How is Technology Transforming My Teaching?

As a teacher of young children there are times when I  face resistance to the use of technology with early learners. People often assume that I am all about technology but if you've had the opportunity to spend any time in my classroom you'll know that while we use technology a lot in my classroom the focus has been and will always be on the learning.  Our technology really is just a tool, but a very powerful tool.

In my classroom technology has allowed my students to have way more choice in how they learn, show, and share their learning.  The creative apps available to us have revolutionized things in my room.  My students are far better able to talk about their learning because they are constantly adding voice to their digital and non digital work. They are (by choice) explaining the thinking behind what they are learning.  Technology allows me to hear this thinking even when I'm not in the classroom because they are sharing it on their blogs.  And yes, I often hear errors in their thinking but because of technology I can hear these errors and do something about them.  Technology has provided me with way more authentic data for formative assessment which in turn is allowing me to better meet the individual needs of my students.

In my classroom we learn with out technology too. We learn outside and we learn with hands on objects. We PLAY and explore in unstructured ways.  We ask questions,  lots and lots of questions, and we find ways to answer those questions.  Choice is key in all of this too.  I can't stress enough in  my classroom it's not about the technology it's about the learning.

But access to technology has also transformed the way I teach.  Technology, and my school districts' open wireless policy, has allowed us to literally learn with the world.  If my students are curious about something we can google it, or even better skype in an expert.  Technology has allowed my students to connect with their favourite app developer, meet a published children's author, and learn from a video game creator .  It has allowed them to learn with other children both in 1:1 and whole class situations.  It has continued to allow them to be curious.  This type of learning has been engaging and powerful for my students.


Access to technology has also broken many learning barriers for my students. As I've written about before my quiet students seem to be okay with finding a quiet private space to share their thoughts about their learning in a voice recording app.  My students who struggle with written output can add voice to their drawings or images and can explain their learning in words instead of being held back with limited writing skills. I find with technology most students are way better able to demonstrate their learning.


I also believe my students  co create  more with technology. While we can co-create with out technology (it's a waaaaaaaaay slower process) , with access to technology we've been able to create voice threads, iBooks, and iMovies with children in other part of Canada. But really we could have done this with children in other parts of the world.  Apps like BookCreator , with its combined books feature and dropbox, make co-creating globally quite seamless. Voice threads are just as seamless.

While my students are very independent they also collaborate more, often over shared technology.  When one child discovers a secret feature of an iPad app, or website they are quick and eager to share it with their peers.  This sharing is happening over and over again in my classroom both with and without technology. A more developed reader helps a developing reader read.  A more developed artist helps a developing artist.  A more developed mathematician helps a developing mathematician.  Peer assessment is happening all the time in the way they speak with one another and the comments they leave on each others blogs. It's like we are all doing what we can to make everyone be at their best.  I honestly think technology has played a huge roll in this because unlike pre tech days where the teacher had all the answers, I no longer do. My students know this and our classroom is such that it's celebrated when you are able to support and share with others.

I try not to use my technology as expensive worksheets. I always wonder when I see people so excited to have their non digital worksheet in digital form on an iPad as a way to cut down on paper. I don't really get that though because in my eyes it's just a very expensive piece of paper.  But I have noticed that we do use a lot less paper in my room because so much of our work is done digitally.  And I'm thankful that my students have blogs/digital portfolios to showcase and share this learning with their families and beyond with the world. This couldn't be done as easily with out access to technology.

These are just a few of the ways technology has transformed my teaching. I'm curious to know how it's been transforming yours?

What Does My Literacy Program Look Like?

This year I have changed  my literacy program by providing more choice for my students to learn, show and share their learning.  Recently I was involved in a discussion on how I use Daily 5 and the Cafe in my classroom.  While I do Daily 5 in my room I'd say I do a modified version of the program.  Below is an insert from the e-mail I sent to a fellow colleague explaining my version of the Daily 5.  I am posting it here with hopes that it may help others but I am just as eager to hear how you are using Daily 5 in your classroom.

