Global Read Aloud Connections

I've been participating for many years, but the Global Read Aloud remains one of my favourite learning activites of the year! The idea is that classrooms around the world read the same book on the same schedule and then make connections with partner classes in a different location to learn and share. I believe these connections are the most powerful part of the project!

This year in Park West School Division, a number of classes participated in the Global Read Aloud and made connections in various ways. Our students have sent postcards digitally or on paper, made Padlet posts online to discuss the book, participated in video discussion on Flip and met online via video conferencing to talk about the books and learn about each other.

One class got to experience an extra-special connection this week!

Ms. Courchene’s Grade 5 class had the incredible opportunity connect with their Global Read Aloud partner classes in New York to meet author Jarrett Lerner online for a Q&A session!

The students in both locations read A Work in Progress by Jarrett Lerner and connected online via Padlet throughout the 6 weeks of the Global Read Aloud to discuss the book. We were so excited when our partners in New York asked if we'd like to join their video call with the author!

The Grade 5s in each location created some great questions to find out more about the author and the process of creating the book.  We had watched some of Jarrett Lerner's Behind the Scenes videos about the book and used that information to revise and improve our questions.  We wanted to ask questions that he hadn't already answered in his videos or on his blog. 

I am super proud of the thoughtful questions that the Grade 5s created!  Students were brave about speaking up to ask the questions they'd planned and it was very interesting for all of us to hear Jarrett's answers.  

To put in perspective what a unique opportunity this is: I’ve been participating in Global Read Aloud since 2014 (with my own class and then with other classes as a tech coach) and this is the first time I’ve ever had the chance to meet a GRA author!  What a special experience!

Exploring Canada's History with Minecraft Education Edition

I’ve been working with teachers & students at different schools in Park West School Division to explore Canada’s history with Minecraft EDU projects designed by The Cobblestone Collective.

We have really enjoyed this creative way of thinking about Canada’s past, learning about history and sharing what we know about our history!

The Canada's History Crate from Cobblestone Collective (available as a free download here) includes suggested activities and video lessons guided by 2 teachers. Our learning activities included:

• Building a settlement in Minecraft
• Building the Canadian Pacific Railway
• Learning about Viola Desmond and her work to promote equity, inclusion and human rights
• Adding an equitable and accessible theatre to our settlements in honour of Viola Desmond
• Creating pixelated portraits to honour important Canadians from our past
• Learning about Truth & Reconciliation in Canada
• constructing a monument to honour the ongoing work of Truth & Reconciliation
• Researching modern changemakers in Canada
• Creating a non-player character to represent a modern changemaker that has made a difference in our country
• Considering what skills and talents we have that could be used to impact Canada and make a difference
• making a final improvement to our settlements that shows what we want to change in our local or global community

Here are some pieces of student work that showcase some elements of this project. All student work is shared with permission.

Take a tour of one group's project here: 

These screenshots show highlights of the settlement:

These portraits were created by the HCI Grade 6 class. Each team built a portrait and a sign to share information about the significant person they chose.

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Miniota Grade 3/4 Minecraft Communities Project

 I was excited when Miss. Emily Hunter invited me to co-plan a Minecraft EDU project for her Grade 3/4 class! She was working with the social studies theme of communities and the science unit focused on structures and materials, so we decided to focus on an interdisciplinary project that would target the outcomes from these units.   Together, we planned a “build challenge” project that allowed her students to showcase their knowledge in both topics.  Students worked individually or with a partner to create a community in Minecraft.  

To show their understanding of curricular outcomes, students made plans for which biome they’d build in and how that environment would affect their community, students identified how their community would ensure residents basic human rights were met and constructed appropriate amenties based on this planning.  Students also came up with laws/rules to be posted in their Minecraft communities and they determined which materials would be most effective for building their community structures (a link to their science outcomes).  The Grade 3 and 4 students also demonstrated social studies skills from their curriculum through effective communication and collaboration, managing information and using critical and creative thinking skills.   

Here is a snapshot of some of the planning students did before beginning their build challenges in Minecraft. 

Once students had a plan, they were given time to build their communities in Minecraft.  Students used the camera and portfolio to take some screenshots of what they had built and they've agreed to share them here so you can see some of what they've created! 

Digital Posters by Grade 3/4

I had the opportunity to help Ms. Ward's Grade 3/4 class design digital posters to showcase their knowledge.  We started by reviewing some exemplars from other students and we co-constructed criteria for our own posters.  We reviewed some key skills like changing page layout, adding text boxes, adding images, changing fonts/colours and changing backgrounds.  Then, students used Google Slides with images from pixabay.com to create a poster that met the criteria.  

To learn more about designing digital posters and see more student samples, visit this blog post. 

Thank you to these students for sharing their work with us!

