This week has really made me think about the value of a team. On Wednesday, we started to explore measurement as we compared the sizes of our various pumpkins. Watching the students in action, I realized that they need more opportunities to measure items using non-standard units. Now I’ve taught K-2 for 12 years, and this is definitely not the first time that I’ve worked on measurement with students, but I really wanted to try and create a real world context for this math. My problem was that I couldn’t think of a good reason to use non-standard measurement. Why not just grab a ruler?

I decided to tweet out my request and see what others had to say. I mentioned my previous vice principal, Kristi, in my tweet, as she’s the one that inspired me over the years to make math meaningful, and I thought that she might be able to help. It wasn’t long before she started chiming in with possibilities, and an instructional coach for our Board, Moojean Seo, also contributed ideas. Until they started talking, I never even considered the connection between math and phys-ed, but now I had some fun new options. Thankfully both of our awesome phys-ed teachers, Frank and Cindy, are on Twitter, so I mentioned them in our discussion, and Frank offered to meet with me the next day to help me out with some of the games. Thanks to our discussion, I now have Bocce Ball, pedometers (linked with mapping), and Trundle Wheels as exciting options for non-standard measurement. Frank’s even arranged to teach my students Bocce Ball on Monday, so that when I use it after that, I can make more of the connections to math, and students will have a good understanding of how the game is played.

Some Rough Notes During Our Meeting

As I was exploring these phys-ed connections with Frank, a wonderful intermediate teacher at our school, Frances, mentioned a non-standard measurement connection with horses. My students love animals, so they would find this really interesting. Hopefully I can arrange a Skype call with one of her friends (that owns and/or rides horses) and students can explore non-standard measurement in another way.

Part Of My Conversation With Frances

That night, another teacher in my Twitter PLN, Angie Harrison, tweeted me with some non-standard measurement ideas. She had a neat activity with wind-up toys that made me think of a comparison between wind-up and battery-operated toys. We’re exploring energy right now, so this activity could also link with our Science learning.

My Discussion With Angie

After all of these great online and offline conversations, I’ve been trying to plan things out for next week. It was during this planning process that our fabulous Arts Consultant, Karen Wilkins, asked about meeting to exchange ideas. I happily arranged to meet with her today, and I’m so glad that this happened. While we were chatting today, I started to think about the connection between music, proportional reasoning, and non-standard measurement. Now I have some exciting new math and language provocations for next week. I can’t wait to see my musicians, mathematicians, and musical writers in action!

My Notes When Meeting With Karen

And as I sit here, on a Friday night, ridiculously excited about new Math, Language, Science, Music, and Phys-Ed learning for next week, I can’t help but think about how a “team” made this possible. I could have tried some of the measurement activities that I’ve done before. They may have even worked. At some point in time, I may even use them. There can be value to what we’ve done in the past. There can be value to what we create and implement on our own. But this week showed me how much richer teaching and learning can be thanks to a team! (A special “thank you” to everyone that helped me out this week. My Grade 1 students will benefit because of you.) What are some of your “team” success stories? How do you decide when and how to ask for help? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

Aviva

I had almost an entire blog post written on the Transforming Learning Everywhere Open House, and then I read this recent post by Bill Forrester: an instructional coach with our Board, a friend of mine, and our volunteer driver for the event. His post has me thinking, and while I commented on it, I also thought that I needed to expand on my thoughts in a post of my own.

The concern mentioned in Bill’s post is one that I’ve heard many times before. The issue (paraphrased) is that technology hinders relationships with people. I wonder about this though.

• Why was this student staring at his iPad screen? Was it because he was immersed in a game or an activity, or was it because he was overwhelmed by the noise, excitement, and busyness of the sharing session? Did the iPad offer an opportunity to escape? I think about one of the students that I brought along today. This student was initially so eager to share, but I think that the crowds became a bit overwhelming for him. At that point, all he really wanted to do was write, like he would have been doing back at school in Writer’s Workshop. I’ll admit that at first I was tempted to have him stop, but then I thought of Stuart Shanker‘s book about self-regulation, and I let him be. He still answered questions. He still shared some of his learning, but he was more reserved, and often waited for people to engage him in the conversation. Maybe this is what worked best for him. 
• How can we build relationships with people? Not all relationships are face-to-face. Dean Shareski, the keynote speaker at today’s event, was one of many people that I got to know online well before I met him in person. The connections that I’ve made online are fantastic ones! In fact, even this evening, I managed to plan some exciting non-standard measurement activities thanks to my Twitter PLN (Professional Learning Network). I say all of this because building relationships is important whether in person or online. Looking around today, I saw many people — both students and adults — staring at screens. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. People were trying to capture the learning through their devices, and this meant that they were looking at the day through their screens. But, for the majority of people, they were still talking, sharing, and making connections. I wonder if we can still build relationships with people while also looking through a screen. How does this work?
• What role do adults play in modelling for kids? As I mentioned above, lots of people today were looking at screens. If we want students to put down their devices, then as adults, do we need to do the same? I’m constantly looking at my iPad screen. I capture almost our entire day at school through a device: be it in pictures, in videos, or in audio recordings. I see the benefits of doing this, but I also know that students often see me with a device in my hand. As I’ve mentioned to some teachers before, I love recording podcasts because at least I can put down the iPad, be in the moment with the students, and still capture the learning. If, as adults though, we want our children to move away from the iPad, then when/how do we decide to also put down our devices?

Technology has changed learning in many ways for our students. As Dean said in his closing remarks today,

I might even extend this to say, how do relationships change?  Maybe today, socializing includes a blend of face-to-face and online interactions, sometimes even happening simultaneously thanks to the use of social media. I can’t help but think of how “listening” has changed with the growing trend of backchannels such a Twitter. People used to think that others were only listening if all devices were away, but now, “active listening” can include adding to the conversation with something as simple as a tweet. Does “speaking” today, now include texting, emailing, and instant messaging? 

Maybe there needs to be some new norms for socializing that address how this “blended talking” approach works. I think of our classroom this year and classrooms of mine from previous years: often screens were looked at throughout the day, but communication and collaboration happened often. Sometimes this happened through messages on the screen and sometimes this happened through combined talking and screen interactions. During large group discussions, I like when people look at me to talk, but during small group interactions, I understand why sometimes people talk and look at their devices. What they’re talking about is right there in front of them, and they’re merely addressing the content while also talking to the person. I understand why this screen time may concern some people, and at times I have my own reservations, but I think that the same problems could happen regardless of the number of devices in the room. If we want students to build relationships with people, we have to make learning social. In a classroom environment, students can stare at a screen, stare at a book, or stare at a piece of paper. If we want students to talk with each other, we need to give them opportunities to do so — both online and offline. How do you give students this opportunity? What are the norms of conversation that you think should he present in a 21st century classroom? How do you help build/create this classroom environment? What impact do you think that it will have on student interactions both inside and outside of the classroom? I’d love to hear your thoughts on these many wonders of mine.

Aviva