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February 7, 2021

Art Resource Project – Natural Found Objects

By Chevaun S., Nathan H., and Jason K.

Books & Blogs

While there are hundreds of resources that could eventually be compiled into Books & Blogs, for this project, we have found two books with numerous lesson ideas, teachings and activities that incorporate natural found objects. This is also the case with the blogs we have found. There are many blogs out there that provide activities for a wide range of ages and we have chosen a few that tended to have multiple ideas that incorporate natural found objects. These blogs and books have been selected in particular for their ability to meet curricular expectations, such as: developing and refining ideas, processes, and technical skills in a variety of art forms to improve the quality of artistic creations; intentionally selecting artistic elements, processes, materials, movements, technologies, tools, techniques, and environments to express meaning in their work; and expressing feelings, ideas, and experiences through the arts.

Let’s Take It Outside (book) – Available at Uvic library

Charner, K., Rein, M. B., & Roberts, B. (2012). Let’s take it outside: Teacher-created activities for outdoor learning. Lewisville, NC: Gryphon House.

The Big Book of Nature Activities: A Year-Round Guide to Outdoor Learning – Available as digital online resource through UVic library

Rodenburg, J., & Monkman, D. (2016). The big book of nature activities: A year-round guide to outdoor learning. Gabriola, British Columbia: New Society Publishers.

Kinderart blog

Kinderart Blog offers ideas for art projects and lesson plans for K-12 students. Lessons are organized by grade level or discipline. Here we have linked specifically to their Nature Blog that outlines several natural found art project ideas, including stick sculptures, sand mosaics, rock art, stone drawings, and dirt paintings.

Red Ted Art Blo g

Red Ted Art is a blog that offers a large array of art activities for children. Red Ted Art has activities organized by preschool, paper crafts, and even free printables. Here we have linked to a Red Ted Art’s blog titled 20 Crafts Using Items Found in Nature. Red Ted Art also has a wonderful post outlining a variety of nature play activities that can be done outdoors. Click here for Red Ted Art’s Nature Play Ideas!

Sample Artists

This section details a selection of amazingly talented individuals who all use naturally found objects in some shape or form. Ranging from sculptors, weavers, and painters, natural found materials are used by all types of artists. These sample artists have been selected because their work is relatable and accessible to students of various ages, providing them with opportunities to meet the competencies of: connecting knowledge and skills from other areas of learning in planning, creating, interpreting, and analyzing works of art; observing, describing, and inquiring how artists use processes, materials, movements, technologies, tools, techniques, and environments to create and communicate; and interpreting works of art using knowledge and skills from various areas of learning. Visit each artist and gain an appreciation, and hopefully some inspiration, for natural found art.

Outdoor Sculpting – Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy is a British sculptor who specializes in creating site-specific works of art using natural found materials such as rocks, leaves, branches, and even icicles. His work can be used to inspire young artists to use what is found in nature to create their own unique natural sculptures. Visit Live Enhance to learn more about Andy Goldsworthy and to see examples of his magnificent sculptures. For further information on how to inspire your students with Andy Goldsworthy’s work, visit this helpful resource by The Art of Education.

Found art sculpture by Andy Goldsworthy Students art, inspired by Andy Goldsworthy

Three-Dimensional Weaving – Rebecca Graham

Rebecca Graham is an environmental artist and weaver who practices land-based art. She is featured on the ArtStartsGallery blog, which details a workshop she led with children at the gallery in Vancouver. In the workshop, she discusses how three-dimensional weaving can be used to produce sustainable art, as well as how this activity connects to First Nations basket-making. Her focus is on honouring both the land and First Peoples.

Weaving by Rebecca Graham

Ephemeral Nature Art – Richard Shilling

Richard Shilling is an environmental artist who creates land-based art. He creates his art while immersed in natural settings and using natural materials. He then captures his creations using photography shot in natural lighting to emphasize the beauty of nature. Richard runs land-based art workshops with children and emphasizes that land art can be an extension of outdoor play. He emphasizes the value in finding inspiration while exploring nature, which benefits children both in their artistic pursuits and in their relationships with nature.

To read an interview in which Richard discusses his art creations, and more specifically teaches ephemeral land art to children, check out artfulparent.com or visit his personal website: richardshilling.co.uk

Magnified Art – Georgia O’Keeffe

Georgia O’Keeffe is one of the world’s renowned artists of the 20th century. Some of her famous pieces include magnified images, both abstract and realistic, of items found in the natural world. Her work can be seen here at the O’Keeffe Museum. Students can mimic her style of work by using viewfinders and natural found objects.

