Category: Central Ideas

Press Start, Pause or Stop? 3 Ways We Can Approach Launching a Unit of Inquiry

Press Start, Pause or Stop? 3 Ways We Can Approach Launching a Unit of Inquiry

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Bewildered by my outburst, my sleeping dog popped up her head and twitched her ears when I giggled out a “hmmm”.  But I couldn’t help it. I was so immersed in a recording of the Town Hall discussion with fellow Google Trainers. They asked a question about concept testing that made me make a connection with a recent topic that we had been discussing during our grade level meetings, the cycle of learning and teaching.

What was the question they use during their iterative process of concept design?

“What would you expect to happen ...?”

Their research shows that this puts algorithmic thinking into motion, generating potential scenarios that could be incredibly powerful in articulating the effect of our decisions.

What if we applied this same question as we approach a launching a unit of inquiry? I think this could be and effective way to start a familiar unit of inquiry, creating the impetus we may need in order to contemplate and debate alternative approaches with greatest impact for our learning and teaching.

Entry points in The Cycle of Learning and Teaching.

Where do you begin with learning? Do you launch a unit with TEACHING, picking up your PYP planner from last year and “copy and paste” what you did last time? Do your reflect on your past PYP planner and adjust the learning expectations or reinvent the unit with PLANNING provocations and activities to launch new concepts? Or do you pick up your PYP planner and think about how you might ASSESS the learners to figure out what direction you might need to go to support strong concept development and bringing out the best in the Learner Profile and Atls?

I would argue that there is no “right answer” to this because every unit of inquiry is unique and we have to look holistically at the grade level Programme of Inquiry (POI) and the whole school Programme of Inquiry (POI). It might also depend on if the UOI is a single subject or if it is transdisciplinary. That said, I do think that teachers need to sit down and re-read the planner from last year to reflect on what is relevant and meaningful to their current learners. They need to unpack the central idea and lines of inquiry before determining where they are going to jump into this cycle of learning and teaching.

Decisions, Decisions!

Press Start: Teach 

There are some very valid reasons why we might just start teaching. Time may play a significant factor, especially when we know this unit will introduce never explored content in the school-wider programme of inquiry. Also, if there is a project that the students will work on during the unit and the goals of the unit are more about the process of learning so we have to focus on teaching into the Atls such as the self-management or social skills that will be developed throughout the unit. For example, collaboration or time-management may need to be developed right from the word Go so that groups can effectively do research together. A great example of that is during the PYP Exhibition. Teachers might need to start teaching into stress management or technology skills in order to ensure that students can work independently and effectively.

Teachers who are also single-subject specialists may also jump into the cycle of learning and teaching here, particularly if they have younger students who they feel can safely assume that they have no prior knowledge of the concepts. For example, a music teacher who wants to teach the concept of melody to their kindergarten students or a language acquisition teacher who works with newcomers to a language.

However, we really want to think critically about this approach because research suggests that we need to value our learners more than teaching our content, so we need to carefully consider our students when planning and assessing.

Press Pause: Plan

It is good practice to review previous planners for a familiar unit. As you re-read the planner, it’s important to read the reflections first before digging into the resources, learning activities and assessments that you created in the past. I know that this part of the planner often gets neglected, but it really can be critical to understanding how and why you might make changes to a unit, especially if there are new members of a team who may not be as familiar with a unit. It is especially for this reason why you would want to start with planning. Not everyone interprets units the same way, especially when a central idea is broad. So team members need to “unpack” the unit’s concepts and think about how it could be approached differently, particularly when considering the students you have in your class. I’ve written about the importance of this before in this blog post.I think this is the most common way that teams approach the learning and teaching cycle–Teachers getting together and discussing what might be possible during this unit.

However, you can share the central idea with students and unpack it with them in order to co-construct the unit. The questions and ideas that emerged during those discussions with students then become the fodder to re-write aspects of unit in order to develop more student interest and agency. Sometimes that means we go back are re-write lines of inquiry, change learner profiles or switch our Atls. And sometimes it means that the content shifts. It really depends on what happens during the “unpacking” with students.

For example, consider this unit:

Central Idea: 

Circumstances impact opportunity and the ability to achieve.

Lines of Inquiry:

  1. The attributes of empathy(form)
  2. How opportunity is enabled (causation)
  3. The measurement of achievement (perspective)

A team of 4th grade teachers were going to approach this as a “copy and paste” type of unit, in which the focus has typically been on the role of social class in creating barriers or opportunities to success in life. However, when they unpacked it with students, it became clear that they were fascinated with disabilities and inclusion. It required the team to get back to the drawing board and re-design the unit with student interests in mind. Although the key concepts might stay the same, the related concepts shift from Poverty, Social Class, and Opportunity to Diversity, Innovation and Inclusion because students were keen to learn about how disabilities and neurodivergence lead to developing new technology to help people feel capable and involved in their lives.

When teachers respond to students like this, learning is more dynamic and student action can organically evolve from their enthusiasm. I’m sure you can see how responding like this can change the trajectory of a unit.

Press Stop: Assess

Before putting the car into drive, some teachers choose to stop and assess before beginning a unit. Pre-assessment is always a good idea, but since the pandemic, this approach seems like the most sensible for many units. We just aren’t sure where the conceptual and skill gaps may be, so we may need to do some formal assessments to see where students knowledge base lies. Once we have an idea of what students know, understand and can do, teachers can sit down with the data and then examine what concepts and skills make sense before launching a unit. Again, they may need to adjust content, change Atls and/or learning expectations.

“What would you expect to happen ...?”

I think predicting and reflection are 2 key superpowers that a PYP teacher needs when we consider how we can build strong units. As I continue to mull over this question, I think this question can be an important tool to help shake up unit planning and instigate critical thinking in our approaches. Whether it is asked 2 weeks before a unit of inquiry begins or as a strategy to provoke reflective thinking, this question can help us explore new ways that we could approach the unit.

What do you think? Are there other questions that we need to consider when determining the why and how we jump into the cycle of learning and teaching?

The Journey to Develop an Enhanced #PYP Programme of Inquiry

The Journey to Develop an Enhanced #PYP Programme of Inquiry

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As a curriculum coordinator, deciding where to begin with the Enhancements has not been easy. I have read through all of the Programme Resouce Materials on the IB’s website and stared at this new re-branding symbol in the hope of greater clarity.  When I gaze at the word Agency, I recognize that it isn’t a small word–it’s full of big ideas and demands a significant amount of energy and change in our schools’ culture. Agency, in my mind, has become the driving and sole mission of the PYP Enhancements. But there isn’t a guide book on this topic–A sense of “Start Here”! I feel as if we are defining this collectively as we inquire into Agency in our PYP schools.

poi why
My reflection on the rebranding symbol, which feels connected to the work of Simon Sinek and his beacon call to Find Your Why.

