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Grade 7 iHistory Projects - Trailer #1

2014-10-30T10:53:00.001-06:00

by Rick Fawcett - Grade 7 Humanities

The Grade 7 Humanities teachers are supporting students in the creation of powerful documentaries that communicate an important aspect of their family's history. Using the iMovie program, students have included personal interviews and a variety of media and images to create visually compelling videos that honour the historical accomplishments of their family.

In addition to crafting creative iMovies, students were challenged to research their chosen topic from a critical, historical, and geographical standpoint. Extensive work was done to help students develop these important thinking skills and strategies, and they have provided evidence of their use of these skills and strategies throughout the learning process. Students were challenged to develop their work around a central theme that spoke to the emotional heart of the story. One way this was accomplished was through the title. Students worked rigorously on creating an impactful title that connected the topic of the story with the historical theme (sacrifice, bravery, perseverance, etc.) We are excited to see what our students will create. Here is a little "Hollywood"-style trailer that gives you a sense of what they are striving for. Enjoy.

An Inquiry into the Northern Gateway Pipeline

2014-09-25T11:38:00.000-06:00

-by Greg Neil, Grade 7 Math/Science Teacher

In the Spring of 2014, I was looking for an engaging question that would connect to the Grade 7 Science Unit Ecosystems and Interactions. At the time, I was hearing a lot in the news about the Northern Gateway Pipeline and I had just secured a grant from ESRI to get training and support with their ArcGIS platform. This quickly developed into an ambitious idea for a major inquiry. I wanted my students to take the lead role in a comprehensive study of the Northern Gateway Pipeline (NGP)—a proposed project to transport oil and condensate along a 1,177 km route between Bruderheim, Alberta and Kitimat, British Columbia.

I adopted a student-led, inquiry-based approach to studying the pipeline, by simply asking students whether they thought it should be built. This quickly led to a huge list of questions that we would need to address in order to back up our opinions with sound reasoning. It was very important that my class develop informed opinions about the internationally publicized NGP and to understand the perspectives of as many stakeholders involved as possible. It was also important that my own opinions remain hidden in order to ensure my students were not influenced in any way.

My Grade 7 students drove the project themselves, formulating their own questions, mapping the planned pipeline route using ArcGIS, and researching its potential environmental and social impacts. We brought in guest speakers from Energy companies, Pipeline Companies and from Environmental Organizations. We even built a large scale model of the pipeline, to accompany our story map, which became the culmination of the students work, complete with a summary of their final decisions. Students even experimented on plants in order to learn about the potential impacts of chemicals entering the environment.

We presented our finished project at the Mayor's Environmental Expo, held every June in Calgary, where our students received an award for their hard work. The video below provides a visual tour of this project and click here for access to our Story Map.

Innovate West - October 24-25, 2014

2014-09-08T14:46:00.001-06:00

InnovateWest is a professional development initiative that focuses on bringing educators together to share, build and reflect on exemplary teaching, learning, and leadership practices with the goal of building a network of innovative educators.

This annual conference will be held on October 24 and 25, 2014 at Connect Charter School. The conference begins on Friday morning with a student guided tour of Connect Charter School on an instructional school day. Participants will have ample time to observe classrooms and dialogue with students and teachers in a rich inquiry setting.

Facilitated discussions will be hosted at the school during the three blocks scheduled on Saturday October 25 as well as one on Friday afternoon. Sessions are built around conversational discussions, collaboration and idea sharing which allow attendees to engage with ideas and actively participate in the event. Discussion Proposal deadline is October 10, 2014.

Join this growing group of innovators at innovatewest.org and on Twitter using the hashtag #iWest. We hope to see you at the annual conference or at one of the many exciting opportunities this school year.

We have a special student teacher rate for registered university students. Contact erin.p@connectcharter.ca for more information.

Beyond the Destination: A reflection on outdoor education

2014-09-05T09:31:00.000-06:00

-by Deirdre Bailey, Outdoor and Environmental Education Portfolio Leader

My favourite moment was every moment. The quiet is beautiful...

When I was a kid, I used to see faces in everything. It’s been nice to find them again.

Grade 9 OE Student

Things I realized I forget to notice in the city: mountains, clouds and the way their shadows move across the peaks, baby trees, the sound of running water, the flight of birds. Awesome moments: getting to know people better, getting to know myself, diving into the glacial water, crossing streams, cooking by the creek, seeing the landscape at 7am.

Grade 8 OE Student

Outdoor Education on a very basic level is about developing learning experiences designed to enhance students’ knowledge and skills in natural settings. Although outdoor programs have always been an important part of our school, the question of how to deepen the quality of the experiences we provide is one that has recently led to many recurring debates and conversations among our staff team. Late last year, it was suggested that a focus on creating more opportunities for students to spend time immersed in the heart of the local backcountry might be a good way to help regenerate connections to nature that can be so easily severed in our technology-enhanced, production-driven urban environments.

This year, we expanded our Outdoor Education Electives program in order to attempt just that. With the goal of equipping students with the skills, understanding and awareness necessary to spend lengthier periods of time in the wilderness, we practiced tent/shelter set-up and take-down, thermo-regulation, backcountry cooking, packing, navigation and leave-no-trace principles. OE students were also held to high standards with respect to demonstrating leadership, initiative, organization and teamwork in order to earn the opportunity to participate in a final 3-day backcountry experience through Elk Pass. Although explicit outcomes for the OE elective were identified as: "the development of skills necessary to ensure safe and sustainable wilderness travel," it was our ultimate hope that the experience might result in heightened social, cultural and environmental awareness and connection. We didn't just want to travel safely in the backcountry, we wanted to reconnect with the heart of this place we live in and cultivate an appreciation for how everything belongs.

As an OE team we really tried to tread carefully, so to speak, as we prepared for and hiked Elk Pass this June with students. We were intentional about shifting our focus away from the destination to the moment and to things we too often grow accustomed to overlooking. The resulting student and teacher reflections were pretty powerful. Although there is always more work to do, this experience renewed my conviction that while there is something immeasurably important about providing opportunities for students to find themselves in the outdoors, it's not just about getting kids outside. It is our approach to natural spaces and our motivations as we move through them that have the potential to create or bypass the conditions for truly thoughtful ecological experiences.

Skip to 7.00 min for student reflections

In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create but by what we refuse to destroy.

