cc licensed ( BY SA ) 500px photo by Charly Morlock: http://500px.com/photo/3106929

As teachers, students and administrators are utilizing more and more visuals in their presentations, blogs and newsletters, it is important to keep in mind two elements.

1) It is best to obtain an image that has shareable Creative Commons licensing.

2) Using a Creative Commons licensed image still requires proper source citation.

Below you will find a number of websites where images can be sourced and how to properly cite them for your research, presentations, blogs, brochures and newsletters.

WEBSITES

CC Search – allows users to input a theme/word/title and click on a particular medium. http://search.creativecommons.org/

500px – professional photos with a variety of CC licenses. The Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives and Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike licenses are best to use. (Note: some mature content found.) http://500px.com/creativecommons

Flickr Creative Commons – candid photos with a variety of CC licenses. http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/. Download the Flickr CC Attribution Helper Chrome extension (http://bit.ly/CCimage) and this gives you the proper citation to copy into a document, blog and/or website.

Free Digital Photos – variety of stock photos, the company watermark stays on each photo. http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

FreeFoto – a variety of images which are also organized into categories.  Citation for online environments is included. http://www.freefoto.com

Google Advanced Image Search – use the power of google by scrolling down to the bottom of this site and changing the usage rights to either “free to use, share or modify” or “free to use, share” and then add the word(s) at the top. http://www.google.com/advanced_image_search

Pics4Learning – free, copyright-friendly images specifically for students. Citation is included. http://www.pics4learning.com

2Learn Image Database – a number of categories http://www.2learn.ca/images.aspx

Wikipedia Commons – freely usable media files (images, sounds, videos), various contributors. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

CC CITATION Structure

When attributing an image under a CC license you should indicate the type of CC license, share the host website name, credit the photographer, and provide the URL where the work is hosted. (If the image has a title you can include that as well just before the name of the photographer/creator.)

cc licensed (abbreviation of licenses) which webservice is displaying the photo (flickr, google, 500px…) by (name of photographer): (link to actual image)

ie.

Attribution-ShareAlike License

cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo by MeRawrFloor: http://flickr.com/photos/mirrorfloor/8748547068/

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by Lucas County Choppers: http://flickr.com/photos/mzwp/8748525126/

In the school division that I work in, for the past decade our teachers have collaborated, discussed and shared student assessment experiences. From these discussions came about our K-9 report card in 2012. This report card is designed to provide a broader snapshot of how students are learning. It also identifies ways to support student growth and development.
This approach focuses on the broader knowledge and skills that student should learning in each subject. Student performance is then report in one of four categories: exemplary, proficient, approaching proficiency and beginning. This report card emphasizes where student ARE in their learning. Multiple assessment tools, not just %-based tests are being utilized to assess student progress in skills and knowledge outcomes. (See our sample K, grade 4 and grade 7 report cards.)

The way I explain this approach to my non-teacher friends is:
• You go to your doctor for an annual check-up. He/she takes your blood pressure, weighs you, and asks about your overall health, takes blood and urine samples all during your visit. When the results come in from each of those “tests”, your doctor then adds up all these tests and gives you an overall health percentage rating of 81%. Does this then mean that each of these tests were equal in nature and measured the exact same thing? Are you healthier than your friend who received a 75% rating from their doctor the week before? Certainly NOT.
• In the classroom, teachers offer students a variety of assessment opportunities which are not equal in nature and do not ‘measure’ the same thing, therefore adding all of these together to produce a final percentage really doesn’t provide a legitimate picture. As well, adding in our Critical Thinking initiative and Inclusion focus allows students of any academic, behavior, cognitive, and physical level to engage in the learning environment. We want our learning spaces to be filled with exploration, creativity and imagination which make learning exciting and aspiring.

Watch the following video to see what a post-secondary student has to say about an education system that concerns itself with only the “what” of learning. 21st century learning can no longer be ‘sit and get’.

