(Response to prompt #4: Outline screen-free coding and why (or why not) you think it should exist in the classroom)
The idea of screen-free coding was completely new to me this week, so I did a bit of reading on it outside of class to better understand what it was all about. As you can see in the above picture, learning to code does not always involve a computer! I found the article linked below interesting, and it gave lots of fun and simple ideas of screen-free games for kids that teach coding skills.
Out of curiosity, I looked at some screen-free coding teaching tool/lesson plan bundles on Canadian Classroom. I really liked the look of the “Bee Bots” for younger primary students, I would love a set one day (linked below for my wish list, or yours). I think I liked the Bee Bots so much because they reminded me of more traditional children’s toys like the yellow bus pictured below- I tend to feel put-off by coding activities for kids that look to “grown up” and robotic because they don’t fit into my (perhaps outdated) idea of what is fun for kids.
Screen-free coding as I now understand it is any activity that relies upon and teaches fundamental coding skills without using a screen. Some screen-free coding activities use electricity, such as Bee Bots for example, and others use very basic technology without electricity, such as gears and cogs. But some of these activities are so simple that essentially no tools are needed- such as the chalk-and-water gun coding activity in the first linked website. There’s a huge range of potential ways to code screen free for all age and ability levels.
I had to sneak a little joke in here, so there’s a picture of hopscotch- which I think could be turned into a screen-free coding activity, but is also a coding language and app for kids (linked below).
https://www.gethopscotch.com/ Anyhow, now that I have a decent understanding of screen-free coding, it’s something I will definitely be bringing into my future classroom. I think it’s great for so many reasons, but here’s a few:
Students need to be technologically literate to make it in nearly any part of today’s job market, and knowing how to code is a huge asset
Screen-free coding is a fairly palatable, easy to grasp way to introduce a very large skill set that some people view as unimportant or out of reach
Coding without screens is often much more affordable and accessible than coding with them, especially when working in the public school system
Students today tend to spend a lot of time on screens, which is not the best for their development in many ways- having screen-free moments whenever possible, especially when they can incorporate the fun parts of screen time, is what we need
Tools and methods for screen-free coding often don’t have the limitations of wifi connection, water sensitivity, fragility, and battery life that coding with screens does
Coding without screens can bring kids outdoors more and teach them how foundational coding skills apply to real life scenarios such as games, cooking, driving, visual art, and more
So, I guess I am a coding convert thanks to screen-free coding! I’m really looking forward to learning more about this topic, and eventually finding my own ways to build activities centred around it.
(Response to prompt #1: Use Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle to discuss your in-situ at Gordon Terrace Elementary School this week.)
This week I used Canva to create a graphic for my post. I certainly learned a lot about Canva and feel much more comfortable using it now. I found this tutorial playlist particularly helpful:
(Response to prompt #1: Describe the SD#5 Design Lab. How does it fit in with ‘Innovation in Education’? What stood out to you? Which activities did you choose to do? How do you envision using this space with a class? What sort of project would you choose to do?)
Wow, my experience visiting the SD#5 design lab this week was so fun! I went into it as I usually do with technology (feeling a bit uncertain and not too optimistic), but I left with a changed outlook on technology- which is a recurring theme through tech class this semester. The stock photo above is pretty close to what I imagined when I heard we were visiting a technology-focused “design lab”, but now it’s another funny example of my misconceptions about technology. The design lab wasn’t a room full of computers glowing with eerie blue light, it was a welcoming and engaging learning space that I imagine most students would like to be in. There were all kinds of physical toys and tools for student exploration, and some of the set up tech stations did not involve screens at all. This to me is exactly what innovation in education should mean: teaching students about experimentation, scientific thinking, problem solving, all while encouraging them play and be creative. I found the lab really exciting, and I will go in depth on each of the stations I visited next. Below is a picture I snapped of our host’s smart board while explaining the design process, and it really represents what I want to teach students about technology in all of the following stations.
First, I visited the Bambu Labs 3D multicolour printers in the back of the room. While I was not able to use these printers today, our host let us know that students often operate these machines and use them to create toys or holiday ornaments to take home. I love that this technology is included in the lab to be used by all students, students who can’t afford memberships to maker spaces would likely never get to 3D print something to take home. I like how this is being put in everyone’s hands to learn about.
