I often reminisce about my classroom days... The neat thing about public education is that there are a tonne of jobs you can do over the span of a career, but there is no role quite so satisfying (yes, also exhausting) as that of classroom teacher. The engagement factor with students, the memories you build together as a special learning community as you co-develop the road map of your group’s learning journey together... even if you teach the same grade or subject two years in a row, every year is different as you refine your craft and respond to the unique learning opportunities of that year’s current events.

With the current health pandemic and resulting school closures, I have frequently fantasized about some of the lessons I would do with my Grade 6s... or 7s... or Grade 3/4 class... or Grade 8s.

Regardless of what I were teaching, I think this time would be one of tremendous bonding for me and my students, were I still a classroom teacher.

Here are three imaginary lessons of the many I have cooked up in my mind over the past 7 weeks. If you’re in a classroom, feel free to try them out, and let me know if I’ve still got it, or if three and a half years have made me lose touch!

1. Media Literacy Lesson Using Memes (Grades 6 and up)

If you and your students are anything like me, you’ve probably spent a good deal of time over the past two months surfing social media, and having a little chuckle of the ubiquitous COVID-related memes making the rounds. Maybe you’ve also noticed some emerging themes.

Why not use this time to draw your students’ attention to how we, as a society, use humour to cope with anxiety-inducing situations? A media literacy lesson on the surface, one could easily incorporate writing, math, oral language, social studies, art, and much more!

Here are some ideas:

• Have students collect and share memes virtually. Use a class Padlet, slide deck, google doc, whatever, and invite students to contribute 2-3 memes each that they have noticed online.
  
• Ask students to choose 10-12 memes from the class collection and sort them into 2-3 groups. What themes emerge? (Some I see most often are hair-related, food or body-image related, toilet-paper and travel)
  
• Compare the themes students notice (could lead a synchronous virtual discussion using a video conferencing platform, or post the question as a discussion thread in your online class platform and invite students to contribute over the course of a few days)
• As a class, sort ALL the memes into the categories students came up with (maybe the teacher demos this via video?)
• Have students graph the the categories in two ways (bar graph and circle graph, for example) - which themes are most common?
• Some thinking questions for students to reflect on in writing, or in a conversation with their peers online or with family at home: Why do you thinks these themes emerge most often? What do these themes tell us about what we value as a society? If we were to invite a class in a different grade or another school to collect 100 memes, do you think they would find similar themes in the memes they collect? Why or why not?
• Using an online meme generator, students could make their own memes about this time. (Brainstorm ideas for what makes a “good” meme... also a great idea to talk about copyright.) Have students collectively post their memes on a class padlet or closed Instagram account - a good laugh for the whole class, and they can share them with their families, too.

2. Mini Math Lesson (Grade 3 and up)

I noticed the following signs recently while walking along the path outside my apartment building, and thought, “if I were a classroom teacher right now, I would SOOOOOO share this with the students and get them thinking about “COVID Math” they notice while out and about for a walk in the community, or online.

According to this sign, how many feet long is a single goose? If you were going to measure the length of a grocery store line with 14 people in geese, how many geese long would that line be? (Assuming everyone is practising proper physical distancing.) In Florida, they are saying the appropriate distance is one alligator’s length. Why do you think they use alligator and Toronto uses geese? What do you think they might use (and how many of them) to visualize distance in New Zealand? Nigeria? Brazil? Why? What can you find in your home that you could use one of to measure the appropriate distance you should keep from others during this time? Two of? 5? 10?

And so on....

3. Jane’s Walk

Speaking of walks, this past weekend cities around the world celebrated Jane Jacobs’ vision of walkable urban living. Usually this consists of engaging in neighbourhood walks with a guide and a group, and discussing things like accessibility, architecture, nature and so on.

This year, Jane’s Walk organizers have had to get creative with how they encourage people to celebrate.

Here are some things I might encourage my students to do, were I still in a classroom:

• Go for a neighbourhood walk with your family. What are some interesting buildings you notice? (Pay attention to rooflines, doorways, signs, building materials and colours, etc.)
  