So, you can’t simply direct staff to change their paradigms overnight.  One of two clever provocations during a staff meeting isn’t going to cut it. It’s a process and will take time to evolve our thinking. I recognize that I am deeply and personally involved in the changing of mindset as well. I do not sit outside of others. I too am a caterpillar incubating in its cocoon. I am completely in the midst of transforming what school is to what school could be. This is as much a personal as well as professional journey that we all are engaged in.

So, as a pedagogical leader, I have decided to start with our “What”–our written curriculum. It feels like our map on our journey. We need to have the “right” map in our hands before we go about transforming our school. With that in mind, our school has embarked upon enhancing our school’s Programme of Inquiry and in the first phase of change. To be clear, it’s not about rephrasing central ideas– if we are going to do this, we need to do this with our students. The students need to be involved in this process. They need to have a say in WHAT we learn so teachers can start developing new strategies into HOW they learn it.

We are breaking with the traditional approach that we, as educators, get to decide what is important to learn. The students are our “standards” and they will guide and decide our “learning outcomes” through means of direct input into our POI.  Agency into the WHAT we learn at school feels like the first step in figuring out the HOW we can put kids in the center of our pedagogy.

So we have embarked on a “listening campaign” that involves the students first and foremost, but we intend to mine for the gold in our community–What are the values and concerns that our families hold? What are the cultural forces in our community and the resources that we can tap into? This is also a component of our Listening Campaign.

enhanced poi

Teachers have formed teams that will help organize and collect the information we need to start re-envisioning our POI. There are 4 focus groups that will capture the elements of student agency, transdisciplinary learning, international-mindedness, and the Learning Community. Throughout the coming months, we will be doing a school-wide inquiry into the following areas which will influence how the POI will be enhanced:

data groups

Student Voices

Our current thinking is that we will have students in Grades 1-5 reflect on the units of inquiry from the grade level below, their current grade level, and the grade level above in order to gauge their level of interest. In order to do this, we will conduct a special school assembly that will explain how we will do this.

Outside of classroom discussions, we intend to have these grade-level POIs posted and give students the chance to have discussions and rate the units. For the ease of data collection, we will use stickers to have them “mark” how they feel about the learning within a unit of inquiry. Here are the stickers:poireviewstickers Along with critiquing the current Programme of Inquiry, we will provide opportunities to make suggestions and express how they enjoy “showing what they know” as well as improving current units. In this way, we have more insight and feedback into the current units of inquiry.

Student Hearts

There is a myth in our world that children lack depth. I believe that we are hardwired to care and empathy is a skill that can be developed naturally in our learning communities. As an educator, it simply isn’t true that kids are completely selfish and self-absorbed. Yes, their worlds are small, but it’s obvious when you teach young children that you can see how learning about issues impacts them.

With that in mind, teaching the United Nations’ Sustainability Goals is something that needs to be embedded in our Programme of Inquiry. Currently, it is not a trend, let alone an expectation to do so in our schools. There is a smattering of educators who take it upon themselves to discuss and include the goals in their units. I find this to be a missed opportunity. The Sustainability Goals are for our current generation of students, as it aims to achieve these goals by 2030–that’s only a decade away!

So, in order to draw awareness of these issues, we want to tap into the hearts of our students and call their attention to these goals. We have decided to create a school-wide week of provocations (March 23-27th ) since there are lots of international holidays that tie into the goals then. We would send out announcements to families about our intended activities and then use our Art Fair as an opportunity to reflect on the Goals and see what inspired them. That school event is in high attendance so it could be a great chance to get the parents educated a bit too.

Malala Yousafzai | SJSU WOMS 20. Women of ColorWe would use these reflections from this week to inform our curriculum, considering which SDGS really sparked a natural interest and could gain overall support from our community. You see, in my mind, it’s not enough to just “expose” kids to the UN’s SDGs, but we would want them to take action to actually work on them. Garnering their interest and using it as a springboard for continued efforts toward achieving these goals would help cultivate the change agents that they would need to become in order to make their goals a true reality.

Community Values

Every school has a unique composition of its members, from parents to teachers to other community members. In short, we want to determine the strength of our Learning Community by tapping into its main shared values. This will help us to determine our main mission and focus of our Programme of Inquiry. It’s easy for our Learning Community to rally behind its school’s pillars when its member believes in it and want to support it. This is the essence of what we want to do and who we want to become: grounded in our values and driven by our larger mission. 

So, we have designed an activity that we will promote during the Art Fair that will help us collect data about the values that our families. They will, in short, share their top 5 values and help us to appreciate why they are important to them. We will use these values as a component of strengthening our Programme of Inquiry, particularly in developing stronger bonds between home, school, and our local community. We hope to have more coherence and collaboration with the “big L” of the Learning Community as a result of including this information in our decision-making process.

Resources

This is a tremendous effort underway to create a database of people and places that we can have access to which will enrich our learning. We are lucky to have a wide swath of professionals in our parent community who are willing to come in and share their knowledge and experience with our children. So, this database will include families just as much as it will include other community members who can benefit and expand the experience of learning in our school. We will also include information for planning field trips to streamline the vetting process and help teachers design more authentic and meaningful experiences outside of classroom learning.

One of the important aspects of curating these resources is that it must be organized in such a way that it makes it easy to filter information and locate the resources we have. So, this group is not only researching and collecting this information but also determining what is the best way to sift through it.

Whole Learning Community Listening

Needless to say, this isn’t a little endeavor, but a larger desire to listen to the WHOLE community. To get everyone on board and engaged. We want our students to be truly inspired and ignited into action. We want to tap into their interests, their concerns, and their families’ values, so we can truly have agency that is authentic and relevant to them.

Needless to say, this journey into creating a truly “enhanced” POI is an experiment–an inquiry in and of itself. At our school, we say “it takes a village” to educate a child, and we believe that this listening campaign can help us capitalize on “our village” and inspire the generation of students we have in our school today.  Once we have collected this data, we will use it to revise our current Programme of Inquiry to reflect the students, the families and our community at large.

 

**Please feel free to comment and add questions that will spark ideas and help us to further refine our process. How is your school ‘enhancing’ the Programme of Inquiry?

