Templates templates templates...

If I want to work efficiently, produce high quality learning opportunities for my class of characters, and make conscious decisions about the cognitive level of the activities, then I need to be producing some templates that I can use in multiple ways.

Here is my first attempt. This is a template that I have customised for a particular book for one of my reading groups.

SOLO vs SAMR and How Can I Combine the Best of Both?

I have been thinking about SOLO Taxomony and how to link this with the SAMR model. One extends students' thinking into the realms of high cognitive engagement while the other aims to use the affordances of technology to give students learning opportunities they would not otherwise have.

Easy, right?

I'm going to give it a go and see. With the use of Explain Everything, there are all sorts of possibilities with the technology, however some of these are simply replications of pen and paper activities. I was finding a wonderful world of online texts, resources, links through Google docs while teaching my year fours on chrome books last year, however right now I'm feeling a little limited with how I can creatively extend the thinking of my year twos. I need some serious time set aside to play with Explain Everything, and to think about how the actives can lead to higher order thinking.

For now, I'm going to play around with some activities based on the following verbs: to describe, to sequence, to compare and contrast.

How the heck is this possible?

Cognitive engagement? Higher order thinking? Metacognition?

Any ideas on how do achieve that with 5 and 6 year olds?

Well, I need to start somewhere, and right now that is at the bottom. I have enthusiasm, a few years of teaching experience, lots of travel experience, a passion for teaching kids to be inquisitive about the wider world and a class of Year 2 students who need to be accelerating their learning in order to be successful citizens.

My inquiry topic for this year is to look at how I can attain high cognitive engagement by using Explain Everything (and possibly other resources/apps) to accelerate the progress of my students.

No mean feat. But I'll give it a very good go. 

Dome Art Project

It's the summer holidays and, like many teachers, I am mulling over creative ideas for my 2015 class. I have been thinking back to an art project I did a few years ago with Year 1 and 2 students in Wellington, NZ. We created a geodesic dome for our classroom, which the whole class could fit into, and was used as a special place to read, play, or rest.

I am wondering about creating another version of this with my new class. It was a challenge, but provided the students with a total integration of curriculum areas in a very hands on, and creative way.

Santa's Cookies

At the end of 2014, one of my lovely students and his mum gave me a jar of ingredients for "Santa's Cookies." It was such a creative and thoughtful gift. Here's how they turned out!

Digital Immersion - what have I been up to?

I have made a screen recording to take you through how I use my class site to guide the learning for my students. This example is of a two week reading activity where I have tried to combine the Learn Create Share aspects of the task.

The Woolf Fisher research into the Manaiakalani Programme identified the need for extended reading in order for students to engage cognitively in their learning. My university study this year reiterated this, as well as the value of extended discussion to promote acceleration in learning.

Example of Student Work on Striving to Succeed