[This post is an excerpt from my EDURO: Coaching from Theory to Practice certificate course from 2015] Every year our school picks a whole-school goal. Last year (my first year at ISZL), we were fortunate as the goal was ‘Technology’. The two PD days in February were designated to the EdTech Team to design and facilitate, and…
Part 3 follow up from: Coaching Collaboratively This week I had my first post-observation meeting with Mrs. H and it went really well. During her lesson last week, I sat off to the side and documented the lesson in a google doc. I simply made observations, noting what the teacher said as well as the…
Part 2 follow up from: Coaching a Self-Proclaimed “Dinosaur” This week, as part of my Eduro Course Challenge, I observed Mrs.H introducing blogs to her grade 1 class. I was so pleased she chose to do this lesson, as last year it was an area of tension for her: whether blogs would enhance the community…
EDURO Coaching Challenge 1: Identify a colleague at your school that you feel comfortable working with. Initiate a dialogue with that person to see if they would feel comfortable with you practicing your coaching skills with them. [This post is an excerpt from my EDURO: Coaching from Theory to Practice certificate from 2015] I’m really…
As I was reflecting on my coaching practice, I thought about some of the points mentioned by Jill Jackson in her article “4 Steps to Your Successful Coaching Model“. Her advice definitely resonates with my experience in my first year of coaching. However, I do disagree somewhat with her second point: Know Your Content. While…
Field Trip to Santi Rama School for the Deaf UOI: How We Express Ourselves CI: People can create and manipulate messages to target specific audiences. To introduce ourselves to students at Santi Rama School for the Deaf…Grade 4s prepared an ASL version of Owl City’s “Fireflies”! The purpose of this trip was to build a…
Emily & Erin pave the way for ASL in 4J! This week we were lucky to have a special presentation by Emily & Erin on ASL (American Sign Language). Since our current Unit of Inquiry How We Express Ourselves focuses on communication and targeting specific audiences, these 2 students took action to share their learning…
Planning for the Grade 8s In the first week of school, Mr. Brian invited our grade fours to be clients for his Grade 8 DT project: Kite Building. We were thrilled to have an opportunity to collaborate with Grade 8s! Last week students had a chance to design their ‘dream kite’! For homework, students explored…
Last two weeks of school…enjoying reading and preparing for Grade 6! As our Grade 5 students prepare to exit the PYP and enter the MYP, we are focusing more on narrative books and literary devices. The last few weeks of school are often the most difficult for students to feel motivated…teachers as well! To…
Today during my Grade 5 EAL class, I decided to trial a new (free!) online visible thinking tool called ‘Mural.ly‘. Its claim is that it is ‘Google Docs for Visual People‘, which couldn’t better define myself or my EAL learners. Using Mural.ly with Beginner EAL students: Tuning-in to UOI vocabulary Students are able to upload…
Innovative Learning 