 

What’s the Best that Could Happen? Using a Trans-Articulation Approach to Designing a Mission-Driven Programme of Inquiry (#PYP)

What’s the Best that Could Happen? Using a Trans-Articulation Approach to Designing a Mission-Driven Programme of Inquiry (#PYP)

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Where do good ideas come from? From a lot of bad ones, I think. We have to experiment and be willing to get “messy” in order to challenge ourselves. We have to be vulnerable. And, so I am sharing a very rough draft of some new thinking that I am exploring when it comes to our Programme of Inquiry. 

Last week, I meant to work on my Google Training series, but instead, I got the notion about how to rethink our Program of Inquiry with Future Thinking.  Inspired, I started sketching out possible approaches. Eventually, I created a Google Doc and started thinking about how I might map out the Programme of Inquiry (POI) based on the big WHY of a school’s mission. That became my starting line.

Excuse Me While I Make a Point

Pardon my digression.

Have you noticed that a lot of schools are really vague and general about their Mission?  I think the standard practice of trying to distill our mission into marketing taglines makes it harder to define our success as a school. For example: Inspire. Challenge. Empower. 

Inspired to do what? Challenging doing what? Empowering to do what? In my mind, these taglines create a state of “vanilla”, in which your school is, at best, average, instead of being a unique community of learning. I think this vagueness provides an incomplete map of why our school is so vital to the overall landscape of education.  Not just in our city, but in the world. We need to think bigger than our school bubble.

Back to the “Start”

Since I was present at our school’s recent Visioning session, I am aware of all the lovely conversations with staff, parents and students about “What’s the Best that Could Happen?” for our 5-year plan. Sustainability was a major theme that came out of those discussions and is a part of our strategic plans. Thus, I feel that our curriculum’s goal should be driven by what a school wants to become–the future they hope to build in 5 years.

download.jpeg

The 5-year plan now becomes a living document, as our curriculum can actualize the potential within our community. Sustainability, as a collective desire of the stakeholders, is going to be the “Rome” to which all roads lead to. In fact, it’s not a road, it’s a 4-lane highway, in which the Sustainability Compass comprises the lanes in which our curriculum will drive: Nature, Economy, Society and Well-being. What’s cool about this is that it’s been mapped against the UN’s Sustainability Goals which helps to promote them.

Sign Post #1: Guiding Conceptual Themes

Before looking at the POI, I want you to notice in the POI that I have included a grade level “Guiding Concept” that came from out of the Enhanced PYP discussions. Although I think of this as the tool for coherency and alignment, I love how Lisa Verkerk refers to it as the “red thread” that weaves units together. That’s a beautiful metaphor that describes how grade-level units have an overall conceptual theme that navigates the direction of each transdisciplinary theme’s inquiry. In this way, it makes it easier to map out the sequencing of units, because you consider which unit needs to come first in its understanding and then decide which one is the hardest, to help you to designate the order by conceptual understanding.

Sign Post #2: Layout

Sarah Osborne introduced me to another way of setting up the POI which has helped me to observe patterns of articulation of the descriptors within a transdisciplinary theme. When you just tilt this document on its side, sort of speaking, you get a whole new perspective on your Programme of Inquiry. Gaps begin to glare.

Although this is not a complete POI, once completed, it is a thing of beauty to see how coherent and infused it is deep conceptual understanding.

Sign Post #3: Central Ideas

I have a lot of strong opinions about central ideas which you may already be aware of if you read the blog post: Central Ideas: The Good, The Bad and The Messy. How the Primary Years Program Can Rethink and Define Them. However, I have to thank 25-year Reggio veteran Marianne Valentine  for helping me to consider how very broad central ideas are important for play-based learning as it opens up for more personalized inquiry and evolving your role as a teacher into a researcher. So, with that in mind, I have some central ideas that are succinct for a reason. Although I cringe when I read central ideas that sound more like slogans (ex: Ideas revel possibilities), they can be powerful tools in allowing certain units to go into a variety of directions and have their place in a POI.

Sign Post #4: Solution-Focused

I am really inspired by the work of Glenn Hayres, Jen Friske and Lynn Cuccaro with their diligence in writing units of inquiry that are solution-focused in directing a POI to create problem-solvers as students. I love this intention and I think it amplifies agency when we not only bring the world’s problems to the children’s attention but empower them into action. No doom and gloom. We can cope with hope. (Cheesy, I know, but couldn’t resist.)

However, this is a skillful endeavor, and I am still working on developing this skill. But I like a challenge and enjoy giving it a try.

Before you peek at the document, I have another POI that is following this approach. Very much a draft! And the one below that is another POI I created as a warm-up for the Enhancements. It’s an “old” way of thinking about a POI, but I go back to it to steal ideas and reference it to see if this purpose-driven POI is really any different from past ones I have created.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mQRFkpM8Z8V2KwRqvnFX294sm5dWY8g7dIkenP0oeck/edit?usp=sharing

 

This is a work in progress, clearly. I still have some “Future Building” to work on. But I am sharing this raw POI skeleton so you can start thinking about how your school can use these features in creating a POI template that is motivated with bigger ambitions than covering content in order to prepare students for MYP. One thing I have yet to do is to collaborate–something that is really necessary with designing a POI. You need lots of perspectives and ideas to tap into the genius and experience of others. Not necessarily with the whole staff, but definitely with the right people, can be exciting and fun.

Looking Back at the Map

Because I believe that our written curriculum is a major contributing factor to the ethos and culture within a school, I feel that a well-articulated POI is foundational for dynamic learning and teaching within a school. When this is fully fleshed out, I will have to filter this POI through that the school’s bigger “Why” and whether it will support our school’s goals. We always have to be challenging our POI. Furthermore, on paper this POI is in theory. When these units are taught, that is the really telling sign and the one that matters–What learning came out of this? What was its impact? We’d have to reflect and modify when necessary.

 

My hope is that your heart is leaping out of your chest with the possibility of how awesome your school can become when you have a written curriculum that is mission-driven and coherent. I wish for all of our schools to ask themselves What’s the Best that Can Happen?

In my mind, silence is accepting the status quo. Please challenge and extend my thinking in the comments below.

 

Math in the #PYP: Can you really “kill 2 birds” with one planner?

Math in the #PYP: Can you really “kill 2 birds” with one planner?

