it.

Final COETAIL Thoughts

The COETAIL experience hasn't turned out quite the way I had envisioned, with life, health and a global pandemic getting in the way, but I guess we take what the world throws at us. I have emerged on the other side with new connections, a greater appreciation for deep learning, and a slew of new tools and ideas to bring to my practice. In the process I have gained a better appreciation for online learning, both as PD and in practice in schools, that will help to guide my practice for years to come.

Thanks to everyone who was a part of Online 11, I enjoyed learning with and from you!

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Well...what a year it has been. I mean that in the 2020 sense, and in the just over a year of being a part of the COETAIL course. Since starting COETAIL I've made cheese, learned how to use new tools, confronted my discomfort with filming and recording myself, and reflected on my practices, teaching, and integration of technology.

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Intro

Welcome to my final project for COETAIL! It feels amazing to be here. In this post, I will be sharing a few components to the teaching and learning that has been taking place in my classroom.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I had to make sudden changes to my plan for my final project. If you were watching my earlier posts that discussed other plans, it might be a surprise to you that in this unit I am looking at something entirely different. With that in mind, let's look at the outline of this unit.

I'm working at Chadwick International School in Songdo, South Korea. The school is situated West of Seoul in a province called Incheon which by the sea. I work in the middle and the upper school as a Design teacher. In today's material, we will be looking at a 7th grade unit that I ran with my department called "Sustainable Design".

CI campus; photo by me!

The primary goal for this unit was to familiarize the kids with the MYP design process. In previous years, Chadwick had an integrated Design approach; this was the first year that Design was a stand-alone course. Which is why our primary learning objective was: students "enjoy the design process, develop an appreciation of its elegance and power."

The MYP Design Cycle; Image courtesy of IBO.org

Additional goals for this unit were to explore the concept of Community, and how communication strategies can help us to empathize and gain better understanding of one another's perspective and problem.

Our guiding inquiring questions included:

How might we creatively utilize recycled materials to help us solve our community's problems?

Are people interconnected? How might individual problems impact others in our school community?

Is the client's perspective of the resources important?

The way we introduced our unit was to have the kids notice the problem of organization that we all face and how disorganization might look different for each of us. To do so, we had our students walk around the campus and look in locations like our lockers, our backpacks, our lounges, and other shared spaces. Students brought back evidence of these issues and shared out. This was an opportunity to make learning feel authentic to the students.

Image from our exemplar of the problem we were trying to solve; photo by Kim Hogg

To prepare students to drive their own learning, we gave them all the entire Design Folder at once. Students were allowed to be self-paced, to determine their own problems, and to collaborate with a peer as a Designer who would in turn have the freedom to decide upon a solution. There was a considerable amount of latitude in this unit; the only constraints come down to the process and minimum pacing. That being said, those two elements also provided quite a bit of freedom as well.

SAMR

One of my favorite ways of visualizing SAMR. Image published on thetechtrainer.squarespace.com

SAMR. the Design Folder, which was a central repository of evidence of learning, was a collection of technology that redefined the learning experience.

One of the key ways was that I was able to monitor students remotely. This was a very fortunate when COVID-19 campus closures occurred because students were suddenly thrust into an unknown learning situation from home. Using tools like Classwork Zoom, the shared Google Classroom rubric, and originality reports, I was still able to monitor my students and quickly notice those who were falling behind. These tools helped to generate data and reports that I likely would not have noticed without the use of technology.

Second, I was able to launch a blended experience for my students by streaming, creating videos, and using conference calls and breakout rooms with Zoom. It was something I had been wanted to start doing, but was before the COVID-19 campus closures, I hadn't had the time or the necessity. This was an opportunity to make a learning experience that was both asynchronous for the viewing of material and synchronous for the discussion of work and conferencing with individual kids. Finally, feedback was always documented so that kids and parents could always return to it. Verbal feedback does have its place, but now I was only giving written/screencasted feedback. Now students had a chance to remember everything because it was all documented. This lead to an incredible amount of growth in students executive functioning in regards to self-management.

Collaboration

Image made on Canva.com + Bitmoji

Collaboration was a something that I feel so fortunate to have initiated with my colleague, Kim. She and I decided just before campus closure that we wanted to start our new unit with some sort of hyperdoc that was an all-in-one place for kids to get resources, instructions, and to display their work in a portfolio format that was highly visual. We worked for 3 days straight on creating templates that were color coded, easy to follow, and MYP aligned. It was no small feat.

After completing the templates, we were immediately thrust into online learning from COVID-19. We decided that since we had written the Design Folders together, we would also teach together. This is another SAMR point in a way in that she and I had to teach at school, in person, on opposite ends of the school. It was like we were miles apart! But thanks to this online learning experience, we were suddenly able to co-teach. She has so many strengths that directly benefitted my students. So I am incredibly grateful for the fact that we were able to collaborate so closely during this challenging time.

Video

Here is my video that outlines some of the great things that we did together as well as implementation of COETAIL's concepts in my practice.

Reflection

In terms of what I would change for next time, there are minor things that popped up that would have made learning easier for kids like formatting and wording. Kim and I kept a change log and a to-do list and will roll out a version 2.0 next year.

This unit has been so strong, that I wouldn't necessarily say that I would change anything in particular. Instead, what I would do differently is implement this in my other units instead. This unit was so well structured, easy to follow, and fun for the kids, Kim and I have been reflecting on this unit and asking, "how might we start next year with this same level of momentum, interest, and autonomy?"

Conclusion

Photo by Jan Tinneberg on Unsplash

COETAIL has impacted my practice in the realm of copyright and intellectual property as well as visual communication. I think those two points are things that all 21st Century educators should be aware of. These two things have been the biggest points that I have mentioned continuously with my colleagues.

To conclude, I think it is essential for me to continue learning; in the 21st Century, it's essential to keep learning, talking to a diverse group of people., and staying connected. It's a fallacy to believe that we have mastered anything and can then rest on our laurels. I think this was a notion that I already knew, but this experience with COETAIL further solidified it in my mind. Thank you.

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Welcome to my final project for COETAIL! It feels amazing to be here. In this post, I will be sharing a few components to the teaching and learning that has been taking place in my classroom. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I had to make sudden changes to my plan for my final project.

