Voyage Coetail

I finally did it! How I was dreading this 10mn video but in the end, that was a powerful way of reflecting. I enjoyed working that way with my students. I enjoyed documenting even though I felt sometimes that I was missing some of my students’ learning. Documenting and teaching at the same time is really tricky for me. While putting my video together, I noticed that I didn’t have any shot of my students choosing their topics. Yet I remembered we had a lot of interesting conversations going on in the classroom during that time I regretted also not being able to use SWAY as I did with the first Genius Hour last year. As we started the project early in the school year, my students didn’t have an email address until mid-October, therefore their presentation was already well advanced. [embed]https://youtu.be/CXM6tZ5teZk[/embed] New beginnings Coetail gave me the little  big push that I needed to feel comfortable with Educational technology, how to use it and what to address. The programme I...

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 ...

[caption id="attachment_455" align="aligncenter" width="300"] flickr photo by mrsdkrebs https://flickr.com/photos/mrsdkrebs/6900256573 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license[/caption] Digital story telling and blogging with my students were until recently my main ideas for my final project. But I wanted to use my final project to have my students really being creative. While I was wondering how I could have it worked out, I went to #Learning 2 Europe. Since then I have two bright ideas that I equally like. Genius Hour in French Creating a game with Scratch and Makey Makey : the upper primary grade would create it to the early years to play. I’d like them to create a “Operation” like as they both know, learn or will learn vocabulary about the body. As I’m still discovering Scratch, I decided to give up on the latter to focus on the Genius Hour. Here is my UBD planner. Why do you think this unit is a good possibility for my course 5 project ? ...

Where am I now? [caption id="attachment_426" align="aligncenter" width="300"] flickr photo by eSeL.at https://flickr.com/photos/eselat/5891486456 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license[/caption] While writing my posts for Course 4, I had a feeling of déjà vu ! So I went back to the Course 1 posts as it’s where the déjà vu comes from. What has changed for me? My use of technology was mainly teacher-centered. In my post TIOM Try It On Monday, I explained that I used my IWB as a TV screen, the SMART Notebook software for interactive game and “Plickers”. Since then I have introduced my students to “Quizzlet” that they play on the IWB and to “Kahoot”. That’s for the teacher part. I like those tools as the students are still very excited about it. At first I thought it was because it was new but the excitement and the engagement are still there! No, what has really changed is my way of thinking: it's me, technology and the students. I've re...

What is changing because of technology: education or the educators? This week’s prompt gives me a lot to reflect on! That’s another good thing about Coetail: the reflection part! Reflecting on our learning is already a change in education and it is even more visible and doable because of technology. Obviously, I’ve always reflected on my teaching but not as much as I do now. I’ve never blogged about it. [caption id="attachment_420" align="aligncenter" width="300"] flickr photo by omran.jamal https://flickr.com/photos/62855773@N08/10757491534 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license[/caption] Reflection is, I think, part of the growth mindset and if we want changes to happen, don’t we, educators, need to have a growth mindset? Easy to say when we know how scary tech integration can be sometimes. Carol Dweck, author of “ Mindset ” explained in Recognizing and overcoming false growth mindset We have come to realize that every one of us is a mixture of bo...

One of the most important concepts in teaching is creating opportunities to make thinking visible. When teachers can really see the thinking of their students, they can provide these students with the support and encouragement they need to be successful. I truly believe in this statement regardless of learning strategies educators are willing to use. Tech integration is just a tool to support the students’ Learning. Games, game-based and gamification As I teach K1 and K2, I cannot see my classroom without games. First of all games are fun! Then learning is fun. Thus games have a place in my classroom. I know however that games tend to be less present in my older grades, French classes. [caption id="attachment_407" align="aligncenter" width="300"] flickr photo by Christos Tsoumplekas (Back again!) https://flickr.com/photos/tsoumplekas/4989423482 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license[/caption] I find that just so easy to play with the youngest. Ev...