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I’ve been doing a little light reading and exploring the new PYP: From principles into practice digital resource in the PYP resource center. This led me to nose around the Programme standards and practices documentation to see if anything had dramatically changed. I was surprised at how much it had changed in wording, not just swapping section letters for numbers but how some of the ideas have shifted to articulate the “enhancement” of the programme.  Here’s something that stood out to me:

(2014)Standard C3: Teaching and learning

Teaching and learning reflects IB philosophy.

1. Teaching and learning aligns with the requirements of the programme(s). PYP requirements

a. The school ensures that students experience coherence in their learning supported by the five essential elements of the programme regardless of which teacher has responsibility for them at any point in time.

 

(2018) Learning (04)  Standard: Coherent curriculum (0401)

Learning in IB World Schools is based on a coherent curriculum.

Practices: The school plans and implements a coherent curriculum that organizes learning and teaching within and across the years of its IB programme(s). (0401-01)

This led me to question and scan through the standards and practices documentation to examine how “stand alones” are being viewed in the enhancements. Since I wonder how they fit in with this idea of “coherency”, (which was not defined in the glossary of terms, oddly enough) they could be problematic as they might conflict with transdisciplinary learning.

And why do I think this?-because I’ve been struggling with trying to “cover” the math standalone along with the transdisciplinary maths. At schools in which TD (Transdisciplinary) Maths and SA (Stand Alone) Maths are taught simultaneously during a unit of inquiry,  I’m sure many of you PYP educators share my pain and are trying to “fit” it all in while not sacrificing the main UOI.

Oh, I can hear you–

Judy, but TD Maths is supposed to be embedded naturally into our UOIs. We shouldn’t know where one subject begins and where ends in transdisciplinary learning. 

But math is not a noun, it’s really a verb. And unless you write units of inquiry that create the context to do mathematics organically, it hardly lends itself to transdisciplinary learning. Perhaps it is for this reason why our school has created a whole Math Programme of Inquiry (POI) around the strands of Number and Pattern & Function. Christopher Frost wrote a brilliant blog post that articulated his school’s challenge with the PYP planning puzzle: mathematics so I can appreciate why our school has attempted to create a Math POI. However, because we only developed it within those strands, in my opinion, this has further complicated the challenge of integrating math into our units of inquiry.

For example, our last Math UOI  in 1st Grade was:

Patterns and sequences occur in everyday situations.
–Patterns can be found in numbers.
-Types of number patterns
-Patterns can be created and extended.

This was our conceptual rubric for this Unit of Inquiry:

Screen Shot 2018-10-28 at 9.52.48 AM

The lines of inquiry came from the learning outcomes (which we refer to as “learning territories” at our school) from the IB’s Math Scope and Sequence, under “constructing meaning” in Phase 2 in the Pattern & Function strand.  But then this stand-alone wasn’t enough, and we had to then create a TD math focus to go with our How We Express Ourselves unit:

Language can communicate a message and build relationships.
-Different forms of media;
-The way we choose to communicate;
-How we interpret and respond.

So there we were, as a team, staring at this central idea and wondering what would be a natural match, conceptually, with this unit. We could definitely DO data handling as a component of this unit, creating graphs and charts that reflect the 2nd and 3rd lines of inquiry. However, since we were stuck on the CONCEPT (rather than the skills), we ended up focusing on the word LANGUAGE and eventually wrote another conceptual rubric based upon the conceptual understanding (from the Math Scope and Sequence): Numbers are a Naming System (Phase 1, Number), using the learning phases from the Junior Assessment of Mathematics from New Zealand–a standardized assessment that we use across all grade levels.

Screen Shot 2018-10-28 at 10.08.44 AM

Although we felt that we “covered” the learning outcomes or “territories”, we definitely felt dissatisfied with how we approached planning and learning these of concepts. Recently, I read the Hechinger Report, OPINION: How one city got math right, something stuck out at me and made me reflect deeply on our process and purpose of math in the PYP.

The top countries in education have shown that going deeper and having more rigor in middle school are the keys to later success in advanced math. Compared to high-performing countries, American math curricula are a “mile wide and and inch deep.” Students who want to go far in mathematics need a deeper, more rigorous treatment of mathematics…..

Going for depth of understanding in the foundational years, and accelerating only when students have solid backgrounds and have identified their goals, has paid off. This is progress we can’t risk undoing by returning to the failed practices of tracking and early acceleration.

Here are the questions that surfaced after reading that article and reflecting on our context:

  1. Is having TD math and SA math taught during the same unit of inquiry really “best practice”? Are we creating a “mile wide and an inch deep”?
  2. Is focusing on conceptual understandings vs. skills really the best approach to transdisciplanary learning in math?
  3. Do broad conceptual understandings help or hinder the assessment of a math UOI?

Now I’d like to add one more question after reading the Standards and Practices……

4. How can we create coherency, not only by “covering” all the learning expectations for our grade, but create authentic math connections for transdisciplinary learning?

 

Where we are in place and time with Math in How the World Works.

Our new unit began this week. Originally our upcoming Number SA Central Idea was going to be:

Making connections between our experiences with number can help us to develop number sense.

As we were beginning to develop lines of inquiry for our “learning territories”, we decided that this central idea seemed hard to approach and written for the teacher, rather than the learner. (In my opinion, if students find Central Ideas to be goobly-gook, then how on Earth can they make meaningful connections?) We went back to the IB’s Math Scope and Sequence to provide clarity and direction to developing skills.

Will mathematics inform this unit? Do aspects of the transdisciplinary theme initially stand out as being mathematics related? Will mathematical knowledge, concepts and skills be needed to understand the central idea? Will mathematical knowledge, concepts and skills be needed to develop the lines of inquiry within the unit?

When we looked at those questions, our team nodded their heads in agreement–Yes, of course this is a TD Math unit–it’s a scientific thinking unit, for heaven’s sake–the best kind to connect with!

Thus we rewrote the Central Idea and created our lines of inquiry based upon what they might be “doing” with number, recognizing that other math strands might be employed in our How The World Works unit (Central idea: Understanding sound and light can transform experience), thus combining the “Stand Alone” with our “TD Math“. Here is the unit we created:

We collect information and make connections between our experience and numbers.
–use number words and numerals to represent real-life quantities.
-subtitize in real-life situations.
–understand that information about themselves and their surrounding can be collected and recorded
-understand the concept of chance in daily events.

