Category: Concepts

Mixing up the classroom

On By Margaret SimkinIn Collaborating, Concepts, Connecting, effective teachingLeave a comment

Still on a high from E2 in Paris I am confidently trying new things. Any “Changemaker” activity is a risk and sometimes things don’t work out as planned. Never-the-less, the pleasure is in the experimentation and what doesn’t cause physical harm does them good (or does it?).

Today’s VCE History: Revolutions class was one of those “How might I unlock the brain block to constructing responses?” moments.

We have been working on essay writing throughout the year to date. very early in Term 1 we used plastic building blocks to plan an essay.

France AOS 1
Key components varied from group to group.

We are moving into Russia AOS (Area of Study) 1 – from the coronation of Tsar Nicholas ll to the October Revolution of 1917.

The skills have been forgotten and need to be revisited.

So I asked the Head of Physical Education if she had something we could punch! A set of red gloves and one of black punch mitts were placed in my pigeonhole – and off I went to teach the class about making your point.

Topic: Nicholas ll. A punch for each point worth a paragraph, and we were off.
Everyone had a go
And it was intense!

Hopefully the message was received loud and clear – plan where you are going and ensure that you provide evidence to back up your opinion.

What is E2 and how did I get there?

On By Margaret SimkinIn Collaborating, Concepts, Connecting, education, effective teaching, Microsoft, travelsLeave a comment

The Microsoft E2 Educator Exchange Conference is an exclusive three-day event that brings together 350 of the most innovative educators from around the world for the opportunity to collaborate, create, and share their experiences on how to integrate technology and pedagogy to advance learning, achieve student outcomes, and transform education. This year the event was held in Paris.

Opening block of my Sway showing Paris at night with the Eiffel Tower lit up.

To be selected, educators must be active participants in the Microsoft Expert Educator Program, have qualified as a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert and have lodged an application with the relevant person in their country. For Australians, this is Travis Smith, the K-12 Industry Lead at Microsoft Australia. The application had to be created using Sway; this is mine.

For 2019 Travis chose 4 Australians: Laura Bain, and Mark Savery from Queensland, Jodi Gordon from South Australia and me, Margaret Simkin, from Victoria. A fifth, Stephen Crapnell, also from Queensland, presented one of the whole conference sessions, as well as participated in the challenges.

Mark, Jodi, Laura, Margaret and Steve.
The Aussie team for 2019

In my case I was told that my selection was due to my engagement in programs, including presenting at TeachMeets in the school holidays, participating in online conferences outside school hours, and my social media involvement.

All attendees were required to participate in the following tasks:

  • Educator Learning Marketplace – sharing a learning activity and learning from peers who are using Microsoft technologies in innovative and creative ways. The lessons shared were varied, targeted all age groups from 5 – 18 Years and were in languages other than English in many cases. Many focussed on Minecraft, Virtual Reality or Augmented Reality, for example Mark’s, which combined all three. Mine focussed on Collaboration, which is the nature of my role at The Hamilton and Alexandra College.
My marketplace stand set up, all about collaboration at my school. Australian flags and stickers to give away. Examples of our involvement in global projects.
My stand in the Marketplace.
  • Professional development and certification opportunities – we could all participate in workshops and training opportunities run by peer educators, and product development teams.
Mark, Jodi, Laura, Mike and Margaret
Mingling with those who lead the products we use _ Mike Tholfsen = OneNote (hence the purple cape)
  • Global Educator Challenge – Teams of 6 educators from a variety for countries, many of whom did not speak English, were tasked with completing the Class Hack educator group challenge. This involved a quick tour of the Eiffel Tower precinct and the forecourt of the Louvre, followed by the development of a learning activity using some of the designated Microsoft products to achieve a learning goal. The Translate tool was working overtime!
^ teachers from 6 countries: Argentina, Australia, Czech Republic, France, Israel and Spain.
Team 22 – take on the challenge.
  • Awards Ceremony: held at the Les Pavillions de Bercy. The Musée des Arts Forains – Collection Jean-Paul Favand a private museum of funfair objects located within the Pavillons de Bercy in the 12th arrondissement of Paris. This was an amazing venue with wooden games that could be played (a type of bowls which led to some mechanical horses racing across a space, a point scoring type of pool, fortune telling activities, and lots of life-size mannequins et cetera).
Inside the museum - sculptures and decorations
A location that is truly one of a kind.

