This summer I had the opportunity to work with the Carleton University Disability Research Group to help translate some of their amazing research into activities for the classroom. We have put together a selection of activities that are of different lengths for a variety of classroom subjects, for both the elementary and secondary panel. We are currently seeking teachers who…
Sketchnotes – End of Unit
We’ve reached the end of our first unit Sketchnoting daily. If you’ve been following our journey, you’ll know that two of the major goals I had in mind were to help students pull out big ideas and then to have them revisit material after a lesson in order to make it their own. Here’s a quick run-down of some of…
Rational Exponents – Simple is Beautiful
Our Grade 11 Functions course is slowly becoming more of a Thinking Classroom, and one of the big shifts I’m currently working towards is Defronting the Room. I use Pear Deck regularly for setting up a problem & collecting responses (blog post to come), but this week I was looking to do a simple, oral explanation of a problem and…
Sketchnotes Day 5
We’re five days into our Sketchnoting trial for the astronomy unit of grade 9 science. I think it’s safe to say I’m sold on the idea of being intentional about integrating visuals in note taking. Observations so far: Students are awesome. Not that this is a new finding, but it’s nice to be reminded of how unique & creative…
Sketchnotes Take One: What do we already know?
We’ve started sketchnoting in SNC1DF in our Study of the Universe unit. For the first day, I introduced the concept of sketchnotes with help from Marie-Andree Ouimet & Joel Charlebois’ workshop presentation. After a quick introduction, I set the students on their first sketchnoting adventure: draw a sketchnote of what you already know about the universe. I gave the students a…
Starting with Sketchnotes
After following the #sketchnoting conversation between educators on Twitter, I became intrigued. I popped in the sketchnoting room at the 2018 EdCamp and my brain was abuzz with ideas for how this could change the way students engage with information in Science class. Not one to waste any time, I reordered our units in SNC1DF and set Earth & Space: the…
Periodic Table Introduction
You know when you are faced with a challenge that makes your brain work in a way that is both frustrating and intriguing? This introductory activity for the Periodic Table was just that for my students and I’ve included a free printable below so that you can give it a try. We are partway through our Chemistry unit and I…
Parabola Slalom
As an end of unit assessment, I had students complete the Parabola Slalom on Desmos. This was my first time using one of the pre-made Desmos Classroom Activities, but it won’t be my last. The activity was a good balance of challenging & achievable. The students were frustrated in a way that spurred them on to seek out possible solutions….