Month: April 2016

Dance If You Dare

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We’ve all seen it. She’s the life of the party when she starts bending her knees and shaking her hips to the beat of the music. She’s dancing for the whole room and loving every minute! Get your mind out of the gutter – I’m talking about the baby in the room! From a very young age there is no denying that dance is a part of human nature. But somewhere along the way the love of dance begins to dim as some children realize that dancing means taking a risk. How can we keep dance “normal” as children begin to age?

Reflecting on “The 8 Characteristics of the Innovator’s Mindset”, from author and principal George Couros, I found myself thinking a lot about innovators being Risk Takers, and how it applies to dance in my classroom. I am always amazed with the participation levels of my grade 1 students when it comes to taking a risk and dancing! The trick is to warm them up to the experience by introducing new things slowly; making it comfortable, easy, and inviting. I mean, don’t we have to do this with adults as well?

WHERE TO BEGIN

I start the day with basic stretches and body isolations every morning. This makes dance a regular part of our routine, not a “scary” experience, and the kids really enjoy feeling their muscles work, getting their blood moving, and listening to the latest Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift song.

HOW TO CREATE A DANCE CULTURE IN YOUR CLASSROOM

Once students are comfortable moving in the morning, we progress to a super simple choreographed dance that incorporates a little more energy. My absolute favourite time of the year is October when we learn “Thriller” by Michael Jackson (a very simplified version). The kids go crazy for dancing like a zombie, especially on Halloween when they are in their costumes!

RISK TAKING

After they have practiced these skills they begin to think of themselves as “dancers” and are much less intimidated by the risk involved in dance expression. This is when the characteristics of innovation can really be seen. Students can work together and create short dance pieces on any topic, and they feel comfortable moving their body. For example, we created dances titled, “Snowflakes”, “Autumn”, and “Feelings”. All were beautiful, empowering, and totally created by the students.
I was going to blather on about all of the amazing things that have come out of exploring dance with my class, but when I revisited the Manitoba Dance Curriculum I found these excerpts that really summarize all of my thoughts and practices.

“Dance enriches a vibrant culture and is integral to human life. It has the power to illuminate, deepen, broaden, and enhance human experience. Dance offers a unique way of perceiving, interpreting, and communicating diverse life worlds. As one of the oldest and most primal of the performing arts, dance has existed across all cultures and historical periods. It has always been a socially significant component of all civilizations, and remains a relevant symbolic tool for people around the globe today.

The fusion of body action and cognition manifested in the dance Framework promotes self-initiated learning, active problem solving, openness, collaboration, innovation, socialization, empathy, flexibility, critical and divergent thinking, and risk taking. Dance has the potential to promote responsibility and leadership and to prepare and inspire future citizens of the world to understand and address the most critical challenges of their times.”

As teachers, and citizens, let’s work hard to keep dance bright in the eyes of our children as they age. They payoffs are great. And, even if dance is a little uncomfortable for you, reflect on why? Is risk taking holding you back?Untitled__Dance_Blog-Final_Copy_copy___page_2_of_2_

 

 

Jenna Kennedy
Strathcona School
Cluster 1971

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What Is Innovation? Innovating Curriculum!

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After listening to George speak, I have a new and deeper understanding of what innovation is. Innovation is using new and creative practices that meet the needs of students today, and prepares them for their needs in the future. I often think about whether or not what I am teaching students really matters? I teach in the inner city, and many of my students experience tremendous struggles at home. Getting my students engaged in learning can be difficult when so often they come to school tired, hungry, and emotionally exhausted. Yet, I am mandated to teach students about topics like monerans, protists and fungi in the science curriculum? Or topics, such as confederation. Is that what these students really need? Is knowing the definition of a protist essential to their future? Probably not. Focusing on teaching both social and academic skills, like researching online or collaborating with others is more important; however, I do not believe that the Manitoba curriculum reflects this. Perhaps a more innovative curriculum could help teachers adopt more innovative practices? Yes, some might argue, that we do have “cluster 0” that indicates the skills we should be teaching, but cluster 0 is only one cluster, in addition to all the other clusters, general outcomes and specific outcomes. I feel that the way the curriculum is formatted, does not really highlight the importance of teaching skills.