What I like the most with Coetail is that I have valid reasons to try new things!! As this week is about project-based learning, problem-based learning, challenge based learning….I jumped in and introduced a Genius Hour-like to my Grade 5. (To be honest, the idea came after I attended Marcello Mongardi session at Learning 2) …More on that later… [caption id="attachment_392" align="aligncenter" width="300"] flickr photo by Prairiekittin https://flickr.com/photos/prairiekittin/5951368139 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-ND) license[/caption] The philosophy behind PBL, CBL, PBL… Projects: I like doing projects with my students but at the same time, just the thought of organizing a project gave me goose bump! As yes, it’s always fun to start a project, I find also always difficult to finish it on time, to manage the unforeseen…. That’s why I’ve always kept it simple, kept it analog and more like a wrap-up of what has been learnt in the unit. Maybe it’s no...

Tech integration in a French classroom Have I already told you that I teach French? I believe that teaching language is all about bringing authenticity in the classroom. Because learning and acquiring a new language must be a need. That’s where technology integration fits into my language classroom because it brings authentic materials and I can create “authentic “tasks.   Technology also changes the way teachers teach, offering educators effective ways to reach different types of learners and assess student understanding through multiple means. It also enhances the relationship between teacher and student. When technology is effectively integrated into subject areas, teachers grow into roles of adviser, content expert, and coach. Technology helps make teaching and learning more meaningful and fun. This quote from Edutopia , yet wrote 8 years ago summarizes perfectly my definition of technology integration. #learning 2 I just attended the first ever Learning 2.0 Europe in Milan. An...

This is the end of Course 3 already and that was my favourite course so far as this one was very practical and fun too! My takeaways from Course 3 were the Presentation Zen and the digital story telling. Perfect to use in language classroom! Presentations: I have gathered a lot of student friendly resources to teach the design principles and the CARP principles (found on Jocelyn Sutherland blog) which make me like presentations more now! Digital storytelling: The one I made for the week 4 was the little push I needed to finally jump into the water of video editing. I thought it would take forever not only to edit but also to film the students at work (meaning having some “visual “ activities). I really like the digital story telling as it can be shown to the parents and they can really get a sense of what’s happening in the classroom and hear their children speaking a foreign language. As I have already explained in a previous post, digital storytelling would be such a powerful t...

What’s an infographic? Before preparing for this post, an infographic was for me an editorial infographic or a data visualization , like a lot of numbers put into a picture to make it easy to read. The value of visualization video really helps me to create my own definition of infographics. [vimeo]https://vimeo.com/29684853[/vimeo] We also know that there is a scientific reason for why we like infographics Why using infographics in education? Using infographics in instruction is an innovative and engaging way to ensure that the message you are sharing is visually appealing and easily digested by your students.  They allow students to comprehend, interpret, and analyze complex information in a quick and clear manner.  This combined with the brain research to support why infographics are so effective gives teachers a powerful new tool to use for teaching and learning. I really like this quote from t he JTH instructional technology blog . And it made me think that I have had my students...

I didn’t want to start this post by the usual “I love stories”, yet I love stories…especially when they’re made digitally in French lessons. En français! I kept on asking my students to talk in French, reuse all the words they’ve been learning, to express themselves in French. Obvious to say that some students are natural-born communicator, always happy to talk and raise their hands even if they don’t know the answer and some others who blush just with the idea of talking in front of the group. However when it comes to use technology in the French class and to record them, the activity becomes fun and even the more shy are happy to participate. I regularly record my students when they‘re presenting, reporting to the class or acting out. I found a nice trick to have everybody excited about the activity: recording their feet! I can still hear them, they can still listen to them and everybody is happy to listen to the recording. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqGSj2EgMl4[/embed] ...

