Tech team teachers learning in Sweden and Norway . . .

Three of our teachers visited Sweden and Norway to study the developments of IKT “back home”.  Here are the reports on their experiences:

from Olav Reppesgård . . .

Tablet and it’s learning tools

Tuesday and Wednesday this week the norwegian company Arena-IKT invited to a conference regarding tablets in education and what the publishers can offer for the tablets.

The conference took place in Sandefjord, Norway. Various companys and schools with different agendas were present, including a representative for Microsoft Education (Ivar Berg). He talked about how Microsoft see the use of “the cloud”, both possibilities and challenges of today.

The Norwegian school Gjennestad had several representatives talking, informing and inspiring the conference participants. Highlighted were the possibilities and the challenges they had experienced since they went 1:1 on iPads last August. Read more about their work here: http://ipadgjennestad.blogspot.com/

Erling Grønlund from RIKT, a company providing help with implementing tablets, SmartBoards etc in schools,talked about the importance of having a nice learning environment in a school. He meant that the learning environment is the key factor, not the ICT itself.

Brettboka was launched as a new app. This is an app trying to offer textbooks in pdf, as an alternative untill the publishers have developed a platform with the tablet technology integrated.

from Christina Newport and Mikael Sundholm . . .

Learnit 24 organized a network meeting at Väsby Nya Gymnasium, a newly built school in Sweden adapted to one-one teaching. Mikael and I joined interesting lectures and discussions which were focused on pedagogical use of IT in the classroom and implementation discussions.

Maria Ågren, Ulrika Zakrisson & Daniel Johansson (Väsby Nya Gymnasium) spoke about  ”Pedagogical Work where IT supports learning”. We normally hear about projects based on the more theoretical subjects, but this project “I in 2035” included Sports amongst other subjects. The students introduced different training methods by making ICT-presentations including short films showing exercises. Moviemaker was used to plan music for Sports and lessons were filmed to help the teacher evaluate the students.

Kajsa Bernhardsson (Hammarbyskolan grundskola) ”OneNote for the younger years”. Younger students can be coached and assessed by the teacher on an individual basis and learn very quickly how to written and oral work on OneNote. The challenge is to teach the learners to share their learning with others. Questions were asked about how to protect learners who find it difficult to share on an open platform, but there are different ways you can password protect their work if necessary.

Mick Hellgren (Älvboda friskola, grundskola) spoke  ”Answergarden och Polleverywhere” which are two programs which can be used in the classroom for instant feedback. Both programs are already being used at SSB.

Kara Barker & Roger Lister (Viktor Rydberg gymnasium)  introduced ”Forensic Science” as an in-depth Natural Science course. After spending a week with the Detroit police department they came back to their school with lots of knowledge and ideas! Individual work and lab work was mixed during the observation of pig’s hearts deteriorating in different environments as two examples of working methods. Filming was used to follow up on the pig’s heart development! A great example of how to make learning “real” to the students and very inspiring to hear about. Using http://quizstar.4teachers.org/ to evaluate the student’s learning helps the teachers to keep track on whether all students are up to speed during the course. Kara Barker & Roger Lister were named most innovative teachers 2011 by Lärarnas Riksförbund

It was a very inspiring day which ended in discussion groups about how to go forward in the implementation work with IT in the classroom. It is not a matter of if IT has a place in our schools but more how it helps us as teachers or students in our learning process.

SSBs tech team of teachers continue to study how to best utilize IKT in learning . . . school visits, best practice workshops, and individual coaching are some of the methods we are using to ready our school for a 1-to-1 learning environment starting 2012-2103.

3 Online games – definitely worth playing . . .

With so many choices, which games should we encourage our students to play?

My current favorites are:

1 & 2.  World Math Day and World Spelling Day  

This site actually offers three games (World Science Day opens February 14).  Students play against other students around the world in real time.  There are levels so students can choose which level they want to compete on and then move up as they gain confidence.  Although the actual competition is during the first week of March, they love practicing throughout the month of February.  The site offers an excellent review of foundational skills.  It’s all free and fun . . . (SSB students get their logins/passwords from their teachers)

The theme of the site is “Uniting the world in Learning” – last year, we were more than 55 000 schools who participated – Join us!

3.  FreeRice is my next favorite game site – students can play, learn, and help others all at the same time!

FreeRice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Programme.

FreeRice has two goals:

• Provide education to everyone for free.
• Help end world hunger by providing rice to hungry people for free.

Students choose from a variety of subjects.  They answer questions that are generated according to their own level of skill – and then the game actually builds as the student gets better.

The site shows how much rice you earn as you answer questions – it’s instantly rewarding!