Anna Choy
Shaughnessy Park
Cluster 1971

Impacting Statements

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My first session with George really made me reflect on my own teaching practices. He made a few arguments during his presentation that really stuck with me. The first being that we tend to teach how we are taught, but not necessarily what is the best for our students. I connected this idea to what Jennifer Katz (Education professor at University of Manitoba and author of Teaching to Diversity) spoke about during one of her presentations. She asserted that we do not expect any other profession to engage in older or outdated practices just because the professionals are use to operating in a specific way. Take a doctor for instance. Knowledge in medicine and science has grown tremendously. When new and better medications come out, we expect doctors to use those medications. It is not acceptable for doctors to keep using the older and less effective medicine just because that is what they are use to. Just like a doctor, teachers need to adapt, change, and or update their materials, lessons, and teaching styles to meet the needs of the current generation and generations of students to come. This means accepting that we must continuously be learning and changing. This directly links to the second statement that impacted me. George strongly asserted that teachers need to stay current and adopt current practices, including the use of technology, in order to be relevant. If we do not adapt and change to our environment, then teachers will become “extinct” so to speak. Although this statement originally made me uncomfortable, for I felt that my job was threatened, I understood the importance of what he is saying. I try my best to be as innovative as possible, as most teachers do; however, time, lack of money, lack of training, lack of technology, and lack of support from colleagues and/or administration are all barriers to innovative classrooms.

Anna Choy
Shaughnessy Park
Cluster 1971

My ITLL Reflection, Cluster 1871, Tyndall Park School

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I am hugely grateful for the opportunity to take part in the Innovator’s Mindset workshops over the course of this year. I appreciate the change to invest in my own learning, and, as a new teacher, I feel that I am being invested in.

One idea that most resonated with me while reading The Innovator’s Mindset was that of the growth mindset vs fixed mindset. I believe that this attitude, when adopted by student’s and staff, has the greatest leverage in supporting other positive behaviours. Those who think with this lens are more likely to exercise the grit and perseverance when any challenges show up.

“What gets measured gets managed” – Peter Drucker

As we explore the use of the technology throughout this learning experience, I am interested in how we use it to enhance assessment. This year, Tyndall Park school has introduced the program Manga High (mangahigh.com), an online educational tool, in our grade 3 and 4 math program. I find it most helpful that through this program provides detailed feedback on each student every class. Without having to create an assessment, I can search the program to see how the students are doing with each module. This is so valuable as it gives us the ability to track student progress at a whole new level. I feel I am more effective in planning lessons as a result.

My one concern I have with my relationship with technology is that I often am quick to use tools without any idea of the outcome I want to achieve. George’s diagram in the The Innovators Mindset that showed the good and better reasons to use technology illustrated this point well. Being the millennial I am, I find myself incorporating new tools, apps, and technologies into my life, even when its not necessary.

Looking forward to continuing our ITLL sessions!