I went to the 3D printing pen station second, because I love making visual art. I had never used one of these neat gadgets, but I found them quite easy to operate and really enjoyable. I think this would be a perfect art class activity for any age, because it is a unique combination of “drawing” and sculpture, and is such a fun demonstration of how art and technology work together. I’d especially like to use the pens for a primary grade art class before introducing 3D printers, because I think it would be a nice starting point to introduce how 3D printers work in a way that would be easier to grasp. I also think it would be nice for students who do not feel as comfortable with art, because there are lots of templates and moulds to use and the outcome can be aesthetic, functional, or both. Some of the templates and moulds are pictured above, and the spider web I made for my halloween costume is pictured below. What really stood out to me about the 3D printing pens is how affordable and easy to use they are.
Next, I checked out the lego Spike and BricQ station pictured above. I did not have enough time to dive into this one, but the concept is that students use these kits to build lego creations that can swing, spin, drive, walk, etc. either with of without electricity. I love creating artistic things with lego at home, so I think if I gave this one another chance I’d be confident enough to use it in a technology and/or physics lesson with a future class. I really appreciate that the BricQ set is an “unplugged” activity that still fosters an understanding of physics and some aspects of technology. Over the span of a few weeks, I’d like to try both kits (likely with grade 6 or 7) and then compare the pros and cons of both kits. This could even lead into a social studies lesson about large-scale human use of electricity and its positive and negative consequences.
I also visited the lego “train station” and ran out of time to explore it, but I think this one looks like a blast for primary grades. I feel like this lego set could be great for a social studies lesson on city planning and transportation, or to introduce foundational math skills like spatial reasoning and problem solving. Our host explained that he often challenges students to build as many track loops as possible in the space of the table, and that activity would check those boxes while encouraging collaboration in teams.
Then, the VR goggles. These were quite interesting! I think I’d only used a VR headset once previously, so it was a bit disorienting for me- I almost walked into a pole. Oops! I played a game where I was in a witches’ castle making potions, and I found it quite confusing. It took me a good while to get a hang of the controls, but I’m sure it would be lots of fun for many students who are more familiar with VR, AR, and video games than I am. I have heard of teachers using VR headsets for virtual field trips with students. Although I usually prefer the idea of taking students outdoors, I think these headsets could be an accessibility and affordability game changer. Since we all have different needs and abilities, some students are left out of field trips because of things like mobility limitations, health issues, or social and emotional needs (anxiety, sensory overload, etc.). And since the sets are already owned by the school district, the cost is much lower that many field trips and can provide students with otherwise impossible experiences- perhaps a field trip to outer space? A journey to the bottom of the ocean? I would be thrilled at a chance to use these field trip ideas for science lessons. Below is a link to a website that offers these VR field trips, just for inspiration and an estimate of cost.
The Pixicade station shown above was completely new to me, I had never heard of anything like this and still can’t believe it works. I would absolutely use this for a cross-curricular art lesson. I think the video game aspect and focus on function over appearance would appeal to many of the students who don’t feel included or confident in art class. It would be a great chance to teach primary students about types of lines and one-dimensional design, while still allowing plenty of room for the artistically inclined students to be creative.
Lastly, I visited the Ozobot station. I ran out of time to investigate these tiny robots, but I did get an explanation of a neat activity students can do with these. Since Ozobots can be programmed to follow specific line colours, students can get them to move in different ways according to lines they draw in front of the bot. For PE class this semester I prepared a warm-up with a game called “line tag” where students run on specific lines on the gym floor. I don’t understand enough about Ozobots yet to have a clear idea of how this would work, but I can imagine a cross-curricular lesson involving these similarities. Below is a link to line tag instructions, it’s a very fun game that I strongly recommend bringing into gym class.
I learned so much from this field trip, and I still have lots of questions about some of the technology being used. But I’m so excited that students have the chance to learn about these amazing new things, and I am looking forward to learning with them.