In a typical day I do three rounds of daily five two before recess, and one between recess and lunch, followed by math before lunch.  What that does is  allow me to focus on literacy and numeracy before lunch, and other topic areas in the afternoon (which most often also include literacy or numeracy).

 I do a modified daily five because I dictate the focus of the rounds but provide choices with in each round. Our first round of the day is word work and my students have a ton of choices with in that. Sometimes I will start the round with a mini lesson either on our weekly word wall words, or a letter pattern, word family etc but these mini lessons are quick.  Then everyone is learning in their own way, getting what they need from what they are doing. It frees me up to 1:1 conference with kids re their writing or reading. My room isn't silent at this time but the conversations are those of children engaged in learning and helping each other. My kids also do their planners and change their home reading

books at this time. Typically this is 20 - 30 minutes.

My second round is reading. I begin it with a story and a learning focus.  Here is where I introduce Reading Power and Cafe strategies in a whole group setting.  Then I set my class off to do read to self.  At this time my LST kids are also pulled for reading instruction, and I do student swapping with another grade one teacher at my school on Thursdays.  All my kids have to read to self for at least 12 minutes (sometimes longer). My kids are well trained here and they know the room has to be quiet. During this time I typically work with a guided reading group either strategy based or reading level based.  I may actually do less of this next year because kids have such different needs and 1:1 conferencing is just the best way to meet those needs and have those strong connections with your kids. After about 12-15 minutes I let my students know they have free read - which for me includes listen to read, and/or read to someone. Actually they can read what ever they want as long as they are reading.  Again this isn't always a silent time but it is an on task and focussed time.  I will continue working with my group or start more 1:1 conferences.  My students read from their just right book boxes during read to self but are free to read from any classroom book or digital books during free read. This brings us to recess.

After recess we meet again for another story (writing focus) and/or mini lesson. I tend to teach a new writing concept each week so Monday/Tuesday often has the longer a mini lesson (still no more than 10 minutes) while the rest of the week the mini lesson (review)  is quick followed by more time to write.  I get a lot of my mini lesson ideas from the book No More I'm Done by Jennifer Jacobson. It's a really great book. It is here that I can also teach new forms (which can also be pointed out during the reading mini lesson time). For the most part my students have free choice on what and where to write. There are times where I structure what they need to write but this is few and far between.  We deal with non fiction writing both here but it is also gets covered during our science/socials inquiry in the afternoon.  When we are studying fairy tales we learn about writing stories, and for the most part they write them too. If I don't see something that I need to see I'll ask a student  to demonstrate that they know how to do that. So when I need to I will highly encourage kids to write what i need them to write when I need them to write it to demonstrate learning but again this isn't often. Most of the time though my goal is to foster a love for writing, because with that love writing forms just become different ways to show the love of writing.  This year was certainly a year of experimentation on my part of letting go of telling my kids what to write but my students have surpassed all expectations I've had.  I have truly engaged readers and writers. 

My students also write two mornings a week, and read with a friend every day after lunch. We have families in to read twice a week too.  Twice a week I do a structured phonics lesson (McCracken) and we add poems to our poetry book once a week too so there is word work/writing/reading at other parts of the day.

During my small group instruction I focus on reading strategies (cafe strategies). We talk about reading and writing strategies in many different contexts because they are beneficial in all parts of learning. I figure the more tools I can give my young learners the better.

As for kids that have more trouble working independently creating a team of learners has been key for me.  I have kids who take care of those that are struggling so I rarely have to intervene. It has a lot to do with class culture in my class. I also refocus when I need to. We use the mind up chime for calming and being mindful. We talk a lot about expectations and how if your behaviour is affecting the learning of others then your behaviour has to change. 

Grade one is a huge year in terms of learning to read and write.  I take the "learning to read and write" challenge very seriously and I  do what I can to create authentic readers and writers who can think and problem solve on their own.  Literacy is engrained into everything we do but this modified Daily 5 time does play a key part in  my students literacy instruction. 

My afternoons are a lot more free for child centred inquiry studies.  This afternoon block allows my students to use these skills in other authentic/meaningful ways.