To be honest, I’m not sure if this is the best approach either and I spent a good amount of time cross-referencing pacing calendars and scope and sequences from other national curricula. However, this not only would help us to “kill 2 birds” with one planner, but it also helps us lean towards creating math units that develop the context of discovering vs. “being told” when and how to do math. This is true inquiry, in my mind, whether it is through a SA or a TD Math lens of learning. But when you are trying to squeeze in teaching two maths (TD and SA) during a unit then there is the challenge of approaching problem solving as a rote skill instead of having enough time for students to make decisions based on their math understanding. Documenting and analyzing those student decisions require time in order to evaluate appropriately what our next steps might be and in order to guide them towards a deeper understanding and more flexible thinking. So stay tuned.

If any other schools have been fiddling around with integrating math into units, I’d love to hear some of your stories–indeed anyone reading this blog would!! So please share your approaches in the comments below.  It benefits all of us trying to put “Principles into Practice”.

 

 

#InquiryMaths: Planning for Play as a Stance for Math in the #PYP ?

#InquiryMaths: Planning for Play as a Stance for Math in the #PYP ?

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I’ve been binge learning through the online conference on The Pedagogy of Play. It’s been really inspiring for me. Last year, I felt like I was moving away from play-based learning and into more formally academic structures when I began teaching first grade. This has been a challenge for me because I miss the discoveries (theirs and mine!) and creativity that are natural by-products of a play-based approach. So as I embark on this school year, I have two questions that I am holding in my mind: How do I make math more fun and authentic? and How do I provide rich open-ended tasks that allow for multiple approaches with low threshold, high ceiling tasks?

These questions come from this quote from Jo Boaler, a math educator hero of mine.

Numerous research studies (Silver, 1994) have shown that when students are given opportunities to pose mathematics problems, to consider a situation and think of a mathematics question to ask of it—which is the essence of real mathematics—they become more deeply engaged and perform at higher levels.
― Jo Boaler, Mathematical Mindsets: Unleashing Students’ Potential through Creative Math, Inspiring Messages and Innovative Teaching

loris malaguzziAs I reflect on that research, I believe the answer to my questions is to play. Not just because it develops curiosity and self-expression, but it cultivates self-motivation and an appreciation for the pleasant surprises that our mistakes bring us in our learning process. Moreover, from Boaler’s academic point of view, “they become more deeply engaged and perform at higher levels”. Um…so why on Earth wouldn’t we connect play and math?

What is play?  Play is the ultimate What If question in my mind because it allows us to explore with possibilities. Most Primary Years Programme (PYP) Early Years educators feel that the word “play” is synonymous with the word “inquiry”. As teachers, we can be intentional about marrying the joy of learning through play with our learning outcomes. I don’t think we have to suck the fun out of everything to make it “learning”; in fact, I think it has to be injected back into the process, especially when I consider that real * (think Albert Einstein and Euclid and Leonardo Pisano aka Fibonacci) mathematicians are exceptionally creative and playful with their ideas. (*Actually, I think ALL of us are REAL mathematicians, but not all of us embrace and delight in this aspect of ourselves).

So then if I approach inquiry maths through the lens of play, I need to consider ….

What tools can we use for play?

  • Loose parts?
  • Technology?
  • Each other?
  • Math resources (traditional, like geometric shapes, Unifix cubes, hundreds chart etc.?)
  • Math resources (non-traditional materials that allow students to create. ie: a bridge)

What mathematical ideas can be developed and deepened through play?

I actually believe that most of the time, when we are authentically engaging in math decisions, we are not doing “number” and then “measurement” and then “data handling”–it’s not that discrete in real life and often time these strands are happening simultaneously and overlapping. Play expresses this transdisciplinary nature.

What language can I use to invite “playfulness” with math?

I think our teacher talk is actually a critical component of shaping our mathematical identities. Also, the enthusiasm I communicate, either through my speech or through non-verbal cues is something that I want to be mindful of. My favorite book that addresses this is still Mathematical Mindsets  but I also love the simplicity of Peter Johnson’s ideas on language and I recently read In Other Words: Phrases for Growth Mindset: A Teacher’s Guide to Empowering Students through Effective Praise and Feedback which had a lot of gems in there that can be applied to developing our language around math learning.  I’ve been ruminating over how I can embed more sophisticated math language in our classroom vernacular, especially with our English Language Learners (ELLs). I really want students to talk like mathematicians, explaining their algorithms and debating approaches to problem-solving in a way that is light and spirited as if we are having a cool conversation. I know that deepening my ability to express the “fun of math” is going to be an area of growth for me because I have been brainwashed into thinking (like many of us were) that math is serious and hard. I STILL have to unlearn this when working with older children.

How can I document their learning decisions so I can create more opportunities to engage, process and reinforce key concepts while also expanding their cognitive boundaries? Right now I am reading A Guide to Documenting Learning: Making Thinking Visible, Meaningful, Shareable, and Amplified by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano and Janet A. Hale in the hopes of deepening my knowledge and finding answers to this complex question. I also find that this Math Mindsets Teaching Guide from YouCubed will be incredibly helpful in my professional learning journey.

So as I think about our first unit of inquiry in our stand-alone Programme of Inquiry (POI), I find this a wonderful opportunity to develop play as a stance to inquiry maths. Here’s the unit:

Central Idea: Exploring patterns and solving problems empowers us to think mathematically

An inquiry into how mathematicians . . .

1.Construct meaning based on their previous experiences and understandings
Make meaning from what they understand

2. Transfer meaning to connect and deepen their knowledge and understanding
Make connections to deepen their knowledge and understanding

3. Apply their understanding of mathematical concepts as well as mathematical skills and knowledge to real life situations
Use what they understand to solve problems

CONCEPTS – Connection Reflection
ATTITUDES – Independence Confidence
LEARNER PROFILE: Knowledgeable Communicator

 

I am considering what provocations would allow the students to “to show what they know”–which is really the essence of our first unit.

Before I do any provocations though, I have to survey and collect data. Nothing fancy, but I need to know their answers to the following questions and then analyze their answers to make informed choices on how we can create invitations to play in mathematics. Also, it helps me to assess the Key Concept of Reflection. aflThese are the open-ended statements that can help me understand where the students are now:

  1. Math is……
  2. Math makes me feel…..
  3. Math is fun when….
  4. I do math by…
  5. Math is everywhere (agree or disagree) because…..

Here is some of the brainstorming that I am considering for “provocations” to begin to shape our awareness in our daily lives and help create an authentic invitation to play. (By the way, this is my first thinking–I haven’t collaborated or researched with peers–so this is raw and rough ideas, happening in real time on this blog):

  • The ole’ suitcase: Place inside a seemingly odd collection of items from everyday life  that represent mathematical strands* like a pair of pants (measurement), a bottle of water (shape and space), a license plate (number and pattern), a bag of candy (data handling), a clock (number), a map (shape and space), some rocks or shells (data handling/number and pattern), some tape (measurement). Then have students pair up, select an item, and discuss the guiding questions. Record their thinking onto SeeSaw.