(Response to prompt #1: Discuss graphic creation – how do you envision using this in the classroom?)
This week our class learned about creating graphics and using them in the classroom, and I found it quite fun. Pictured above is the graphic I created for class. I originally set out to create a blog banner for this project, but after making the graphic I actually decided to design a logo for my blog instead and use a simpler background. I am a maximalist at heart as you may have picked up from the graphic, but I want to go with a cleaner and more minimalist look for my education blog since I think it better demonstrates professionalism and is less visually confusing to readers. Pictured below is the logo I created for my blog this week- I created it by drawing in my sketchbook, photographing it, then playing with the contrast and highlights to clean up the background. I am not the most tech-savvy, so I’m happy that I could use simple, free tech in my phone to add my art to my blog.
I created my blog banner graphic using Canva, and it was actually my first time on the website. I was excited to learn the ropes because several of my peers use Canva for other school projects and have recommended it to me. I found Canva a bit confusing to navigate at first because of the sheer amount of options for design elements, and I’ll admit I was a wee bit overwhelmed. Luckily, it didn’t take me too long to find the template I needed, and in about 15 minutes I was confidently selecting and editing stickers to spice up my banner. This boosted my tech confidence, and although I certainly have lots to learn before I can efficiently use Canva, I do see myself using it and similar applications in the classroom one day and for school projects.
I think graphics could be helpful for all sorts of things in the classroom, and I’m looking forward to exploring their uses more as I learn. During today’s class, I though about how I could create an “about me” graphic to quickly introduce myself to new classes in a fun way. I’m especially thinking about using this when I meet my year 2 practicum class in the spring, because I’ll only be there for 3 weeks so I won’t have much time to get to know the class before jumping into lessons and observation. I would add details like my “teacher name” (Just Graham? Mx. Graham? perhaps Teacher Graham?), my pronouns, my role in the classroom, and my hobbies.
I would also like to create graphics for classroom posters on key ideas, fun exit slips and worksheets, and powerpoint slides for lessons. I noticed in my recent in-situ experiences that many teachers now have a specific design used in all their classroom decorations, and I think I could use graphic creation sites to make some personalized decorations for my class one day with a nice theme.
The Gibbs Reflective Cycle is a new idea to me, but I found it really helpful when looking back on my in-situ lesson this week. Honestly, I think I’ll print out a copy of the graphic above to reflect on in the future! I could see this method of reflection working well for social emotional situations as well as academic ones.
For this week’s lesson we created stop-motion videos with two grade 3 classes, and I’m going to outline each point in the Gibbs Reflective Cycle as it fits with my in-situ experience.
Description: What happened?
-My year two cohort visited a K-3 Elementary school in the area for an in-situ technology lesson. We introduced ourselves to the two grade 3 classes we were partnered with, then split into teaching pairs and each worked with a group of about 5 students. The students had already learned about using the Zing! Studios app, so when it came to creating the stop motion films they were very confident. The students used their “desk pets” (tiny stuffed animals) as the actors, and created props, backdrops, and a storyline in collaboration with the teaching pairs. When the filming was complete, the students edited, added sound effects, and then shared their creations with the class in a “movie premiere”.
Feelings: What were you thinking and feeling?
I felt so happy to be working in a classroom for this lesson, and I was thrilled that the students were just as excited to create stop motion videos as I was. At first I was nervous to be in a classroom while sick because I was starting to lose my voice, but for this lesson it wasn’t an issue and the students could understand me well. I felt very curious about how K-3 schools work, because before the lesson I actually did not know they existed (embarrassing, right?).
Evaluation: What was good and bad about the experience?
I’ll get the bad out of the way first because it’s pretty quick. In fact, it’s more like “slight room for improvement” than bad. The students enjoyed the lesson so much, I wish they had more time to work on their videos. My group of students had so many ideas about story elements, backgrounds, sound effects, and prop designs that I think it would be great to see them have two classes to fully realize these ideas. In a way that is also the good part- that students were so creative, collaborative, and joyful in this lesson, it really reminded me how amazing kids are and why I want to teach them.
Analysis: What sense can you make of the situation?