What online learning games would you recommend?

100th day at SSB!

Today marked the 100th day of school.  We celebrated in many ways . . .

French classes listed 100 words in French . . .

Classes took a code of letters and numbers to make a word or phrase = 100 points.

Students in classes 1 – 3 brainstormed 100 ways to be a good friend.

Other fun activities included:  drawing a portrait of what you will look like in 100 years,  measuring how far 100 steps will reach, estimating how long 100 seconds really is? 

100 is a special number in math – with a base of 10 it is essential to our math system.  The activities of today help us teach young children about amount, 10 X 10, what the number looks like, and more.

The day ended by announcing the winners of our “estimation contest” . . . which container has 100 units?  A lesson in volume, this activity required all participants to guess which container had exactly 100 units inside. There were prizes and balloons . . .

It was a great day of learning!

Interested in starting a 100 days party at your school?  Here are some great resources:

100 day learning activities

fun games and activities for 100th day

go ahead, start counting!

Which Upper secondary program should you choose? Which career is best for you? This week, visitors to SSB will help you navigate all of the choices . . .

During this period, we are focused on helping students be good problem solvers who think critically about the choices they make.  One of the strategies we advise our students to use is to gather as much as accurate information as possible before making any big decision.

That is why we have invited two guidance counselors – Lars Nyström and Aase Hermansen to visit SSB this week.  Our two visitors will work with our students on their choice of study for Upper Secondary and choice of study for University studies. 

Monday, Feb 6 - 

There will be an information meeting for Cl 9, as well as individual meetings with Cl 10 and Gym students during the school day.  At 18.00, there will be an information meeting about Swedish Gymnasiet, Norwegian VG, and IB in rm 205.  All students and parents are welcome.

Tuesday, Feb 7 -

There will be information meetings with Gym I and Gym II, as well as time for individual meetings.  All questions are welcome – and discussion is encouraged!

There are also many online resources you can use when thinking about your “next step” . . .  here is a list of the resources we recommend for all of our students and families.  The list contains Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish study and career advice sites.

Period IV – Critical Thinking & Problem Solving

Monday starts Period IV at SSB.  During this period, we will be focused on builing critcal thinking skills and solving problems.

In line with the 21st Century Learning Skills and the 8 Key Competences for Lifelong Learning, being able to think critically and creatively to solve actual problems will be an essentail skill for our students as they go through their academic career and their working careers.

We follow our curricular guidelines (Nor, Swe, Dan, Fin & IB) – for example:

 - kohtaamaan ja käsittelemään muutoksia, epävarmuutta ja ristiriitoja sekä toimimaan yritteliäästi ja aloitteellisesti

- Øvelse i vitenskapelig forståelse og arbeidsmåte krever trening av tre egenskaper: evnen til undring og å stille nye spørsmål, evnen til å finne mulige forklaringer på det en har observert, og evnen til gjennom kildegranskning, eksperiment eller observasjon å kontrollere om forklaringene holder

- Kan använda sig av ett kritiskt tänkande och självständigt formulera ståndpunkter grundade på kunskaper och etiska överväganden

 - Elever skal forholde sig kritisk til elektroniske mediers forskellige værktøjer og muligheder og it og elektroniske medier skal anvendes naturligt, varieret og kritisk i undervisningen.

These are just a few of the curricula goals we are working towards – You can read through all of the curricula goals here.

What is a critical thinker?  

How will we achieve these goals?

Every student will work actively with technology developing our communications skills and the critical analysis of sources, as well as online safety. 

 We will focus on math skills and solving challenging problems – Join us for the 100 Day Party (we celebrate being in school for 100 days – and this important number) and Math Night (where the whole family can participate!).  We will also participate in different math competitions.

We will debate ideas – including an EU Day organized by our Social Science Department together with our national regional EU offices.

We will also be working with our Student Councils to develop our students’ role in the development of our school – giving them real opportunities to influence their learning environment.

And much more . . . Read the Period IV plans in each subject to see which specific learning goals and activities/methods are planned for each course.

How can you encourage critical thinking at home?

Here are some resources for further reading:  Essential Guide for Parents; good questions to ask; specific things you can do

Looking forward to an exciting and challenging learning period for us all.

Nordic traditions and culture – Sami is an important part

In line with our Period III learning goals, students in classes 6 – 7 have been studying Sami traditions and culture.  Leila Coldevin, a SSB parent, visited our school to talk about modern Sami life.  Being able to listen to an adult who had grown up in a Sami community gave our students the opportunity to ask questions – making the learning more relevant and engaging.