Story Studio with Mrs. Howard's Kindergartens

I saw the idea for story studio shared on Instagram by Mrs. Leslie Dent Scarcello, a teacher and teacher librarian.  I saved the idea and was excited when I had the chance to share it with my colleague Mrs. Howard.  She was as excited as I was to try out this idea with her Kindergarten class.

What is story studio?

The idea is for students to tell a story orally while using loose parts and classroom materials to "show" the story.  The story is recorded to be shared.

How did we set up story studio?

Mrs. Howard found a wonderful assortment of loose parts and classroom materials to put out for students.  I modelled how to select materials from the options and then set up a scene (a playground with snow hills in my demo story).  We talked about taking the supplies we need, but making sure there is enough for everyone.  

I modelled how I would practice telling my story out loud with a beginning, middle and ending.  Then, we showed what it would look like for the video recording.  I told my story and "acted it out" with my items and Mrs. Howard video recorded for me.  

After modelling, students were allowed to select their supplies and set up their story.  We encouraged them to rehearse and let us know when they were ready to record their story.  We roamed the room to record each student on video and then posted their videos into their Seesaw learning journal for families to see. 

Students were highly engaged in their play and stayed on task so well.  Many of them were hoping to record more stories at the end of our allotted time, so that's always a great sign!  It was awesome to see and hear students express their ideas.  There was lots of originality --seldom did we find the same details in two stories!

What did it look like?

Check out this video for a few clips of the story studio experience in Mrs. Howard's classroom:

How We're Using Minecraft EDU in PWSD

I was so excited to learn that Minecraft Education Edition is now available on Chromebooks since that is the primary device our students use.  I had several colleagues eager to try out Minecraft EDU with their students once it was set up for us this spring.  It's been exciting to see what's possible with Minecraft in the classroom over the last few months.  I wanted to document and share some of the ways that we've used it so far.

Minecraft Water Cycle Representations

Ms. Lee's Grade 8 class at BCI was studying the water cycle when we got access to Minecraft EDU.  Ms. Lee decided to give her students the opportunity to work in small groups to demonstrate their knowledge of the water cycle by building a model of it in Minecraft.  I was really impresssed with students' creativity as they developed their models, especially because many of the things they were representing had to be built out of alternate materials.  For example, I saw some students creating clouds out of wool and invisible processes like evaporation or transpiration were shown through the use of glass panes in Minecraft.  You can check out two tours of a Minecraft water cycle here: 

Manito Ahbee Aki Minecraft World:
Exploring Indigenous Culture and Manitoba's Past

One of the frequent requests we had before Minecraft EDU became available for our school division was to explore the Manito Ahbee Aki world.  This incredible Minecraft world was developed with Louis Riel School Division, a division right here in Manitoba.  When this awesome project was shared in the news, many teachers were excited to experience this Anishinaabe world. 

The Manito Ahbee Aki world is meant for students to explore an area called The Forks (where the Red and Assiniboine Rivers meet here in Manitoba).  This world takes us back in time to learn about traditional ways of living on the land.  Students learn from Knowledge Keepers, explore petroforms (rock formations), gather supplies and craft necessary tools, go on a bison hunt and trade for seeds to start their own garden. I've supported several classes in getting started with the experience and it's been interesting and educational for each group I've worked with.  So far, we've tried in it Grades 4-8.  

Find the world and lesson details here: https://education.minecraft.net/en-us/lessons/manito-ahbee-aki

Pixelated Portraits

Mrs. Shwaluk's Grade 8s created these cool portraits in their art class.  They created a grid over a headshot of themselves, then they chose resources in MinecraftEDU to create a pixelated image of themselves. Mrs. Shwaluk said her students really enjoyed the project and, although she thought it might take a long time to build these, many students completed their portraits in about 30 minutes.  Check out a few samples below:

Survival Tips presented with Minecraft EDU

A few Grade 5 students in Mr. Coughlan's class at HES were researching wilderness survival as part of their Genius Hour projects.  These students thought it would be exciting to present their survival tips in a Minecraft world.  Check out one example below to see how they used Minecraft EDU to share their survival tips:

Student-Created Book Showcase

 A great way to showcase student work is to create a digital book. We've been using Book Creator in Park West School Division and our students have created some wonderful pieces of work to showcase their writing!  Here are a few examples of digital books students have created this year:

I Wonder...

Mrs. Smart's Grade 4 class created I Wonder books.  They developed 4 I wonder questions about an animal they were curious about, then researched the animal to answer their questions and published a question and answer book with the details they learned.  

A to Zed

Mrs. Gorrell's Grade 2 class was inpsired by a Canadian A-Z book that listed different Canadian items for each letter of the alphabet. They decided to create their own version with an Canadian word for each letter of the alphabet.

Personal Interest

Mrs. Smart's Grade 4s also wrote about one of their personal interests: whether they loved animals or Minecraft, vehicles or sports, students shared about what they love in these books. 

Student Work Showcase

With permission, the following students have shared their work. Check out this Book Creator library for examples of the wonderful work our students have done!