Banana Flower No. II, 1934

Interdisciplinary projects

Art is amazingly adaptable and can be used to bring out the creativity in all forms of subjects found within the school’s curriculum. While most art examples can be connected to another discipline in some way, here are a few examples of natural found art that we have curated that link to various curricular content. Engaging with interdisciplinary projects is an effective way to integrate skills and knowledge from various areas of learning. This helps to meet core competencies relating to: connecting knowledge and skills from other areas of learning in planning, creating, interpreting, and analyzing works of art; examining relationships between the arts and the wider world; and adapting learned skills, understandings, and processes for use in new contexts and for different purposes and audiences.

Clay birds nest

Interdisciplinary: Earth Science, life cycles, behaviour adaptations

This specific art activity not only allows students to incorporate natural materials into a project, but can be used to compliment a variety of cross-curricular content matter. Using baking soda clay prepared by the teacher, students will mold a birds nest and incorporate the various found materials that they collected from outside. Curricular content such as behaviour adaptations (BC Curriculum Science 1) introduces nesting habits and animal homes to the students. This art project allows a hands-on learning opportunity for an elementary science lesson. How Wee Learn has a breakdown of how to make these clay birds nests.

Homemade Clay for Sculpting

Interdisciplinary: Earth Science

This activity provides instructions for transforming everyday dirt into sculpting clay. As a class, local dirt is collected and then examined for its various properties. Soil then undergoes several processes (sifting, separating clay from sediment through the addition and draining of water, leaving the clay to dry in cloth bags) before resulting in clay suitable for sculpting. This process is time-consuming but simple, and allows for student exploration of soil properties throughout the clay-making process. The rock cycle and soil are studied in Science 5, providing an excellent opportunity for cross-curricular connections. In addition, this project ties into the First Peoples Principle of Learning regarding connectedness with a sense of place, as the soil is sourced close by, and deepens students’ connection to the land they study on/near.

For detailed instructions on how to make clay from soil, check out this Wikihow page . For lesson inspiration check out this dukefarms blog post that provides an example of how you might explore soil textures and properties with students.

Dream Catcher

Interdisciplinary: Indigenous Studies, Language Arts

This resource, offered by the Indigenous Education Department of School District 61, provides instructions for creating a dream catcher using found natural materials (twigs, branches, and feathers). In addition to providing instructions for making dream catchers, this resource offers a wonderful cross-curricular connection to language arts by providing instructions for connecting the art-making process to a book called The Dream Catcher.

It is important to note that, in using First Peoples content such as this in the classroom, one must ensure that First Peoples perspectives are accurately and respectfully conveyed. To ensure this, it can be helpful to reach out to members of local First Peoples communities to obtain advice and support surrounding the ways in which to introduce and engage with such projects.

Individual found art activities

The following is a compilation of interesting individual projects that can easily be incorporated into an art unit. While some projects fit into a defined age group, there are many projects that are scalable, meaning they can be taught to a broad range of ages by making changes that are either simple or complex, dependent on the project. A good example of this is shown below in the activity: Create Naturally Textured Landscape Art, where the activity can be altered to present to a wide range of ages.

Mandalas

We have included a number of mandala art projects in our list of individual art activities. Mandala art provides a framework for students to follow while exploring their creativity in making original artwork. The mandala project links we have compiled differ in two main ways. The first group of links involves projects in which students bring found natural materials into the classroom and create permanent mandalas with objects such as leaves and twigs. The second group of links follows an ephemeral approach, in which the artwork is created in nature and meant to be impermanent.

Connects to the Big Idea from the Grade 3 Art Curriculum: creative experiences involve an interplay between exploration, inquiry, and purposeful choice.

Group 1: Permanent Mandalas

Option 1 found on teacherspayteachers.com

Option 2 found on playfullearning.net

Group 2: Ephemeral Mandalas

Option 1 found on howwelearn.com

Option 2 found on education.com

Mobiles

Natural found art can become earthy decor for the home and classroom. Take a class outside and gather unique, natural materials and turn them into creative mobiles. This activity can be scaled in complexity by increasing the size, specificity, and the number of rods. Find an example here at Crafts with Kids.

Connects to the Curricular Competency from the Grade 1 Art Curriculum: engagement in the arts creates opportunities for inquiry through purposeful play.

Leaf and Flower art

There are many ways for creating art using leaves and flowers. Below is a small number of ideas that can be incorporated in the classroom. This is another great topic to incorporate interdisciplinary teaching, as ecology and biology are easily integrated into many of these activities. One important consideration when using these types of materials is to make sure that no harm is being done to the ecological areas where students are sourcing materials.

Connects to the Content from the Grade K-8 Art Curriculum: processes, materials, movements, technologies, tools, strategies, and techniques to support creative works.

Flower and leaf prints

In this activity featured on artfulparent.com, students make prints of flowers and leaves by finding them in nature, pressing each flower and leaf onto a stamp pad with watercolour paint, and then pressing them onto hard paper.

Suncatcher

Using transparent contact paper and found flowers, students can create a suncatcher as shown on Lasso The Moon. This activity lets supports students in creating unique and imaginative work, as the instructions allow for a broad range of interpretations.

Leaf Animals

Leaves are always in abundance in some shape or form, many of which can be obtained around your very own school. So why not incorporate them into a fun and open-ended art lesson! Education.com outlines a fun lesson plan for using found leaves and turning them into leaf animals. This lesson plan is aimed towards a grade one level, but could be modified to suit other grades.

Colour Study

Many lessons can use natural objects to help teach and emphasize components of colour theory (primary, secondary, tertiary colours). This project from Mother Natured has students gather and arrange natural objects to represent a colour wheel.

Connects to the visual art design element, colour, covered in Curricular Content from Kindergarten to Grade 8.

Resist Painting with Leaves

Colour theory and painting techniques mashed into one fun activity. Resist painting with leaves is a fantastic way to bring the outdoors in and to teach your class a few concepts while doing so. Each student’s work will vary, bringing a unique and colourful flare to each young artist’s work. Smart Class has a list of beautiful student examples of resist painting with leaves, as well as step-by-step instructions on how they implemented this activity with a class.

Connects to the Content from the Grade K-8 Art Curriculum: processes, materials, movements, technologies, tools, strategies, and techniques to support creative works.

Viewfinder projects:

Taking inspiration from the artist Georgia O’Keeffe, wonderful works of art can be made by using a viewfinder to focus on a specific area. These viewfinders can be used to focus on landscapes, or like Georgia O’Keeffe, to magnify a specific section of a natural found object. Viewfinder projects are great when introducing concepts such as line, shape, and scale. Cornell University has this sample viewfinder lesson plan aimed towards grade 1, but it can be scaled in complexity to fit older grades.

Connects to the Curricular Competencies from the Kindergarten Art Curriculum: observe and share how artists use processes, materials, movements, technologies, tools, and techniques.

image source: https://www.start2.co.uk/course/be-curious/notice-what-you-like/using-the-viewfinders

Sand and Texture

The following art projects develop students’ understanding of texture as an element of design, providing students with the opportunity to feel and explore the various applications of texture in art. Connects to the visual art design element, texture, covered in Curricular Content from Kindergarten to Grade 8.

Sand Candles

Sand candles are a great activity for a range of ages, especially when a beach is nearby. This activity, found on education.com, has students make a mould in the sand and add found objects into the mould. Wax and a wick are then added to the mould to create a candle that picks up the objects and some of the sand in the mould. This activity could pair nicely with a lesson about the biodiversity found on beaches.

How Does Art Feel? – Lesson plan on texture

This lesson plan develops students’ understanding of texture. Students are encouraged to explore this concept by touching natural materials while making connections between what they are feeling and texture-specific vocabulary. They are then asked to produce two pieces of art: the first involves using textured materials to create an illustration, while the second involves imitating the textured drawing using only crayons or markers. To explore the detailed lesson plan visit beaconlearningcenter.com.

Create Naturally Textured Landscape Art

Procedures one and two of the attached document detail how we can use natural found objects to create textures in a painting. This activity details multiple ways to create these textures and offers examples of materials that can be used. See the document found on dukefarms.org for further explanation.

November 30, 2020

Musical Growth – Final Evidence

This week I am sharing the final evidence of my musicianship growth. I am proud of how far I have come, especially when it comes to singing and playing at the same time. It is well documented, if you look back at my previous blog posts that I have always struggled to play an instrument and sing at the same time. With this knowledge of myself, I made my musicianship goal about being able to play 2 songs without singing and learning how to sing one chorus and play at the same time. As you will see in the following videos, I surpassed that goal and sing in every one of my songs. There is still much to practice, as you will observe that my strumming patterns are all simplified, showing that I still struggle to hold a more complex strumming pattern and sing at the same time. For this final goal it was either/or in that regard. Either play a complex strumming pattern and not sing, or sing and simplify the strumming. I opted for the latter in all of my videos, as learning to sing was a big break through for me. I believe that being able to sing and play brings me closer to being able to bring my ukulele into a classroom, which is my ultimate goal.