She explained that:

 - the media picture of Sami people in traditional costumes and caring for reindeer is not the complete truth of modern day

- there are many different variations of Sami language – for example: a Norwegian Sami person does not understand a Swedish Sami person

- 30 years ago, it was forbidden to speak Samiska in school – now they have their own curricula and books

- their main holidays are Christmas and Midsummer – and their national day – February 6

- they have special traditions, such as “ice-movies” with drive-in for snowscooters

 Students also learned how to say “hello” and “my name is . . .” and learned different letters with their special sounds.  Want to see what a word is in the Samisk language? 

Or, watch this video to “hear” the Samisk text of a famous song:

 

Today, Leila visited again to help students learn about Sami culture with food.  Students made Sami soup and Sami bread from traditional recipes.  In home economics class, Leila discussed food traditions she had grown up with and explained why certain foods were most popular.

In handicraft class, students worked with weaving in traditional colors and techniques.  And in art, students worked to understand symbols and story telling from this wonderful part of Norden.

As one student said, “They are just like us, sometimes even cooler . . .”  Isn’t that the goal of studying other cultures?  To see that we have many things in common and to appreciate what the traditions and culture of one group has to offer another . . .

Thanks, Leila for making this unit of study so REAL.

SSB partners with Kashobwe

SSB’s former French teacher, Dominique Tignee, is working in the Congo.  We are now partnering with her to send supplies to schools in the region.

Projet kashobwé

 

Dominique visited SSB last week to discuss her new school and the realities for the school children there.  For the next two weeks, we are collecting needed items for Dominique’s new students . . . pencils, half-used notebooks, French reading books, learning toys for a preschool program, anything.  Our students were attentive and inquisitive – they know Dominique and they want to help!

A shipment of school supplies, clothes, and toys will be sent from SSB to Congo on February 8. 

Would you like to help us . . . help them?  Join us!  Please place any items you would like to contribute in the box in our reception.

Are you a visual learner? Here are some helpful “word” resources for you . . .

How you take in and review information can determine IF you learn. For a long time, visual learners were at a disadvantage because so many of our learning resources were text-based . . . times have changed!

There are many great resources to support visual learners learn words.  Here are just a few . . .

Searching for a word to use in an essay or to describe a certain feeling or situation?   Use the Visual Thesaurus to “see” the connections.  This resource works in 5 additional languages.  Also available as an app for iPad/iPod.  This online tool won the 2010 World Technology Award for education.

A similar tool is Visuwords - built on the Wordnet from Princeton University.

It is easier to use, but does not offer as many built-in tools.

If you are looking up the meaning of words – try the Visual Dictionary

It is a dictionary with a new point of view

that catches the eye and enriches the mind.

• 20,000 terms with contextual definitions,
  developed by terminology experts;
• 6,000 full-color images of a wide variety of objects
  from all aspects of life;
• One essential reference.

There are subject specific visual learning guides like the Illustrated Mathematics Dictionary  or

the Internet Picture Dictionary designed to help you learn vocabulary in many languages.

There are endless visual “word” resources . . . feel free to comment on this post to share more!

Bike safety at preschool . . .

It is never too early to learn good habits.

At preschool, our students and staff are working on good biking habits. Not only are we training motor skills, but we are also learning safety rules and traffic signs. The new “bike track” has given us many important discussion topics from who gets to go first to how fast can we go and still be in control to what does STOP really mean?

For parents who wish to further these discussions at home, here are some helpful resources:
Kids and Bicycle Safety

What to look for in a bike helmet

Traffic signs

Interactive game – how to get ready to bike

Interactive timelines and learning . . .

Helping students to make connections between different ideas, different perspectives, different time periods, and different subjects is an important part of learning.

Assignments that track one idea over time is one method staff at SSB use to help students “map out” their understanding.  Whether it is comparing the focus of literature, the different images of a religious figure, or the trends of fashion compared to the economic situation of a country . . . when students are stretched to contrast/compare and connect – they reach a new level of learning.

Interactive Timelines are an interesting tool for this type of exploratory learning.  Students and teachers can learn from already existing timelines (there are many already created), for ex:

British History

OR

Sea Monsters

Or, create timelines for presentations, like in

 TimeToast (it can even be imbedded in Powerpoint or Prezi presentations):

Or use Dipity

 

Before Internet timelines were one dimensional and lacked any interactive capacity. Usually multiple sheets of paper taped together up on the wall written on with markers?  While they provided some great information, the amount of information each contained was limited by the physical constraints of ink and paper size. Today, teachers and students have a wealth of interactive timelines to use as an educational experience.

Go ahead . . . explore!