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Photo by Andrea Leopardi on Unsplash

At the beginning of this semester I was on track to create a final project for COETAIL relating to my teaching of a redefined empowered use agreement for YIS. However, COVID-19 had different plans. As I scrambled to adjust my COETAIL final project to better adapt for distance learning, I sat down to think about how my teaching has changed as a result of learning from home. Coaching was looking different and I felt one step away from the students - more so than my 'normal' coaching. Thankfully, one aspect of my role was staying the same - I was still set to work with a group of students in the PYPx that aimed to express their inquiries using computational thinking or digital design.

I ran with it and was happy I did.

I didn't completely reconstruct the PYPx unit of inquiry - I'll leave that up to the grade 5 teachers (who are awesome, I might add), but I did completely reconstruct how I worked with my expression group. This learning engagement spanned 4 weeks and consisted of bi-weekly Zoom synchronous sessions along with a-synchronous learning facilitated through a Padlet we created.

Goals

I developed a few different goals for the students and for myself for this project.

1. Support students' specific goals. This is the PYPx where agency plays a big role, so I needed to be flexible and work within the goals that they set.

2. Build a solid communication platform that worked well in the distance learning environment.

3. Support students to culminate their PYP learning

4. Focus on purpose and audience

Moving towards redefinition

Image by DasMonster on Pixabay

I was very specific in this unit to get away from the idea of just using the technology because we are passionate about it. Primarily, I'm talking about Minecraft. I love Minecraft and our students love Minecraft, but I didn't want to see a Minecraft project just because it was something that the students thought was fun. I wanted to see Minecraft because it's creative and it gives a grade five student the ability to create and present something that might have otherwise been challenging without an architecture degree.

A also worked with a student who created an entire app prototype (check out proto.io). Her goal was to create a Buzzfeed-like survey that gauged how eco-friendly you were and provided recommendations at the end. What impressed me the most was how she worked with variables within her prototype so that her audience was given a specific paragraph and image based on their input in the survey - I wanted to share it with all my friends on Facebook.

The tech

Copyright Adobe Premiere Pro

I'm far from an expert in film making and I really enjoyed stretching my abilities to create this video. I'm very familiar with iMovie, but I really wanted to work with Premiere Pro on this project. I wanted to have the flexibility that Premiere Pro offered (at the cost of a much steeper learning curve). Thankfully, YouTube tutorials can get you through almost any challenge these days.

For music, titles, the opener and a small piece of stock footage I used AudioJungle and Videohive. These two sites, part of the larger Envato Market, sell various royalty free files for uses in a variety of media projects. I appreciate the professional look while ensuring everything is licensed correctly.

Hopefully this is just the start of my productions in Premiere Pro.

My video

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Redeveloping technology expression in the PYPx

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At the beginning of this semester I was on track to create a final project for COETAIL relating to my teaching of a redefined empowered use agreement for YIS. However, COVID-19 had different plans.

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Photo by Aalok Atreya on Unsplash

A picture is worth a thousand words
Anonymous

Sometimes, a powerful picture can read us. When I saw this photo today, I saw myself in between two worlds, before and after COETAIL. You can be surprised to hear that but it's the way I see myself.

Perhaps, it's important to know that I'm a school librarian working in IBO schools for the last 14 years. Before, I was a system librarian for around 14 years at my university. I use to see myself in between technology and librarianship, not always finding my place. When I shifted to school libraries and international education, my doubts increased as I found myself in between pedagogy - school librarianship - technology.

My COETAIL journey made me ask myself many questions about my role at the school, my career as an educator, and my future. This photo at the peak of the mountain exactly reflects how I see myself now. I'm reaching the end of the journey with the ability to reflect on my experience to face a new beginning confident and balanced.

My personal project:

When I was brainstorming about my final project, I wanted to improve a previous activity. But, when I shared it with the Head of Primary Division, he suggested me to do it with the PYP exhibition.

Big challenge! The exhibition is the final extended in-depth collaborative inquiry project of PYP students. I started my planning focus on ISTE standards for students but, as I was going on the first weeks of the projects, I added ISTE standards for coaches and leaders.

Find here my planner and my slide deck

What the video is not showing:

The video is not showing my experience as a leader and a coach. Here you will find my challenges and satisfactions on those roles

a. As a leader

ISTE 1a Ensure all students have skilled teachers who actively use technology to meet student learning needs.

ISTE 1d Cultivate responsible online behavior, including the safe, ethical, and legal use of technology.

ISTE 3a Empower educators to exercise professional agency, build teacher leadership skills, and pursue personalized professional learning.

ISTE 3c Inspire a culture of innovation and collaboration that allows the time and space to explore and experiment with digital tools.

I requested the administration of the school to allow us to use Google Suite for Education, Common Sense curriculum for Digital Citizenship, and any other tool that will support online collaborative learning. It was an opportunity to challenge traditional practices and biases about technology in the class.

Training sessions with teachers were planned to improve their skills and to empower their own agency as educators. An empowered educator will help students find their voice.

We covered the following topics:

The importance of Twitter as a learning space

When we had the session, we were only two (Pyp coordinator and me) out of 9. Now, there are seven of us actively sharing on Twitter. They are discovering and beginning a new learning experience.

During the exhibition, we posted the link of three students' surveys and got 292 responses.

Google G Suite for Education

Teachers were introduced to different Apps. They were familiar with Drive, Google docs, sheets, and slides. We put emphasis on Google classroom, Hangouts, and Site.

Teachers chose Hangout as the official channel of communication between the members of each group. Each mentor created their groups and was part of the discussions.

I had training sessions with PYPx to work on Google classroom and the PYPX site.

I had a training session about CARP design for K-6 teachers as it can be applied by teachers and students across the Primary Division.

PYP team were also guided on how to use the Google Site. I worked on the general outline and handover it to the mentors. They were in charged to coordinate with their students the content of their site. You can visit it here:

b. As a coach:

ISTE 1a Create a shared vision and culture for using technology to learn and accelerate transformation through the coaching process.

ISTE 3a Establish trusting and respectful coaching relationships that encourage educators to explore new instructional strategies.