Now I'm curious, how do you teach literacy skills to your young learners?  

The Strength to Change

Photo Credit: h.koppdelaney via Compfight cc

This past week I made a major decision that was one of the hardest things I've done in a long time.  I applied for a job in a different school.

You see when I was first out of university I was hired at my present school. I loved everything about it. It has an amazing community of students and parents and a super supportive staff.  I felt like I was the luckiest person ever to be hired at this school.  But at the end of that year I was laid off, and placed at a different school.  I also liked this school but it never felt like my home.  My home was where I had begun my teaching career.  So two years later, with a little seniority under my belt, I was able to apply back into my first school and I have been there ever since.  Did I mention I'm about to finish my 21st year of teaching?

My career at this school brought me many exciting opportunities. I saw staff come and go, and administrators do the same.  And if you know me at all my teaching continued to change. I taught ESL K-7, K/ESL K, K/1, 1, and 1/2.  For a long time I never taught the same grade more than two years in a row.  It was good. It was a happy fulfilling place for me.

But then things started to change and I was seriously contemplating leaving about eight years ago, that is until a now very good friend of mine joined the staff.  Having her there was the change I needed at the time. Others joined the staff too and my desire to leave became less and less. It once again felt like my home.

In 2009 I left the safety of my home school and ventured off to Australia to teach for a year. I was alone, with out any of my teaching supplies, or my friends.  It was a brave decision for me to make but it was one I am so thankful I made. It pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me see what I was capable of doing on my own if I was willing to take the risk.  It helped pacify any concerns I had with my own school.

When I returned I realized that I had changed a lot.  I went through so many incredible and not so incredible experiences while I was away (it felt to me that) so little had changed in my home school.  Perhaps it was then that I realized that I needed to change but I wasn't quite ready to listen.

Photo Credit: TarikB via Compfight cc

Fast forward to July 2011, and the wonderful push on to twitter by Tia Henriksen, and my world really did start to change.  I was excited and inspired by what I was learning from others and I couldn't wait to share it with my staff.  I work with a lot of great teachers doing great things just in different ways than how I run my classroom.  I'd try to share the things that made me so excited about teaching with my colleagues and for the most part they'd give me their time. But after a while I realized I wanted more.

Photo Credit: Nanagyei via Compfight cc

I made the most of the technology I had available to me and even though I had just one computer that took 15 minutes to get running I didn't give up trying to integrate it into my teaching program.  I used the lab time that I was given, and I signed out extra lab time when ever I could.  I booked our school laptops and even though a bunch of them didn't work I found ways to make things happen. I booked our district iPads and iPods and shared those with my staff too.

I was also very fortunate at the district level too.  People were noticing what I was trying to do with my class, how I was trying to teach in the 21st century.  They found ways to support me and so my growth continued to explode, despite feeling along in my change effort.   I know my presence on social media helped people see what was going on in my classroom and that presence connected me with district people such as Elisa Carlson. She saw, supported, and believed in me. She is who has gotten me through some of my more challenging times at my school. I can't thank her enough. Our school district is VERY LUCKY to have her.

Last year I thought seriously about leaving my school.   But I couldn't.

Things have changed this year but it's no longer enough for me. I'm tired of being the teacher at the end of the hall doing the "crazy things" with her classroom.   I am tired of teaching, for the most part,  on my own.

This past weekend I had the privilege of attending ConnectEd in Calgary on my own dime.  It was there that I realized I needed more. It is there where I saw staff excited about embracing change and moving forward with their teaching and learning. The conversations were rich and exciting yet still filled with the realities that we all deal with on a day to day basis. It was real, alive and exciting and it was then that I realized that I want way more from a school. I needed more support and connections from a school. I need to be and feel part of a team growing together.

After a total break down during my session on Sunday morning, I realized I had to make a change. I was losing my spark for teaching, and if I wasn't careful I was going to lose a little piece of my soul in the process.  Being a teacher is who I am. It is the driving force behind so much of what I do with my life.