(*May I just say that I know that selecting those items and arbitrarily labeling them in particular strands is a bit comical because I know that the students will come up with more interesting ideas and connections than I ever will. But this is just an “accounting task” to ensure that, in my adult mind, I’ve covered all possible topics.)

The Guiding Question(s): If math is everywhere, then how are these things related to math? What math might someone have used to create these things?–What ideas were people thinking about when they made these items? (Key Concepts: Connection, Perspective)

The next day, we would need to share those survey results with the class so that students can start developing their identities as mathematicians. We’d probably come up with a display and have the students do a gallery walk and discuss what they noticed. Then I would set out these items and ask a follow-up question: If you were to sort these items, which things would you put together and why? (This is just to further identify the connections they’ve made)

Up until this point, I am just trying to kill two birds with one stone: plant a seed that math can be everywhere and collect data about their thinking. But now I have set up the opportunity to have purposeful math discussions through invitations to play.  Of course, the types of tools and learning situations that can be engaged through play will obviously vary based on the survey and the data collected from the provocation.

But I think we could set up a variety of “challenges” or authentic contexts that can be steeped in play-based situations.

Example: The Challenge: Your mission should you accept it……

  • Fill the cup: using a straw and this bowl of water, how might we fill the cup to the line?

Possible Tools: drinking straw, spoon, soap pump, timer, popsickle sticks, paper, pencils

Because I didn’t ask for a particular tool to be used, then this becomes a more open-ended task, allowing more choice and helps me to get data on the student’s thinking. This amps up the play quotient and math possibilities.

Possible teacher questions: What if you used a spoon (or straw, or soap dispenser, etc..), how might this change your results? How do you know that you have completed this challenge? How might you do this challenge faster? How do you think we could record your success?

This forward planning for a provocation and “play-storm” is really just the beginning. In less than 2 weeks, the doors will officially open and learning will officially commence for the 2018-2019. I couldn’t be more eager to approach this year’s learning with a dedication to play, taking their ideas and imaginings and connecting them to math learning that matters to them is going to be important and fun work. As I consider the possibilities with play, it gets me really excited. I hope, no matter what age we teach, educators see the value and need for play in developing mathematical thinking.

 

#PYP: Sticky Learning: Moving from a Topic to a Conceptually based Central Idea

#PYP: Sticky Learning: Moving from a Topic to a Conceptually based Central Idea

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As an early years teacher, it’s not hard to notice that so many national curriculums are “pushing down” learning skills and content knowledge. So a common traditional approach in preschools and kindergartens has been teaching the literacy and numeracy skills through topics. You teach an “Animals” unit, a “Farm” unit or a “Weather” themed unit.  So when I was recently asked if I could help write a Central Idea for a unit on “sound” for nursery age students, it harkened back to those days for me. Since I know how difficult it can be to break those habits of thinking about teaching those skills through a topic, I thought there might be others out there who’d like to figure out how to take a topic and have it evolve into a conceptually-based unit and I decided to disentangle this approach in a blog post.
First of all, what is all the hubbub between a topic and a concept anyhow? Let’s just get that squared away before we go further. made-to-stick_quoteA classic definition of a concept is an enduring understanding that is broad enough that you can transfer it across disciplines and time. But I’d like to add that a concept is something that makes you think, makes you wonder, gets those neurons firing. A topic fades from your mind, just like a rainbow after a shower–it seemed lovely at the moment, but quickly disappears from your memory. You see that quote from Chip and Dan Heath–our goal whenever we write a Central Idea is nearly the same–an idea so profound that an individual could spend a lifetime learning about it. This is why the PYP makes such a fuss about developing conceptual knowledge and skills. Learning facts and skills without a context is a waste of time and often evaporates unless we make units that are “sticky”.  Concepts are like a bad rash that won’t go away. Concepts get under our skin and stick with us and reappear in new contexts that broaden our perspectives.
I’d just like to say that writing a central idea is easier than you think, but first, it’s important to ask Why is this worth knowing and How does it connect to other learning? –This is especially true for younger students since they have limited life experience to draw upon. No matter what ideas you bring forward in the learning, this is where we start. In a previous post, #PYP: 3 Things to Consider when Evaluating a Programme of Inquiry, I reiterate the driving force behind the Written Curriculum, in which Central Ideas are developed to be engaging, relevant, challenging and significant.  Here is how the IB defines them:
Engaging: Of interest to the students, and involving them actively in their own learning.
Relevant: Linked to the students’ prior knowledge and experience, and current circumstances, and therefore placing learning in a context connected to the lives of the students.
Challenging: Extending the prior knowledge and experience of the students to increase their competencies and understanding.
Significant: Contributing to an understanding of the transdisciplinary nature of the theme, and therefore to an understanding of commonality of human experiences.
So when writing a UOI, I start with related concepts. “Sound” is typically considered a topic all by itself and it would really narrow the learning experiences of students. However, if you add the related concepts, then it makes the unit more conceptually based. Taryn Bond Clegg shared a helpful list of these related concepts.
So, let’s have a think about concepts that sound is connected to…..
The concept of Pattern can examine sound relationships such as rhyme, rhythm, tone, and pitch. It’s also a great math link.
The concept of Properties can make a connection to materials and how it impacts the quality of sounds. This also makes a great math link for attributes and data.
The concept of Imagination is another one that could make for an engaging unit, as the students in this year group can interpret sounds and make images related to sounds they hear  (Interpretation is another concept that might be relatable.)
So, looking at those related concepts, now it’s a matter of determining what’s relevant and worth knowing for your students. I’d choose one of those concepts and write a simple central idea–especially if they are 3-5 year-olds. Anything longer and more sophisticated is just “blah-blah language” (a term described by a 4-year-old to me once. Bless his heart.) The younger ones are constructing meaning, so let’s honor that’s where they are at developmentally.
Examples of UOIs that reframe this topic into a conceptually based learning unit might be:
Discovering patterns help us make sense of our world.
The properties of a material determine how it is used.
The interpretation of sounds can spark our imagination.
The intention is for students to construct the meaning of these concepts and we can embed the topic of “sound” in our lines of inquiry.
For example: Discovering patterns help us make sense of our world.
  • what is a pattern (form)–thinking about beat and rhythm
  • how we use sound to make patterns (function)
  • patterns in language (connection)–rhymes and poems
  • different ways we can change a pattern (change)–tone and pitch
  • patterns in our world (reflection)–sounds can be a learning lens for this
 (I bet if I had a music or performing arts teacher sitting next to me, they’d be nudging me with more examples.)
For older students, we can expand this Central Idea:
Discovering patterns help us make sense of our world and spark our creativity.
*the and in that Central Idea invites students to move from exploration to creation of the concept of patterns because we would expect older students to be applying knowledge since they’ve probably already constructed a basic understanding of this concept.
However, I wouldn’t say that Central Ideas have to be lengthier or all about applying knowledge in upper-grade levels. They will likely come across concepts are entirely new, and there would be a danger of “overpacking” a Central Idea. More complex concepts might be biodiversity, government, and networks. We’d want central ideas to go deep, not wide, and yet provide for a multitude of student inquiries. Consider the challenges in teaching the following Central Idea:
The well-being of an ecosystem can be determined by its biodiversity.
If this is the first time that students are exposed to the concept of an ecosystem, then this will make for a challenging unit because the teacher will have to ensure that the students have that understanding of food webs before they can build upon it to get the concept of biodiversity. Make sure it has been explored in previous units or rewrite the Central Idea so that it’s simplified:
The growth of living things determines the well-being of an ecosystem.
The “blah-blah language” has been diluted and now the focus is developing a strong foundation. Hey, I heard you in the back of the room-Can you write biodiversity into a line of inquiry? No, I would caution it simply because you are adding another level of complexity and decreasing the chances that students feel confident to drive their learning.
I’m not sure if this helps in clarifying how to write concept-based Central Ideas but at least these ideas should get you started in writing units and hopefully empowers your approach to writing a central idea and a unit of inquiry. Remember: If a central idea “sticks” in your mind, then it’s probably worth spending time inquiring into.
#PYP: What is a Successful Programme of Inquiry?