Teaching for Sustainability in our School Library

On By Margaret SimkinIn Collaborating, Concepts, Connecting, content, education, SustainabilityLeave a comment

We often don’t think about the things we implicitly teach. Recently, I completed a survey for The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) on our contribution to the United Nations Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This is an example of how we can introduce the complexity of this to younger students:

What is Sustainable Development? from World’s Largest Lesson on Vimeo.

It is interesting to stop and think about what we might be modelling to our students beyond actual subject teaching – something the school library needs to consider on a regular basis.

These are the targets that I believe we are working towards:

These three are probably the most obvious.

SDGs 1

We are so lucky to belong to our College Community – with a long and proud tradition, a strong focus on health and well-being, dedicated and passionate teachers, and a well-established curriculum and pastoral care system based on Justice. We expose students to a number of world issues where these targets are far from being fully implemented and our opportunities to work towards these goals are provided through fund and consciousness raising.

Next, these two are related to each other:

SDGs 2

Last year we had a display based on LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender and Intersex) Rights. The concept resulted from a member of staff attending a professional learning event at our local hospital. Up to date and relevant material was purchased, and a display space near the public phone, located in the Tower building, has been set up with relevant and medically approved brochures. We also create focus displays on New Internationalist topics of note, and refer students regularly to issues relating to refugees and people fleeing war and or natural disasters.

Another set of connected goals which we model as well as teach can be seen in these three target areas:

SDGs 3

The subjects we teach that cover these areas include Geography, English  and Science.  The way in which we live these are as follows:

  • paper recycling bins
  • Papercut is now controlling our printing – which allows for jobs to be cancelled if they are no longer required, and prevents students printing to all the printers in the school but only collecting from one. This has had a massive impact on our paper and toner use.
  • OneNote notebooks which are now ubiquitous across the Senior Campus are also saving us from printing as many work sheets etc.
  • We also consider the environment when we turn on the air conditioners, and lights – and determine the timing, temperature and duration of use based on necessity rather than just having them running.

Can you think of other ways that we are meeting these goals? If so we would love to hear them.

The logos in this article have been used as laid down in the UN Guidelines for use.

Options For Tertiary Study in 2025

On By Margaret SimkinIn 23 dig things, Concepts, education, learning, Thing 12 Comments

Christian Long: Imagining tertiary education in 2025 from EDtalks on Vimeo.

For a long time people have forecast the end of teaching as we know it – but surely we are entering an era where options will morph into something other than the known, something better, something more open and flexible?

In this short film, Christian Long raises a number of questions including:

                                              What are the options tertiary students will face in 2025?

                                              What will it mean to go to school?

He raises some questions that are unanswerable at this present time, but which will affect students currently at school, and for whom we are still providing something more like the experience of our medieval forebears,rather than the agility that the connected world provides.

He reminds us that it is hard to measure the return on investment for attending a tertiary institution now, let alone into the future, even if that is as close as his chosen time frame of eight years.

He challenges tertiary institutions to think about what they are and what they should be; university campus planning should allow for more agile uses, including partnering with other organisations. “Place” will be less bricks and mortar, rather than something that will form part of a fabric of choices ranging from face to face, several days immersion, virtual attendance, flexible spaces and incubators. Just in time learning at scale rather than a set time-frame resulting in a specific degree; adding up to an ongoing and learner driven life long education.

Our schools would do well to be thinking along similar lines.

References

Long, C.  (2012). Imagining Tertiary education in 2025 [Motion Picture]. Retrieved July 5, 2017, from https://vimeo.com/50512142

 

Cambridge City Library

On By Margaret SimkinIn Concepts, Library, travelsLeave a comment

On a recent visit to the United Kingdom, I visited the Cambridge Library (not the university version – the public offering) which is part of a large new shopping centre in the town. As with most modern libraries, it had lots of natural light and was furnished with light coloured shelving. There were large numbers of users of all ages, reading, using computers (their own or the facility’s) and consulting with staff. Staff were spread through the building and were proactive in offering assistance.

Materials were shelved as Fiction and Non- fiction in the adult and young adult section, and Fiction or Information in the children’s area. Face out displays were well used and material was generally shelved in order.

 

overview
A view through the first floor.

 

Children’s offerings:

 

child-1
Each section in the train was shelved in author order

child-2
Parenting material was located in the children’s section.

child-3
Babies had their own spaces (but parents had to reach them!)

child-non-fic
A view through the first floor.

The adult section was diverse and much larger than the children’s collection space.

What I really liked about this library was its quiet sense of purpose, its focus on users, and the fact that  books were shelved in precise order but obviously being well used as they were not pristinely upright!

Perhaps the lack of spine labels on Fiction materials leads to better attention to shelving? Something to ponder.