And so the very next day I found the strength to change.  I applied to teach at a new school.

Thankfully my interview went well and I was successful at obtaining a job at a new school. With in 24 hours of being hired I  had two teachers from my new school looking forward to collaborating with me next year (which I am so excited about). A second early primary teacher was also hired in the past few days and we have already been in contact about next year too. We are both excited to be working with one another.

So now, after 18 years in my present school it is time that I pack up my classroom and move on.  Will I miss the staff, the community, and most importantly the kids OF COURSE! But at this time I need to do what's best for me. I need to be brave and move on.  I need to embrace my new home.

It's the Little Things

My school year is rapidly coming to an end. Yes, I still have five more weeks left and so many exciting things I want to do with my students, but the reality is our time together is passing by far too quickly.

My class is nothing short of the most amazing six and seven year olds. They are very typical children with  various needs but as a collective group they are a wonderful, caring, curious, hard working bunch of students. They have taught me so many things this year.

Today they noticed a little thing, but it was a little thing that will have a huge impact on others. Today when we walked into the computer lab my students noticed a kidblog address that ended with their big buddies teacher's name. "Hey, Ms. Lirenman our big buddies have blogs. Can we leave them comments?" How incredible was that.

My grade one students knew that in the past their big buddies didn't have their own blogs.  My class figured out that these must be new blogs for their big buddies and they wanted to do something for them.   As soon as they were logged in they headed straight over to the grade five blog to find their big buddies so that they could leave them comments. It was the simplest yet most precious thing they did today. They know how much they love to receive comments, and so they felt it was important to leave their grade five big buddies comments too.

I can't wait for the grade fives to see their special comments from their special six and seven year old friends.

It really is all about the little things.  Happy May 22nd everyone. From where I stand it certainly was a day that was filled with smiles.

Using Twitter to Learn Math

Right now my class is in the middle of creating their own story math problems in a variety of ways.  One way that seems to be popular is  using twitter, and more specifically the hashtag #mathstory to write and share math story problems.  They have had several other classes read and respond to their math problems and some have added their own too. My students are trying to reply to everyone's tweets and to respond to those math problems that they are writing.  My students are engaged and excited to see their math problems solved by other children outside of our school.

One thing that's cool is that they have had their questions replied to in many different formats. Some teachers have had their students draw their thinking in pictures, and then have tweeted those pictures. Others have had their students rewrite the number sentence with the answers. Others still have written both the addition and subtraction way to find the answers.  It's great for my students to see these different ways to solve number stories.

Have you ever used twitter, and more specifically a twitter hashtag to help teach/learn/reinforce a concept? I'd love to hear how.  In the mean time here's a Storify of some of the tweets that have gone back and forth. For clarity sake I have tried to make the conversations flow. Also for some reason I was not able to find the tweets of my students responding to the answers to their questions despite the fact that in many cases they have.

Independent Animal Research In Grade One

For the past few weeks my students have been working on independent animal research projects.  Now I must confess I have never done independent animal research projects with my grade one students before.  Typically we study as a class, frogs or butterflies, and we learn together. I guide the lessons and my students learn what I teach them.  Yes what we learned varied from year to year, and how we learned the information did too, but I was  the teacher.  But with the increase access to technology, and my change in teaching practices that way of teaching is no longer good enough for me.

Now as I've mentioned my students have had access to technology for most of the year.  They have used it to show and share their learning in ways that work best for them.  Choice has been key in my class and my students have embraced and ran with it.  So I knew my approach to learning about animal basic needs had to change.

After seeing Kristen Wideen's grade one and two students create animal research projects I felt it was something I needed to give my students a chance to try too.  I modelled the process first with Koala research. I taught them how to find information through Discovery Ed, the Pocket Zoo app, and books.  I encourage them to sort the information they were finding into a graphic organizer created by Mrs. Wideen, but modified for my class.  My students were given the task to search for information about their chosen animal under the categories can, are, and have. They were also encouraged to find  interesting facts, and ways their basic needs were met.  They used Discovery Education to find age appropriate videos (you've got to love the filtering system on Discovery Ed). The Pocket Zoo app also provided more videos for my students, along with web cams to look at.  And we had library books too of course.  Needless to say my students were excited to do research on animals they were curious to learn more about.

