As our CoETail certificate course comes to an end, as does our final project post.
As mentioned in previous posts, our whole 5th Grade team willingly took on a Science/Social Studies technology rich project for our Sustainability Unit of Study.
Using iMovie, every 5th grade student, either in a group, pair or individually, created a Public Service Announcement (more commonly known as a PSA) to demonstrate their knowledge of a problem of sustainability, how that problem continues to be a problem if we don’t take action, and how we can take action.
Overall the PSAs were a huge success. The technology piece was, at times, frustrating for different classes, but the quality of the PSAs and my student’s ability to express what they learned and how they can made a difference, impresses me.
Now it’s time to reflect on my role in this project.
The rubric used for the teacher in this project can be found here.
I feel that I’m meeting the redefinition criteria of the rubric in all areas.
One particular strength I have, is being able to use “just-in-time” learning during any use of technology. I use the strengths of students to help other students and my class knows that I do not know everything – we all help each other. Hanging in our classroom is our Tech Experts Chart. As we use particular tools during the year, students have the opportunity to volunteer as experts for that tool. They are the “go to” people when you don’t know how to do something, not me, them! This works brilliantly and would have to be one of the best things I have ever used in the classroom.
Another strength that I personally believe you need if you are using technology in the classroom is calmness. We don’t panic or get stressed out when things don’t go quite right. I am a firm believer in modelling this to your students at all times, so that they in turn model calmness when things don’t work out the way they want. We’ve dealt with “lost work”, corrupt files, the spinning colour wheel and a raft of other things that often go wrong when using laptops in the classroom. Nobody ended up in tears, nobody tore their hair out and everyone successfully completed their PSA and has it uploaded to YouTube. (You can watch all 12 of our PSAs from here).
The Sustainability Unit will be getting some tweaks here and there as we reflect on the whole unit as a team. There’s already some things I’d like to add to make it easier for next year but that’s for another post!
