Professional Learning Goals

• Increased use of GAFE for teacher collaboration and student learning
• Used technology to connect with one another and other communities
• Supported learning of mathematical content and skills, while integrating technology
• Used GAFE to develop and share three-part lessons to be strategically implemented and integrated in classroom instructions to support mathematical learning
• Learned about and used a variety of assessment and evaluation strategies including Assessment FOR, AS and OF Learning, using Google Classroom to allow for teacher-student descriptive feedback and peer descriptive feedback
• Utilized a variety of assessment strategies including pedagogical documentation to capture learning and support professional learning
• Deepened educator understanding of curriculum expectations and ways to connect curriculum areas
• Developed rich tasks that connect to a variety of curriculum areas and all areas of the achievement chart
• Deepened understanding of how to differentiate learning tasks to meet the learning needs of all students

Activities and Resources

• Team members
• Toronto DSB Google Apps for Education Help
• GAFE – Google Docs, Google Classroom, Google Draw/Sketch Up, Google Slides
• STEM resources for constructing
• Ontario Math Curriculum, TIPS4RM, EduGAINS
• Shared ideas during face-to-face professional learning, collaborative inquiry sessions to support the professional learning cycle of plan, act, observe and reflect
• Learned more about GAFE and how it can support teacher collaboration and student learning
• Investigated and utilized TDSB and ministry resources to support mathematics and technology learning
• Learned more about and used pedagogical documentation using technology to capture learning and used that as part of our professional learning
• Planned and developed a series of cross-curricular and integrated learning opportunities to support the inquiry and development of Geotricity 3.0
• Developed assessment tools for integrated learning tasks
• Developed open and rich tasks that can be differentiated to meet all learning needs

Unexpected Challenges

• Occasional teachers did not pick up all jobs; re-schedule caused the need for prep payback
• Needed to teach more about scale and story boards/pitch prior to the event
• Needed to re-visit mapping skills in geography
• More urban planning videos before the event; Ted Talks on urban planning
• More pre-teaching needed

Enhancing Student Learning and Development

• Students had the opportunity to engage in 21st century learning skills including collaborating with classmates and could connect with community stakeholders/Eco Schools
• Students became more familiar with features and uses of GAFE
• Students learned how mathematical thinking is applied in the design and engineering process when creating a community space/urban planning
• Students made real-world connections to the application of mathematics
• Students learned about Jane’s Walk and how to connect to their community by discussing how to create their own walk

Sharing

• Shared within the school with the Grade 7 teachers at a staff meeting
• Grade 7 students and all staff invited to a “Share Fair” to see the community designs and prototypes that the Grade 8s completed and to vote on the top three ideas
• Grade 7 teachers were invited into Google Docs to follow along with the process and contribute
• Geotricity 2.0 and 3.0 were shared with other area schools when possible; shared in a math learning hub
• Events and learning shared via Twitter, the trustee, and supervising prinicipal of instructional leaders

Project Evaluation

• Teachers and students are collaborated using GAFE
• Teachers and students explored how to get their project developed with stakeholder (Eco Schools)
• Improved Assessment FOR and OF learning in mathematics due to application of math learning and use of technology; lots of discussion about how to fine tune this and allow for individualized assessment as well; teachers made observations and filled in charts for Learning Skills
• Increased student engagement towards mathematics and STEM tasks
• Technology was used to support assessment
• Teacher and peer descriptive feedback as well as pedagogical documentation
• Team changed how to group students; grouped by jobs and skills to allow diversity. The groups were more productive but should have been chosen before the community walk as the groups were a bit big and less focussed. More information should have been shared about the culminating task before the walk to allow for more of a “buy-in.”
• Allowed students extra time from last year’s project and allowed them to take it home
• More engagement for struggling students; hand-over-hand was used for building
• Lesson development focused on cross-curricular and integrated learning
• A variety of assessment tools were created and utilized that connected to different curriculum areas and all areas of the achievement chart
• Learning was differentiated to consistently meet the needs of all students