Josh Winestock
Music/Math Support
Tyndall Park School

Every Bit of Knowledge Counts

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My class has just finished just about three months of intensive work on their Explora Vision Project and Science Fair Projects. These are inquiry based projects driven by the students’ curiosity over the topic of their choice, and as well by the desire to aim at a calibre of work that meets the competition level criteria. As these are projects that required an application of all the skills the students may have or are yet to learn as of this point, there was definitely a range of skills and learning needs that needed to be met and scaffolded for each individual student. Among the skills called for were: skills in applying reading strategies (such as visualization, making connections, questioning, analyzing, evaluating and summarizing), skills in effectively writing a report or a persuasive piece, skills in the use of technology to research and to present information, skills in organizing tasks and time, and skills in orally presenting to an audience. Indeed, with the immensity of the task and skill set demanded, but with not enough time to spend in conferencing one to one with each student, as a teacher, I knew I needed to pull out not just my strategies as a teacher that I’ve always tried, I would also need to innovate my teaching. I needed to learn to tap on the power and ease technology can offer to meet at least some of the tasks we needed to do.
Knowing just the basic so far in using technology, I knew, I could at least tap on its potential to make our task efficient. Thus, I emailed students both as a class and individually, tasks, schedules, reminders, or feedback about their work so far. We’ve communicated by email even through weekends, after school hours, or even during the Spring Break! In the classroom, I noticed that even students in the same group have also started using email to communicate their share of work to each other. It saved us so much time, as well as maximized the time we have for enhancing the depth of our research and quality of our work. Having spent so much time browsing the online resources, students have had the chance to access tons of information in print, images and video format. They have also discovered how to locate scholarly articles if they are looking for Scientific Studies done so far on their topic!
What I realized? Every bit of knowledge counts… it is not to be underestimated. Something as simple as an email could be a powerful tool to make the task efficient and meaningful.

By Melinda Severa
Prairie Rose School

Innovation

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I must be honest, I was apprehensive when George Couros encouraged us all—primary teachers and up, to use Twitter. I myself did not have a Twitter account, nor did I think that it would be an appropriate tool to use in my classroom. I was mistaken. I have always been keen to use technology in my Grade 1 classroom, and have used various forms of it throughout my career—from creating digital portfolios, claymation, movies, readers theatre, interactive games, etc… however, I had never thought about getting my students to Tweet. After our Innovative Teaching day, I left feeling refreshed and eager to try something new. I have started to talk with my students and their families about what Tweeting would look like in our class and have received positive feedback, thoughts, and ideas from them. I hope to partner with an older grade to get us started (probably more for me than my kiddies!) and will progressively build on that.
​A colleague and I were also inspired by a video that we saw at the PD and have spoken about creating a similar type of video with our own students, teaming grade 1s with grade 5/6s.
​In my classroom, we are currently working on a cultural identity project which has my students connecting with family here and in the Philippines and India. We are using our families as references and translators to create a multi-lingual book to help us and others recognize and be proud/positive about who we are, our identity, language, and culture. Students have used digital cameras, email, videos, journals, and multimedia to help us build and create this on-going project.
​Now, I am still new to Twitter and have to remind myself to use it, and when I do use it I spend way more time than I really should thinking about what and how to say something, but I am no longer weary of it and can see what the advantages are to using it.

Amanda Borton

Grade 1 Teacher

Tyndall Park Community School

 

Blog Post 1

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I left the first session wondering how we could add one more task to our already overflowing plates. I was discouraged and frustrated and I chose to deal with these feelings by ignoring the task. As our follow-up session neared I knew that I would have to submit a blog post and have it posted for my colleagues and a network of other professionals to read and I was once again confronted with more stress and pressure of a deadline.
As I sat in front of my computer I typed and retyped possible responses and reflections and discovered this… innovation is not just Twitter or technology. Innovation is thinking in new ways or differently and let’s be honest, isn’t that what teaching is about?! School is not the same as when I went and it definitely is not the same as when my parents did. We change with the times; we become relevant and adapt to meet the needs of our students. We may not call ourselves innovators but that is exactly what we do on a daily basis.

Think back to your time in school, the teachers we remember are those that did things differently. We recall the ones that took the time to show interest in what we were interested in; the teachers that gave us choices and input and freedom. It’s the way you felt. The freedom you had in the class and the ownership you had in your learning. That is innovation.

I now think of this as an opportunity to showcase what we constantly do in our classrooms. To build a professional network of colleagues who can share in the passion we have behind our doors and encourage us to be creative.

We are not changing what we do; we are celebrating and sharing what we do.