As we started working for the PYP exhibition, I could notice some reluctancy and doubts from some teachers. It's important to mention that they used to see technology from the lenses of the 'use of a tool' and not from the lenses of 'an accelerator of deep learning'

I invited them to reflect on their expectation on the PYPx, before the beginning of their journey, on Flipgrid.

Follow the QR code to discover their expectations:

The purpose of the activity was beyond their expectations. I wanted them to realize how much preparation, rehearsal, and deep reflection is required just to answer a question. As it was a real challenge for some teachers, I took the Edurolearning course: Coaching essentials, and listened to the podcast " Coaching better' " to improve my communication skills with teachers.

I divided them into 3 groups (according to their familiarity with technology). I focused on the group less familiar with it. It took me a month of a group and one-to-one meetings to do the Flipgrid activity. The key to success was making them feel comfortable, understand that they were not alone, we were together learning. As an example, I shared my experience with my Cohort 11 in COETAIL. Most of them are IT integrators but we learned, collaborated respectfully, and supported each other on our journey. After this challenge, everything started to run smoothly. And, I discovered myself as a designer of learning experiences.

I created two tutorials on Secreecastify to guide teachers using Flipgrid. All of the used it as an assessment tool for their LOI, or as place to reflect on their readings or/ any other type of information with their students. Also, I created a collection on Wakelet: PYPx with a selection of readings to show teachers how to use the tool.

Under the pressure of the PYP exhibition is challenging to introduce so many new things. I introduced them to the technology integration framework SAMR. I wanted to create awareness about how through this level of Modification and Redefinition, we can transform the learning experience.

As conclusion, I can say that I was planting seeds. I have developed that curiosity on teachers to analyze their practices, change their approach to technology, go beyond the traditional lenses, and building collaborative relationships.

Yes! What you will find on my video?

I present the work done with the students in which they assume different roles as researchers, principled human beings, digital citizens, designers, and guest speakers. Many activities happened simultaneously, and I was constantly shifting my 'teacher' hat to the 'coach' hat.
A final thought
If something has changed my professional life in recent times it has been COETAIL. As a learner, learning is an endless journey. Writing the blog made me reflect on my practices, analyze other innovative perspectives, and learn new pedagogical theories. And that I am the one in charge of my professional growth. Nobody else.

Furthermore, when I became familiar with the ISTE standards, I incorporated them into my planning. My classes took a '180-degree turn' and were also a reason to improve the level of collaboration with the teachers.

In my opinion, empowering teachers empowers students. I feel very proud of the new practices that many of the mentors adapted. They are exploring technology tools through different lenses.

To conclude the PYPx, I requested all the mentors to reflect on the exhibition. You can find their thoughts here

The exhibition was a success in our community. Students were able to show a deep understanding of their themes in front of their parents, other PYP schools in the city, and 5 PYP schools in different countries (through Skype and Google Meet). They became empowered and confident learners.

Unfortunately, many things were pending since the school closed unexpectedly due to COVID-19. And, we had to migrate to remote learning from one moment to another.

Due to the success of the exhibition, the school administration decided to adopt Google as the official platform for online teaching. And, I was officially supporting teachers on this emergency remote learning. In the first 2 months, I spent several hours, even Sundays guiding teachers and solving their queries. I wanted them to feel comfortable and confident. We explored together new options to enhance the learning experience of the students, supporting as well the emotional side.

One of the greatest satisfactions has been to see the library as an agent of innovation in the school. I hope more good changes will come soon.

I would like to show my gratitude to my Cohort 11 for their support and helpful feedback. I also see my future as a Tech-coach, it's an area that I enjoy so let's see. But I will definitely keep on blogging.

See you soon!

by Liliana Bandini

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Photo by Aalok Atreya on Unsplash A picture is worth a thousand words Anonymous Sometimes, a powerful picture can read us. When I saw this photo today, I saw myself in between two worlds, before and after COETAIL. You can be surprised to hear that but it's the way I see myself.

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I didn't think that I would find a classroom to teach in within Seminole County, Florida. After many visits to the Seminole County Board of Education and emails sent to charter and private schools, I ended up at a charter middle school, Galileo School for Gifted Learning, Sanford, Florida.

I planned and taught a 8th grade US History class while the US History teacher remained the host. The unit focus was on 'American Wars and the Just War Theory' after the Independence War 1775-1783.

Unit Plan - Just War Theory and American Wars - Design Theory Unit

I designed and taught a Design Theory unit for US History for 8th grade that I built from bottom up. I haven't taught a design unit and I wanted a challenge.

Previously, I had taught a unit on the Just War Theory with a focus on any war (as chosen by students) but this time the focus was on conflicts chosen by students that involved the US.

LAUNCH Design Cycle and UBD

LAUNCH Design cycle by John Spencer and AJ Juliani

I followed the above model of the LAUNCH Design Cycle by John Spencer and AJ Juliani.

Look, Listen and Learn - Stage 1

As mentioned in the UBD plan I have documented the steps that I took for Look, Listen and Learn. For awakening empathy and giving initial information I relied heavily on Wakelet - War in Pictures. One of the most powerful images of conflict on the Wakelet page were:

Omar Daqneesh, 5 years old. Dug from Aleppo, Syria after an airstrike in 2016. The Guardian

During teaching I have seen students are most responsive to social injustice images or stories of children because they can empathize with them. They recognize that they do not have a voice in a conflict probably just like the boy in this picture.

After the first Wakelet - War in Pictures students used an Answer Garden to share what they had seen so far.

The words most often associated with images from the 1st Wakelet page were: Sadness, Death, Tanks, guns, dead people, fighting, suffering, warfare, soldiers, war, and pain.

Similarly, in the second Wakelet- War in Video page I shared videos, sample Mindmeister and Popplet mindmaps and an audio poem by the witness poet, Carolyn Forche. The most powerful video, again based on children is shown below:

I don't think any discussion about 'Just Wars' and the costs of wars is complete without this video which shows the ones who are affected most; Children

As part of the Look, Listen and Learn step students also watched the movie:

This movie is about acceptance, tolerance, and love to conquer our fears and differences. It transcends the color of our skin, our abilities, religion, culture and beliefs. It resonated very strongly with the 8th graders.