#PYP: What is a Successful Programme of Inquiry?

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This question was recently posed to me and I believe it plagues many curriculum leaders so I am going to address it in this post.

In my opinion, the Written Curriculum is the driving force behind dynamic teaching and learning. So, a successful Programme Of Inquiry has to be viewed through the big picture of the school’s context and the more microscopic lens of the grade level. [bctt tweet=”Teachers engaging and challenging central ideas are vital and we need more single-subject teachers voices to be heard in order to have a more transdisciplinary programme of inquiry.” username=”judyimamudeen”]

However, it’s a process and it’s ongoing. Yet, I’ve tried to summarize some essential practices when determining how close a school is to achieve a “perfect” POI: Coherence and Learning Power. 

Macroscopic: How Do We Develop a Coherent Programme of Inquiry?

Most of the “big stuff” is answered in the PYP document, Developing a transdisciplinary programme of inquiry such as examining the vertical and horizontal alignment of concepts and subject-areas, as well as closely looking at the language of the central ideas so that they are not value-laden and provide for multiple perspectives.   This is the go-to document!

Transdisciplinary-themes

Just a few more thoughts on some minutia for curriculum leaders to consider…

  • The “coverage” of the transdisciplinary theme indicators. For example, looking the Sharing the Planet theme, at what year level are they inquiring into ‘rights and responsibilities”, “the struggle to share finite resources with other people”, “access to equal opportunity”, and “peace and conflict resolution”? By the way, these indicators are NOT in any sequential order so the central ideas that are created around these would reflect the developmental appropriateness of the students.
  • The “coverage” of Key Concepts within a theme. For example, as you look vertically at whole school POI, does your school’s  How the World Works units only examine this theme through the Key Concepts of Form, Function, Causation, Connection, and Change–are you lacking Responsibility or Perspective or Reflection? Cross-check for this. This same examination could also be applied to the Learner Profile and Attitudes.
  • The “coverage” of the subject level strands. For example, what science strands are you missing?–do you have biological sciences, chemical sciences, earth and space sciences, forces and motion and scientific thinking and skills? What about your arts?- what is the balance between creating and responding units? How about “coverage” of social studies?-do you have organizational systems and economics, geography, development and movement of cultures, personal identity, and civic responsibility, and technology and innovation?
  • How does mathematics fit into you POI? Are there opportunities to apply mathematical thinking and skills into the UOI so that it can be naturally embedded and transdisciplinary? What needs to become “stand alone”?–explore data such as standardized testing may help to articulate the needs of your programme.
  • How can we connect dots? What units in the early grades support inquiries in the upper grades. For example, you can’t have an entrepreneurship unit in Grade 3 if they haven’t been exposed to the basic concepts of money and economics in Grade 2 or Grade 1. Or an ecosystem unit in Grade 4 if they haven’t learned about habits and cycles.  What are the prerequisite concepts that students need to explore before doing more active or abstract concepts?
  • Do you need to map the TD Skills/ATLs? You don’t want kids to come to Grade 5 and be in shock when they do their Exhibition. We should be thinking about how to develop research, self-management and communication skills, in particular so that students can become life-long learners.

