Personal Learning at JIS - Learning How to Learn

This is the second year that I have been running the big Makerspace (double classroom) at the JIS Elementary, PIE campus. I have been wanting to update this blog with my thoughts as to how the process is going. I am aiming to publish a more comprehensive guide on this by the end of this current academic year. Until that time, I am working with teachers to further develop the program. This is a work in process but I am starting the realise that it will always be in a constant stage of development.

In the past I have published a few books on particular projects that I have done with students. I have always waited until the finish to write the book. For this book however, I am realising that it may never be finished and that I need to move forward with it as it is.

The personal learning program at JIS has come a long way. Initially it was launched with help from a consultant on inquiry, Kath Murdoch. In the beginning, each homeroom teacher conducted the personal learning in their own classroom. Personal learning meant that each student pitched a proposal for a project idea and then spent the next 6 sessions to work on it. Each project was different. It was very hectic and the students mostly did research projects resulting in a slideshow or a document about what they had learned. There wasn't a lot of projects that involved hands-on making. I believe that this was mostly because managing so many different projects was too overwhelming for the homeroom teacher and there was a lack of resources and a lack of understanding of how to developing making skills.

I saw an opportunity to help. I love to make, it's what I do in my downtime. I am constantly teaching myself new skills and almost all of my teachers are virtual. I am constantly developing my own Maker Mindset. It's hard, it really is! I fail a lot. I get frustrated a lot. In my role I am continually learning from virtual teachers and in many cases learning on my own through trial and error. This is an important skill for students to develop.

I work with Apple devices either an iPad, a MacBook or my iPhone. It's my comfort zone. I use a range of apps to help me design and figure out my projects. I am constantly working between digital and analog. It helps me to see. I use the design cycle of Investigate, Design, Create and Evaluate. Using my devices allows me to work within each part of the design cycle.

Making with your hands is so much harder that just writing about it. It requires skills, knowledge and risk taking as a learner. The Maker Mindset is all about trying to make something even when you don't know if it will work. That's the hardest part.

I began with a simple idea. I wanted to share how I learn with students. Just that. I felt that I could be the bridge and support students and teachers to enable more hands on learning. I started to work with some classes. I did this by making my own learning more visible.

"You only know what you know and you don't know what you don't know."

I love to say this. Helping teachers and students to work outside of their comfort zone is how I help them to develop learning dispositions. We have four learning dispositions at JIS. They are, reflective, resourceful, resilient and relating. