Thursday, August 18, 2016

Innovate with iPad: Lessons to Transform Learning in the Classroom

Kristen Wideen and I are pretty excited to have our book Innovate with iPad: Lessons to Transform Learning in the Classroom available for purchase worldwide through amazon.com. It was certainly a labour of love but we are so excited it to see it in the hands of technology coaches and classroom teachers around the globe.  If you aren't familiar with our book like me tell you a little bit about it.



Kristen and I are both elementary school teachers with a range of teaching experience. We are also both Apple Distinguished Educators who have access to iPad for our students.  She and I both quickly learned that iPad is far more than a tool to do "fun" drill and practice activities with but a tool that can allow students to create their own content.  While we realize there are some great drill and practice type apps, and there is a time and place for those too, we certainly spend far more of our day having our students create their own work, then rely on consumption apps.  What we've learned by having our students create content, particularly in an open-ended environment, they know far more than we've given them credit for.  Open-ended activities allow our students to really show us what they know or in many cases what they don't actually know even though they are able to answer questions correctly or quickly. Using iPad in our classrooms has really made a difference with our students thinking and understanding. Their learning has improved.

Our book features  five open-ended creative apps. These apps include Pic Collage, Popplet, Draw and Tell, Book Creator, and Explain Everything.  We have found with these five apps our students can create most of the content they need. However if you are using different apps with your students, many of our lessons can apply to your specific apps as well. We have also done our best to include other apps that can replace these apps. We realize many districts are limited to free apps, but even with free apps (PicCollage, Popplet Lite, and Draw and Tell  are all free!) there is so much that can be done with iPad.

After introducing the five key apps we also talk about some of the features of the book.  Kristen and I  spent a great deal of time creating the ideal layout for this book so that it can help teachers quickly find what they are looking for.  We have labeled the lessons into specific grade levels, and iPad comfort levels, as well as possible lesson extensions.  In addition most lessons have student samples and some even have links to video samples.  Many of the lessons also have downloadable task cards that you can give to your students to help them work more independently in an iPad station setting.  Our book is beneficial for teachers with one iPad or with one iPad per student and everything in between.

There are five key chapters in this book that divide our lessons up.  The first chapter has lessons focussed around numeracy and iPad.  I think Kristen and I could have written an entire book on just numeracy and iPad lessons as there are so many ways to use iPad in a numeracy classroom.  We have provide many lessons, most of which can be adapted up or down to meet your students specific numeracy needs.  In fact one of our reviews actually mentioned how he could use some of our numeracy lessons with his university students.



The next chapter focuses on literacy and ways iPad can be used to enhance and support your literacy program. Again many of the lessons can be used at various grade levels. Our hope is that you will see the lessons that we have shared and you will be inspired to create some new lessons for your students. Our book is meant to be a starting point, not an end point for innovation with iPad.


We then have  chapters focussed on science and social studies lessons. Once again the content part of the lesson can be swapped out to meet your students' individual needs.



In the final chapter of the book we take a look at ways an iPad can help with student self assessment.  At the simplest level having students be able to add voice to their work, and talk about what they did, what they are proud of, what they worked hard at, what they still struggle with, and set goals for their future learning can have a huge impact on future student learning.  It's exciting that iPad can play an integral part of this learning and growth.



To accompany the book Kristen and I have created a website. Here you will find all the student examples as well as access to the downloadable task cards.  Many teachers have found both the student examples and the downloadable extremely helpful in their classroom environments.

As I mentioned earlier, Kristen and I would love for this book to continue long beyond its purchase.  To help support this vision we have created a space on the book's website to collect and share the great  ideas this book is inspiring in your classrooms.  You can find this special sharing area under the  "Let's Share" section of the website.  Here you will find four Google Slide presentations with easy to follow instructions on how to add your ideas to the slide decks. Our vision is that this book will continue to inspire educators for years to come.






Kristen and I also have created the hashtag #InnovatewithiPad as a place to continue the sharing. Stay tuned as well as we hope to host some twitter chats to accompany the book. We really want this to be a living book that will continue to grow in usefulness.  If you want to stay up to date on these twitter chats and other future adventures with the book please add your name and contact information to this form. We will do our best not to send out too many emails, and of course you can be removed from the list at any time. We respect your privacy. 

