Term. 3, week 1

Teachers Reflection

Sitting at a brunch on the last day of holidays (amongst a few teachers) I reflected that the decision Reid and I made about starting the term from a place of curiosity, questioning and fun with a strong technology and science lens was a good one.
So often, teachers will design leaning away from the children without honouring the children's interests and stick to a predetermined long term plan which adds anxiety to everyone as teachers have to work hard to 'control' children who may not be interested.
Also, it brings the dimension of having to cover all the subjects which adds pressure to the day.  We wanted to start from an open ended place and in listening to the questions already flowing before school even starts we are feeling confident that this immersion and start to the term is successful.
The children came to school and spread over tables were various models and provocations with a science theme.  The children were excited and many started to pick things up and explore.  

There was lots of natural questioning and curiosity popping up.  As learning advisors, it is our role to support and challenge the children to create driving questions and guide them to information to help them learn and discover.  This was a great start to the term.

'I think RNA is a micro part of DNA'. It has 'ribs in it so maybe it is to do with the body?'
'Is this thing even on?'
'I think it measures weather'
'Which one is heaviest?'
'Oh cool, it's magnetic.'
'Wait, what's this?? Oh cool!! It's the digestive system?'

From there we introduced the model of sharing and teaching others so the children were placed into groups to help them to develop skills in working with new and different people.  Their challenge is to make a short explanation video sharing their new learning about the science concept that was introduced to them and apply this new learning.

A few of the technology tools that we explored as vehicles for helping to transfer this new knowledge are:
Explain Everything
iMovie
Avatars
Screencast
YouTube editor

We also explored 'what makes a good instructional video' and co-constructed a criteria template to use a framework to help us make an interesting and effective video. During the week the students shared their progress and continued the practice of giving thoughtful, specific and helpful feedback.

One of the difficulties the children encountered throughout the week was managing disagreements, they found that this was harder when they collaborated with new or different people. They have shared that sometimes there would be more than one leader in their group, no one could agree on the best way forward or compromises weren't possible. This will provide us with many possible learning experiences to introduce to them.

By the end of the week all groups had undertaken much research and had made significant strides towards completing their video. It will be exciting to see what these videos look like when they are completed.