My students were told that they could research ANY animal that they were interested in and they could do this on their own or with a friend. It was their choice.  Through out this year I have witnessed how powerful it has been to give my students choice in how they learn. I have seen the negotiations and the peer teaching when they work with a partner, and I have seen the independence some enjoy when working on their own. So right from the beginning I never told them that they had to work on their own or with a friend, it was always their choice.  Most of them chose a friend.

Before I go any further I think it's important to know that I have a typical grade one classroom  with a variety of learning styles and unique needs.  I have no additional adult support in my room so these projects were created by my students.  It was impressive for me  to see my students  so engaged and on task throughout the work periods.  There were tons of questions asked - both related to the animals they were studying, and the steps that needed to be taken.  While I answered many of them, they relied on each other for help too.  My room was very active with learning during this project.

After a few days of fact gathering my students started to put their books together in the iPad app BookCreator.  The cool thing about Book Creator is that it has a special feature called "combined books". Knowing this was an option in advance each student created their own pages on their own iPads which would later be shared with their partner to create  combined book. This allowed me to see what each student was doing on their own before the final book was combined with their parner's.

My students surpassed any expectations that I had for them. I was really impressed with the way they showed their learning. Many used Discovery Ed to find their images while others used Draw and Tell to draw their own.  They were all required to have at least one image labeled using the app Skitch, and one graphic organizer created using the app Popplet.

Once the children were finished creating their individual pages the two iPads were brought to me. I saved one part of the two person story into Dropbox and opened it in Book Creator on the other iPad. From there I used the awesome "combine books" feature in Book Creator and combined the two student parts together into one book.  My students then moved the pages around, edited for repeat information, and completed their books to their satisfaction.

At this point, once they were satisfied with what they had created, they saved their books to iBook. I encourage them to do this because the screen shots are much better when taken from the "published" version of the book. Most groups remembered to do this.

When it came time to  get the books out of Book Creator to share with the world on their blogs my students chose different ways to do this.  One group used Explain Everything to add the screen shots of their books and record their voice.  Most created their "movies" in iMovie.  Some recorded their images in Draw and Tell first, while others recorded directly in iMovie. Some didn't record at all and added music instead.  I never told them how they had to present it to the world but I did expect them to come up with a way to be able to show the world their creations.

I think what impressed me most about this project was that my students did so much of this independently.  I was away from my class a fair bit over the past few weeks and while I have fantastic teachers on call that work with my students while I am away, my students really didn't need them either. They were in control of their learning.

So in review for this project my students...

1. Chose an animal to study
2. Decided to work independently or with a friend
3. Used Discovery Education, the Pocket Zoo app, and books to find facts about their animals
4. Recorded these facts on a graphic organizer
5.  Used the information from the graphic organizer to create sentences and pages in the Book Creator app (each student started their own book, on the iPad they had access to)
6. Searched for images in Discovery Ed to add to their books.
7. Created images in Draw and Tell to add to their books.
8. Some recorded their writing directly in the Book Creator App 
9. Had me (the teacher) combined their individual books via Dropbox to create one shared book on the same animal
10. Edited and moved pages around to complete the combined book
11. Sent the finished book to iBooks and took screen shots of each page.
12. Imported the screen shots into Explain Everything and added voice OR
13. Imported the screen shots into Draw and Tell and added voice (and is some cases tracked the words as they were read and recorded) and put those voice recordings into iMovie
14. Saved their final movies into the iPad Camera Roll and shared those movies on their individual blogs.

What would I change for next time?

1. Encourage and expect all my students to record their stories orally 
2. Discourage the use of music in their book videos.
3. Ensure that all students send their books to iBooks before they take their screen shots for the voice recordings.
4. If using iMovie do the voice recordings in Draw and Tell to eliminate the Ken Burns affect. It really bothers me when their hard work isn't seen because of the Ken Burns affect.
5. Expect them to add a credit to Discovery Ed, Pocket Zoo App, and the books that they used for their research.
6. Encourage each student to reflect more on the experience. Many did anyhow.