As you can imagine, Kristen and I are excited about the resource we have created and we hope that you will find it of value too.  If you have not yet purchased your copy please head over to Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and order yours.  If you are reading this and work for a district or school and would like to purchase multiple copies for your environment, please leave us a message with the approximate number you'd like to order and contact information (email works best) and we will be in touch as quickly as possible.  You can leave us a message through the contact us link on the book's blog (or via twitter, this website, Kristen's website, or any other method you have to get a hold of one of us :-)  ) .  Thank you!!










Monday, July 11, 2016

Today's the Day!


Kristen Wideen and I couldn't be more excited about our first book Innovate with iPad: Lessons to Transform Learning in the Classroom.  This has been a complete labour of love, and proof that two friends and dedicated educators can co-write while living over 4,000 km apart.

Today, we are excited to announce that our book is available for purchase on Amazon. Here is what Amazon has to say. 

In “Innovate with iPad: Lessons to Transform Learning in the Classroom” primary teachers Karen Lirenman and Kristen Wideen provide a complete selection of clearly laid out engaging open-ended lessons to change the way you use iPad in the classroom. By simply downloading a few basic, open-ended creation apps, your students will engage in the learning process and demonstrate their newfound knowledge in the way that works best for them. In addition, throughout the book Karen and Kristen provide beginner and advanced lessons and quick tips and practical suggestions to make the integration of iPad go as seamlessly as possible.
This beautifully laid out book also features downloadable task cards, student generated examples and extension ideas to use with your students.
Whether you have access to one iPad for your entire class or one for each student, these lessons will help you transform learning in your classroom. 

For more information be sure to check out http://www.innovatewithipad.com/.  



Sunday, July 3, 2016

The K-3 SAIL Story

This past week I had the pleasure of sharing the beta year of the SAIL K-3 story at ISTE.  While I presented several times over the conference, this session was the one nearest and dearest to my heart.  It is a story that needs to be shared.  At SAIL we are looking at school differently and we are trying to change the way school is done.  I have been fortunate to get in on the ground level and this past year I had the opportunity to reinvent school at the K-3 level.  I won't lie though, it was one of my more challenging years of my career, but it was also one of the most rewarding.  Let me share some of my slides and a bit of our story with you.


The SAIL program came out of the rebranding of the previous Surrey Connect program.  Things weren't as good as they could be with Surrey Connect and SAIL was designed to change that.

In case you are wondering SAIL is a FREE PUBLIC school program which welcomes students from all over the lower mainland. This means you do not have to live in Surrey to attend SAIL.

SAIL is a distributed learning program which means some of the learning must take place away from school.  For us that means four full days in school, and one day away.




The weekly home learning includes parent involvement, family learning, and community learning. I will admit, that this has been one of the challenges of the past year as I'm constantly trying to be creative with my planning so that the home learning that goes home is meaningful, engaging, and connected to our classroom big ideas.  Having my students only 80% of the time means the home learning piece is an important part of the program.

At ISTE I focussed the presentation on the fact that with SAIL we are trying hard to put structures in place for successful student learning.  You need to understand that some of my students were losing patience with their neighbourhood schools for one reason or another.  Some of the structures we've put in place  include valuing student choice and voice AND using child centered reflective teaching practices.  From the slides below you can see that I spoke about some of the ways we value student voice and choice.  I don't think it's so much that we are doing something innovative, but more so that we are open to letting our students have more voice and choice.




 Below are a few snapshots of our classroom.  You'll see that we have no assigned seating and my students can work where they want to within the room.  Some get pretty creative from time to time, but as long as they are on task doing what is expected of them, they select where and how they work.






My students also have the choice of selecting the tool that works best for them.  While we do have access to technology in my room, technology isn't always the first tool chosen. It really depends on the task and the learner.