Preemptive Love was started by an American family living in Iraq during the Gulf War. As they helped their Iraqi neighbors they grew into a NGO/Donor group that works in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and other war fronts. They raise money, promote small businesses on a self help basis.

Asking Tons of Questions - Stage 2

After seeing, watching and hearing (audio poem) the students were ready for Stage 2 of the LAUNCH Design cycle. For sking tons of questions, students used Popplet and Mindmeister mind maps (samples shown later) for brainstorming their own questions about conflicts in general or specifically.

Understanding the Problem - Stage 3

I collected all student questions, brainstormed in Popplet and Mindmeister mindmaps to the Padlet Class Questions about War below.

All student questions (except repeats) gathered from Popplet and Mindmeister into 4 categories

I divided their questions into 4 categories: Facts, Causes of War/Conflict, Effects of War/Conflict and Perspective (Different Point of View). In their extended research project student would pick at least 3 questions from each column.

We also covered the 'Just War Theory' to give students a lens to look at their research conflicts. They would use the three parts of the Just War Theory; Jus Ad Bellum (Before War), Jus in Bello (During War), and Jus post Bellum (After War) for focusing their research for the conflict. Within each part of Just War Theory they would support whether the conflict was 'just' or not according to the theory and provide evidence to back up their position. This is an important part of critical thinking, analyzing and transferring previous learning (Just War Theory) to a new situation (conflict they are researching).

Navigating Ideas - Stage 4

For Navigating Ideas students conducted independent extended research. They first did a mini-research by answering the 5 W's (What, When, Where, Why and Who) for 5 conflicts of their interest from the table Choice of War to research. This helped narrow down the conflict they were most interested in as they could only choose ONE conflict out of the list of 5 to do their extended research project in.

After choosing their Extended Research Project they used the Extended Project Assignment sheet for looking at the conflict from the Just War Theory lens and their own questions (Padlet on Class Questions about War). They had an Extended Project Rubric Link, a Rubric for Extended Research (War/Conflict) Slideshow, and a Rubric for Oral Presentation.

The Slideshow rubric incorporated concepts of CARP (Contrast, Alignment, Repetition and Proximity) by Keri Lee Beasley that was taught to students. They got to practice it in their slideshows to make more effective presentations. I made a sample slideshow to incorporate CARP principles.

During virtual school from March 30 students looked at different perspectives of the Vietnam War and rationalized whether the Vietnam war was a 'Just War' or not a 'Just War'. Their virtual lessons for a whole week (last week of unit) were curated daily on Wakelet with Loom audio instructions. They are included as Resources in the UBD.

Creating a Prototype - Stage 5

Then they reated a Prototype of the kind of world they want where a 'Just War' is possible or only peace is the only solution. In this case this is the Padlet that students put down their 5 rules for a 'Just War' or 5 rules for peace if they believe that there is no such thing as a 'Just War'.

This is the Padlet 'Just War or No War' i.e. the end product that shows the visual collaboration of students to come up with their 5 rules for a 'Just War Theory' and 5 rules for Peacemaking:

Modification Stage - End Product: Representing what 5 Rules students would have for a 'Just War' or 5 Rules for Peacemaking

Highlight and Solve - Stage 6

The students did not get to H ighlight and Solve (last stage of LAUNCH Design Cycle) as it was already Spring Break and then it was virtual school.

My previous 8th grade Humanities classes at the Dhahran Elementary Middle School in Saudi Arabia had successfully created end products to reflect and link to their learning. Most importantly, students are able to relate to their work and remember their work for a very long time.

Transformation and Education Model

SAMR Model

We got to the Modification stage within the SAMR Model as students used technology to redesign their tasks while they posted their own 5 rules for a 'Just War' or 'Peace' collaboratively in Padlet 'Just War or No War'. but we did not get to discuss them or polish them.

I wanted to take the activity outside the classroom by having students make something that reflected their views and link it to their rules. We would have invited other Middle Class students and an outside audience (another 1.5 weeks). This would have taken the unit into the Redefinition stage where students would have designed a product (digital or physical) to showcase their learning and support their point of view on the Padlet 'Just War or No War'.

Challenge of Reaching Redefinition Level on SAMR Model

I lost three weeks of school (1 week Spring Fling with no academic classes and 1 week extended Spring Break). When school restarted on March 30 it was distance learning (virtual school) so I had to modify the unit.

To achieve the Redefinition goal on the SAMR model during virtual school we could have ended with a digital storytelling assignment. However, most students' lacked the digital literacy to make the digital story on their own. Also, if the students got stuck they couldn't directly interact with me i.e. no email messages as I was a Guest Teacher.

To counter this, I could have made tutorial videos for the students for the host teacher to post on Google Classroom. However, my host teacher did not have more class time to allot to this unit as he had district deadlines to meet.

ISTE Standards For Educators:

Learner:

I was able to apply pedagogical goals for the 8th graders by using technology to augment the learning, making it more engaging and meaningful. My main focus was to make the students think critically, become researchers, share and reflect on their thinking. In this regard, I introduced Wakelet, Flipgrid, Padlet, Popplet and Mindmeister.

I made an effort to keep up with the research to improve student learning outcomes by being active on twitter and learning how to use new apps.

I recognize that I will always be learning and have taken part in Webinars eg. Unique Online Assessment Opportunities hosted by Ditch that Textbook and tutorials (Hypotheses, Explain Everything, Loom etc.) to learn more about educational apps that are relevant to my subject area (Social Studies and English Language Arts).

Leader:

I have shared and encouraged my host teacher at Galileo School for Gifted Learning to use all the educational tools that I have used during the unit. I also tried to model all the apps that I used with the students by modeling ( Mindmeister sample) or tutorials ( Popplet Tutorial). I also tried to model Popplet but abandoned it out of editing frustrations. The Popplet was my example of showing failure to the students! It also gave them a choice to either use Popplet or Mindmeister for brainstorming.

Similarly, I made a sample slide show to model CARP for the students as they started work on their slideshows.

