All the students in our school have iPads and I recently had received 2 LEGO robotics kits; I wanted to find a way to mesh the two together. LEGO has a free app (for iPads only) that allows students to program their robot and connect to it via Bluetooth. The goal of this assignment is to learn about basic function of the LEGO EV3 robot. This includes the motor, color sensor and ultrasonic sensor. The main objective is to learn how to program, or "code", the robot to perform various functions using the "LEGO Mindstorms Programming App".

Socially-based Curriculum Unit

In this unit developed for NAC1O (Expressing Aboriginal Culture), students create a collaborative art piece that expresses Aboriginal identity in a variety of areas. The collaborative art piece consists of many individual pieces of art that form together to form the word “pride.” Each letter has a group assigned to it, and each letter is assigned a theme/idea (ie. clanship, land claims, traditional teachings, community activities, etc) that is researched and then expressed in the artwork of each letter and presented to the class.

Students are provided with an opportunity to discover why Aboriginal peoples identify and are concerned with certain social and political issues. They are also given the opportunity to research an assigned topic, express themselves creatively, work in a group setting, discuss salient issues, and present to their peers. The project also fosters a sense of classroom unity via large group collaboration.

"Padlet is a great place for gathering ideas, sharing them and modifying them later. It's like a living, breathing webpage. Users can add links, YouTube videos, files and images to Padlet notes. They can move and arrange them."

1. Style
2. Invite
3. Post
4. Share

This article from Ditch That Textbooks talks about 20 ways you can use Padlet. https://ditchthattextbook.com/20-useful-ways-to-use-padlet-in-class-now/ (copy and paste into a browser).

"Pear Deck was founded by educators on a mission to help teachers engage every student, every day. With solutions rooted in active learning and formative assessment, we make it easy for you to connect with learners of every age and ability. When that happens, more students participate and learn, classroom community improves, and you'll know you're making a difference."

Watch the video to see how Pear Deck works!

The Free Version includes the ability to:
Design brilliant lessons with interactive questions, polls, quizzes, formative assessments

Work seamlessly with powerful classroom tools from Google and Microsoft

Ready-to-teach templates designed by educators

Support flexible work with Student Paced mode

Teach vocabulary with Flashcard Factory*

This year my major plan for integrating critical thinking and collaboration included a major classroom change. I was rearranged my classroom into pods and I started presenting my lessons in a flipped form.
The pods and flipped classroom provided an opportunity for critical thinking and collaboration. The students were to watch the videos and write down any questions they had on the material. They then met up as a group to go over the material. I found the students would have impressive conversations on the material. They then also worked in their pods to complete the daily practice. I found it was great for the students to be able to work together through problems and struggles. I was constantly happy to hear the students offer their own explanations to each other.

"Free self-paced quizzes to review, assess, and engage—in class and at home."

This is a great formative assessment tool that makes learning and reviewing feel like a game.

This tool is great for students when working individually (compared to Kahoot! and Quizlet where the class plays together). Kids could do them at a station, centre or even for homework.

Turn your assessment into a game!

Anyone can use Quizlet to study and learn content created by other users, or to create your own custom study sets. You can also share sets with friends, classmates or your students.

The best way to get started on Quizlet as a student or a teacher is to search for sets made by other Quizlet users. Students and teachers create new study sets all the time, so it's quite likely that you'll be able to find what you're looking for.

This is a great tool for formative assessment. Students can work in groups and compare answers and learn from one another.

The Resiliency Thought Bubbles project provides an opportunity for students to
demonstrate their knowledge of Microsoft Word. The assignment requires students to
use critical thinking and creativity in writing their own original idea that demonstrates
both Fixed Mindset and Resiliency. Students were shown a series of videos that
demonstrate the meaning of Resiliency then challenged to use critical thinking when
they wrote their own examples. Finally, I selected one student example from each of my
six PAA Multimedia classes and created a bulletin board display; the display includes a
Brain illustration that was a collaborative and creative endeavor between a grade ten
student and a grade twelve student.

Students were given a copy of the grid listing habitats. Each child was asked to select one square on the grid and then research a list of animals that live in that habitat. They recorded only information for one of the grids. When this was completed, each student shared what they learned with the class, and each student filled in the new section on their chart. Our last task was for the students to complete the exit slip, explaining how this made learning things easier. They all decided it was easier to research part of the information and share.