• Design a neighbourhood walk for a classmate to complete. Choose a theme (nature/trees, architecture, or something else you think your peer would like). Take 3-5 photos and post them, along with a description of the route, for your friend to complete.
• Imagine a family member were coming from out of town. What would you want to show them? Choose 3-5 highlights, and plan an imaginary tour, stopping at each highlight to tell a little bit about the community history of that stop, or why it’s significant to you.
• How accessible is your neighbourhood for different “walkers”? Imagine a family with a stroller, an elderly neighbour or family member, someone in a wheelchair, etc.
• What highlights would you choose to include on a neighbourhood walk that is 1 km long? 3 km? 5 km? Map your route using google maps, and post it for classmates to complete (as a class, you could notice whether people chose similar highlights for their walks of different lengths)

Teacher Reader Homework:

Choose ONE of the suggestion learning activities above. What curricular areas does it connect to? Develop a learning goal, and work with students to co-construct success criteria to describe successful achievement of that goal. The criteria can be shared with families, too, so that everyone can take turns providing descriptive feedback to students as they complete the tasks.

Use this time of school closure, focus on assessment for learning rather than evaluation.

Yes, yes, I know I just blogged about the benefit of more "pure math" and somewhat less "real life application", but this was just too good a problem to give up, so here goes...

Recently, Ms. Teschow was invited by the teacher federation to present a math workshop for teachers in London, Ontario.  Since Ms. Teschow lives in Toronto and teaches in Mississauga, she decided that the most efficient way to travel would be by train.

She called to inquire about train tickets to London.  As it turns out, the train that leaves Toronto Union Station for London makes a stop in Oakville, not too far from Mississauga, and on the way to London.

In keeping with the admittedly somewhat questionable practice of treats to motivate learners, I stole an idea I saw a colleague online use, and embarked with my Grade 6 students on an exploration of the lunar cycle with Oreo cookies today (thanks, Ricky, for sponsoring this lesson!!)!

After having done some full class discussion and video watching, and a little guided reading groups using texts about orbits in general and the lunar cycle in particular over the past several days, I introduced the task: Work in your group to model, describe and explain the phases of the moon, using Oreo cookies and whatever technology you wish.

First we co-constructed and posted some criteria for the assignment, then students eagerly set about researching the lunar cycle to confirm, consolidate or extend their understanding, and began building their models.  

The rule was they were not allowed to eat their materials until I had seen and heard their "presentation".  (This rule proved more of a challenge for some group members than others, but everyone seemed to enjoy the task pretty well, and most demonstrated a reasonable level of understanding!!)

The overall results were quite good, and the model really allowed students to demonstrate their understanding (or lack thereof), as they used it to describe each phase of the lunar cycle and explain how the relative position of the sun and/or the earth resulted in the different appearance of the moon.  (And there there were errors, they could easily be corrected kinaesthetically as well as orally.)

Next up, a little "Math Eyes"...

Why, you might ask, are there a bunch of nearly-empty Twizzler bags on my desk at school?

Well, because we are are exploring angles and quadrilaterals, and it's more fun with Twizzlers! :)

Inspired by a Marian Small "Open Question", I asked students to use two long and two short Twizzlers (the more boring among you could use straws instead) to build as many polygons as possible.  They soon discovered that only a select number of quadrilaterals could be constructed with these restrictions!

After building their quadrilaterals, students were asked to record and describe their work using Thinglink, Piccolage or another visual app.  They needed to include two of their polygons, correctly labeled add labels correctly identifying five different types of angles.

This worked pretty well for all but one student, who ate the evidence before recording his work.

Here and below are some samples of a few group's Thinglinks: 

So this evening after work I went to a meeting, and then after that, a colleague and I stopped by at the Banquet Hall to book a room for an Equity PD Dinner we are co-planning for next month.

While looking at the room layout and investigating the (moveable and re-formatable -- it comes in 4x8 blocks!!!) stage, I smelled a math problem, so I took a few photos!!!

But by the time I got home it was nearly 9 p.m., and I still had a tonne of marking and prep to do, plus my brain was turning to goo, so this one's on you, readers!!  Submit your "math eyes" problem by leaving a comment below, and we can all benefit and steal one another's multi-grade level ideas.

For sure there's a geometry and area on here with the stage... and also something with the chairs and tables arrangements... for secondary, you could get into the cash bar (sorry, didn't take a photo of that, but...??!)

Let the brilliant ideas begin...

Always on the lookout for ways to bring issues of Social Justice to the forefront in my classroom to raise critical, creative, collaborative 21-Century citizens, I have been thinking about how to highlight the Syrian refugee situation in a way that is authentic rather than contrived.

I think I have found a way!

