Ms. Simmonds

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Tag: Curriculum

Books Books and More Books

My mother read me to sleep. As I got older, community members read to me for entertainment. When I started school I was asked to read in order to learn facts. I continued to use books and the space of a library as a means to shape my opinions and personality. Self-identity is tied to the media we take in, and a community library plays a huge part in that. Every school that you visit will have a library for the kids to develop their reading and interests. University has provided a new type of text to take in, but it had been lost to me that we can go back and still find value from resources that were used when we were younger.

The library introduced us to a whole world of physical and online sources that will transform how we teach in the classroom. I have never felt so excited to run my fingers down the bindings of stories that were once my greatest friends and spin my thoughts on how I would introduce students to them.

I was able to find so many stories that I had ideas and plans for, and slowly started to understand the overwhelming and wonderful life of a Librarian. Working on my lesson plan about the book ‘The Stinky Cheeseman’ has been so fun and exciting and I can not wait to move forward.

Photo from: https://www.itl.cat/wallview/bwmJwx_library-books-shelf-background-black-and-white-books/

Computational Thinking

We have had all these fantastic opportunities this semester. Ozobots, land-based learning, and now two different Science World experiences. I always link Science World with beakers and tesla, but there is so much more. Specifically, I have found new value in coding through the curriculum and activities shared by Science World.

The initial experience was around unplugged coding, we did things like using arrows to indicate how we wanted our partners to move, and then allowed them to follow. Learning about things like differences in understanding around meaning was so helpful and broadened my understanding of the instructions for students. We don’t all have the same common knowledge.

A personal favourite of mine was figuring out how many triangles were in a picture, this allowed people to explain how they understand and break down problems. We went through a handful of these types of exercises and all in all it was fun and light-hearted.

The second part of Science World was based on the computer and looked at different resources we can use. We also looked at some sequencing examples. I enjoyed this, but almost learned more through the technical difficulties that we encountered. I look forward to using Science World as a resource in my classroom.

Photo: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/130041507964211568/

Ozobots Roll out

There is this culture of the things we ‘should’ be doing. Things our students ‘should’ have a voice in. Growing up there was a lot of emphasis on Stem learning, but how do you actually go about getting into that?

One word friends. OZOBOTS! They are these amazing little golf ball-sized robots that can be customized with these cute little faces and taught how to do tricks. Our class was presented with these cute little guys along with a practice track, bowling pins and some coloured markers. Together we learned how to code through patterns and attempted to get our bots to follow a continuous loop.

As a learner, I knew my interests were at the centre of this lesson. I could continue working on learning what the colour patterns meant, and create a pattern within the partially made track. I also had the opportunity to build my own track and attempt to get the Ozobot to do various different activities.

We worked in groups of 2-3 people and each tried to do the different skills taught to us. We were able to discover our own strengths within the activity and then go through a gallery walk to see how the class approached the subject of coding.

This was so fun that two days did not feel like enough time. I am excited to do this with my future students!