John Sawhill

Innovate West is moving to October!

2014-06-24T14:18:00.001-06:00

We look forward to seeing you at the new Innovate West weekend, October 24-25, 2014. The feedback from the last few years was loud and clear: a fall date makes it much easier for teachers to attend, and will provide the opportunity for relationships and connections to grow all year long (and beyond).

Join us on Friday, October 24th for school tours in the morning and the first discussion block in the afternoon for those of you wanting to start the conversations early. Saturday will be similar format (3 discussion blocks) with the reception to occur that evening. Based on feedback from prior years, we have decided to finish the conference Saturday evening, foregoing the Sunday sessions.

Keep checking the website for more information. Registration is open!

Exemplary Teaching and Learning Frameworks

2014-06-13T13:56:00.000-06:00

by Dan McWilliam

In 2011 staff at the Connect Charter School, Calgary Science School at the time, were asked "What does exemplary teaching and learning look like?"

The process and rationale for the creation of the frameworks is described here.

"In addressing this question, reference was made to the work that has been done on student assessment through our AISI project; the Galileo longitudinal research study of the Calgary Science School one-on-one laptop program and student engagement initiatives; the expectations for exemplary teaching outlined in the Alberta Teaching Quality Standard and a variety of artefacts including school evaluation reports, survey data and the fundamental framework as a school outlined in our charter. Students and parents along with school staff members were involved in the process of developing descriptors of exemplary teaching and exemplary learning in Connect Charter School (Calgary Science School.)"

Years later the Exemplary frameworks have emerged as vital tools in developing Teacher and Student Learning Plans, Research and Innovation Projects, Board Initiatives, Teacher Practice, Outreach and Professional Development Strategies, Teacher Hiring and Deployment, Administration and Teacher Evaluations and more.

These living documents are in every classroom, and our school community is aware of, and reflects upon, each of our roles in striving to produce and participate in Exemplary Teaching and Learning. With our recent name change, came a need to revisit and revise the frameworks. Text versions were sent to all of our teachers through Google Drive to share with their students and to add notes of their comments and revision suggestions. A team of teachers then reviewed all of the suggestions and implemented many of them, including a change of format suggested by grade 5 in this blog post.

Below are the newest versions of the Exemplary Frameworks (June 2014).

Outcomes based assessment: Planning for assessment tasks

2014-06-10T15:12:00.000-06:00

-a research project by Kevin Sonico and Louis Cheng (grade 8/9 Math teachers)

Terms such as benchmarks, competencies, standards, and outcomes are used interchangeably (Brindley, 2001) to indicate objectives that students must achieve. Hereafter referred to as outcomes-based assessment, the use of objectives in assessment compares student learning and progress with the intended targets. These outcomes are determined by the Education Ministry and, as such, are universal among all schools in the province. These outcomes are described in the Alberta Program of Studies and this document serves as a guide for teachers. Although there are ensuing conversations around primacy and utility of certain objectives over others, we accept and acknowledge the comprehensive nature of the outcomes.

For the purposes of this action research, we do not intend to contribute to the divisive debate surrounding the learner objectives’ complexity. Rather, we used the outcomes to reinforce our focus in our learning activities - from discussions, assignments, and tests. Although the use of outcomes as a basis for reporting learning may sound clear, their forms of implementation in classrooms by teachers vary. Some may place emphasis on standardized assessments, such as provincial exams. For others, it may look like the use of multiple sources of evidence, such as observations, portfolios, and conversations (Brown & Hudson, 1998, as cited in Brindley, 2001; Davies, 2011). Known as triangulation, assessment of student learning through the use of different assessment practices becomes more reliable (Lincoln & Guba, 1984, as cited in Brindley 2001).

For us, outcomes-based assessment is making the objectives more apparent not only to us, but also to the students. This includes identifying skills that we want students to develop and/or to assess prior to an activity. For this action research, we wanted to find out how outcomes-based assessment impacted three parts of our practice: planning learning activities, recording student achievement, and reporting progress. We collected qualitative feedback from students via survey and used our observations and reflections during the research process.

SONICO
In planning learning activities, the outcomes should be known to teachers. Although it can be tempting to plan and implement lessons that appear to be engaging and purposeful in achieving a nebulous, clarity in the objective of an assignment is key. In using this approach to designing learning activities, the outcomes rather than the products become the focus. For this action research, I used outcomes-based assessment in Math 8 as it allowed me to generate alternative questions or tasks more easily if or when students did not meet grade-level expectations in each of the outcomes. Here are the ways that I planned using outcomes-based assessment in Math 8.

The Math Program of Studies is hierarchical and encompassing, in that it goes from overarching (strands and general outcomes) to more distinct (specific outcomes and achievement indicators) targets. In using the Program of Studies, the general outcomes are shared among all grade levels are, therefore, too vague. Rather, I found the specific outcomes fairly straight forward. These statements often became directions for students. For example, “draw and construct nets for 3-D objects” is a specific outcome of the Shapes and Space strand. When specific outcomes were too comprehensive, such as “demonstrate an understanding of ratio and rate,” achievement indicators are used as targets. There were also instances when outcomes were jargon-loaded. Modifications to the wording of an objective made them more accessible to students. For example, “Model multiplication of a positive fraction by a whole number concretely or pictorially, using an area model” (as an outcome) became “Draw a diagram to answer these multiplication sentences (as a task). Regardless of what part of the program of studies was used to dictate the task, it was done with an outcome or outcomes in mind. And by assigning outcomes for each task, it allows two things: a task can accomplish specific multiple outcomes; and outcomes deemed more significant by the teacher can be achieved multiple times.

Further to using the outcomes as instructions on assignments, they were also used as topics to study in outlines for tests. My students became accustomed to me providing them with a list of topics for their review, and when I forgot them, students were willing to remind me. In structuring tests, the outcomes became instructions. By making the content of the test, that is, the outcomes, less mysterious, I observed a positive difference in their approach to test preparation and test taking. [More on student behaviours/responses to outcomes-based assessment in a later post.] Tests are structured around having an outcome for each section. Although tests are typically scored on a student’s performance compared to the total points, students’ test marks during this action research were scored per section, that is, per outcome. Because each section of the test represented an outcome, this itemized method of assessment allowed us to know which particular outcomes were theirs strengths and areas of need. Although it was difficult to wean students from the practice of tallying a cumulative score or total to indicate their performance on a given task, individually itemizing provides more specific feedback on their learning.