Another thing to notice is that I do a little picking in the song ‘Let It Be’. There are some pretty obvious spots where I mess up during the picking, but I bring it back and finish out the song. This was part of my final goal of “learn(ing) 1 picking pattern rather than strumming”. The last goal that I had made was to learn four barre chords, which I think I fulfilled in the midterm video that showed the evidence of the chords that I had learned. In that video I play B, Bm, Cm, B7, Dmaj7, and Gmaj7. These are all barre chords and the six I learned are more than I had set a goal for.

There was one other thing that I wanted to clarify on this blog. I don’t know if it was ever made clear what my goal around ‘Hakuna Matata’ was. In my musicianship goal form I state that I will “sing and play a simple song at the same time” and that ‘Hakuna Matata’ (short) was the song I chose. My intention was always to just play the chorus (beginning portion) of the song, as the rest of the song is quite difficult with tougher chords and timing changes. So what I show in the video below was always my goal for this song.

In conclusion, I want to state that with more practice and consistent Ukulele playing, I think I will be able to start incorporating more strumming patterns while singing and learn more songs to add to my small repertoire of songs that I now know. Please refer to my videos below for final evidence of musical growth.

November 29, 2020

Free Inquiry: This week in sourdough… English Muffins

For my last post in the sourdough realm I have chosen to try another new recipe. Something I had not even considered until coming across the idea in one of my peers blogs. I very much enjoy english muffins, but for some reason it had not crossed my mind or my screen when looking into recipes that could be made with sourdough starter. A simple google search brought me to this sourdough english muffin recipe on the Little Spoon Farm blog.

As is typical of sourdough recipes, this recipe was once again an overnight recipe, where half of the effort happens the night before baking occurs. Ingredients are mixed, the dough sits for an hour, the dough is kneaded for five minutes, then it sits on the counter overnight for up to 14 hours. The next morning the dough is placed on a surface and flattened to about 1/2 inch. It is cut into three inch rounds and placed on a baking sheet to rise for another hour, then cooked in a non stick pan on low heat for 5 minutes on each side.

That was it. Another pretty easy recipe that turned out very well. The english muffins were not as airy and bubbly as the ones bought from the store, but they tasted good and I look forward to eating more of them over the next two or three days.

This inquiry has challenged me to keep looking at possibilities and to try new things often. I like that I have expanded my repertoire of recipes to include many recipes more than the original standard loaf that I will continue to make. As a way to sum up everything I have made and discussed, I am going to list everything I covered.

November 29, 2020

EdTech Reflection #9

Distributed Learning (Pros and Cons)

This week in class we discussed distributed learning. Part of this was a discussion about our experience of the course this semester, taking place completely online. We were asked to reflect on our experience doing schooling online versus our experiences in class. As a person who has already had a career in another field, that lasted over a decade, working almost exclusively on a computer, I assume that the transition was easier for me than almost anyone else in my class. I know screen fatigue and I have a high tolerance of screen time before it happens. I can spend eight hours a day on a computer with a few breaks and be ok. I sympathize with those who cannot handle this much computer time. It is a lot to ask someone to be on a computer for any more than two hours at a time. I appreciate that our EdTech teacher understands this and does not expect us to sit through a three hour zoom…thank you for that Michael.

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

The semester has been interesting. I think all of the teachers have done very well to adjust to this new reality and to accommodate any requests that we, as students, have made. We had some open questions in class about positives and negatives of online learning. I personally liked not having to wake up earlier to make it to class and liked not having to commute and pay for parking if I couldn’t catch the bus. I have a daughter I have to pick up and drop off from school most days in the week, so having online classes made it easier to navigate that. Having more time with my daughter and partner was also a big bonus.

When talking about negatives, I think the obvious one is screen time. Even as someone who can handle a lot of screen time, I do not enjoy being on a computer 6+ hours a day. My posture, exercise, eyes and social interactions all suffer from being online all the time. As well, I enjoy working on projects in person with other students. The last two weeks, I have spent many hours on zoom calls working on group projects with some classmates. While working with others over zoom with the capabilities that are available over the internet at this point in time is an incredible human feat, it is still not the same as doing being with each other in person. It is also very hard for me to separate school from home life with everything taking place within my home. I am privileged to have a home that has spaces that are separated from each other and I can have a space dedicated to my schooling. That said, at times it does not feel big or quite or secluded enough for what I need. These are the trials of the time we live in, but this is a reflection blog and I am reflecting.