We also have a lot of self regulation toys in our classroom. We are trying to create an environment where the students have control over their learning.  In a more traditional class these toys may all be available but more often than not it is the teacher deciding who needs what. For example the noise reduction headsets may be assigned to the child who is sensitive to noise. In my classroom these are just tools that any student can grab as needed.  My students are not singled out.  They use the tools available to  them as they feel they need them. And yes, there was pre teaching around this and my students have become much more aware of their unique and individual needs.  Teaching self regulation is a very powerful strategy for student success.


I've also broken down some of the more traditional things I've done.  I've spent  lot of time rethinking what structures I have in place to keep me happy, and found ways to open them up to allow my students to be happy.  At such a simple level, the Valentine's folders below are just one place where I let go.  Yes, my students did have criteria for making them (they had to hold valentines, their name had to be clear, and there needed to be at least one moving part) but how they were made was up to them. As you can see everyone had a different take on the task, and I did what I could to support them.


My students often have a variety of ways to show what they are learning. Take for example the image below.  As part of our inquiry on trout my students were required to create a trout habitat and explain the key features of their habitat.  As you can see by the images below my students created in a variety of different ways, yet each one was able to explain what they did to create their artifact and why.


Inquiry was another big theme in our classroom.  At times I would wonder if we were in fact doing inquiry but as I started to collect a sample of their inquiry projects I was quickly reminded about how much inquiry my students did do. Below is a list of just a few of the inquiry projects my students explored.


In our classroom we also do a lot of learning by design. Below are "dream" playgrounds created and designed in Lego.  It was through their creations, and the discussion and reflections that followed,  I learned a lot more about my students and what they valued.


My students also worked through many design challenges to solve problems linked to real life situations. Here my students are creating a prototype of a shelter for a plant that was stuck in an environment with way too much rain.  My students worked with simple items but explained their thinking at a complex level. Each part they added to the prototype had a purpose.


And of course we have a maker mindset in our classroom. My students knit, sew, garden, bake etc.  They create with and without technology.


If you haven't figured it out yet my approach to teaching is very student focussed. My students help guide the direction of my planning.  As a teacher I strive for child centred reflective teaching practices. I speak of innovative teaching practices and authentic learning but really what I'm trying to do is what's best for my students.



 Below are just a few of the ways my students learn.  They aren't extra "events" in our room, they are just how we learn.





I also try, as best as I can, to bring in real life learning. We are makers by nature growing flowers and food (yes we grew, harvested, prepared and ate potatoes), learning to knit, and creating for purpose, using anything we can get our hands on.



We have come up with ways we can help our classmates, our school, our community and our world.  The Earth Rangers program was a huge catalyst for many of my students as they got right to fundraising to help save endangered Canadian animals. 


We also have a very STRONG motto of kindness and even when we are upset with one another we keep our words kind.  Kindness penetrates everything we do in our room.  My behaviour management system is building relationships with my students, and supporting them with theirs. 

Many think our program is an accelerated one, that you need to be a gifted learning to join, but none of that is true.  The real beauty of the program is that we dig deeper with our learning so the skills that we are gaining will transfer to different situations.





We have many other structures in place to support student success.  Our flexible furniture allows our learning spaces to change as needed.   We learn in multi aged cluster classes which means we focus far less on individual grades and far more on who we are as learners. Yes, each child does work through their required curriculum, but the focus is on them as learners.  We have both interdisciplinary learning where many content areas are uncovered together through some of the projects or activities my students do, and disciplinary learning too.

Technology is seamlessly used in the class. Those who need a device will grab one as necessary.  Many of our devices are shared too if that's what is need.  In general we work pretty collaboratively. There is no point in me being the only teacher in the room when I have a room full of teachers.  My students knowledge is valued.


What I believe has been some key successes of this program is that we have engaged learners whose anxiety has decreased and  there is increased empathy in all situations.  It's really quite wonderful.


But of course everything hasn't been perfect and I'm already thinking about ways to improve and change for the next school year.  You see, that reflective piece is so key for both me as the teacher, and for my students.  My students regularly reflect on what they have done well or are proud of, and what they'd like to get better at.  They have both their blogs and their digital portfolios to do just that. 