CHENG
Setting up a system such as this is more laborious than merely setting up software or entering formulas into a spreadsheet, it requires a fundamental shift in the way teaching and learning occurs. First and foremost, the use of the “Understanding by Design” or “Backwards Design” model is key to success – starting first at the curriculum and then designing activities to learn, practice and demonstrate. This will have you immersed in the curriculum – the next logical step is to share this with students which may involve combining or consolidating and translating curricular outcomes into student and parent friendly language. It is only reasonable that students and parents should be privy to what they specifically need to accomplish ahead of time. Furthermore, to focus on these discipline specific outcomes rather than the ability to make a poster, fill in a worksheet, film or a movie or complete any other form of a product is not only the general trend in education, but does not filter student ability on non-related outcomes such as “neatness” or “penmanship”. Once these curricular outcomes are sorted, designing assessments to fit these outcomes, I design 3 types of activities: “Big Questions” or inquiry activities for students to explore, group tasks where students can work together to build or complete a challenge, and individual tasks to check for student understanding. This portion might be altered pending on the teacher’s comfort level in using different types of assessment activities, but I have found that checking over skills a number of times in different ways seems to have worked for me. Creativity is still possible with this model - and developing projects with multiple outcomes is not only possible, but encouraged as many objectives are very closely linked.

While on this note, some may choose to use each curricular objective verbatim from the curricula, and others like me might choose to reword/rework the curriculum. However, in either case, during the creation portion of assessment activities, it is vital to think ahead. If a student were to get a question wrong, would the cause of this be because of a misunderstanding of the curricular objective, or something else? Some skills rely on prerequisite skills, so deciding if you want to include these within your outcomes is up to you, but one of the advantages of outcomes based assessment is finding patterns of student strengths and weakness - so there will be no actionable difference between outlining the prerequisite skills or not.

To me, this type of assessment is more work, takes a great deal of foresight, but is educationally logical. In addition, for me, it is the basis in how I as a teacher differentiate. Below are 2 fictitious students’ results and their progress for the first few weeks of a sample class:

Each graph represents a student, along the right hand side, there is a collection of their quantitative assessment feedback, and each assignment contains qualitative feedback as well. However, conferencing with students regularly allows for students to see specifically how they are strong, and how they are weak within a subject discipline. This helps students to see that every student has something that they can improve upon, and every student can celebrate what successes look like for them. Moreover, it helps teachers to adjust their teaching to specifically cater to individual student needs. While many teachers can point out some of the weaker students, knowing what each and every student needs to improve upon can best help improve student engagement and learning.

Lastly, setting up assessments for my students can be a daunting task. How can I clearly separate skills that are so closely related, while not creating work that is too isolated from context? When I was a student, I sometimes struggled with word problems. I quickly learned that if the calculation problems were (for example) multiplying fractions, than the word problems would most likely be the same – thus I would take the numbers given to me in the problem and thoughtlessly multiply them. Working in an inquiry based school, I try very hard to integrate meaningful work in my classes that gives freedom to students to explore within a framework of Mathematics and Science, and while these may seem as though they are conflicting ideas, I believe that tasks both large and small, can be chunked into sub-tasks and eventually skills. It does take a good amount of pre-planning and a good understanding of the curriculum, but I feel that it yields many benefits for students, parents and teachers.

References
Brindley, G. (2001). Outcomes-based assessment in practice: Some examples and emerging insights. Language testing, 18(4), 393-407.

Davies, A. (2011). Making classroom assessment work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Grade 4 Folk Song Unit: Making Alberta's History Sing (Part 4: Going Further)

2014-06-06T10:43:00.000-06:00

by Rick Fawcett

In this fourth installment of Grade 4’s Folk Song Unit series, I speak with Heather Fawcett and Jessica Kelly about the real “meat and potatoes” of their inquiry unit. They address the challenges a multi-dimensional project can present along with the manner in which student success is being measured.

In my role as Curriculum Portfolio Leader, I have been involved in each stage of this unit’s planning and I have been impressed with the amount of careful thought given by our Grade 4 team to each phase of this dynamic project.

Students are quickly entering the stage of the project that will see their songs being published. I believe you will be as impressed as I have been with the depth of learning that is happening in our Grade 4 Humanities program.

University of Calgary Human Performance Lab

2014-06-02T13:49:00.001-06:00

By IanV., Trevor B., and Parker S.
In April, the grade 8’s had the pleasure of visiting the University of Calgary for a human body
performance lab . During this time, we had the opportunity to visit 6 different stations, all with a general focus on human body performance.

The reason for this trip, aside from the learning experience, was to judge a university level kinesiology contest. The grade 8 students were provided with a sheet of paper, containing subsections for each station. We were required to provide feedback for each and every station, as well as a mark out of 10. The kinesiology contest had 6 different entries that included:

• A speed tracker that tested how fast a student would be able to take a slapshot and calculated the average speed.
• An electronic computer program that allowed you to flex and tracked your body movement.
• A motion sensing program that tracked your body movements
• An exercise machine that vibrated as you stood on it, to better improve your balance.
• A shoe station that presented different types of shoes and their effects, allowing you to jump higher and/ or farther.
• And finally, a station which allowed you to experience the sensation of blindness, using your senses to walk and move around. The grade eights had an entertaining and engrossing time on this trip, and hope to experience many more like it in the future.

Student Learning Profiles (SLP’s) Part 4

2014-06-02T13:20:00.001-06:00

By Tanya Stogre and Abby Saadeh

Continuing the Journey with Pathbrite, we took up the challenge of finding See our second blog the most meaningful platform. After exploring a variety of platforms, Pathbrite emerged as one that could work best for all individuals and groups at our school. With this information, we launched into a pilot study with all 100 Grade 7 students, their parents, and teachers to track their experiences with this new platform. Initial survey results from all groups indicated a frustration with different platforms being used across and within grades and a lack of cohesion with requirements of the Student Learning Plans (SLP’s). There was also a disconnect between parents and their child concerning the awareness and understanding of SLP’s.
With this information we recognized the overall need for a common digital platform for Student Learning Plans that would meet our criteria as teachers, students, and parents.