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Today I had the opportunity to share and learn with teachers who are interested in apps that can be used in the Math class. In Western Canada our math program of studies concentrates on the following: Numbers, Patterns and Relations, Shape and Space, Stats and Probability. Therefore together we explored apps that work within these categories. The overall discussion and sharing concentrated on apps that allow students to build on basic skills, that are interactive (individual to multi-player, that are allow demonstration of skill level and are engaging. Check http://bit.ly/iPadnumeracy to see which apps we reviewed.

Week 2

Change.

It. Is. Not. Easy.

Education and Change.

It. Must. Be. Different. To. Engage. Inspire. (our current students)

For those educators who are interested in taking time out of their work to really question their ideas, values and belief systems should take some time to view this incredible playlist of Re-imagining school TED Talks.

These videos are powerful as they allow us to question:

-         How is this change affecting my daily work?

-         What kind of professional learning support do I require to move forward in my teaching practice?

-         How can I share my learning and network with other teachers in my school, in my division, in the province and around the world?

-         Are there things that I am doing now that I should be stopping?

The Playlist consists of:

1)      Ken Robinson: Schools Kill Creativity

2)     Salman Khan: Let’s use Video to Reinvent Education

3)     Sugata Mitra: Build a School in the Cloud

4)     Daphne Koller: What We’re Learning form online Education

5)     Geoff Mulgan: A Short Intro to the Studio School

6)     Sugata Mitra: How Kids Teach Themselves

7)     Peter Norvig: The 100,000 Student Classroom

8)    Dave Egger: Once Upon a School

9)     Liz Coleman: Reinvent Liberal Arts Education

10)  Arthur Benjamin: Teach Stats Before Calculus

11)   Kiran Bir Sethi: Kids Take Charge

12)  Patrick Awuah: Educating Leaders

Watch these individually or with colleagues, you are certain to have some great conversations surrounding each one!

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Week 1

As I look at my educational rooted surroundings, I am amazed at how much has changed since I went to school as a student. Yes, I could be dating myself in saying that when I attended K-12 school, the following educational learning conditions were present:

-         All students did all the same work

-         Videos were shown via 16mm film, VHS and Beta

-         Individualized work, memorization and proper study skills were predominant

-         I did have teachers who were passionate and engaged my classmates and I but that varied from year to year

-         Lots of paper and pen work, reading from textbooks, writing notes from a chalkboard or projector

And now, as an educator myself and former Assistant Principal, attending a K-12 school in 2013 now showcases:

-         Differentiation for a variety of student learning styles and student needs

-         Opportunity for students to interact with their environment through various media, with other classrooms throughout the world

-         Collaborative, cooperative learning environments

-         Thinking about the thinking = metacognition and building criteria to set a target/make a judgement on the learning experience (ie. Critical thinking)

-         Learning from online sources, developing own learning artefacts

-         More opportunities for student exploring, creating, imagining and aspiring

Changes that have affected our educational norms have been divulged via Sir Ken Robinson’s infamous February 2006 TED Talk on Schools killing creativity. As well, other changes, due to the internet revolution have challenged us as well. See an updated version of the Social Media Video 2013 below as well as the Social Digital Media Revolution Statistics that will have your head spinning as to the vast expanse and reach social media has on each one of us.

* Explain and Send Screenshots

* Eye Dropper

* Pixlr-o-matic

* iPiccy

* deviantART muro

* Sumo Paint

* InspirARTion

* Pixlr Editor

* Pic Monkey

As well, I went through some specific examples, instructional uses and finding creative commons images. This information is found at http://bit.ly/chromEDimage

Today I met with a group of teachers who were interested in seeking out resources to use on the iPad for Literacy tasks in the classroom. I grouped the resources I was sharing into:

Class Project – Flat Stanley

Challenge – Textropolis, 4 Pics 1 Word, Photo Quiz, Pics and Words, MixTwo, Word Wall, Bluster!