Teaching and Learning

We, as future teachers are experiencing something very unique in learning how to teach, while this learning is happening completely online. Just the act of learning in this environment is actively and passively instilling knowledge in our psyche that we would otherwise not know without actively seeking it out. We expect things to normalize to some extent at some point. But the question is when will it normalize and how much will it go back to how it was. It gives us an opportunity in this course and going forward to contemplate how we can teach affectively in a classroom and online.

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

We also learned this week that student learning (synchronous and asynchronous, in person but more specifically online) is affected by the resources that are provided, the homework or tasks students are given, the interactions student have (teachers, other students and content) and the supports that are available. The open education for teaching resource that was linked to in the week 11 blog talked a lot about anxiety in students and time. Something that resonated was when he talked about his daughter being overwhelmed by emails that teachers were sending of lessons and work to complete. I can relate to this, in that I too feel overwhelmed when I have many tasks that accumulate and when I have many important emails that all come at the same time. I have a hard time organizing and compartmentalizing things like this and get very anxious when these things mount. I have added that resource to my growing list of resources to use as reference and maybe use as a resource at some point in my academic or professional career.

November 29, 2020

ED TECH INQUIRY

How are schools building a healthy relationship with technology?

Preface

There are broad standards for technology in classrooms as defined by the BC curriculum. While these standards are imposed in many circumstances, there are many schools that do not have the resources to integrate technology into the classroom in a meaningful way. As well, a lot of the direction that is taken in a classroom in association with technology is dependent on the teachers’ ability and willingness to integrate these tools and learn them for themselves. These factors make the integration of technology different for all schools, districts, and classrooms. This is especially true for elementary school classrooms that have fewer resources and time allocated to computers and other technologies.

Tech Literacy

Tech Literacy is the building of understanding that will help students use, manage, understand, and assess technology. As well, it is very similar to digital literacy which gives them the ability to use the internet to discover, evaluate, create, and use information. Schools are working towards creating a healthy relationship with technology through teaching about how to use it effectively, and efficiently. This begins with technology and digital literacy, and the discussion about at what point these concepts should be introduced into the education system.

School district 71, in British Columbia, has prepared a document that demonstrates different technology skills that are being taught, and by what grade they are being introduced. They are using the new grading system of emerging, developing, and proficient, to outline what grade they are expected to start integrating this learning. As well as, by what grade it has become a skill that they have fully learned and developed. This document has demonstrated that technology should be introduced around grade 3, such as downloading and attaching a file via email. By the time a student reaches high school, they are fully entrenched in tech literacy.

As mentioned earlier, there is a similarity between tech literacy and digital literacy, both are being introduced into the education system during the primary years. It has become increasingly noticeable that if a teacher is not equipped with technology that they may have the librarian help teach the subject of tech literacy. We spoke with a librarian that helped curate a website for school district 61 to use. This website includes many links that provided resources for teachers to use, for example, Common Sense. Common Sense is one of many links provided, but it includes different activities, videos, and training for the teachers. This resource also can be used by parents, and students as well. Tech literacy is becoming more necessary in our education system, and the BC curriculum outlines the importance of internet safety, but tech literacy will be the tool that helps students create, explore, and use different digital platforms.

Online Safety

The internet can be a great place to use, create, and discover, but it can also be a dangerous place. That is why it is important to outline online safety from an early age. According to the BC curriculum it is being introduced in Kindergarten and becomes more prevalent in the intermediate grades. This is to ensure by secondary level the students have a full understanding of how to safely use the internet. From the early primary years, it is introduced through classroom discussions, and books being read. Included below is a website that lists different children’s books outlining safety concerns such as over usage, explicit images, people not saying who they truly are, and digital footprint. Although these conversations are taking place without technology, the importance of being safe online can still be portrayed, often better with the students engaging in classroom discussions and books.

Online safety can also be broken down into digital citizenship which outlines internet safety. This includes privacy and security, relationships and communication, cyberbullying, digital footprint and reputation, and self-image and identity, to name a few. All of the components of digital citizenship are important to teach because it will impact the students as they move forward in life and their careers.

