{"id":1077,"date":"2013-05-19T15:44:07","date_gmt":"2013-05-19T22:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/?p=1077"},"modified":"2013-05-20T10:22:24","modified_gmt":"2013-05-20T17:22:24","slug":"the-story-of-a-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovativelearningdesigns.ca\/?p=1077","title":{"rendered":"The Story of a School"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nGuest Post: Jas Kooner, teacher at Woodward Hill Elementary, provides this article. She tells the story of her school and shares the video that premiered at the Engaging the Digital Learner Series. With repeated requests for the video, you can now read their story and watch the video here.<\/em><\/p>\n

Woodward Hill Elementary is an ordinary school with some typical students learning in some extraordinary ways. \u00a0As you walk the hallways, you will find students engaged in audiobooks, writing on blogs, communicating with other classrooms around the world using Skype or Google Hangout and sharing their learning using a variety of ways, whether it is a live drama skit or a Comic Life creation. \u00a0Students and teachers are engaged and using the tools they need to further their learning.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It has been a quite the journey to get to here. This journey began before the school was even built.\u00a0\u00a0 A lot of thought and discussion went into developing a vision for the school.\u00a0 Our staff was very pro-active in having input into decisions that were being made by all of the people involved in the construction and furnishing stages of opening a new school.\u00a0 For example, electrical outlets were placed in the ceilings for LCD projectors and conduit for the wiring in the walls. Classrooms were equipped with large speakers in the ceilings to enhance sound. The PAC contributed by entering the Keg\u2019s Thanks a Million contest and winning $25 0000 to purchase a set of iPads for the school.\u00a0 Using new technology was part of the vision established for the school.<\/p>\n

Once the school opened, there was a steep learning curve for everyone. To be provided with the opportunity to use technology was one thing but to know how<\/em> to use it was another.\u00a0 Teachers had to learn independently and with their colleagues how to best use SmartBoards and iPads in their curriculum.\u00a0 Teachers had to mentor and share their learning with each other.\u00a0 Everyone soon realized that daily teaching activities were easier because of technology such as the document camera and speakers in the ceiling of each classroom.\u00a0 Even teachers who were wary of using computers and iPads found the document camera to be an essential part of every day.\u00a0 Slowly, technology began to transform teaching and learning at Woodward Hill Elementary.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Now, technology is being used as a tool where it fits in naturally for teachers and students. Differentiating learning is made much easier using technology. If a student has difficulty reading content area text, they are using audiobooks.\u00a0 If a student has difficulty showing their learning by writing their thoughts, they are given the opportunity to use DragonSpeak, or Educreations or any number of other tools where they can share their understanding visually.\u00a0 Learning Support Teachers (LST) have a set of 10 iPads in their room that kids who need support use without prompting even if it is not their LST designated time.\u00a0 This puts students in the driver\u2019s seat of their own learning.\u00a0 They use the tools that help them learn best.<\/p>\n

Students who would traditionally have difficulty organizing their work and space seem to thrive using technology.\u00a0 They can save their work to DropBox in specific folders and find it easily.\u00a0 Many students with a lack of fine motor skills use technology because they can take pride in the neat and tidy appearance of their work.\u00a0 This, in turn, boosts their self-confidence as learners and they can see themselves as \u201csuccessful.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of this has happened slowly over time and it is still happening because each teacher is in a different place in his or her own learning. Actually, it has happened in such a way that teachers don\u2019t think that what they are doing is anything special. \u00a0We decided we needed to document the journey that our school had been on in a video in order to share our learning with each other and our parent community.\u00a0 Creating this video was a very eye opening experience.\u00a0 We had to ask staff to share with us what they were doing in their classrooms and at first there was hardly anybody willing to share.\u00a0 Everyone thought that what they were doing was very ordinary and not worth sharing.\u00a0 However, as we stepped into different classrooms to take photos or videos, we were struck by how many teachers were using technology to enhance their students\u2019 learning and how many different ways technology was being used.\u00a0 As we took video and photos we realized we had more material than we could fit into one video.\u00a0 We needed to put the pieces of the puzzle together to tell a story, our school story, bringing out some common themes.<\/p>\n

Once we had a rough copy of the video we shared it with first a small group and then the staff for the purpose of editing it, so that people could point out spelling mistakes and give input into making it better.\u00a0 Instead what ended up happening was that everyone wanted to talk about what was happening in the classrooms and share ideas. Sharing the video made for a rich conversation. We learned that conversations about what we do, and sharing, even if we think it\u2019s ordinary can be powerful, like it is here, where we share our school story:<\/p>\n