Though the four-month pilot process with Grade 7’s some interesting trends arose. We were able to capture this information through student and teacher surveys, one-on-one conversations with students, class discussions, and a student-parent home conference with students showcasing their Pathbrite SLP. Overall, the work with Pathbrite for SLP’s has been a positive one for all groups. Specifically, using Pathbrite, students found it met their needs as a learner and it was helpful to create their SLP’s compared to the platform(s) they had used in the previous years at Connect. Additionally, students discussed that the organization and structure of Pathbrite allowed for students to more readily connect their work to the Exemplary Learning Framework and use this to reflect on their process as learner. An additional insight that arose was that students have a stronger understanding of the purpose of SLP’s. It is unclear at this point whether or not we can attribute this to Pathbrite itself of the more focused and purposeful approach to SLP’s as a Grade 7 educational community.

The challenge that emerged throughout the process was the issue of the value of Student Learning Profiles in general. Although not the majority, there are still a number of students and parents who are not convinced SLP’s are an important part of the learning process. As well, students indicated that they did not feel that they were able to understand themselves more as learners because of their work with Pathbrite. However, we wonder if this can be attributed to our students having spent a lot of time exploring themselves as learners over the years. Also, because our pilot project was only for four months, the timeframe for students to understand themselves more as learners could have been limiting. This is an area that would be interesting to further explore.

In our conversations regarding Pathbrite and our journey, participants at a recent conference held at our school InnovateWest, suggested that providing an authentic and safe audience and assessing SLP’s might add value for some students. Perhaps this is something as a grade team that could be discussed further with students.

Launching into next year we have several offerings. With the overall successes of our pilot project using Pathbrite for SLP’s, we suggest it could be worthwhile to engage all teachers and students at our school in using Pathbrite. The power and value with an initiative related to learner growth and insight requires several years to come to fruition. It could be interesting and meaningful to use SLP’s to inform the reporting process. We would suggest there could be power in using the Pathbrite SLP’s as a student’s report card.

Part 1: Profiling SLP's

Part 2: Student Learning Plans: Choosing a Platform

Part 3: Student Learner Profiles: Student Voices

Why Innovate West?

2014-05-29T09:51:00.000-06:00

-by Erin Piper

As a charter school, it is one of our mandates and goals to connect and learn with other teachers and school jurisdictions. Innovate West, most recently held May 23-25, 2014, is one of the ways we facilitate in bringing together a growing community of innovative educators to celebrate the many great things happening in education today. We believe that this event, and the people involved, truly reflects the vision and values of Inspiring Education.

This short video depicts how this experience resonated with participants:
For more information on the most recent conference, see this blog post.

Innovate West Wrap Up

2014-05-28T13:37:00.001-06:00

by Dan McWilliam
Our school is still reverberating from the energy and ideas at Innovate West this past weekend (May 23-25, 2014). This was our third year hosting a connected group of innovative educators from Western Canada and beyond. These educators are the 'grassroots' who have developed a social support network online and Innovate West provides the physical meet up of the social network.

The Conference celebrates people and provides them the time and space to share, discuss and develop innovative ideas for education. The conference format begins with a tour of Connect Charter School classrooms on an operational school day where students and teachers share what they are working on and are available to conference delegates. Facilitated discussions are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday with an emphasis on participation. This connected group of educators continue to work together and inspire each other through the year via social media, Edcamps, networking days, and more.

Thank you to all of those who attended and those who followed online. We would also like to thank Office Solutions Inc. for going above and beyond in providing our internet infrastructure. They were also on hand all weekend to answer questions, troubleshoot issues and to even provide prizes for attendees. Thank you for this past weekend and your ongoing support :)

We would also like to thank Telus Spark for their contributions to the conference. We were so fortunate to have Spark co-host the reception event on the Friday and to have Dr. Devon Hamilton welcome everyone to begin the night. The space was perfect and the food was excellent. Thank you as well to the many Spark team members who attended and presented at the event as well.

Join us for a future Innovate West, the next one is planned for October 24-26, 2014. Check http://innovatewest.ca

Links to some of the reflections and social media about Innovate West:
YouTube Video created by Rick Fawcett http://youtu.be/YbLpQT-kop8

Blog Post Written by Michelle Baldwin on Avenue4learning:
http://avenue4learning.com/2014/06/13/innovate-west-2014/

Blog Post Written by Jesse McLean
http://jessepmclean.com/2014/06/13/collaboration/

Storify tracking some of the traffic on the #iwest hashtag
https://storify.com/DMcWilliam/iwest

Blog Post by Dana Ariss
http://daariss.wordpress.com/2014/05/24/more-questions-than-answers/

Learning Freedom

2014-05-13T14:42:00.002-06:00

-by Carly DeBoice (Connect Charter School Student-teacher Alumni and Substitute Teacher)

Occasionally, how students articulate an idea is much more eloquent than that of the teacher. So, I’ll use their words to help me explain the concept they coined today, “Learning Freedom.” 

This arose out of a request for each class to nominate two students to join a team who will help visitors during the upcoming Innovate West conference. Choosing a few students can be a tricky task for teachers. To find a handful of students who were genuinely up for the task, students were asked answer the following question, “What is your favorite thing about Connect Charter School?”

It is important to note that the students wrote individually, without any discussion or prompting. The similarity of many student responses was fascinating. George was explicit, saying, “My favourite thing about Connect Charter is the freedom we are given. Connect Charter lets us have freedom to solve problems any way we want.” Rowan takes this idea further and explains, “I love the freedom because we give you the freedom of how to think, how to feel, and how to learn. In this school everyone is respected for their learning choices. We think this is important because everyone has a different learning way. We believe that everyone is different, and we should have the freedom to be different!” 

As teachers, we talk a lot about giving students choice. Apparently, students perceive providing choice in lessons as, “Learning Freedom.” Integrating elements of student choice into assignments and classwork has been backed up by research as well. A review of forty-one studies by Patall, Cooper and Robinson (2008) concluded that student choice is not only linked to intrinsic motivation, but in addition, quality of task performance and willingness to take on more difficult tasks. However, educators should be warned. Too much choice can have the opposite effect (Goodwin, 2001). The full article can be found here.

Where are you on the “Learning Freedom” scale?