This week, my instructional coach and I have been working with my Grade 6 students on a measurement task in math, using large maps of Ontario, to estimate and then calculate a reasonable endpoint (given a starting point) after 36 days of walking/jogging.  (Yes, we watched the "run, Forrest, run!" clip from Forrest Gump -- after all, why not throw in a little mini-lesson on bullying on the side?!!)

First, students worked in groups of three, using various maps of Ontario on which I had highlighted a random starting point.  They used rulers, calculators, the scale on the map, trundle wheels, background knowledge (their Fall Classic experience and our recent trip to Toronto, etc.), math dictionaries and any other tools they wanted to work through the problem.

As they worked, we used a google form to document observations and feedback, based on the criteria we had set for the task.

After several periods of working in a group, students were given a graphic organizer to consolidate and record their final solution, and were then asked to share this work individually through Edmodo.

As they worked together on this task, discussing what distance would be reasonable to walk, and how many hours a day they could reasonably sustain their speed, I realised that in fact this was the perfect preamble to another task, one about the Syrian crisis, and about the plight of refugees in general.

Having built this mapping and measurement schema with my students, my instructional coach and I are now preparing an extension activity to build and further develop students' understanding:  After watching a short video clip about the "average" journey a Syrian family makes across Europe before coming to Canada, students will find and use maps to research the distance and time it might take to make such a journey.

I am hopeful that having a practical understanding of what's involved will not only develop my students' math and literacy skills, but will also increase their empathy and give them a better understanding of the challenges faced by many in today's world.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this blog post in the weeks ahead!!

Special shout out to my colleagues Emond and Freeman for their contributions to the lesson outline and the KNOWS graphic organizer, both linked above -- thanks for sharing!!

What better way to unload a bunch of holiday junk than take it to the Skittles pop-up shop on Queen?! A temporary "pawnshop" of sorts, this marketing endeavor by Wrigley accepts your gifts and other stuff and pays you in Skittles!

A charming deal-maker comes out, appraises your items, and makes you an offer you can't refuse. The items are then donated to Goodwill, and you walk away with a giant load of sugar.

For our treasures, which consisted of two new toys, still in the box, several gently used books, a picture snow globe with generic family and a "mystery gift" (which I suspect was a collection of bath products), we received no less than 72 packs of the tangy, chewy candy.

That's two full cases!

Needless to say, my head is swimming with possibilities for "math eyes" problems… Probability, fractions, etc.  But the boys were having none of it – – they intend to take one case of skittles to PEI with them to share it with our neighbors there, and keep another to share with friends at school next week, after the holidays.

I knew that in theory getting kids interested in something results in higher achievement.  I may have even glimpsed it in practice a few times, for example when I "Tony Stead-i-fied" my classroom library a few years ago, and sat back in amazement as hitherto reluctant readers began to engage in reading eagerly and often... but it's been a while where the link between student buy-in and the work they produce has hit me so squarely in the face as it did yesterday...

In lieu of the horrible holiday movie and festive party that invariably results in mayhem and leaves a classroom strewn with wrappers, empty drink bottles and general mess in its wake on the last day of school before winter holidays, I opted instead to take my students from Mississauga to Toronto by public transit.

Prepared as I was for their pre-trip excitement and a fun day on the road in small groups (we had subdivided into 4 groups of 5-7 students plus one adult), I was not prepared for the content the students would spontaneously produce while engaged in the field trip.

It was true that I'd had them plan the trip themselves, everything from finding the most efficient route, to calculating mileage and average speed per km while in transit, to finding fun and free activities to do while in Toronto.  So to say they were invested would be an understatement (one student had even researched helmet laws in Toronto and rental fees at Nathan Phillips Square, so that a few of them could go skating -- it's $5 per helmet, and $5 per 2-hour skate rental, btw).

What amazed me, though,  was the amount of self-directed effort students were putting into completing both their pre-trip assignments, as well as their "on the go" work.  

While some took endless selfies, others pointed out street musicians and urban art as I had requested, and still others noticed and commented on a variety of observations (why the other subway cars on the Yonge line look like they're turning when you're going around a curve in the tracks, while the one you're sitting in always seems to be straight, for example!)

One student -- a child who barely writes two sentences in class without constant redirection -- self-selected to blog as she went along.  Screens and screens of text she wrote:  Everything from impressions of the bus and subway, to sights, smells and sounds on the streets of Toronto.  She wrote and wrote and wrote, until her device ran out of battery.