At the beginning of our inquiry, we started to look at YouTube, trying to understand their algorithms, and how this links to over-usage by children. But after discussing with a librarian we decided to change our inquiry to look at how schools are building a healthy relationship with technology because it became apparent (especially in elementary school) that it is taught broadly in schools to cover as much information as possible. Looking at online safety, for example, is only one key aspect of digital citizenship.

The schools are introducing these components during the primary years, but they become more prevalent in the intermediate and secondary when students are really embracing themselves and their online world. The BC curriculum teaches the students about how you want to be represented online, really communicating that what you put online sometimes can be on there forever. This relates to the digital footprint because as students create their online presence, then graduate and move through life, they need to realize that what they have posted or made public may hinder them later. It is a fine line to balance because students should be able to express who they are, but it is important to teach them the implications of what could happen later. Lastly, what we have discovered is how online usage can relate to negative socio-emotional aspects. There is much scientific research currently being done around these topics, which goes beyond the purview of this inquiry. That said, we have discovered a very interesting podcast, called Your Undivided Attention, that digs deeper into the science and technology surrounding this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6K5CvC93_E

Video provided by https://www.brainpop.com/technology/digitalcitizenship/onlinesafety/

Devices in the classroom

A key component of building a healthy relationship with technology in the classroom is to know what devices are available to use. As stated earlier, the availability of computers and other devices is completely dependent on what resources are available in school. Schools, districts and individual teachers often have a large say in how much exposure and what types of technology the students have access to. In our limited classroom experience we have noticed a number of opportunities for students to work with devices. It is our understanding that chromebooks and tablets (iPads in this case) are most common in school district 61, especially as the grades get higher. For example grades 4 and 5 see these tools a lot more than grades 1 and 2. As well as the in classroom use of these devices, it is also typical to have a set of computers in the library for further usage.

Photo by Arthur Lambillotte on Unsplash

We have had many interviews with teachers and other professionals for this inquiry and another inquiry for a different class that is somewhat related. In these discussions, there are a couple of key points that arise almost every time. The first is that the use of technology in a classroom is to support learning in conjunction with what is being taught, it should be purposeful and support creativity. Technology can quickly create passive users if the only association with tech is to consume. For this reason, it is imperative that teachers use technology in a defined role to support learning. Another key takeaway is that tech use in the classroom is best when it is universal. Finding resources to incorporate all students does not allow for isolation or feeling excluded, as some students can be hesitant to use devices when no one else is.

The next section, Tech Application and Resources, explores different online applications and websites that are commonly used in the classroom.

Tech Applications and Resources

A deeper examination of the technological tools used in classrooms shows us that there are vast and ever-changing programs available to support teachers. There are applications built to support core subjects, such as math, and science.

We wanted the last part of our blog to consolidate the resources that we have come across in our research, classes, and in-school experience. Below we have a small sample of different types of support for students, teachers, and parents, along with a short write-up for each area of interest. We have included many of these tools because they are specifically being used in school district 61.

Screencasts, talking head videos, and other video platforms

Brainpop – Educational videos, a wide variety of subjects available

Yabla – Learning video platform being embraced by SD61 for ELL classrooms, as well as secondary French and Spanish

Flipgrid – Video discussion experience for PreK to PhD educators, learners, and families

Khan Academy – Videos for learning different subjects such as math, art, computer programming, chemistry, and so much more

Applications to support language arts

Google Translate – Word and phrase translator between over 100 languages

iTranslate – Phone and web application that translates text and speech to over 100 languages

Duolingo – Language learning website and mobile app with built-in language proficiency assessment tools. The free version has ads

Babbel – Subscription-based language learning application and e-learning platform. Free for the first course, paid subscription afterward

Read&Write – Software toolbar that helps students create and access content with the literacy support features

Book Creator – Book production that caters to student reading level

Newsela – Online news-as-literacy platform that features high-interest articles,” for students (and the general public) at different reading levels

Gaming to learn core subjects

There are many games that can support students learning and help them to solidify or enhance their abilities. Specifically, in math, language arts, and typing, learning games can support the students’ skills to type faster, boost their math understanding, and learn spelling and word associations. As well as building knowledge in the subjects that the games are directed towards, students gain important computer skills, such as typing, working with a mouse or trackpad, and navigating the internet. Below are some examples of games that we have come across for specific subjects.

