Designing a new classroom!

Early this spring, my students and I moved to a new classroom. The task of designing and decorating the classroom became a central focus of weekly brainstorming sessions. The students were very interested in being included in the decision making process for the content in the room.

I have been excited to share the before and after photos with my lovely readers. 

Student Suggestions 

When asked about what they would like to have on the walls, the top three (unanimous) suggestions were: 

1. Helpful grammar tips and tricks 

2. Inspiring words or messages 

3. Reminders for better reading and writing 

Before & After Design Photos 

Main work station - before and after 

Room divider (for two simultaneous tutoring sessions) - before and after 

Information wall - before and after 

Panorama View 

Designing the classroom with the students proved to be an amazing way to re-create the feeling of community at the school. With many of my tutoring students coming to the centre separately for instruction, many students do not get to interact with others when they are there. When the students know that they have all contributed to the design of the room they feel more connected to the whole student body, even when they are not there together.

All my best,

Ms. Taylor 

3 Profiles: Secondary School Student's Opinion on 21st Century Learning

As part of tutoring with the SSEN Learning Centre this month, we are focusing on understanding ourselves as active 21st Century Learners. 

We first worked on brainstorming and defining what we think 21st Century Learning looks like in the classroom today using mind mapping.

We then wrote individual mini-blogs to reflect on how the current education system in Ontario is providing 21st Century Learning opportunities and what else can be done to bridge an existing gap.

To begin, the students were each shown this tweet by Lester Laminack to spark their active minds for engaging with 21st century learning concepts. His website http://www.lesterlaminack.com/ was also used for reference.

 MINI BLOG PROFILES

(All information/images shared with permission)

MINI BLOG ONE: ERIC, GRADE 10, DSBN 

 Students from a century ago and students from 21st century are very different. Invention of electronics, such as smartphones and personal computers is the biggest difference between them. Students' learning style and the time period is different. We cannot have a class without collaboration and interactions between students and teachers, and we should remember that we are learning for our future. 

Teachers usually restrict students from using cellphones in a class, but technology can be a tool for students and teachers to make them learn better. Almost every students including grade 1 to grade 12 knows what smartphone is. They use smartphones to communicate with their friends, or playing games a lot, and these reasons make teachers to hate smartphones. However, if teachers can teach students using the smartphones, students will be motivated to learn, because they already are very familiar with the learning tool called smartphones. Electronic resources, such as ebooks or online learning videos actually help students to learn and remember them. 

Teachers in Korea are stuck in the old learning style, which forces students to memorize, not to learn, and actually have a beneficial effect to students for the future.  Students in a class must follow instructions that teachers give, and cannot have a discussion within the class. This method usually makes students to forget what they learned after a year or two because they didn't really understand what teachers were saying. What students did were just copying what teachers said. This is very inefficient way to get students to learn. There must be discussions and debate in the class, and students must share their own opinions and interact with their classmates and also the teacher. Collaboration is also important, but the old method prevents students to learn collaboration and confidence to speak up, and actually "learn". This is why we should have think about the future for the students that really can help them to "learn" something from the education system.

MINI BLOG TWO: BRIAN, GRADE 9, DSBN

 

I often think about technologies settled in our school sometimes needs to be changed or improved. And this comes to my mind very often when I look around my school. When I am looking at slow computer, I think about how should they improve this computer's speed. It's not that I am uncomfortable with these technologies we have in my school, instead, of course if my school is going to expand the level of technologies in learning, they could start putting some more thinking into it. For instance, they could put more classwork into technologies and do some classwork with computers and taking notes with computers to prevent sore arms and hands by writing a stack of notes and make it easier to access their work and so on. They should have more serious rules about electronics and doing other things on computers instead of finishing their classwork. A lot of things should be changing soon and specifically technologies in schools.

40 Tips & Tricks for Essay Writing Success (1F95)

40 Tips & Tricks for Essay Writing Success

Brought to you by: EDUC 1F95 14/15 - Seminar 15 & 16 – TA: Monica Taylor

1.     Do a bit every day so it gets done without a ton of stress.

2.     Start ASAP! Get a structure down early and take your time. Leave time for editing.

3.     DO NOT leave it until the night before. Give yourself time to write each draft and paragraph.

4.     BRAINSTORM

5.     Provide yourself with little rewards when you write to keep yourself motivated!

6.     Go for a walk! Do not underestimate fresh air!

7.     Organize by day what you want to be done certain things. This way you feel less stressed and overwhelmed by the amount of work. Example:

a.     Day 1 – topic

b.     Day 2-5 – Research

c.      Day 6-7 – Thesis / Intro

d.     Day 8-13 – Writing

e.     Day 14-18 – Edit, Edit, Edit!

8.     Start working on the essay as soon as possible and try to finish it a few days early.

9.     Chocolate.

10. Don’t wait until the last minute, work on it in small bits over time. Just don’t leave it to the night before!

11. Don’t underestimate writing out the rough outline. Even the roughest, barest outline helps when guiding you when pouring out ideas onto the page.

12. Plain and simple: plan and structure!

13. Proofread and then have someone else read it.

14. Don’t wait until the last minute!

15. If you have a friend in the class, make the same mini deadlines and help each other stick to them! Treat yourselves to a coffee when you reach a certain point!

16. You can never have too many references when planning out your essay.

17. Cut out all external distractions (music, TV and cellphone YES YOUR CELLPHONE)

18. Find references before you begin writing your essay since this will help shape your thesis and make your overall paper stronger.

19. Use advantage plus in your EDUC 1F95 Sakai Tab to help you. (EDUC1F95 Specific)

20. Make sure that you have all materials ready. Organization and understanding of the assignment is key.

21. Leave a day (minimum) in between writing each body paragraph.

22. Use a clear outline to help organize your thoughts and make writing your essay easier.

23. Write a general rough draft with everything you think is relevant, then leave it for a day or two and go back to edit it. You will have a clearer mind, and notice more of your mistakes.

24. Write a first draft and then don’t look at the assignment until a few days later. It will help you clear your mind.

25. Editing is half the battle. Content is important, but editing and finalizing your paper always increases your mark.

26. Take a break in between essay writing and editing to look at it with a clear head. (Movie break!)

27. Before deciding that you ‘can’t do this’ or you ‘can’t find enough info’ read back through your course notes and required texts with an open mind and with your general topic ready to explore.

28. Research, research, research!

29. When you have all of your information (even more than you need), writing will come easy to you.

30. Remember the rule of thirds! 1/3 Research 1/3 Writing 1/3 Editing

31. BRAINSTORM! Read your essay over and over!

32. If you find something relevant while researching, quote it and cite it right away. Make it accurate and add WHY it seemed relevant (this makes your research easier to use later).

33. Finish essay early and email it to your mom or dad and get them to read and provide suggestions.

34. Tell the people you live with you’re writing so if you try to distract yourself, they can tell you off!

35. Write! Don’t stop! Don’t edit! You done? NOW EDIT! #DRAFTSDRAFTSDRAFTS

36. Take a deep breath. And keep taking them.

37. E-mail your TA if you have any questions. REMEMBER you can’t e-mail them 48 hours before an assignment is due. Be prepared! (EDUC 1F95 Specific)

38. Use your Making Sense book. Show it off to your friends how much easier writing an essay is now that you have started learning tips from the book.

39. Try having a visually accessible calendar with your mini deadlines on it to keep you on track.

40. Be proud of your own work. Be proud of your progress. Don’t underestimate yourself! You’ve got this!