Below are a list of a few of the things I'd like to keep working on to improve as we move towards are second year of SAIL.


So that is just a little snapshot of the SAIL program.  If you're curious to learn more about SAIL please be sure to check out the website  https://sailacademy.ca/programs/steam-k7/.  There is a great video on the k-7 page that I think you might enjoy.





Thursday, May 12, 2016

Exciting News to Share!

Excited to be making this official. My good friend Kristen Wideen and I have a book coming out soon. We hope our book will help transform how iPad is being used in classrooms because the potential of iPad goes way beyond just practicing math facts and listening to stories.

To be one of the first to know when it's available for purchase fill in this short form.   In the meantime check out our very cool book cover and stay tuned for more details on how you can get your hands on your own copy! 

We can't wait to share our book with you. 



Monday, April 18, 2016

Still Affected, Many Years Later: The Impact of Teacher

Today I attended a fantastic professional development opportunity which focused on the design process and making. I was part of a group of four and together we went through the process of design thinking followed by creating a prototype for a new and improved lunch kit. As a team we had many great ideas.  However when it came time to use the tools to bring our idea to life, I struggled.  It wasn't that I couldn't add to the ideas, and help with the design, it was that I really had a fear of using the tools to create.

You see back when I was in grade eight sewing and art something happened in both classes that still haunts me to this day. I never really realized how badly it has affected me but it was very obvious today as I tried to be hands on with my group as we began to create the prototype of our idea.  You see when I was in both grade eight sewing and grade eight art my teachers used my products as the examples of what not to do.  In one case my work was referred to as a "dog's breakfast".  Needless to say I've never felt so humiliated.

To cope I developed strategies, I'd come to class when no one was there and make sure my work was not in sight.  I'd do my sewing when no one was really around - before/after school or over lunch etc. I did complete all the required projects - yes I even made a jacket - but I showed no one anything I made.

Art class was the same. I'd sneak in and grab my work when no one was looking. There was no way that I was going to be humiliated in front of my peers again.

Fast forward to today, and I'm back in a maker environment. I've got tons of ideas and have a real vision for what our product should look like.  I listen well and feel I'm a good group member. But when it came to actually using tools to create I nearly froze.  I was able to clearly direct what I wanted to be done, but I could not do it on my own.  In fact I made just one cut with a knife before passing it off to someone one else. I was truly afraid that I was going to mess up our project. Crazy right?

I'm still baffled several hours later at how much the "making" process flooded me with these terrible memories from high school.  I know the whole thing is irrational but it's crazy how much of an impact it has had on me.

So please, if you have a student who may not have the strongest skill set in a particular area honour them for where they are at. Provide with the support and guidance to help them improve but DO NOT humiliate them to the point that it still affects them many years later.

As a side note, when it came time to show case our finished prototypes I received rave reviews for my selling capabilities. That made me laugh, and smile. After the flood of negative memories, I needed that.

So, when you are making in your classroom, be mindful that there may be a student like me. One who has had a bad experience with making even though the rational side of their brain knows better.

And as an educator, be good to your students always. Even, or more likely especially when they are struggling.  We have an impact far deeper than we probably realize.

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Learning to Listen





One of my big goals has been to listen more and speak less. By listening more I mean to listen with the intent to understand, not just to listen to hear.  This has been a particularly important goal with my students this year although it really started back a few years ago when I taught an inquisitive young man who was often questioning what was happening in the classroom.

 It was this same young man who asked, "Ms. Lirenman why do you tell us which math station to go to and why can't we just choose our own"?  The first response that popped into my head (and thankfully stayed there) was that I'm the teacher and I want it this way. I liked the control it gave me to keep the class organized and well run. I liked that it meant every student would make it to every activity. I liked it that way.  But I didn't say that instead I said, "let me think about it". 

I went home that weekend and did think about it and when I returned on Monday I told that student that he was right, and that if he and his classmates could make choices about their learning and pick the math stations that best met their learning need to fully understand the concepts we were learning about I would be cool with that.  I did say that I would jump in and support those learners who weren't able to make those choices yet, but I'd jump in with the intent to help them learn how to make those choices on their own.  