Create/Demonstrate – Creative Book Builder, Toontastic, PuppetPals HD, Sock Puppets, Word Foto, Comic Touch Lite, Fotobabble

Notetaking – Notability, Dragon Dictate, Paperport Notes

Reading – TeachMe, LAZ, Booksy, MyScript Memo, MeeGenius, iBook

Our purpose was to review what apps were available in the above groupings and see how they could be used in the K-12 classroom. The early years teachers loved the Flat Stanley app while the middle – high school teachers really liked Comic Touch lite, Fotobable and Paperport Notes. One of the second language teachers saw a great opportunity to use WordFoto in language acquisition. Check out the more in-depth information provided at http://bit.ly/ipadLiteracy.

Each spring, the New Media Consortium publishes a Horizon K-12 Report which examines the emerging technologies and their potential impact on and use in teaching, learning and creative inquiry in the learning environment.

An interim report was recently shared at the CoSN (Consortium for School Networking) Conference in San Diego. Below outlines the top 12 emerging technologies, top 10 trends and challenges.

Top 12 Emerging Technologies

The three categories of time-to-adoption indicates how long the Advisory Board of the project felt it would be until these technologies would be provided or used in a significant number of schools.

Near-Term Horizon: One Year or Less

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)

Cloud Computing

Mobile Learning

Online Learning

Mid-Term Horizon: Two to Three Years

Adaptive Learning and Personal Learning Networks

Electronic Publishing

Learning Analytics

Open Content

Long-Term Horizon: Four to Five Years

3D Printing

Augmented Reality

Virtual and Remote Laboratories

Wearable Technology

Top 10 Trends (alphabetical order)

1.      The abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as educators.

2.      As the cost of technology drops and school districts revise and open up their access policies, it is becoming increasingly common for students to bring their own mobile devices.

3.      Customized learning is increasingly a goal for schools.

4.      Education paradigms are shifting to include online learning, hybrid learning and collaborative models.

5.      The focus of assessments is shifting from what you know (can memorize) to what you can do (portfolio).

6.      Openness — concepts like open content, open data, and open resources, along with notions of transparency and easy access to data and information — is becoming a value.

7.      People expect to be able to work, learn and study whenever and wherever they want.

8.      Schools are beginning to move away from textbooks to web resources and open source books.

9.      Social media is changing the way people interact, present ideas and information and communicate.

10.   There is a new emphasis in the classroom on more challenge-based, active learning.

Top 10 Challenges (alphabetical order)

1.      The demand for personalized learning is not adequately supported by current technology or practices.

2.      Divides persist.

3.      Faculty training still does not acknowledge the fact that digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession.

4.      Innovating pedagogy is a complex process that requires research into impacts, responsive state of mind to technology changes and understanding what pedagogical strategies can make innovation in pedagogy possible.

5.      K-12 must address the increased blending of formal and informal learning.

6.      Ongoing professional development needs to be valued and integrated into the culture of the schools.

7.      Many activities related to learning and education take place outside the walls of theclassroom and thus are not part of traditional learning metrics.

8.      New models of education are bringing unprecedented competition to the traditional models of education.

9.      Too often it is education’s own processes and practices that limit broader uptake of new technologies.

10.   We are not using digital media for formative assessment the way we could and should.

Week 2

When I think of building a legacy, in the professional sense, I see our school division successfully able to build one via our Learning Coaches program.

Our Learning Coaches are now in their second year of implementation at all of our school sites. Their role is to facilitate job-embedded and ongoing professional development for teachers. They help identify, model and share promising practices related to inclusive education. (For further information, see Alberta Education’s Exploring Learning Coaches in Alberta 2010 publication.)

We also have specific expectations set up which include our five commitment statements, goals, daily work, results, interactions, engagement, reporting and evidence of success as seen below.

PSD’s COMMITMENT TO INCLUSION

Move from …

• The idea of fixing students to the idea of improving environments
• Dependence on staff (teachers and EAs) to focus on independence
• Special Education to ALL students being special
• A deficit model of thinking to a strength based model of thinking
• Having high expectations for some to having high expectations for ALL

Each of these ideas are located along a continuum.  Historically, in education, we have been more on the left  side of the continuum and over the last decade we have been moving towards the right side of the continuum.  These statements are an explicit declaration to our commitment to inclusion.