Citizen

For students in 8th grade at Galileo Gifted School it was their first experience using Padlet and Flipgrid and experiencing their classroom as a community through the posts on Padlet. They were able to comment on and discuss each others comments which was useful to start a conversation about the costs of war as shown by the Padlet: Wars. This was done after the Wakelet pages (Look, Listen, and Learn) and the documentary Love Anyway by Preemptive Love.

After reading everyone's comments the two students comments on the Padlet Wars got a lot of heated discussion in class.

It was my first time observing them discussing each other's views. Padlet had given the class a chance to 'hear' each other and a chance to agree and disagree with each other. As did Flipgrid in response to Love Anyway by Preemptive Love documentary questions on what begins war and what is peacemaking.

Collaborator

In addition, tools such as Mindmeister and Popplet let them collaborate in partnerships to brainstorm questions for their independent research which was powerful. They were able to visualize their questions and build on that. They also knew that their questions were valued as they were going to use them for their Extended Research Project.

Mindmeister Map Sample Questions about War from Jacob, Daniel and Justin

As mentioned earlier Padlet allowed the students to collaborate, share views and start a discussion. In addition, the Answer Garden - What do you see and feel after the images on Wakelet? used at the beginning of the unit was an enriching activity and a window into their thoughts.

Designer

I used Keri Lee Beasly's Design Secrets Revealed CARP (Contrast, Alignment, Repetition and Proximity) principles to model how to make more effective presentations for the students' independent research. I modeled with a Sample slide show as Model showing what not to do and what to do using techniques shown by Kerri Lee Beasely in her Apple Book.

I was not as successful in introducing CARP as the school does not use MACs or IOS based systems. In addition, many students did not have access to either IPads or IPhones at home. Furthermore, there is too much absenteeism because on the day CARP was introduced only 9 out of 22 students were present.

Design Secrets Revealed is a book that would be excellent as a reference resource for students to be used as needed. Except that as an Apple Book it can not be used as ready reference to transform their slide shows.

Facilitator

I facilitated critical thinking as students wrote their questions after viewing the images on Wakelet - War in Pictures, Wakelet- War in Video, and watching the documentary 'Love Anyway'. By asking their own questions ( Padlet on Class Questions on War) students nurtured creativity and connections.

They also used new apps such as Popplet (Student Sample) and Mindmeister (Student Sample). The students thought critically, shared their ideas and worked collaboratively. As students they took ownership of their learning by forming their own questions to pursue their learning.

Student Sample Popplet : Brainstorming Questions about War

I also tried to introduce them to CARP principles and using images in their slideshows. I included the use of Unsplash images, creative commons, the noun project etc. as part of their slideshow rubric. However, there are students like ( Sample #1) Slideshow of the Extended Research Project who did not really incorporate elements of CARP. They also have an incomplete understanding of the 'Just War Theory'.

On a positive note, there is Sample 2 Slideshow of the Extended Research Project which shows a more complete understanding of the Just War Theory and better research. There are more elements of CARP such as alignment (text and pictures), contrast (black and white) and proximity (pictures close to writing) but the repetition is not carried out throughout the slide show.

The lack of success of introducing CARP was probably due to student absenteeism and my late preparation of a Sample slide show as Model to display the CARP principles that they could emulate.

Analyst

As a guest teacher I only got an idea of the competencies of the students after all the assignments were completed. I have shared my feedback with the teacher who is teaching them for the rest of the year.

I did collect data on the apps that were used during the unit to determine which ones the students liked the most and would be likely to use again. As can be seen from the End of Unit Reflection Data the majority of students liked using Flipgrid and Padlet about 30% each. This was followed by Wakelet at 25% and then Popplet at 15%.

Most students stated that they would use Flipgrid (35%) again the most followed by Padlet (30%), and Popplet at 20% with Wakelet at 15% in the future.

ISTE Standards for Students

Learners were empowered as the Galileo Gifted Middle School 8th Grade students were able to choose (between Popplet and Mindmeister) and explore technologies for brainstorming purposes. This was their first time using these apps. But there was less willingness and initiative to try new technology than expected maybe due to lack of digital exposure.

They also had the freedom to choose a conflict of their interest from a long list of conflicts ( Choice of War to research) starting from the American War of Independence to present day.

I introduced them to Wakelet (part of Extended Project Assignment sheet), Flipgrid ( Reactions to film 'Love Anyways' as part of empathy building, to discuss costs of war and peace building as well as, discussion of Vietnam War being a 'just' or 'unjust' conflict), Padlet (for Visible Thinking Routine of I See, Think and Wonder.

Sample of a Student using Popplet for Brainstorming Questions about War

As Digital Citizens we discussed how all text, images etc. need to be cited. If students are taking direct phrases from the text then it needs to be footnoted with a citation. We also discussed where to find common shared images (Creative Commons, Noun Project and Unsplash) and how they still need to be credited under Copyright and Fair Use laws. This was part of their Extended Project Rubric Link on their chosen conflict.

As Knowledge Constructors the Extended Project Rubric Link evaluated the credibility of sources used. I encouraged students to not just google information from Wikipedia, Ask Jeeves, etc. The above rubric also included using a curating app such as Wakelet for organizing research and making the MLA citations easier. I also encouraged students to use multi media sources for their research as they didn't have to read everything.

As I look back at the unit I don't think the students got a chance to work as Innovative Designers. If we had another 2 weeks in a virtual or physical classroom, the students would have been able to create digital objects or physical products that showed their interests and aptitudes while discussing the 'costs' of war and if a war can be 'just'. They would have defended their products by matching them with the rules for a 'Just War' or 'Peacemaking'. In addition, introducing CARP was not very successful as few students used the CARP principles in their slideshows.

As Creative Communicators students were able to express themselves with their original 5 rules for what makes a 'Just War' or 5 rules for maintaining peace if they believe that no war can be 'just'. They had the option of choosing a 'just war' or no war based on what they learnt in the unit and personal beliefs. They also worked on their slide presentations using the concepts of CARP though not as successfully as I wished (for reasons mentioned under the heading 'ISTE Standards for Educators' , 'Designers'.