Grade 4 Folk Song Unit: Making Alberta's History Sing (Part 3: Sorting Out)

2014-05-12T14:22:00.000-06:00

-by Heather Fawcett and Jessica Kelly

Through their guided research, students have compiled a wealth of information on an important element of Alberta's history. So, now what? Determining what information is important is a valuable research skill and this is what students are now doing. By giving students the challenge of creating songs, they must make some thoughtful decisions about what information is included in the lyrics. The success of their song hinges on their ability to extract the information that matters most, so sorting it all out is a crucial step in the process.

Students are beginning the song creation process by constructing their chorus. To support them in this crucial step, teachers have enlisted the help of two local singer/songwriters. Tanner James and John E. Buckle spent time working with students to help them construct their song's chorus. The conversations between students were not only helpful, but highly sophisticated. Students were using the language of historians as well as musicians.

Once students have a chorus, they will be building verses to further communicate the story of their historical topic. It should also be mentioned that students are being challenged to approach the story from different perspectives. Considering multiple perspectives is a main focus of the Alberta Social Studies curriculum, and the songs will honor at least two perspectives through their lyrics. How teachers will be assessing student learning will be topic of the next video.

Grade 4 Folk Song Unit: Making Alberta's History Sing (Part 2: Finding Out)

2014-05-07T14:10:00.000-06:00

by Heather Fawcett and Jessica Kelly

In Part 1 of “Making Alberta’s History Sing”, students were tuning in to topics for their folk song projects. Part 2 of the project challenges students to assert their research and questioning skills by compiling information on a chosen historical topic.

After a full day of exploring the various exhibits at the Glenbow, students had a variety of observations and questions about what they experienced. Through a teacher-led class brainstorm, everyone shared the topics that they found particularly interesting. The next step was to conduct some research into each of their options to see which stories had enough information available to support their song idea. Using guiding questions, students visited a variety of reliable digital resources including the Glenbow Museum archives.

With a primary song concept in mind, the focus of their research then shifted towards folk songs. Students were asked the question: What is a folk song? After listening to a variety of folk songs, students thought critically about the various elements that they heard. Students generated questions about folk songs which further guided their own research into this unique musical genre.

Connecting with experts is an important step in the inquiry process, so visits by local musicians Tanner James and John E. Buckle were arranged. Working with actual musicians went even further in helping students acquire a sound understanding of what makes folk songs unique. In addition to answering students’ questions, each artist performed a variety of songs and explained how they take a song from conception through to completion. This co-constructed criteria of a folk song will become the basis for their own work.

The first phase of the “Sorting out” process will challenge students to construct a catchy chorus using a 5-8 sentence summary of the event. Students will liaise with our musical experts during this step since it will involve some sophisticated and specialized language skills and knowledge. From there, the students will develop the verses using relevant historical information gained through their research.

Student Learner Profiles: Student Voices

2014-05-01T09:45:00.001-06:00

A Path to Digitial Student Learner Profiles: Student Voices
by Tanya Stogre and Abby Saadeh

At approximately the midway point of the Student Learner Profile Pilot using Pathbrite, we wanted to ensure we were hearing what students had to say about their experiences. We endeavoured to include a range of student voices. In an informal conversation, we asked students the following questions:

• Do you like using Pathbrite, why or why not?
• Do you think using Pathbrite for your Student Learner Profile (SLP) has or could help you understand more about yourself as a learner?
• If your teacher next year said that they would be using Pathbrite to continue the work you have started on your SLP, how would feel?

After conversing with 11 Grade 7 students, several insights emerged from our discussions. One of the key ideas arising was that Pathbrite was user friendly. One student commented, “It’s easier than most other websites that we used. It’s more simple than others and straightforward. It doesn’t have a bunch of unnecessary items that you won’t need or ever use.”

Another student commented in the same vein, “The way I can use it fits my style – it’s nice and organized, I can organize my work. It’s a good way to reflect on my learning – more friendly – easy to work with, easy tool to communicate.”

Only one student felt that Pathbrite was “complicated” to use.

Other valuable feedback that we received was that some students felt they were able to understand themselves more fully as learners through the Pathbrite process. “I think I have improved. . . I feel happy about that so I wanted to record that in my Pathbrite Profile. It helped me improve and kind of tells me what I’m good at and what I can improve on.” Other students felt they needed opportunities to consistently use Pathbrite to reflect on their process as a learner. “If we got to use it more frequently, it may become more useful.” This was important information for us to consider as it gave a better understanding of how often students felt they needed to use Pathbrite for it to best support them as learners.

The following quotation reflected the overwhelming sentiment of student responses with regards to using Pathbrite as a common platform next year. “I would feel a bit relieved because I wouldn’t have to redo everything, I would just carry on. I just wanted find something and stick with it, instead of having millions of ways of doing it.”

Another student added, “It gets a little bit annoying to do the same thing every year, because some of the information is the same.” It was evident from our conversations that carrying their profile on into the next year is important to students. Yet another student commented on the focus shifting to growth rather than replicating the information from past years. This student mentions, “I think it’s a good idea (to continue on next year) because we are not recreating it. That way we can see how we’ve grown, you can build off what you’ve done before.”

Thus far in our research, we are finding Pathbrite has been able to support our students to meaningfully engage with the Student Learner Profile process. We have found Pathbrite to be user friendly, has a balance of options, with visual appeal and functionality, and engages our students. In the coming weeks we will send a closing survey to our Grade 7 parents, students, and teachers to gain additional insight into our pilot study concerning the value of Pathbrite for our school community.

Profiling SLP's

Student Learning Plans: Choosing a Platform

Grade 4 Folk Song Unit: Making Alberta’s History Sing (Part 1: Tuning In)

2014-04-29T13:23:00.000-06:00

by Heather Fawcett and Jessica Kelly

The Grade 4 Humanities teachers at Connect Charter School are currently designing an exciting unit of inquiry that provides students with an opportunity to create folk songs that communicate a story from Alberta’s rich history.

The design of this unit incorporates a number of Social Studies and English Language Arts curricular elements while also challenging students to express their knowledge and understanding through creative channels. Technology will play an integral role in the process and students will work directly with expert singer/songwriters to create folk song lyrics from their independent research findings. It’s an ambitious undertaking, but the potential for deep and profound learning is obvious.