Microscopic: 6 Questions to determine the Learning Power with Grade Level UOIs

  1. By Whom?-Teacher have excitement and interest: Has teacher friendly central ideas that are broad enough but not too ambiguous so that teachers know how to launch the inquiry and plan provocations.  I personally find that using related concepts in central ideas really help to create focus and address this challenge and is recommended in the Developing a transdisciplinary programme of inquiry guide.
  2. For Whom?-Students need to “Get It”: UOIs should be some “mystery”–students should understand what they are learning about. So it has to have student-friendly language in a Unit Of Inquiry to decrease the “unpacking” of the language of a central idea. The language used in a central idea should develop a deeper understanding of a concept but not be full of so much adult-speak and gobbly-gook that kids can’t access the intention of the learning. The “big words” should be the related concepts that you are exploring.
  3. What?-Go Deep Over Wide: Too much knowledge to develop in a unit of inquiry? Going deep rather than wide is an important feature of a unit. If you have to spend a lot of time “teaching” the unit’s content knowledge, then you either have to disperse the knowledge into weaker units which you can strengthen with building knowledge and skill, or you have to prioritize and streamline.
  4. When?-The Sequence Matters: There are lots of approaches to this, so looking at your school calenadar will help you reflect on when certain units work best. But, my general rule would be to place the easiest conceptual units in the first term and the very hardest unit in the 2nd to the last unit is an important consideration.  (The last unit always gets side-swiped with school-wide benchmarking and celebrations, etc.., so it usually gets cut short hence the suggestion here.)
  5. How?-The Process of Learning Matters: Units that dovetail into one another really help build upon the conceptual understandings of one another and there is a seamless segue of learning. Perhaps units could even be combined because the importance of ideas overlaps and compliment each other. I usually pick a general concept that acts as the uniting theme for a year level. For example, in our current POI revision, Grade 1 units are linked together through the conceptual lens of Relationships:
    • Who We Are:  Our choices and actions as individuals define who we become as a community.
    • How We Express Ourselves: The language we use can communicate messages and develop relationships.
    • How the World Works: Understanding sound and light can transform experience.
    • Sharing the Planet: The cycle of the earth impacts living things.
    • Where We are In Place and Time: Homes reflect cultural influences and local conditions.
    • How We Organize Ourselves: The needs and wants of a community determines how it’s organized                                                             *Hopefully, you can see that there is an intention that the central ideas show a congruence to the year group’s conceptual thread of RELATIONSHIPs in the inquiry.   In this case, I am asking What is the relationship that we are exploring in this theme? 
  7. Why? Student Engagement Matters: The units must be meaningful and create “sparks” of curiosity and student action. If the teacher has to drive the inquiry in order to pull it off, then it has to be scrapped and rewritten. Period. End of discussion.

These are just broad strokes of ideas, but it would wonderful if others could chime in with their suggestions and considerations.

One more thing that I’d like to add is that in schools that have the MYP and DP, I believe we need to extend these conversations beyond our PYP staff and try to develop improved articulation of our school’s programs. Backwards planning from the DP is one way to approach this but I have yet to have this experience.

I’m curious what ideas am I missing here? Can you think of other examples of evaluating the POI that has made it more impactful?

#PYP: Are We More than Data? Units of Inquiry that Develop the Digital Lives of Students

#PYP: Are We More than Data? Units of Inquiry that Develop the Digital Lives of Students

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Have you stopped to consider what this might mean for ourselves and students?

“Cambridge Analytica is just the tip of the iceberg, and this problem doesn’t begin and end with Facebook,” Evan Greer, the campaign director for the Internet activism group Fight for the Future, told me when I asked about last week’s media circus. “It’s not even just big tech companies; retail chains, hospitals, and government agencies are vacuuming up massive amounts of sensitive personal information about all of us. We’re seeing now how that data can be used not just to invade our privacy, but to manipulate how we think.”

Vanity Fair: Why the Privacy Crisis is Bigger Than Facebook

I’ve been thinking about how people and governments are responding to the Facebook privacy scandal, wondering how I, as a digital citizen should respond and how schools, as citizen developers, are considering what might need to shift or change in curriculum.  Of course, this seems obtuse of me to think that schools are holding staff meetings and having conversations about this. Probably most of us haven’t even changed our privacy settings on our personal accounts, either due to ignorance or indifference–what’s the point?–they got our data anyhow! That may or may not be true. But what I do know if that we have a chance to change the trajectory of our student’s digital’s lives, as educators, we should be reflecting and responding to this opportunity.

In the past, I promoted the launch of a BYOiPad initiative starting at Grade 3. I wanted to further expand this initiative to Grade 2 because of its success. When first discussing this idea, we consciously decided to do a BYOD initiative instead of investing in a 1:1 program because of the unique opportunities that this would create in shifting attitudes; students and families would come to see that technology is not a toy, instead it is a tool because these were personal devices, and so they had to consider their responsible use of it. Needless to say, this created real and purposeful contexts for developing digital citizenship.

In the beginning, however, we went for tech and digital citizenship lessons that weren’t embedded into our units of inquiry. These were one-off lessons and usually in response to concerns we had in the learning. But into our second year, there were so many challenges and misconceptions that cropped up, we decided that we would have to write a digital citizenship unit into our Programme Of Inquiry (POI)  in the year group that launched the BYOD (3rd grade) so that they could create a deeper understanding of the tool (iPad) that they were using. This was the Where We Are In Place and Time unit.

The use of mobile devices has changed the way we work and play.

  • How digital technology works (function)
  • Changes in society and culture (change)
  • Our responsibility as digital citizens (responsibility)

And what ensued? Self-initiated and authentic student action.  Why? Because it ticked all the boxes for a well-written unit of inquiry:

Engaging:  Of interest to the students, and involving them actively in their own learning.

Relevant:  Linked to the students’ prior knowledge and experience, and current circumstances, and therefore placing learning in a context connected to the lives of the students.

Challenging: Extending the prior knowledge and experience of the students to increase their competencies and understanding.

Significant: Contributing to an understanding of the transdisciplinary nature of the theme, and therefore to an understanding of commonality of human experiences.

Making the PYP Happen

In that unit, students not only developed knowledge of how the internet works and what a “digital footprint” is but more importantly a critical understanding of questions that mattered to them like “What is cyberbullying” and “Do I have technology addiction?”  So this is where the conversation began within our curriculum but now I have to wonder where it has gone next. hmm…..

Naturally, this experience has shaped me and my attitudes toward technology. And I feel strongly that schools shouldn’t squander the chance to include it into their curriculum.

So as I think about the learning opportunities that can arise in our upcoming How We Express Ourselves unit, I get excited about how we can incorporate more robust digital experiences as a meaningful context for students. Here’s the unit:

The language we use can communicate messages and develop relationships.

  • Different forms of media (form)
  • The way we choose to communicate will affect relationships. (reflection)
  • How we can interpret and respond  (causation)

scopesequencedigital citizenI’ve been examining standards and curriculum sources like Common Sense Media that address the concepts and skills that need to either be embedded or explicitly taught.  Obviously, those lines of inquiry are perfect for developing our digital behavior and we have access to a wonderful resource called NearPod to help support the learning. Also, using our SeeSaw classroom account creates a safe haven to test out concepts around social media and Flip-Grid provides another layer of online interaction for our 1st graders. I think these sorts of platforms give us a “digital playground” for our students to experience the ups and downs of life online.  They also get to develop their awareness and maturity around its use, while applying the critical thinking skills and skepticism of information that we get online.

As we begin to launch this unit, I am wondering about what other educators’ experience has been–I’d love to learn from the observations and struggles that you have encountered.  Please share! Because our humanity far exceeds the borders of our data, and we need to be thinking about how we can educate, not only ourselves but most importantly the Mark Zuckerbergs of tomorrow.

 

 

 

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