The students got a limited opportunity to work as Global Collaborator as they collaborated in class in brainstorming questions about war only after the initial empathy building and introduction to war in the Design Launch phase sk a Ton of Questions. However, if we had been able to extend the project and the schools had not closed down then the 8th grade students would have invited other 8th graders and middle schoolers to their classroom to exhibit their final products. There would also have been an exhibition open to parents and others. The final products could be digital or physical and would reflect student opinion of a 'Just War' or No War which they would have to explain. This would have fitted further into the role of a Global Collaborator.

Class Collaboration on Questions About War Generated on Popplet and Mindmeister used for the Extended Research. Refer to Extended Project Rubric Link.

Student Learning Goals for this Unit

Reflection on Goals and Challenges Faced

Reaching Goals

Photo by ÁLVARO MENDOZA on Unsplash

First, I did not reach the goal of making the students understand all the aspects of the Just War Theory. I think they would have better understood it if we held a Scored Discussion or Socratic Discussion based off the Just War Theory reading. This would have strengthened the Just War Theory lens students used during their independent Extended Research Project.

Second, all students were not able to use CARP (Contrast, Alignment, Repetition and Proximity) principles well due to not enough time to practice it.

Third, I was not able to reach the 'Redefinition' step of the SAMR model. A lot of the thinking activities eg. making their own product and defending it in view of their 5 rules for a 'Just War' or no war didn't happen due to Covid-19 virtual school. And students were not able to take their projects outside the classroom and school.

Obstacles

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

I think the greatest obstacle was not knowing the students, their academic skill levels and learning styles. I had about 3 observation classes before planning and starting the unit.

The second challenge was my assessment expectations as they seemed too strict and I had to change them for the students according to my host teacher. For example, the independent extended research project that was supposed to take 3-4 class periods of research ended up taking 5-6 class periods. It was the same case for the question brainstorming activity with Popplet and Mindmeister.

Third, there was a lot of student absenteeism and class time wastage which did not promote efficient working. I did my best by circulating among the class continuously to offer help but I was not totally successful.

My fourth challenge was the lack of student digital literacy as most students did not have a computer, IPad, Iphone or smartphone they could access at home. This is one of the reasons teaching Kerri Lee Beasly's book 'Design Secrets Revealed' was not successful as it was an Apple Book.

Fifth, as a Guest teacher I did not have direct access to students through Google Classroom, Gmail etc. This made it impossible to answer all students questions and I had to rely on my host teacher to answer all queries and give guidelines which didn't always align with my expectations.

Last, I was also not allowed to videotape or interview individual students any students as a Guest teacher for the Project video that I will make.

Personal Growth

Most significantly, COETAIL has propelled me to take more risks in trying out new technology, to take risks when planning my lessons and change course as needed. Technology becomes an indispensable accessory that now goes hand in hand with pedagogy. I find myself deliberating the use of different technological tools to achieve the learning goals of my lessons. Technology is a resource for all the goals that I want my students to achieve.

Final Project Video

American Wars and the Just War Theory - COETAIL 11 Final Project

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Final Project: American Wars and the Just War Theory

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I didn't think that I would find a classroom to teach in within Seminole County, Florida. After many visits to the Seminole County Board of Education and emails sent to charter and private schools, I ended up at a charter middle school, Galileo School for Gifted Learning, Sanford, Florida.

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My Course Five final video

I must say that the two classes in film studies during my B.A. 25 years ago didn't prepare me much for making a movie. When I was taking pictures and media I found that Dutch Angles just didn't add to the emotions I was trying to convey. I was also nervous about creating something longer than 3 minutes as this is the attention span of most people but then once I started putting in media I quickly realized that I had to try and keep it close to ten minutes. This project had a lot of value for me as it really helped me to reflect on a lot of things including:

My big takeaways from COETAIL

How I plan and implement a unit

What I am missing in my teaching of a unit and some steps for improvement

How I am implementing technology

Most importantly, what my students think about the unit.

Course Five put together all of the ideas that I learned since last year and although it is the end of my COETAIL learning, it is also the beginning of constant reflection on how I design and implement technology rich units.

Technology Use

This unit allowed for a lot of technology integration through a variety of levels in the SAMR Model. The Electronic book significantly modified the task as students were able to learn more about design and visual hierarchy when creating the look of their book and then create a product that looked exactly the way they wanted it to through experimentation of a lot of different layouts, fonts, colours and images. Using Padlet as a tool for curating resources modified how the students access information and share resources with each other and also substituted for sticky notes when organizing questions according to the Lines of Inquiry in the unit.

Using Flipgrid also redefined the learning experience by providing the opportunity for students to communicate with a class on the other side of the world. Finally, our online learning journals gave students an opportunity to provide feedback on each other's writing projects that wouldn't have been possible during home learning.

Active learning and classroom management

Students deciding on a definition of waste.

It is always easy to teach and manage students when they are interested in the topic and the material we were researching together, the design of the tasks, and opportunities for learning outside the classroom during service, guest speakers, and field trips really got the students engaged. From the beginning stages of the unit to researching and presenting their work all of the students were very motivated to work on their own, or learn together in small groups with very little teacher intervention. Once given instructions I found that my class quickly got down to learning, making, sorting, or researching. I think that this is because of the agency they had in directing the topics of whole class research through asking questions, choosing when to have some of our lessons by using flexible time tables, and also choosing their topics for individual research.

ISTE Standards

Student constructing an understanding of the world around them.

As this unit was planned originally around ISTE standards I had a clear idea and learning experience that would lead students to success and understanding of the importance of each standard. I usually put the learning goal up in the classroom through the use of a split screen and I used the language of the ISTE standards for students to help them recognize the purpose of the lesson. Some of the experiences that helped the students to achieve the standards were.

1C Giving Feedback: The class used the Ladder of feedback that I created during the student's first draft of their own topic in class, and the final draft online in their learning journals.

3C Curate information: The students used a Padlet to organize their research sources to share with their classmates.

3D build real-world knowledge and 7B investigate real-world issues. Student used researching skills to find out about the world around them and some problems that come with over-consumption, they also researched ways to take action. We also built knowledge together as a class through watching videos and reading articles online together.

7A connect with learners from a different culture: The class connected with a class in Brazil using Flipgrid to find out about their culture, how they implement the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and to learn some geography and questioning skills.