Curious what their final books look like?  Here they are.  (There are a couple more still to be finished but will be added here once they are.)

Learning About 2D and 3D Shapes - More Examples of the Power of Choice

For the past couple of weeks the math focus in my classroom has been on getting to know, and learning about 2D and 3D shapes.  As a grade one teacher in Surrey, British Columbia I am responsible for ensuring that my students can do the following:

• Sort 3-D objects and 2-D Shapes  and explains the sorting rule
• Copy given composite 2-D shapes and 3-d objects
• Compare 2-D shapes to parts of 3-D objects in the environment

While I have specific learning outcomes that I must teach I really like the ability to give my students choice in how they learn/master these outcomes. My students are told what they are required to learn. They are told which activities can help them practice and show this knowledge although many of the choices allow my students different ways to show this learning.  I also explicitly teach mini lessons around these concepts but I provide them with a variety of choices to learn/master these outcomes. So what were these choices?

Before I introduced the choices as a class we played with the iPad app Explain Everything. Each child created their own 2D shape book from items from around the classroom.  Here's a sample created by one of my students.

After a couple of days of playing with 2D shapes I felt confident in letting my students choose the way they wanted to explore 2D and 3D shapes further.

The first option was to learn via Skype.  In this choice one of my students gave clues to one of Ms. DeGroot's class via Skype.  Ms. DeGroot's class in in Iowa! The clues described the property of a specific 2D shape or 3D solid. The clues may have included, "it looks like a can, it has two circle faces" etc. Several of my students choose to do this activity each day throughout the unit.  This is what this choice looked like.

The second option was to use the iPad/iPod camera to take pictures of geometric shapes found in our classroom and then to use those pictures to create a "shape" poster using the free Pic Collage app. Again several students choose this option too.

The third option was to tweet out clues about 2D/3D shapes to the hashtag #2d3dshapes.  A small number of children chose this option.  Here's a sample tweet by one of my students. What I love is the responses that he received from two different classes.  I can assure you it made him smile too.

A fourth choice was to build a castle using 3D shapes, and then either count and record the number of each shapes used, or label the shapes used.  Many of my students enjoyed this option as they love to created and build.  Originally I wanted them to created castles, but then realized it didn't really matter what they wanted to created. Here are a couple of  pictures of a some of my students creating.

And here are some ways they shared their learning through their creations.

Another choice was to create an iMovie documenting geometric shapes. Some students chose to take photos and label our official "math" shapes, while others took photos of objects around the classroom.  The guidelines were kept loose as I love to see what my students will do.  I was particularly impressed by this student because she used four different tools to create this iMove.  First she used the camera  to take pictures of geometric shapes around the classroom.  Then she imported her images into skitch, and one by one labelled them with the correct geometric shape.  Next she imported those labeled images into the Draw and Tell app and added voice to those images, and finally she put those images into iMovie.  I love how she discovered the sounds effects part of iMovie too and added the applause at the end of her video.  But the coolest thing of all is that all of this was done independently while I was at a reading conference in Moose Jaw! It is a fine example of how amazing my grade one students really are when I give them the choice to show me what they know in ways that work best for them.

Another choice (one that everyone had to do over the course of the unit to show me that could demonstrate their knowledge of the first ministry prescribed learning out come) was to sort objects by a specific attribute and then explain their rule either to me directly, or through a voice recording app.  Here's an example of that learning.

And finally students used different ways to label 2D shapes found on their 3D objects. 

Needless to say my students continued to inspire me as they took control of their learning. No one did the same thing. Many worked together teaching one another yet all could demonstrate their knowledge when I worked with them on their own.  Choice is a very powerful way to learn and I am very thankful that I continue to find more ways to give my students these choices.

Are you using choice in your classroom to help better put your students closer to the centre of their learning? I'd love to hear how you're doing this.