The Inquiry Cycle

Helping learners understand the various stages of the inquiry process, and what success means at each of those stages, is important in helping them reach their full potential as inquirers. If students have a firm grasp of what skills and behaviors befit strong inquirers, they know what it takes to be successful. To this end, the Grade 4 Humanities teachers have been working with the model pictured above. This framework also plays an integral role in the construction of inquiry units.

The first video documents the “Tuning in” phase of the process. What better way to introduce students to a variety of gripping historical stories than to take everyone to the Glenbow Museum? The full-day tour of numerous exhibits exposed students to a wealth of interesting and important historical topics they could get excited about. Mavericks who “went against the grain” were prominently featured and particular tribute was given to those Albertans who took risks and truly made a difference in our province. This exhibit featured an array of engaging stories. The Blackfoot exhibit provided students a glimpse into the rich culture and ways of life of the Blackfoot people and the Newcomers exhibit exposed students to amazing stories of people who immigrated to Alberta from all over the world. Students came away from this visit with a list of potential story ideas that will form the basis for their folk songs.

The driving question students were asked upon their return from the museum was: What did you see that is worth singing about?

Here is the first in a series of videos that will detail the various stages of the inquiry process that is guiding this unit. Enjoy.
The unit now enters the “Finding Out” phase in which students will conduct independent research into the story they found the most compelling. Using the Glenbow website archives, as well as other trustworthy online resources, students will find out all they can about their chosen topic. Additionally, the classes will conduct an indepth inquiry into what exactly makes a song a “folk song”. Working with local musicians, students will co-construct the criteria for their song creations.

Innovate West Update

2014-04-28T12:57:00.000-06:00

We are officially a month away from the first annual Innovate West Conference at Connect Charter School. The event unofficially begins at a Tweet-Up, the evening of Thursday, May 22 at Wild Rose Brewery and will officially start on Friday, May 23 with a school tour on a regular instructional day.
This was a highlight for those who attended ConnectED Canada in previous years and we will continue with this unique opportunity to see engaged learning in action and to hear the student voice.

On Friday May 23 we are also hosting an evening reception at Telus Spark to welcome delegates and invited guests. We have assembled an inspiring group of keynote speakers to share through the evening punctuated with time to connect and network with innovative educators. Please note that we have additional tickets to the reception for sale ($25/each) on the website for spouses, friends etc.

Saturday and Sunday will consist of 4 discussion blocks (3 on Saturday, 1 on Sunday). A list of these discussions can be found on the website. A daily schedule of discussions will be announced soon.

For a complete daily schedule, including times and locations, click here.

Connecting with the Performing Arts

2014-04-28T10:27:00.000-06:00

“I on the Sky”
Brittany Babott ~ Grade 4-9 Fine Arts Pre-service teacher
Werklund School of Education

A reoccurring theme in my drama classes the past term has been the exploration of what a ‘punctum’ is and how it relates to theatre.

The word punctum is a Latin word:
punc·tum
ˈpəNGktəm/
nountechnical
noun: punctum; plural noun: puncta
1.  a small, distinct point.

I had first been introduced to this seemingly strange word a few years back when I attended a Ghost River Theatre workshop on devising theatre. Co-Artistic director David Van Belle had asked us to participate in an exercise where we would listen to a story and record 10 ‘punctums’, any part of the story that resonated with us or ‘pierced’ us. I have been fascinated with this term and its applicability to drama ever since.

I recently had the pleasure of being able to organize a field trip for all PVA (performing & visual arts) students to attend a professional play. All 200 of us ventured down to Vertigo Theatre Center to attend a YStage play called “I on the Sky” by DynamO Théâtre. The play is a beautiful showcase of the rigor of DynamO Théâtre; it is a non-verbal physical theatre piece incorporating movement, dance, acrobatics and gymnastics. The story is of a woman who has been exiled from her home country due to war, and how she is able to find comfort in memories as she is currently subjected to isolation.

The response from the students was varied based on personal experience, such is the magic of live theatre. I had asked the drama students to either discuss or to journal about their punctums. It was fascinating from an educator’s perspective as there were some similar threads – isolation, loss of family members, acrobatics and spectacle. Some responses were vague whereas others wove personal narratives and personal perceptions throughout. Centering conversations around personal connection and resonance was a really great discovery and learning for me.

Outcomes Based Assessment and Feedback Loops

2014-04-25T08:32:00.000-06:00

Cynthia Nilsson~ Grade 9 Math/Science Pre-service teacher
Werklund School of Education

As a graduating student from the Werklund School of Education, experiencing my final practicum
experience at Connect Charter, one of my professional goals was to focus on assessment for learning in a real and meaningful way, rather than only assessment of learning. With the support and mentorship of Louis Cheng, I was able to gain experience in implementing assessment for learning in a Grade 9 Math/Science class, by combining feedback loops with outcomes based assessment.

The use of a system of feedback loops has been particularly effective throughout a long term Virtual Science Fair assignment. The students chose topics based on individual interest, crafted questions (research or experimental), and designed research and experimental methodologies in order to test and answer those questions. Since the work involved is substantial, it was important for students to be able to gain detailed feedback at multiple stages – assessment for learning – in order to benefit from the project. Therefore, the project was assigned deadlines for each step (Proposal, Research, Methodology, Data and Analysis), and received input from instructors at each stage so that critique and suggestions could be incorporated before proceeding with the project. This formal plan for formative feedback helped students to keep their work on schedule and to gain low-pressure assessment so that they know how to be as successful as possible with the final work. I offered interactive comments on student work as they added information to their projects, which were shared with me via Google docs. I this way the students were able to see and implement advice with very quick turnaround for small details, and keep track of larger suggestions or ideas over the long term. My experience with this method has demonstrated that it is a very powerful tool to help students fine tune their scientific thinking, and it helps make a major assignment manageable in small portions, so that students do not feel the stakes are unreasonably high. However, the process of offering detailed feedback at multiple stages is very time consuming, which means it must be balanced with other options for quick assessment of other skills in the meantime.

By assessing students based on skills or specific outcomes rather than tasks, it also helps to guide feedback, both in the formal ongoing system described above and on smaller tasks. Rather than grading an entire math exam with a total, for example, the exam is broken down based on which skills it requires the students to demonstrate. I have been pleased with the way that this method of assessment allows students to identify and target those skills which challenge them, and in math especially it seems to help students avoid a sense of learned helplessness – if they performed poorly on a test, it does not mean they are ‘bad at math’ but that one or two of the relevant skills need more focus. When a student demonstrates improvement on a skill, the newest mark carries the highest weight in their total scores, reflecting the importance of actually learning and developing over time.

