Voyage Coetail

Before Coetail, I was a happy lurker, connected to a lot of social networks. I used them to find information, to stay in the loop. I was following people with the same interests as mine. Tom Whitby explained in Okay, I’m connected now what?  For me a connected educator is one who uses technology and social media to personalize learning for both personal and professional growth. The big picture in being a connected educator is the idea that you as the educator are first connected to the general flow of information, and then secondly, focused on specific connections to drill down to the detailed needs specific to you, or your students’ needs. [caption id="attachment_473" align="aligncenter" width="300"] flickr photo by Jurgen Appelo https://flickr.com/photos/jurgenappelo/6797252840 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license[/caption] When first joining the Coetail community, my only preoccupation was to read as much as possible, to write my blog posts a...

Isn’t it wonderful when you hear your students having those moments? Last spring, I set up a popup maker space. For a whole morning, my students tinkered, made, built and played with scribbling machines . “The role of the teacher is to create the conditions for invention rather than provide ready-made knowledge” Seymour Pappert. I’m telling you, setting this popup Makerspace was a big thing for me. It involved disrupting the “usual” French learning, disrupting the whole classroom. As I organised my room that morning, my mind was spinning with “ what if..”, what if the students can’t do it, what if it all fails, what if it’s too easy for them??? Added to that, the funny look on my colleagues’ faces didn’t help to relax! Yet it was a completely and truly amazing morning! How did I get organised... [caption id="attachment_470" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Photo M. Brutel[/caption] I was lucky enough to attend Learning2 Europe in Milan last spring and to...

New school year, new beginning! Last year, I tried my very first genius hour and it was such a success that I decided to work on it for my final project. [caption id="attachment_458" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Cocochewy.fr via https://www.facebook.com/ChewyPhotos[/caption] My plans were ready and I was hoping to follow this quiet path! The brainstorming of the ideas went very well and we had a lot of topics to choose from. I was concerned that this part of the project took a lot of time but my students were quick to pick up a topic and confident on how to approach it. When my grade 5 students came into the classroom for the first session, I was delighted to use the new devices that the school acquired! [caption id="attachment_459" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Photo by M. Brutel[/caption] Why Genius hour in French class Authenticity, engagement and students’ voices It first brings authenticity in the classroom. And ...