I think this wonderful lesson represents many classrooms, but I also have to remember that sometimes things don’t work so smoothly and that’s ok. I think many factors contributed to the success of the lesson, and those factors are not a given in elementary schools. For example, the two classes were grade 3 within a K-3 school, so their way of being probably reflects the responsibility they feel as the oldest students in their school. The two classes were also quite used to the team teaching approach, as were there respective teachers. I think this made collaboration extra smooth, and perhaps even prepared students for staying regulated in large groups of people. I also know from experience that students may act very differently in front of new guests, based on the time of day, and based on all the complex factors in their personal lives that allow them to regulate and learn more easily.
Conclusion: What else could you have done?
I think that I could’ve been more direct in helping the student group with time management. Even though the video came together in the end and the group was proud of their work, the storyboard portion of the lesson took up a bit more time than the budget allowed for. Shortening the group’s storyboard session would’ve allowed them for more time to create props, which they were very excited about but didn’t get much time to do. I also think I could’ve had a quick huddle with my teaching partner before starting the lesson to make sure we were on the same page about divvying up the talking portions, because I worry that I may have used up too much of the air time.
Action plan: If it arose again, what could you do?
If (or more accurately, when) a similar teaching scenario arises, I want to ensure I budget well for time and am not dominating the teaching/learning conversation. I have a personal time-budgeting method I use for essay writing, where I will write down on a paper the amounts of time each portion will take and then move to the next portion as each time stamp passes on the clock, crossing them off as I go. I think something similar to this would be worth a try in the classroom. As I said in the previous paragraph, I would also like to have a 30 second chat with my teaching partner before starting to make a game plan for delivering the lesson as a team.
(Response to prompt #4: Discuss your group’s creation and how you envision using stop motion videos in the classroom)
This week, we had the opportunity to make stop-motion videos in small groups in class. I worked with two lovely teaching program classmates to create the fun stop-motion video below.
We had so much fun making this that when our teacher reminded us class was nearly over, we asked for a few more minutes to add a soundtrack! I was surprised to enjoy using technology (the Zing Studio mobile app) so much, it’s now something I would strongly consider introducing to my future classroom.
The video we created is very silly and abstract, but there is something of a story happening here. A fire starts burning, but once the flame grows big a wave of water douses it and evaporates. One of the leftover water droplets turns into a rainbow that grows bigger and explodes. Bits of the fire, water, and rainbow all mix together, then one of the pieces begins to “eat” the other ones (a bit like Pac Man). Finally, the four surviving pieces bump into each other in the middle and explode away.
For the soundtrack, we just played the video while recording the noises of blocks clicking and sliding together in real time. I liked this feature in the app because it was so simple and accessible, my group was able to record and add our soundtrack in under one minute. I think this video was especially fun because it demonstrates that very simple wood toys can spark so much creativity in all ages. As we worked we noticed simple qualities like the sounds, colours, and textures of the blocks were quite interesting- it felt like being a curious kid again.
My group was all very excited to bring stop-motion projects into our classrooms one day by the end of it, which I think is interesting because it’s not a project I would’ve previously thought of as being “exciting” (sorry stop motion, no offense). In fact, I enjoyed it so much that my key adaptation would likely be giving students more time to create videos and soundtracks, perhaps even props or backgrounds.
I would consider splitting this activity over two classes: during one students could create props, backgrounds, and film, and during the next students could edit, add a soundtrack, and present their videos. I would definitely add time for students to share their videos because after my group was done, we were so excited to share our creation and see what everyone else made. I think this would be great for students because feeling proud of your work and using it to connect with classmates is a great way to keep students engaged and curious in school.
I researched my digital footprint this week because I’ve heard stories of people who expect to find nothing and are surprised at how much the internet knows about them. I went into this exercise expecting to find little to nothing, and I was fully unsurprised by the end of it. I began with a Google search of my name, trying with and without my full birth name and every variation. I added details such as my hometown, schools attended, every form of social media I could think of, and the list goes on.