Math

Math Playground – Math games geared to grade 1 to grade 6, interactive way to enhance math skills

Prodigy Game – Games to enhance math understanding, can build up mental math skills

Typing

Typing – Lessons, tests, and games to help teach how to type

Kidz Type – Variety of games to appeal to all students, fun ways to encourage typing practice

Language Arts

ESL Games – Interactive online games for learning and teaching English as a Second Language

Multi-Subject Resources

PBS Kids – Unable to access videos restricted to the United States only, but there is access to games for multiple subjects like science, Spanish, and reading

Kids National Geographic – Offers a large variety of educational videos to watch, where you can learn about animals, exploration, and science. As well, a small selection of games to play

Jack Hartmann – Education videos to learn counting, numbers, reading, science, and more

Mr. Nussbaum – American based game platform to support all subjects. Some subjects or lessons may not pertain to curriculums in Canada

YouTube – This is used widely in the classroom for educational videos, body breaks, songs, and for many different subjects

Coding

Code.org – Dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools

Scratch – Introduces coding to kids, future life skill

Worldbuilder games

Minecraft – Focuses on creativity, building cities, the game addresses math, reading, and writing for skills

November 22, 2020

Free Inquiry: Bread Making in the Classroom

This week for my free inquiry blog I decided to do something a little bit different. In my introductory blog post for this inquiry, one of the ideas that I had was to look into how bread making might transition into the classroom. So instead of posting about something that I baked or something directly associated with sourdough, I will be providing some ideas and resources into how sourdough bread making and baking processes can be brought into a classroom (primarily elementary school classrooms) in a teaching setting.

There are many avenues to go down when starting to think about how to bring baking concepts into a elementary school classroom. Some examples are to create lesson plans around baking equipment, measurement, volume and weight, food and kitchen safety, and some sciences involved in baking/sourdough. There are many avenues to go down when talking about measurement. Lessons could be built around conversions, accuracy, and changing portions to make the recipe bigger or smaller. Not only is bread a great topic for teaching science and math topics. It can be incorporated into the classroom by discussing the history of bread, the different iterations of bread across the world and how bread has changed over time. These topic discussions can lead to discourse about culture and personal identity.

I believe it would also be simple to make a loaf of bread with a class, provided it was appropriate for the class to do so (allergy dependent). For sourdough bread making, all that would need to happen is to mix the ingredients properly and let the bulk fermentation happen throughout the day. The baking portion could take place at the teachers home, as there may not be an oven available in all schools. This portion could be documented by video or photos so that the teacher could complete the full lesson of how a loaf of bread is made.

Here are a couple resources for lesson plan ideas. Both of these sources have multiple ideas and actual lesson plans to pull from the site to modify or use as-is in a classroom or at home.

Science in School

Home Baking Association Lesson Plans

Culinary Schools

November 22, 2020

EdTech reflection #8

Code.org coding program for children

I mentioned code.org in my last post, but have had time to explore the site in much more depth. I have posted a screencast below that explores the site and its capabilities. It’s hard for me to watch the video, as I feel like I do not describe it as well as I could and I ramble a lot, but have limited time to make another video. This is something I have recently become aware of and am trying to get better at. I understand the intricacies of watching or listening to ones self on a recording and how one can become obsessed with how they present themselves. While I understand this and do not feel the need to completely deconstruct my recordings, I do see things that I want to become better at to become a more concise presenter.

I worked on this video with my daughter, which she loved. We are now starting on the second course and we both love it. When Jesse Miller talked early on about gaming with his children, I really resonated with that. I want my child to build a healthy relationship with technology and I think especially early on, the presence of a parent to have a connection with the technology they consume (media, television, video games, and even books) can play a big role in how they communicate with technology in their life. As well as building a solid foundation for my child, it also allows me to gain an understanding of the resource that I can potentially incorporate into a classroom.

Equitable education and assistive technology.

It was great to review the post this week about assistive technologies and equitability in education as it mainly pertains to the BC curriculum. There is so much information in this post for us, as future teachers, to look into. Everything from descriptions of what assistive technologies are and what students need them to popular technologies that we will likely see in our classrooms at some point in time. It is a great resource going forward to to connect to the presentation this week by Chantelle. I found the presentation enlightening, as it engaged a thread of thought and discussion that I really don’t know much about. From family access of supports to tech supports and advocacy, she brought a lot of information to the lecture about what to be aware of as teacher candidates. I especially liked the questions that were posed in the breakout groups for discussion. It had us think practically about real life situations that potentially could happen in our classrooms in the future. I think I have mentioned before that I appreciate the space that we, as teacher candidates have in class to discuss things amongst ourselves to externalize our opinions or knowledge. This was another opportunity to think deeply about interesting scenarios presented about an important topic.