Really to no surprise, my students were amazing. I still set up the activities but they were able to make their own choices about what they needed most. Yes, I did step in at the beginning for a few students, but quickly they were successful too. They showed me what they really are cable of doing if and when I let them show me.

Fast forward a few more years.  I'm now teaching in a multi-aged, home/school blended classroom which is part of SAIL (Surrey Academy of Innovative Learning).  I have highly inquisitive students in fact I'd say that most of my class is exactly like that inquisitive young man I taught a few years back. I still write a day plan based on my students and what I know about them as learners.  I understand the curriculum and  have ideas of how we are going to learn what we are going to learn. However I've created an classroom environment where it's okay for my students to suggest other ways to meet the learning objectives. The rewards have been incredible.

My listening with the intend to better understand and know my students has paid off greatly. How are you listening to your students as a way to support their learning?

Nap Every Day: A Metaphor for Education

This past Wednesday night I was given the honour to present as one of the speakers for edvent 2016 where each speaker was asked to chose one line from Robert Fulghum's  poem Everything I Learned in Kindergarten and relate it to education.  After my first choice was already chosen by some else, the line I spoke to was "Take a Nap Every Afternoon".  

For those of you who were not able to attend, here is more or less what I said, with the images that I shared as I went.


According to the Miriam-Webster dictionary a nap is defined as a sleep in the middle of the afternoon. As a grade one, two, and three teacher I think if I tried to have a nap in the middle of the afternoon, while my students were still in class, more than likely I'd no longer have a job. Having said that though, there is a lot we can learn about from a daily nap, even if a metaphoric one.  
I'd like to start with a story, but I must admit there are many truths to my story. This year I work at SAIL, the Surrey Academy of Innovative Learning. It is a blended home school program and falls under distributed learning. My students are most likely no different than yours. They are keen, curious, eager learners. They specifically have chosen to come to SAIL and travel from all over to attend. But for some of my students there is a very specific reason why they left their previous schools. It let them down. When they entered school they thought it was a place to explore their curiosities, but instead they quickly learned it was a place to please their teachers.  Some of my students were disillusioned with the notion of school and felt their voices had little place in THEIR learning.

So again what does this story have to do with a daily nap? What can we learn from that daily nap?


A nap forces us to slow down. As educators we never have enough time. We are always in a rush - We need to cover curriculum, attend required meetings, do our supervisions, learn new things, connect with our colleagues and of course teach our students. And sometimes in the rush I think we  fail to truly get to know our students. I know I certainly can be guilty of that. We need naps to slow down so we can watch and listen more. Not watch and listen to see and hear but to understand our students better.


A nap allows us to pause and reflect. It helps us learn more about our students interests, passions and learning styles.  We learn what makes them happy and what scares them greatly.


A nap allows us to absorb all of this, and worry less about who we expect our students to be and celebrate more of who they truly are.


Each day a metaphorical nap gives us the strength and the courage to reboot and re examine our roll as an educator. We no longer have to  expect our students to do it our way, and we can be open to them learning ways that works best for them. It gives us the opportunity to put our learners back in the centre of their learning where they belong. It can help remind us to switch from saying, “this is how I’d like you to do it”  to more of  “that sounds like a great idea, I can’t wait to see how it turns out”. Regular naps give us the opportunity to make a change to better meet our students needs. Not our needs, our students needs.


And, there are perks to those naps. The process of shutting down, even for just a few minutes allow us to  refresh and be more creative. We are less frazzled and more open to new and different ideas. We can better handle adversity, and develop better resilience and our judgment gets stronger too.  


The productivity both ours and our students, goes up when we put the learning back in their hands. When we do this we support meaningful and magical opportunities for learning for our students.



We need to slow down to avoid burn out.


But more than anything, as an educator, as a mother, as a father, as a partner, as a friend, a daily nap allows us to be good to ourselves. If we aren’t good to ourselves who will be?

So slow down, strive to understand, rest your worries, and have a nap. Our students are counting on us.

Thank you.