Term 1 was filled with a huge learning experience for myself as it was my first year in Stage 3 and being the only staff member to move with the iLearn project. We also gained a new staff member to our space!
As the term progressed, we were also fortunate enough to go on school camp, and was also part of the peer review process. A huge term!
The iLearn project was a major part of the students learning throughout the year. This is the first time the Year 6's were part of the project and they were very excited when they were told that they were going to be receiving their own iPads for use at school. This meant that the Year 5's were the experts and have to encourage and guide the Year 6's with the use of their iPads. This was a wonderful learning experience for our students as we all know that one of the best ways to learn is through peer teaching.
Once our Year 6's felt confident with their iPads, it was full steam ahead!
Term 1 saw the introduction of the "Flipped Classroom" concept. This was a path I wanted to lead our students on after lots of research. I produced a range of videos, some you can find on my YouTube channel, that I emailed out to students according to the learning that was occurring within the classroom.
A link to one of my videos is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci44ZEBBBms
After introducing this concept, I found that my students were becoming much more engaged with their learning, and were emailing me asking for videos explaining concepts they found tricky. Our students were becoming self-reliant and motivated learners!
I was lucky enough to be featured in the Daily Telegraph regarding this initiative within my school.
With the flipped classroom occurring, we also wanted there to be a big focus on digital writing within our classroom. This was a direct link to the schools implementation plan for English 2015.
As part of our writing program, we wanted our students to develop creativity when writing imaginative texts. We decided to use storybird.com for our students to publish their pieces of writing.
You are able to view a range of texts written by one of our students on the following link:
https://storybird.com/members/PrincessReader/
Students are able to publish their work and share their writing with the public. This has given our students a passion for writing, as they are able to view each others written work easily, and those from around the World!
What a wonderful learning experience this has been for both the teachers and the students!
Congratulations Tanya and the team at St Bernadette's. Great to see you having a go at ‘Flipped Learning’. Once again you are ‘pushing boundaries’ with your purposeful exploration of this technique in your iLearn classroom.
ReplyDeleteI was also thrilled to see how your student “Princess Reader” has embraced the Storybird Writing community. In addition to seeking an authentic audience & motivation for her story writing, she is also harnessing the power of the writing community to find like minded individuals ( other young writers) beyond her classroom walls to give her feedback and suggestions on how to continue to develop her writing skills. I really enjoyed her “Pop Girls” story and especially for her idea to engage other writers by setting up her own Writers Challenge. Looking forward to seeing how she can possibly support others to become keen writers too. In terms of the SAMR model, I’m sure you will agree – this partly self-initiated learning reaches towards the higher levels of SAMR. I look forward to watching her writing skills further development and also the potential for engaging other students in developing their imaginative writing, WONDERFUL ;)