Reflections and notes from Primary Basic AQ by Andrea Kardasz https://padlet.com/andrea_kardasz/qspait0zm69f July 2017 en-us 2017-07-04 19:31:45 UTC 2017-07-26 05:28:16 UTC hello@padlet.com Blog #1 andrea_kardasz https://padlet.com/andrea_kardasz/qspait0zm69f/wish/178052197 What guiding question will guide your work throughout the course? What would you like to learn more about? What would you like to take away from the experience? These inquiry questions will not only guide your work through the course but also inform our practice as instructors.


I believe that lifelong learning is beneficial especially in the teaching profession.  My goal for completing this course is to refresh things I learned in teachers college.  I would also like to acquire new skills and tools for my toolbox which I can implement in the classroom to benefit my students, even if they are not in the primary division.  Another element I would like to become more confident in is assessment.  This is something I struggle with in almost every lesson, what to assess, what to record, what to pay attention to.  I would also like to come away from this course with new ideas from my colleagues in the course; because learning from each other benefits everyone. I would like to take the things I have learned from this course and share it with my Ukrainian colleagues abroad to strengthen the team I work on which will in turn benefit our students.  ]]> 2017-07-04 19:32:55 UTC https://padlet.com/andrea_kardasz/qspait0zm69f/wish/178052197 Blog #2 andrea_kardasz https://padlet.com/andrea_kardasz/qspait0zm69f/wish/178399719 In the course we look at the theoretical primary learner. Think about a primary learner you know or have known. It may be a child, niece or nephew, former student or family friend. What connections can you make to our classroom conversations in module 2, 3 and 4?

Don’t know a primary learner? Do you know a primary teacher that you could chat with for a little while to connect your learning.

I have always been a proponent of learning through play and through a child’s own inquiry and discovery.  In theory I know that it will benefit the child greatly in the end however, theory to practice is where I find many stumbling blocks.  These four models have provided a lot more insight into this world of learning through play and inquiry.  The videos showed first hand how this all works and I really benefited from hearing the discussion after the games and play and knowing which questions to ask the children. At the school in which I am currently teaching our students have a difficult time listening to one another.  It is a skill which is not very commonly taught or fostered as the school system is very frontal teaching, so they quickly learn to tune each other out and promote themselves in answering questions.  It was nice to see that they used a talking stick and had everyone share in their discoveries after their play.  These modules have also confirmed that Piaget and constructivism is really something that I believe in and want to foster in my classroom it's just knowing what are the key moments and when to take an aspect and make it a teachable moment.  There are still many things to ponder however I believe that these modules have at least in my mind opened up the discussion again and allowed me to reflect on my practices and my ideas and reevaluate a few aspects of my teaching.  


]]> 2017-07-10 15:02:03 UTC https://padlet.com/andrea_kardasz/qspait0zm69f/wish/178399719 Reflection andrea_kardasz https://padlet.com/andrea_kardasz/qspait0zm69f/wish/178404442 Looking back at the idea of emotional development and the links to literature which I wrote about in my VIP post  “This year our school has taken a very large interest in mindset (Carol Dweck) and the idea of neuroplasticity.  The emotional development section of the reading really interested me because it is from a very young age that students being to form their sense of self and looking at their emotional development here says a lot about the type of learner they are in that moment in time.  Looking at the characters in their favourite stories is a great idea for many reasons.  Students have chosen that book because they have identified with some aspect of it and most likely can identify the strengths and weaknesses of the character.  This in turn can assist in mediating situations if modeled after the characters in their story.  I have never considered this aspect of characters and the link to the student.”  Where I referred to the link between literature and the emotional development of students whereas they can find links and commonalities between what they are experiencing and what the characters in their favourite books are experiences and learn how to cope/deal/solve issues they have.  It is also as important to understand that  learning is the experience of self discovery and the reflection of one’s own experience.  They can learn from each other and they can learn from these shared experiences.  

]]> 2017-07-10 16:03:55 UTC https://padlet.com/andrea_kardasz/qspait0zm69f/wish/178404442 Primary inquiry assignment andrea_kardasz https://padlet.com/andrea_kardasz/qspait0zm69f/wish/178858814 Last week we had to work on a inquiry based assignment.  I decided to do my inquiry on inquiry itself.  
I also discovered a great new resource called mindomo.com Its a great tool for brainstorming. Have a look at the mind map I created for this assignment.  
https://www.mindomo.com/mindmap/primary-inquiry-0747cf2de55d4042a0438243baa41e5]]> 2017-07-17 13:49:56 UTC https://padlet.com/andrea_kardasz/qspait0zm69f/wish/178858814 Blog post #3 andrea_kardasz https://padlet.com/andrea_kardasz/qspait0zm69f/wish/178967649 Where could you go in the local community to engage or extend student learning? You may choose to link back to our work in module 5 and 6 on Backwards Design and your final assignment.

Teaching in the centre of a capital city allows for a lot of interaction with the local community.  From visiting the bakery and learning to make strudel at Lvivski Plyatski or going to the Lviv chocolate factory and learning all about chocolate to visiting the museum of water or to visiting the experimentarium our city has a lot to offer schools and classrooms in ways of out of classroom educational opportunities.  One of the most interesting educational trips i went on with my class was to the national art gallery in Kyiv, although the tour was done in Ukrainian our guide had my 15 boys cautiously running around the museum on a scavenger hunt looking for different elements in painting and comparing time periods.  It was a great experience for all of us and they had done a great job in relating the knowledge to what we were discussing, and teaching them new things and connecting their knowledge to the real world.  It truly was inspiring.  Sometimes I believe that we as teachers forget to look to the local community and see what it available and work with them to make learning more fun and create a win win environment for students, teachers and the community at large. 
Another great advantage of working in the city with so much history when speaking about historical moments, battles, or looking at different poets and authors, Kyiv has done a wonderful job in preserving these moments in time.  We students Taras Shevchenko and visited a house which he lived in which was filled with artifacts from the time period and from his life which student could explore and discover.  
More challenging is taking the students on these excursions and ensuring that there is an english language component.  I truly was inspired by the idea of the workshops which can be created with local businesses who have a passion for the written and spoken word.  This is something I will try to create in our community so that students are not taught in isolation.  

]]> 2017-07-18 15:37:41 UTC https://padlet.com/andrea_kardasz/qspait0zm69f/wish/178967649 Blog #4 andrea_kardasz https://padlet.com/andrea_kardasz/qspait0zm69f/wish/179421968 Share a literacy or numeracy learning resource that you think could meet the learning needs and interests of the primary learner? Your resource may be a picture book, website, app, video or image. In your post please include both the learning goal you think the resource could address as well as why it would be a good fit for the primary classroom. Again, you can use your 5 day plan learning goal as a focus point.

I think a great resource to use as an assessment piece is Kahoot, it can be catered to any subject, any lesson and any learning goal.  Although this is not an actual learning resource it can be applied as a beginning, middle or end.  Students can even create them themselves and its a great inquiry piece. 
Also a large help is being able to generate worksheets to use at learning stations.  A site like jumpstart is a great place to get inspiration and get ideas. I also believe that now there is no excuse to have dated resources which are horribly photocopied. A little bit of creativity and ingenuity
and old worksheets and activities can become new again. 

As a language resource I like using duolingo especially with ELL because it can be modified for each student. Students can go one their own quests and gain vocabulary which they have yet to attain. ]]> 2017-07-25 16:13:52 UTC https://padlet.com/andrea_kardasz/qspait0zm69f/wish/179421968