Using these tools has given me a strong foundation in modes of practicing assessment for learning – assessment practices which are of use not only for reporting and recording but also for helping students to develop and practice their metacognition as well as their disciplinary knowledge.

Grade 7 Recycling Centre Geometry

2014-04-16T11:15:00.000-06:00

How to build a recycling centre?

Our grade 7 students were tasked with designing a recycling centre for each of the 4 homerooms in Geometer's Sketchpad. The result was a net that they printed onto a regular sheet of paper. Students then recreated the boxes from the printout to become scaled versions of the original.
their hallway. To begin the process they deconstructed a box and plotted the lengths, angles and shapes into

The second step was to design a recycling centre that could house paper, plastic and drink containers for refund. Working in groups, they developed their centres and created the mathematical net using Geometer's Sketchpad.

The third step was to create a scaled model of their design. Several students used Sketchup, free intuitive 3D modelling software. Some students exported these models to our Makerbot 3D printer, while
others chose to create paper models.

The fourth step was for the student groups to present their design to the class for a vote. Each presentation included the materials, cost, and feasibility.

The final step in the process was for the class to choose one design to build and use in their classroom. Each of the four homerooms in grade 7 now has a unique, student built, functional recycling centre that is the envy of the school.

Magic Spots and Earth Walks

2014-04-08T15:15:00.002-06:00

Here is a blog post that highlights some simple activities you can do with your students to get outside in the beautiful spring weather and have them investigating the natural world. These activities can be done in your school yard or in a nearby natural area.

Since our early days the Calgary Science School has provided outdoor and environmental education experiences at Camp Sweet which is near Olds, Alberta. The camp, developed by former Calgary Science School principal Ron Sweet, has been used for the past 10 years to provide highly successful learning experiences for all CSS students in grades 4 to 9.

Each grade has two overnight camps per year where at least one of them is held at Camp Sweet. Our grade 7 students attended the 3-day and 2-night camp on their second week of school this year!

While there, students participate in a variety of curricular and team building activities. Staff attended Camp Sweet on a PD day to share and participate in some outdoor activities. Many teachers, including our grade 7 teacher have incorporated some of these activities into their fall camps. Below is a reflection from a grade 7 teacher on a handful of these activities.

Magic Spots and Earth Walks at Camp Sweet:

Before introducing the activities, we had a short 'magic spots' moment, where students sat individually and silently, and simply observed their surroundings. We discussed how as 'fast-paced city dwellers', we often stop paying attention to our surroundings and don't take time to truly experience them. Often, we play hectic games at camp, which take our attention away from using our senses to experience the forest. The following activities are designed to help us enjoy the treasures of the forest, while using all of our senses to our benefit.

The students got the most out of these activities when they bought into the premise of quietly and respectfully enjoying their outdoor surroundings. These activities were taken/adapted from the resource EarthWalks by The Institute for Earth Education.

Rainbow chips: The EarthWalks book introduces this activity with a 'myth'-type story. My Grade 7 students found it somewhat contrived, and simply preferred the instructions of the activity. Using a variety of colorful paint or counter samples (from a hardware store), students are challenged to find items in the forest that closely match these colors. Most students started by taking green and brown chips, which they quickly found were actually the hardest colors to match. We were surprised when some keen students were able to match the unique colors which we initially thought would not be found in the forest (e.g. bright reds, oranges, dark blues). Students were highly motivated to find items for each paint chip and they really enjoyed seeing what their peers had found to match the 'tough' colors. This activity forced them to look at small details, rather than the 'whole picture' of the forest.

Touch boxes: This is a secretive group challenge. Teams of 2 or 3 students are given an empty egg carton with 2 opposite 'touch' words written on the bottom. Some examples include: rough and smooth, prickly and tickly, wet and dry. Without alerting other teams to their secret words, they have to gather as many samples of natural items that can be described by their words. It is a good idea to preface this activity with a discussion on being respectful to nature, and only taking small samples of living items. Choosing an area with lots of variety is key to a successful activity. Once each team has completed their touch box (which is more difficult than it initially seems), they trade with another group. Each group explores a new touch box and has to guess the 'opposite touch words'. A well constructed box will be easily guessed by another group. Students enjoyed this activity because they not only had to observe, but they got to touch and feel various natural items, which is infrequently experienced.

Microparks activity: This activity allows students to observe a small section of the forest floor, while using their imagination to create a 'micro national park'. Ron introduced this activity by talking about Canadian National parks and their purpose and influence in our country. He also showed an example of his own micro park. Each group will be creating their own 'micro national park' using a kit of supplies: a loop of string (which can encompass about 1 square meter), a name tag, a pencil, and 10 small nails with tape (place mark flags). Groups will choose an interesting area on the forest floor to encompass with their string loop. This is the boundary of their micro park. They will name their park, and place their placemark flags to mark attractions within their park. Visitors will be attending a tour of their micro park, so each group must devise a tour of their attractions. This allowed great creativity within groups, as some groups took a more traditional and factual approach to their park, while other groups created mythical, imaginative parks. Students created attractions that were important to them, which ranged from the "Worlds Largest Volcano" and the "Best Natural Bike Jump", to a "Mermaid Pond" and the "Deepest Meteor Crater". Each member of the group had an opportunity to lead the tour, while others visited neighbouring parks. Students enjoyed displaying their parks to visitors, using their imaginations to create their own vision and focusing on a small section of the immense forest.

Science Communication Opportunity

2014-04-06T14:08:00.000-06:00

Our Science Communication Club are looking for opportunities to share their knowledge and demonstrations this spring. We would like to support their hard work in helping to find schools, centres, malls or other venues where they can safely demonstrate some of what they have been working on this year.