Another student gave some coins from his pocket to two of the many homeless people we observed while in the city, explaining to me that he was fulfilling his duty under the Muslim pillar of Zakah.  (He ran out of money before Toronto's streets ran out of a supply of homeless for him.)  A lively conversation ensued, about the religious and secular responsibilities to look after one another as members of society, who was responsible (government vs. people), and what that might entail in different contexts.

When the class dispersed to check out Chinatown or visit another activity they had pre-selected after visting the Christmas windows, my small group hopped back onto the subway and headed down to Union station to catch the shuttle to the Island Airport.

Students were extremely engaged, as we had recently read a debate about this very airport in our literacy textbook at school, and had looked at photos of some of the homes on the island in class.  They also had a million questions about the underground tunnel (oh how I wished I'd had this infographic at the time!!), and more generally, about the concept of an island so close to the city.

We'd also just finished our study of flight in Science, so when we arrived at the small flight school next to the Porter terminal and were offered a tour of the hangar by Ms. Kachira, who happened to be working that day, the students were quite excited to participate, marveling at being able to name some of the airplane parts they had memorized from a diagram in real life now.  As one student remarked, as he looked at an actual airfoil (wing) up close, "Oh, now I get it!"

Each student also had a chance to sit and be photographed in the cockpit, which they enjoyed a great deal, and which I immediately posted to parent accounts on Edmodo.

Almost before I could post the suggested "After" assignments for the field trip when I got home, the student-initiated content started appearing on Edmodo:  "Best trip ever!" noted one student, who accompanied his post with several selfies and group photos from the trip.  

"We saw...." followed by a long, descriptive string of paragraphs from a student in a different group.  

Questions and responses amongst the groups ensued, focused in ways I have rarely experienced in class!! They were genuinely interested in hearing about one another's adventures, and learning from their divergent experiences of the city.  

The blossoming self-confidence I had observed earlier in the day, as this group of loosely-monitored 11-year-olds navigated public transit (many of them riding subways and public buses for the first time in their lives!), was evident in their writing, and I am looking forward to using their self-initiated work when we return to school in January, and building on it to develop and refine their writing and media skills.

The world is a big, exciting place.  Bigger and more exciting by far than worksheets and textbooks. Following students' leads, and building on to their existing strengths and interests, can help educators foster a growing understanding of the world for their students and encourage them to demonstrate their understanding of said world in a more inspired, pain-free manner!

​Simon and Alex love the chicken Tikka at our local Thai restaurant.  The tikka comes in orders of 4 "kebabs" on a plate.

"Mom!", the boys said the other night when we were out for dinner, "We're starving!!  Please, get us more than one order each. So I told them we'd start with three orders to share between the two of them, and see if they were still hungry afterwards.

When the three orders of Chicken Tikka arrived, I gave each boy one order, and divided the other order fairly between them. 

Ms. K -- who also likes Chicken Tikka -- took one kebab off Simon's plate for herself. 

Simon turned to his brother, and said, "Alex, it's not fair now, you have more!  You have to give one of your kebabs to Tats (Ms. K) too. 

​Alex suggested that since he was hungry, instead of giving one of his kebabs to Ms. K, he could just give half a kebab to Simon.  But Simon said that wasn't fair, and that Alex would have to give him a whole kebab, since he (Simon) had given up a whole one for Tats.

Who is right?  Should Alex give Simon half a kebab or a whole one, to make it fair?  (So that each boy has the same amount of kebabs.) Explain your thinking.

​Some More Chicken Tikka Problems:

Another time, Ms. K and the boys went to the restaurant alone (without Ms. Teschow), and ordered four orders of Chicken Tikka.

"Let's make sure to split up the orders fairly!" said Ms. K.​
How many kebabs does each person get?​

In the end, Ms. K decides that she is actually not that hungry, and only eats half her share, giving the rest to  Alex and Simon.  They were still hungry, and quickly gobbled them up.
 How many kebabs did each person end up eating?

The boys' Uncle Rick took Simon and Alex to the restaurant one evening when Ms. Teschow and Ms. K  were both working late.

"We're REALLY hungry tonight, Rick!", said Simon.  "Can we order enough Chicken Tikka, so that we each can have 10 kebabs?" 

Rick, who was also hungry, and who also likes Chicken Tikka, said they could. ​How many Chicken Tikka orders would they have to get so that all three of them get 10 kebabs each?​