GOALS

In relevant and meaningful ways all students will learn, contribute and be active members of their learning community in the most inclusive and enabling environment. The ultimate focus is student learning.

DAILY WORK (of the coach)

With both individual teachers and/or groups of teachers the coach can:

• Support collaborative work at the school – solution focused – are growth agents
• Model lessons
• Observe students and provide feedback (identifying instructional needs)
• Facilitate lesson study or other professional learning structures
• Promote reflection
• Support joint problem-resolving efforts
• Assist in planning – curriculum,  environment, supports (technology, human, and other)
• Team teach
• Participate as a member of the school-based success team
• Facilitate data conversations to improve instruction (common assessments, PATs, DIPs, etc.)
• Supply resources with follow-up reflection (relevant, meaningful, research-based and “learning appropriate” information and resources )
• Promotes continuous learning experiences (asks questions, researches possibilities, seeks a variety of options)

RESULTS (benchmarks)

• Number of teachers engaging with the coach and the frequency of contact
• Types of supports that are accessed

INTERACTIONS BETWEEN COACH AND PRINCIPAL

• Coaches and Principals should meet a minimum of once a month
• Consideration should be given to additional meetings at start up, reporting times and year end
• Discussion is focused on the following:
• types of supports provided
• trends and themes the coach is observing
• number of contacts with teachers
• supports that the coach needs (PD, helping the coach reflect on their role, troubleshooting, etc.)

**Individual teacher performance is not a topic of conversation

ENGAGEMENT

• All teachers will work with the coach; how they work with the coach is flexible.
• Individual conversations
• In PLCs or grade level meetings
• In classroom or outside of classroom

REPORTING

• A minimum of two times per year the coach reports to staff general data about numbers of teachers they worked with, trends and themes, types of supports provided and additional supports that could be provided.­

EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS

Intentionally, coaches and Principals gather ‘good news’ stories and new learnings (testimonials from teachers) to be shared regularly with staff – What is Coaching doing for the staff and students?

As well, our Learning Coaches and Administrators read through an amazing article written and shared to us by Joellen Killion entitled, Are You Coaching Heavy or Light?, at the beginning of this school year. This article really dug into the ‘meat’ of what we would like to see our Learning Coaches working on with staff.

My role is working with the Learning Coaches to support their work at their school sites, to offer professional learning opportunities during our monthly meetings and to engage in thoughtful dialogue with them as they continue their work with staff. So far, this year has been incredible to watch these Learning Coaches truly work with staff to build their capacity, to network with each other (some Learning Coaches have different skill sets than others) and to share this learning on our PSD70 Learning Coach Blog.

This program, I believe is leaving a lasting impact and I hope this will continue despite the Alberta governments’ financial squeeze on educational resources.

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Week 1

When I think of the word “legacy” I think of:

-         Steve Jobs: entrepreneur, inventor and co-founder/CEO of Apple Inc. Widely recognized as a pioneer in the personal computer field.

-         My French ancestors who travelled to what is now Quebec: various family members travelled from Bretagne (province of Brittany, France) to start a new life in Upper Canada.

-         St Francis of Assisi: an Italian Catholic friar and preacher who founded the Franciscan Order, Order of St. Clare and Third Order of Saint Francis. Known as the patron saint of animals and the environment.

-         Princess Diana: British royal who worked tirelessly for a number of charities especially those centered around children.

They are an eclectic group of people who have influenced people and generations in many different ways.

The Ripple Effect

As one can see from the image above, first impressions can have a lasting effect.  It is important to recognize this opportunity and responsibility one has when meeting, working, and engaging with people.

In the work that I do with Administrators and Teachers, I regard the importance of investing my energy in sharing the school division Vision and Mission while supporting the work they are doing in their schools and their classrooms. It is important for me to offer various professional learning opportunities – face to face, elbow to elbow, large groups, via webinars or archived video clips, dialogue and discussions, etc. It’s also about building that capacity of teachers.

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