Summary
For my artifact, I incorporated the multiple intelligences and creativity in the
post-assignments for The Secret Lives of Sgt. John Wilson. Before reading the novel, I
had students take the multiple intelligences test
at http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/ind
ex.htm After this, students had a better understanding of their strengths in the
different intelligences. From here, I introduced some of the projects to the students
and I got input from them about possible projects that we could do which would fit
under the various intelligences. I made it mandatory that students choose three
projects, each from a different intelligence. I suggested that they choose assignments
from the categories in which they scored highly on the multiple intelligences test, but
I left the final decision up to them which assignments they would ultimately choose. I
made sure to give students the assignment details before reading the novel, so in that
way they were able to read with a purpose, keeping the requirements of the
assignment in mind.

"Skills Canada Saskatchewan is a not-for-profit Provincial Organization that promotes skilled trades and technologies to young people in Saskatchewan."

This site has a wealth of information about skills and tech and the trades in SK.

*Skills for success - learn about the skills you need for success - videos
*Skills competitions - find skills competitions
*Skills Profiles - learn about construction, employment, IT, manufacturing & engineering, services and transportation skills
*Programs - trade & tech days, National Skilled Trade and Tech Week

The three Grade 2 classes at OES were divided into small groups, to produce a video of the services offered by the Jim Kook Recreation Complex in Outlook, Sk. Each group was given an area of the recplex that provides a recreational service to the community. These included curling rink, bowling alley, archery, etc. Students began with an activity to describe their specific area. Teachers had provided a screen shot within each area for eatery student. Students were then given the opportunity to practice taking video with the iPad. The next step was to visit the recplex and have each child video their specific screen shot. This was planned around an afternoon of Bowling and Skating for the Grade Two students. Each group was pulled from their activity to shoot their video. At a later date, students were given the opportunity to edit and voice over their video footage. This worked well when all the students were doing an art activity with one teacher, and the other two teachers were able to pull the students in small groups to do the editing.

Bring PBL to Your Classroom
Project-based learning is a big part of today?s modern learning
environments. It takes students on a cool journey of creativity,
exploration, and true real-world relevance. What does PBL look
like in action in your classroom?
Solution Fluency provides the building blocks for PBL. It?s a
way for students to learn good problem-solving skills and to
become successful with any challenge.
This PBL Ideas Book will help them do exactly that. Inside are
classroom project ideas for years K?12. There are 9 awesome
projects to choose from with choices for primary, middle, and
senior grades. But wait?what if the scenario idea you like isn?t for
your specific grade?
No problem at all. These PBL ideas are customizable and
scalable for any grade level. They?re also cross-curricular in
nature, and can be adapted to other subject areas.
Explore these scenarios and think creatively about how you
can bring them to life for your students

Activity- 1. Divide the students into groups. Introduce action plan and materials available for use to create the strongest and tallest structure. 2. Each group has to draw and label a blueprint of their plan/design. 3. Create a rubric with students to evaluate their structures. 4. Fascilitate and ask each group questions – What are you using in your design to create strength and stability.(We used this to create a shadow puppet on the ipads that demonstrated their learning.) Assessment 5. Students will test their structures strength using textbooks. Video tape. (Have textbooks readily available) **While presenting to each group in front of the class. 6. Students collaboratively created a Shadow Puppet, designed a dialogue together, and share their learning about structures. 7. Parents were engaged as we showcased our learning at Student Led Conferences on our Smartboard.

This is a series of toolkits for older students.

The toolkits allow students to explore a topic, watch videos on the content, and apply what they learn.

Topics include:
Interacting with profs, library skills, managing your time, preparing for exams, presentation skills, reading textbooks, taking notes, thinking critically, working in groups, and writing.

Sun West 7 C & SECRET Guidebooks Grade 6 to 9 including: character, collaboration, communication and self-management.

Sun West 7C & SECRET Guidebooks for Kindergarten to Grade 5 including: character, collaboration and communication.

Sun West 7C and SECRET Guidebooks for High School including: character, collaboration, communication and self-management.