Alyssia Silverberg-Kaufmann,

AMVC, 1871

ITLL Blog Post

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I think that using technology really lends itself to finding this “Innovation” or “Inspiration” I keep hearing about. Listening to some of the stories during our workshop, I’m finding that we have these happy accident moments where using technology ends up giving us these special moments that give us a sense of well-being. Moments that give us a chance to reflect and learn about who we are. These moments that weren’t planned for, but were made possible by the inherent nature of how technology can remember, rehash and share the experiences we have.

I recently came across a video online that illustrates my thinking. I think it’s important that we realize that technology is really just a medium for us to express and experience the lives we already have. Sharing these moments speaks to what humans are. Social creatures who thrive off each other and find motivation in building a community and connecting with each other. Take a look at the video link I’ve included, anyone who thinks video games are rotting the minds of our youth might be surprised.

Patrick Tytgat

Andrew Mynarski VC

Cluster: 1871

Using an Innovators Mindset to Facilitate Positive Mental Health in our Students

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After the first session with George Couros, I learned about how powerful and useful technology can be with regard to innovation. I was also excited to open my own Twitter account and have been using it regularly to connect with educators around our division as well as the world. I have made a few comments but I am mostly just doing a lot of “retweeting”. As someone who has never communicated with others on social media, I am finding it exciting when people message me or comment that they appreciated my “like”. I am also amazed at how much I am able to learn from other colleagues in the mental health field with just a few clicks on my phone. I now feel inspired to find different ways to use technology and innovative practices with the students I support that are dealing with a variety of mental health disorders.
On page 21 of his book The Innovator’s Mindset George comments that it is important to create a teaching environment that is “best for this learner”. I agree that we have to think about the future of each of our students and what type of education is going to serve them the best to achieve their goals and be successful even when there are difficult obstacles to overcome. We need to develop as many of the positive characteristics he suggests of an Innovator’s Mindset in order to create new and exciting learning environments for all of our students.
The comments below from the families I work with describe the challenges that some students face every day going into a building where they don’t feel connected to staff or able to succeed in the classroom.
“She wants to leave school and stay in her bed all the time”
“She doesn’t feel like she belongs at school”
“He has gotten into a rut about not attending school”
“She wants the teachers to understand the accommodations she requires to succeed at school”
“Sometimes she is just too much and tiring for them to handle at the school”
An empathetic and observant teacher recognizes the individual needs of all his/her students and strives to find ways for them to feel connected to their learning. This is not an easy process but the educators that are able to do this are responsible for some of the positive comments I hear from families and schools.
“He smiles more and seems more engaged”
“She is going to school every day and doing well”
“Right now he is firing on a lot of good cylinders”
“Many of the teachers are understanding of her situation”
“She is flourishing in the Technology Program”
I look forward to the upcoming sessions where I can continue my journey of learning and develop an “innovator’s mindset” with the hopes that it will help me empower the students and families on my caseload.

Laura Ateah, ISS Support Teacher, Child and Adolescent Mental Health, HSC.
Cluster Group 1871

Reflection on Innovative Practices

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Prior to this school year, I had not heard a lot of talk about innovation in the classroom. To be fair, this is technically my first year of teaching full time since having children and I haven’t been in the loop as much as I probably should have been. What amazes me is how quickly things can change, even when it has been said that change in our educational system is rather slow here in Manitoba. Since I have been back though, I have been really excited about these new approaches to learning.
At École Garden Grove School, we have been lucky to have Jaymie McLure do some great, innovative work with our students. From Destination Imagination Instant Challenges to Story Starters using Lego, I have certainly learned a lot. Not only are we thinking outside the box and moving away from the incessant worksheets that are available to us, we are providing our students with new, creative and collaborative ways of learning.

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Although at times it is hard to imagine how different our world will be in twenty years from now, I know that this shift into different and more innovative ways of teaching is only going to help better prepare our students for their futures. If we can have open minds and learn with and from one another, I think that we as educators will benefit along with our students.
I know that I have already altered my way of thinking about this whole process and having an open mind has definitely been helpful. I look forward to what we have yet to learn in our next sessions!
Nicole Lavallee
École Garden Grove School
Cluster 1871