If you are interested in hosting our club or have questions about the project, please email dan.m@connectcharter.ca

Student Learning Plans: Choosing a Platform

2014-04-01T16:27:00.002-06:00

The Quest for the “Perfect” Platform at Connect

by Tanya Stogre and Abby Saadeh

Through formal and informal conversations with colleagues, students, parents, and administrators over the past two years we have determined the characteristics necessary in a platform for our student learning plans (SLP's). Although recognizing some classes at Connect house their SLP’s in binders and duotangs (as a paper format), we realized early on in our process that a digital platform was critical in ensuring information is easily transferable between and amongst all stakeholders. Asking questions such as: What are the different platforms available? And, what are the strengths and weaknesses of each? were important in our process to find a platform that would meet the majority of student, parent, and teacher needs. The specific characteristics we felt were most important to our school were the following:

Security
Access - ipad/laptop & home/parents/teachers
User friendliness
Transferability between grades & years
Clear visual/clean...easy to view
Good “fit” with our Exemplary Learning Framework (ELF) … re: its set-up (Please see our previous blog post discussing our ELF and SLP’s)
Individuality/Personalization
Cost
Options
Multimedia options
Living/easy to edit or change
Age appropriate features

With the characteristics in mind, we set to assess some of the most popular, accessible and current platforms. To help with our analysis, we created a table indicating the characteristic and its strength in the platform. For example, using the letter H, indicates a strong presence of the characteristic within the platform, M is a medium presence, and L is low.

	Tumblr	Evernote	Google Docs	Moodle	Canvas	Edmodo	Pathbrite
Security	L	H	H	H	H	H	H
Access	H	H	H	H	H	H	H
User Friendly	H	M	H	L	H	H	H
Transferability	H	H	H	L	M	L	H
Easy to view	L	L	H	H	H	L	H
Works with ELF	L	H	H	H	H	L	H
Personalization	H	L	L	L	H	L	M
Cost	H	M	H	L	L	H	H
Ability to Document Process	L	M	L	M	H	M	H
Multimedia Options	H	H	L	H	H	M	H
Living	H	H	M	H	H	L	H
Easy to Edit	H	H	H	H	H	L	H
Age Appropriate	L	H	H	H	H	H	H
Feedback	H	L	M	H	H	H	M
Reliability	H	H	H	H	H	H	?

Through our initial analysis, we felt it was important to further investigate our top three platforms including Moodle, Canvas, and Pathbrite. In the end, we felt that Pathbrite was the strongest platform and seemed to meet our needs and context. Specifically, the cost of Canvas was a significant deterrent. While with Moodle, its nature was more in vein with a management system and currently at Connect the staff and students use Edmodo as our primary management system.

There were many features of Pathbrite that stood out for us. The security feature was of critical importance. With the site’s “private” setting students invite their teacher or parent to view their SLP, if that person forwards the link to a third party (another parent or teacher), the link will not work. This security feature ensures that the student individually selects each and every person that can have access to their Student Learning Plan. Similarly, students are able to indicate whether or not they want to make comments visible to others viewing their SLP or only to themselves.

As well, there are enough features (adding your own images), as well as constraints in features (only three design options) to ensure the SLP’s are engaging to both the student and the viewer. Pathbrite also allows for the SLP’s to be student-focused - there is a lot of flexibility for individuality. Another dynamic feature of Pathbrite is its ability to connect and enliven a variety of mediums - documents, links, videos, images on one’s computer, Vimeo, YouTube, Twitter, Google, Khan Academy, and so on.

To further explore Pathbrite and its features on your own, click the link: http://pathbrite.com

In our next blog, we will discuss the process of the roll-out of Pathbrite with our Grade 7 pilot group and next steps.

Energy Diet- A student post

2014-03-21T12:23:00.000-06:00

Our grade 4 and 7 classes are collaborating this year in the Classroom Energy Diet Challenge. The students have been assembled into small combined teams where each takes up the different challenges. Our grade 7 students have taken up these leadership roles, and below is a blog post written by a grade 4 and 7 pair. They could earn up to 15 points for their team!

Energy Diet (Letter to the editor)
By: T and P

What are different types of energy sources? And which one is best for our environment?

Sun

Solar panels generate electricity from the sun. The old solar panels were made of silicon and now solar panels are made from cheaper crystals but do not work as well as silicon. Solar power is made when the suns light hits the solar panel, the electrons in the silicon get up and move instead of just jiggling in place to make heat.

Windmills
When there are high speeds of wind it creates enough pressure to spin the turbines on the windmill. At wind farms they would provide the windmills facing different directions to catch all directions of the wind. As the wind turbines spin they spin a shaft that lead to a hub then the rotor to a generator. When the generator turns the rotational energy it creates electricity. The electricity can now transfer underground to our homes and other buildings.

This is a windmill farm. As you could see all the windmills are facing all different directions to catch wind if it flows in a different direction.

Coal
Coal is a big producer of energy but also pollutes the most. Coal is burned and water is added which creates steam. The steam moves turbines. The turbines are connected to a generator. In the generator, big magnets spin close to coils of wire. When this happens, electrical currents are created in the wires. Through the wires the electricity travels to homes, schools

Oil
There are places called oil power stations. Those stations are used to create electricity from oil and transport the electricity into homes and businesses. It takes 6 different steps to convert the chemical energy to usable electricity on a power line. First the oil is piped into the boiler where is is burned which is converting the chemical energy into heat energy. The heat energy is moved into water heating the water but turning the energy into steam. The steam creates high pressure in the narrow pipes and then starts to spin steam turbines. Once the steam turbines are turning it is then converting the heat energy into mechanical energy. The generator can use a electromagnetic field to covert this mechanical energy to electrical energy.

Water
A dam is built in special areas for a turbine to be built. There is a hole in the dam where the water turbine is, so there is a controlled amount of water flowing through. As water comes through the underwater turbines it makes the propellers move faster creating energy.

Natural Gas
Natural gas is made from fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are created when there is layers of dead plants and animals that are exposed to intense heat. Natural gas is nonrenewable resource, for it can not be replaced or filled back on a human time frame.
Steps to how natural gas was made.

1. Under water here are dead organisms, animal, and plants are on the surface of the sand.
2. Over the years sedimentary rock starts to cover the organisms making them into fossils
3. Slowly than the pressure and exposed to heat then makes coal oil and natural gas.

Conclusion:
We think that solar power energy is the best to use for our environment. To get solar panels are very expensive, because they use a very rare crystal called silicon. The other energy sources are either creates lots of pollution or use a lot of other resources.

photo credit: Mountain/\Ash via photopin cc
photo credit: Statkraft via photopin cc
http://www.2b1stconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Conventional_oil_and_gas_definition.jpg