November 20, 2020

Musical Growth – Blog #6

This week I have mainly been focused on practicing my songs for the musicianship goal final. I have done the ‘Jingle Bells’ tutorial that I posted last week 3 times in the last 4 days and actually just finished the recording for the final of me singing and playing the song. I had not committed to singing and playing this song on the musicianship goal outline. It was my intention to only learn how to play this song, but I was able to sing the song while I played. To be able to sing, I had to simplify the strumming pattern to only be a down pattern. I am not able to sing and play a pattern that I have to think about at the same time. But this is still huge progress for me, as I have stated multiple times that I struggle to play any instrument and sing at the same time. I have a drumming background and could not even hold a simple beat and sing at the same time. I would always lose my timing and mess up if I started thinking about singing. Another struggle while singing is holding the proper timing of the song, so that I am not speeding words up in the wrong spots. As well, finding where to change chords can be a struggle when I am looking at words and thinking about the words that I am singing. This is where a lot of practice is key to success. I find the more I practice, the more a lot of these things become second nature and I do not have to think as hard about them.

November 15, 2020

Free Inquiry: Back to Bread

This week I made two loaves of sourdough bread. One of them was more special than a typical loaf. I added roasted garlic and aged cheddar…and it was incredible. I took a series of pictures at different stages and will walk through what each one is.

After adding the flour, water, sourdough starter and salt the bulk fermentation took place (a process I have discussed in previous posts). At this point I roasted the garlic and cut up the cheese into chunks suitable to add to the loaf.

After the bulk fermentation finished, I spread the dough out flat to incorporate the cheese and garlic. The dough was then folded up and left to sit in a ball on the counter for about 30 minutes. Then it was placed in the banneton in a sealed bag in the refrigerator over night.

The next day, the dough is taken out of the fridge and the bag it was in and left in the banneton to come to room temperature while the oven heats up. This takes 40-60 minutes. The bread is then put on a piece of parchment paper and scored (cut in a pattern) with lame (fancy sharp bread cutter), then placed directly in a preheated dutch oven that goes straight into the oven.

Bake for 17 minutes in the dutch oven at 475 degrees F. It is then taken out of the dutch oven and baked on the open rack for 15 more minutes at 450 degrees F. Results below.

This was a great loaf. It was cooked perfectly, with the outside cooking to the perfect color. The flavors go very well together and this loaf was served with beef stew, which was a perfect way to pair it.

Bread Crumbs (Extras)

This was a recipe that I had made a few weeks ago with some tweaks. I roasted the garlic this time instead of putting raw garlic in the bread. As well, I used better cheddar cheese in this one. The bread also had more time in the fridge and more time to come to room temperature before putting in the oven. I think allowing more time in both cases give the dough a little more time to rise and produces a rounder loaf.
Over the past two weeks, I was finding it difficult to find new topics to discuss for this blog. I hit a bit of a rut and wasn’t feeling very motivated to make any bread. I did pull through and ended up making two loaves in the span of three days and both turned out well and made me feel better.
I do know that I don’t need to bake every week for this blog. I would still like to discuss how bread making and baking can be incorporated into teaching at an elementary level, which was one of the questions I put down in my initial inquiry. So maybe that is an avenue I will go down in one of my final posts.

November 14, 2020

Musical Growth – Blog #5

This week with the Ukulele

There are two instructional videos that I did this past week and wanted to share on the blog. First was a strumming/chord tutorial, once again on the AllForUke YouTube channel, that deals with some interesting notes that I have not seen too often. As well, the strumming pattern used in this tutorial is a fun one and sounds really nice with the chords that he picked. In the tutorial he uses a strumming pattern of down, down, up down up in 4/4 time. The chords and progression that is used at the beginning is G, Gmaj7, G7 and C/Cmaj7. The other chords he uses are Cmaj7, A7 and A9. In my practicing and song choices I typically only see half of these being played, so it was interesting to do some practicing with new chords.

The second tutorial that I worked with this week was another AllForUke video focused on ‘Jingle Bells’. This was the song that I practiced the most this week, as it was the one had previously practiced the least. I worked on the song a bunch from a song sheet that I downloaded (I will post the sheet at the end of the post), but then found this video which is helping me a lot with the strumming pattern. The chords for ‘Jingle Bells’ are pretty simple, it is more when to make the chord change and the strumming pattern that I need the most help with, so this tutorial is really helping.

As well as these two videos, I have also had time to go over my other two songs “Let It Be” and “Hakuna Matata”. They are coming along but do still need more practice.

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