First, my empty and unused ResearchGate account popped up. Anything else I was able to find was something I was already fully aware of and had (thankfully) consented to be posted. It was all very mundane, a few run-of-the-mill news articles about community activities from my hometown, plus my high school’s graduation Instagram post. Reflecting on this, I felt grateful that people around me asked for my permission about these sorts of things. The few times my name or picture was shared, I remember always being with my family or school and being asked if I was ok with being mentioned or pictured.
Because my name is quite common in Canada and many English-speaking countries, results piled up for every search I did. Although obviously I was able to find my own social media accounts by typing in my usernames (which I can barely remember on my own), I wasn’t able to find any of my social media through searching my name and I think this is because a.) my name is so common, and b.) I’m rarely active on social media and when I am, I’m not doing anything exciting.
Being on Instagram led me to remember one thing I truly regret in my digital footprint, although I couldn’t find it. When I was 14 and freshly on Instagram, I made a very ignorant and hurtful white-saviour post. It was rude, belittling, and really, nobody asked for it. In my mind, I had thought I was being kind and uplifting, but it was the absolute opposite. I say this not to act as if I “didn’t know better”, because I did, but to highlight that intentions are not enough to steer us to make good choices- an important internet lesson I will teach my class one day.
It was my wise Mum who told me about 45 minutes later to delete it, and after becoming unreasonably defensive (as white people often do when we realize we are wrong) I listened. No evidence of the awful post has arisen to this day, and I still don’t know for sure if it affected anyone, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t consequences. This is another internet lesson I want to teach my class: that even if you could perfectly erase something from social media, what matters the most is how it affects the people who saw it.
(Response to Prompt #3: Your experience with social media)
My experience with social media has been fairly minimal compared to many of my peers. I got my first phone when I was fourteen years old, and had never owned a piece of digital technology before. My parents still have never used social media, so growing up it was very foreign to me. Even as an adult who grew up in the age of social media, I still don’t feel very internet literate. Part of this is by choice, because enough hours wasted watching funny cat videos made me feel as if I’d hit rock bottom. I used to get so distracted by social media that it disrupted my life in small ways: I’d find myself staring until my eyes got dry or ignoring my body’s signals to sleep so I could watch another thirty second tutorial on making the best sourdough bread.
When I recently downloaded Snapchat again to join an EKTEP group chat, I hoped I had the willpower to resist the dark intrigue of the internet this time. I did not. I spent an hour flipping through clips of things I don’t actually care about, and by the end I had learned nothing. I also messed my back up by awkwardly hunching over my phone, perfectly still, while I bombarded my brain with media. I was so consumed by it that my brain diverted the pain signals to the spam folder, and I wasn’t in touch with my physical body until I put the phone down. The real kicker is that while I spent an hour scrolling, I only spent about three minutes talking with my classmates- and it all could’ve taken place over text.
Now this might be an extreme example to some, but others with ADHD (and many without) can likely relate. The years I’ve spent without using social media, my knowledge of attention economics, my self-awareness, all felt unavailable to me as soon as I was plugged back in, and I was back doing what I was doing at fourteen. I know my neurotype predisposes me to distraction online, but in my experience it doesn’t seem any level personal effort removes the glaring issue that social media is addictive by design.
On the other hand, I have learned some things from social media. Instagram let me listen to people of diverse beliefs and backgrounds, and I needed that growing up in an overwhelmingly white middle-class neighbourhood in what I’ve been told is B.C.’s most conservative riding. Instagram sparked my engagement in politics as a teen, and provided me with directions to podcasts, authors, scholars, and activists that I still learn from today. I learned about my Queer identity through social media and was shown positive role models I still look up to and feel inspired by.
Instagram showed me the nitty-gritty details of the active struggles between marginalized groups and their oppressors around the world and in my own city. More importantly, it got me out at protests, voting in every election (yes, even school board), sitting at city hall, confronting my bosses, all that good stuff. But in between all that good stuff, I was up late defending issues that shouldn’t be up for debate against people who didn’t care and weren’t ready to listen. I was also up late watching funny cat videos. The amount of hurtful and even dangerous ideas about Queer people, not to mention every other marginalized group, is overwhelming on social media and it left me burnt out and sad. So I choose to learn in other ways, consume different media for entertainment, and make my social connections without the internet.