I don't like presentations I don’t like presentations. For me it means a speaker with a monotonous voice reading slides. Actually it’s exactly what Don McMillan explained in his talk “Life after death by power point” in the funniest way ever! [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpvgfmEU2Ck[/embed] Slides presentations are a cause of too many distractions for me. I never know if I should focus on the speaker or on the slides. Presentation Zen It was my idea of a presentation before reading the Presentation Zen blog of Garr Reynolds. Although those ideas and methods of presenting aren’t new, they are for me. And yet most of the principles and methods explained are obvious. In his book “ Presentation Zen, Simple ideas on presentation design and delivery ", Garr Reynolds described six principles under the SUCCES acronym. The six principles are relatively easy to incorporate into messages—including presentations and keynote addresses—but most people fail to use them. Why? The au...

Here is my picture! flickr photo shared by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center under a Creative Commons ( BY-NC ) license What can you see? I bet you’ll answer it’s Italy at night from space. Wrong! That’s the generic of Universal studios according to my Grade 4 students. How disappointed they were when they realized they weren’t to watch a movie but we would talk about this picture. First thing first! As I didn’t make any connection between this photo and the generic, we watched the generic to see the difference between the two. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFa_Lbqgun4[/embed] Visual Literacy strategy in action Then, we went back to our picture. I showed them this picture as we are in the cultures unit and I wanted them to learn about Europe and the European Union. (NOTE: Luxembourg is really in the middle of Europe). I really enjoy this kind of activity where the students do the questions and answers, when they can freely express themselves. Here are some quotes: “It...

flickr photo shared by gato-gato-gato under a Creative Commons ( BY-NC-ND ) license What is visual literacy? What’s all the excitement about it? Communications, and visuals in particular, is a field that I’m really fond of. I’m a typical visual learner. I need to see in order to understand, remember, learn… As a French teacher, I use images a lot. I can’t teach without visuals, pictures, drawings or symbols ( The Noun project is one of my favourites). Two years ago, I took a “Speech and Language support for 5-11s” course. The aim is to encourage children’s communication skills. I learned that studies suggest that our minds are organised and more prepared to receive information through the visual route rather than any other sense and that over 50% of messages are conveyed through non-verbal communication. I also learned that our memory works much better when we use a multi-sensory approach. John Medina explained that and much more in Brain Rules . Why is visual literacy important? N...

The bumpy road of collaborative work Thanks Jennifer Keenan  for this collaborative work! I really enjoyed working with you and I think we are a great team! Thank you Suzy Ramsden for sharing your brilliant ideas and thank you Tanya Irene and Sean Walmsley for launching this project! This final project has changed from its initial statement. We decided, with the 4 others teachers working at my school and taking the Coetail programme, to work together with 3 others teachers. After realizing (we were told!) that the group was too big, some teachers left it and the others sub-divided the group into 4 groups. At first, it was: The vision for the whole project would be to have a working infographic for students and teachers as a guide, reference and reminder with lesson plans to go with it. Sean and I ( Tanya ) are looking at the big picture. We are trying to create an infographic for posting online that starts the conversation and thinking process but also identifies the 'outcome...

flickr photo shared by William M Ferriter under a Creative Commons ( BY-NC ) license “Are we gonna watch an Internet video today?” That was the first thing my students asked me when entering the room! How exciting to see that they are so interested in the privacy/copyright/cyber bullying issue! What did I do then? I plugged in the microphone and asked them what the Internet is for? [audio mp3="https://magalibrutel.coetail.com/files/2015/11/WhatInternetfor.mp3"][/audio] So they got it! They understood the power of the Internet. However it’s still for them a dangerous place. [audio mp3="https://magalibrutel.coetail.com/files/2015/12/DangerousInternet.mp3"][/audio] Then, some reminded that there is no difference between online and offline worlds. Some people are still mean to each other on the playground! While listening to them, I gave them this comparison: the Internet and a sharp object. It may be dangerous only if we don’t use it properly. But if we take it the ...