Summative Assessment

Photo by Ousa Chea on Unsplash

Originally I had created a process for students to have agency of choosing how they were to be assessed. We worked through this slideshow to think carefully about what we did, what we learned, and what they thought was important. We also talked about the many ways to express understanding to give students ideas and choices about creative ways to share their understanding. I was doing this lesson in school on a Friday when the email came through that we would be closing the next week due to COVID 19. So the other Grade Three teachers and I had to adapt.

We decided to create something simple that would help students demonstrate some of their learning, and show an understanding of the Central Idea, a Brain Frame. I always love using brain frames or thinking routines for summative assessments as they are a quick snapshot of what the students understand. For this one, we decided on using a relationship brain frame to develop an action plan which they could later reflect on. The students took this assessment as another opportunity to have agency over their actions and we got a great variety of ideas, reasons, and details in a quick and easy to read page. This action plan also tied in very nicely to our Line of Inquiry about responsibility and helped students to reflect on their own choice in relation to the Central Idea.

Acceptable use and academic honesty.

One of the big lessons that we worked on during class, and for online learning was the citation of resources. As the students were making electronic books using book creator this was very easy. As the students are only in Grade 3 they are just learning about academic honesty and realizing the importance of giving credit to other's work. We worked as a school previously with the librarian to develop horizontal alignment of the expectations in each grade and for us, it was to teach using open source image use and creating a rudimentary bibliography with links to sources. Luckily I had taught this during their first go at researching and writing non-fiction writing so most of the students didn't need reminders to complete this page in their book. Some even reminded each other that they had to include their sources in the feedback sessions on Seesaw.

Visual Literacy

In a previous COETAIL project, I taught my students about some digital literacy and we revisited this again through thinking about font, colour, size, and how images look with text. With practice, some of the students are beginning to grasp this, but it is a challenge for many not to just use their favourite colours. Teaching contrast would definitely be the next step for students. For my own practice, I was very conscious about using visual literacy when creating slideshows for my students to guide them through planning and we organized ideas by colour on Padlets. Visual Literacy, although touched upon and used during this unit was not a topic for direct instruction or assessment, but we still had conversations about it, gave feedback about it, and had a session on Seesaw to give each other tips about an image, font, and colour use.

Final Thoughts

Photo by Daniel Cartin on Unsplash

Overall, I think as a class we achieved the desired goals for teaching in this unit. The students were very interested in the topics of waste and how it was processed, how to turn waste into something new like art, and really changed their definition of what waste is throughout the unit. The student action plans exemplified their understanding of their responsibility and how their choices can create more or less waste. The agency of choice in their research projects provided a chance for them to dive deeper into a topic of interest and they all improved at developing questions, taking notes, and presenting their findings. I think it was a very successful unit despite the disruptions at the end when we switched to learning from home.

I enjoyed teaching this unit and implementing all of the ideas that I learned over the past 18 months from COETAIL. This shows the importance of the careful planning course objectives, how to implement technology authentically, and what can happen when you give control and agency to students to help them learn deeply about something they care about so much. Moving forward I think that I have to continue thinking about how I am planning to implement technology authentically, continue to use PLN's as a resource and to share more often, and to always strive to develop learning experiences that allow students to dive deep with the agency over their own learning.

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I must say that the two classes in film studies during my B.A. 25 years ago didn't prepare me much for making a movie. When I was taking pictures and media I found that Dutch Angles just didn't add to the emotions I was trying to convey.

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Back in January, things were looking pretty rosey. I was on track with the COETAIL final project, tech integration was growing at a fantastic rate in the classrooms, we were just about to start our digital citizenship program with grades 6 through 10, and I had done a considerable chunk of the yearbook, which caused me a lot of pain in the previous year; mostly down to the fact that I had only two months to do it in. And then the rug was pulled out from all of us, with what would become a pandemic. Words that we seldom used before, would enter our everyday vocabulary, like quarantine, self isolation, social distancing, and contact tracing. Life, as we knew it, had to go on pause for a while. It was a time of great uncertainty for everyone. I consider myself one of the lucky ones, as neither I or anyone I know get sick from this disease, but my heart goes out to those who have suffered from this affliction, directly through health issues, or financially, through the global shutdowns that quickly followed. It was hard to predict what would happen next, and I often felt powerless and lost, almost like being lost at sea.

Photo by Joel Bengs on Unsplash

Opportunities

What followed for me was three months of virtual learning, some of which I spent in Thailand. And it was pretty much all hands on deck for everyone. I have to admit that back then, after my initial anxiety, I was super excited about the opportunities that virtual learning would bring. And, rather surprisingly, more than a couple of students really came out of their shells and produced quite outstanding work - something I was not quite expecting. However, it is my opinion that there is no absolutely no substitution for being in the same physical space as your students. I remember now, that before we got our students to complete a textual analysis, we created a Flipgrid to check and connect with our students, rather than dive straight into academic work. This was something that we would redo over the coming weeks and months. It also served as a timely reminder for me about the importance of digital citizenship (ISTE 2c) and the significant role it would have.

Empowered Students

In my first blog post way back in course 1, I argued that we should see technology as a platform to project from, and my students did just that. They went from being really shy, and not willing to get onto the camera to upload content to Flipgrid, to using it on a regular basis to share not just their own work, but to give feedback to each other. Furthermore, they have taken part in MS Teams lessons (meetings), interacting with their friends and peers to collaborate and catch up on the latest news. They have communicated openly, without fear of judgement for the Pecha Kucha presentations, each telling their own personal journal over the past three months. I truly believe that our students are seeing the tech that I have introduced in the classroom as a powerful tool, that can be used to stay connected with each other.

Just last Thursday, we had a blended learning (hybrid) lesson, with students working collaboratively in groups both offline and online. You can see from the picture below, that the students are talking to a student who was calling in from Malaysia! They were in a private channel, hosting their own meeting so that the student not in the classroom felt part of the group. It was so exciting to be able to do this, and although it was far from perfect, it was a start in the right direction to making the lesson accessible to those outside the four walls of the classroom.

Blended Learning (Hybrid) in Action

We also used the classtime to watch each others movies, and give feedback both verbally and in Padlet

Peer Feedback in Padlet

A Blessing in Disguise

As I mentioned in my final project video, virtual learning has created a legion of tech integrators the world over. Before, teachers would often invite me into lesson to support, or redesign a unit using technology, but often these would be the same teachers. It is fair to say that some of my colleagues and teaching friends are a little afraid to jump onto the tech integration boat. However, as also mentioned in my first blog post of course 5, they had no choice for virtual learning. They had to, to survive. And in my opinion, they are better off for it.

Just the other day a dear friend and colleague was boasting to me about the 5 screencasts that he had created. Another teacher worked with me, so that she could record a live lesson from her iPad, whilst also simultaneously annotating on it using the Apple pencil, moreover, she was also using it as a document camera. It was epic.

So, thank you COETAIL. Thank you for making me go the extra mile. And thank you to each of my COETAIL 11 colleagues, whom I hope to work with, either virtually or offline, in the future.

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Back in January, things were looking pretty rosey. I was on track with the COETAIL final project, tech integration was growing at a fantastic rate in the classrooms, we were just about to start our digital citizenship program with grades 6 through 10, and I had done a considerable chunk of the yearbook, which caused me a lot of pain in the previous year; mostly down to the fact that I had only two months to do it in.

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My friend and colleague, Alexa Stamatyades. Our extended Covid-19 trip took us to to see the quokkas in Australia because what better way to escape the world than to look at these cute furry creatures?

When I created my original unit plan for this final project in November, little did I realize how much my unit and the world would change between then and now. I was excited to get back into the classroom and to work with one of my favorite colleague and friend, Alexa Stamatayades in her classroom. This is her first year teaching grade 3 and so she was very keen on trying anything and everything I threw her way. Grade 3 is a semi transitional year - they are shedding the cute kid phase and becoming more independent. Even their technology is transitioning - from iPads to laptops and with that, a mountain of basics they will need to learn. It would be their first time learning how to use a MacBook, typing, or even a word processor - but it was also my first time teaching these skills! On top of that, I wanted to introduce them to the different websites or apps that we would be using throughout the unit for my final project. However, my main goal for this final project was to focus on embedding digital citizenship in an authentic way as well as getting students to use technology to collaborate. As they say though, nothing in life ever goes according to plan, but this year was especially true.

During our Teams live lesson

Reaching Redefinition?

I was successful in embedding my digital citizen unit within the unit of inquiry. I had only done digital citizen lessons as stand-alone units. Since students were researching inventors, I used this opportunity to teach them how to cite their sources and include a bibliography. Feedback can be given in almost every subject so we made writing an opportunity for collaboration. We gave students another opportunity when they created their video on Flipgrid. This was also a great way for students to see each other. However, did I think the unit itself reached a redefinition stage? hmmm... maybe not. I didn't feel that the lessons or the unit itself reached the redefinition stage. I think there were points that reached redefinition but overall we reached the modification stage. Even though I didn't feel that my unit was at a redefinition level, I still felt that it was successful. I was able to get students to cite their sources, give a variety of feedback on multiple platforms, and engage in a principled and caring manner. Even though students didn't create a huge digital project, in the end, they were able to conduct themselves with good digital citizenship.

I think we could have reached the redefinition stage if we could have had more time and resources to have students make a digital presentation about their inventor or for them to have a virtual living museum. However, I was aware of how burnt out students and teachers were in regards to using technology that it made sense to scale back. I felt the entire online learning is a redefinition and that was enough. I was especially happy that students were able to listen to the feedback and make their changes accordingly and recognize what they could learn from this feedback.

One student's reflection on feedback

Student reflection on how feedback is helpful

What Did I Learn?

The final project really demonstrated that digital citizenship has a necessary place in the classroom as a lesson for all students. For example, this year we had to move everything online. I think our lessons have helped students understand how the online world is no different than the offline world. I stress to them that we must be principled and caring offline and that means we need to do the same online. This might be the words we use or our tone of voice. Students were aware that teachers were reading their comments too - so they knew that even though this was online, it was still a place of learning and there could be someone who is watching or reading. Students should know that what is public is public and anyone can see. The second thing that I think this project did well was that the unit could be authentically embedded in the classroom. I didn't create new work for the teacher, we used what was already going to be taught and happening to embed the lessons. Of course, there were times when we had to scaffold and be strategic such as choosing simpler lessons when introducing new technology.

<a href="http://<a href="https://www.freepik.com/free-photos-vectors/people">People vector created by studiogstock - www.freepik.comImage by Shuttergstock from www.freepik.com

Honestly, I'm so tired of discussing Covid-19 but it is very hard to ignore the huge impact this has made on my final project, my emotional well-being, and the world. During the Covid-19 displacement and with the start of online learning, I had nothing but an iPad and a phone. At first, I thought this is a great opportunity to really practice what I preach! What a better way to do technology integration than having everything but technology related? Oh boy, was I wrong.

Between getting admin, teachers, students, and parents from grades 1 - 5 and then Nursery to Kindergarten, I had no mental space to even consider where to take my final project. There were things that were out of my control but I couldn't help but feel this huge sense of disappointment that my final project was not what it was going to be what I wanted it to be. I had only a week of working with my student before online learning and it would be two months before I felt ready to start this unit again. Giving myself the time off and finally letting go of this disappointment has given me clarity again. In the grand scheme of things, my final project seems like a small inconvenience in a world of major disappointments.

Our grade 5 students are preparing for the PYPX (PYP exhibition) and one of the things they have decided to focus on this year was the process and not the final product. Being in that meeting and having that discussion with the team made me realize that this is how I felt about my final project for COETAIL. Even though I wasn't able to create the final product that I wanted, I have learned and enjoyed the process. I connected, learned from, and shared knowledge with my students and PLN. So even though I wasn't able to create the project I wanted, I am proud of what I have accomplished.

This was my COETAIL Final Project!

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Opportunities during an Inopportune Time

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When I created my original unit plan for this final project in November, little did I realize how much my unit and the world would change between then and now. I was excited to get back into the classroom and to work with one of my favorite colleague and friend, Alexa Stamatayades in her classroom.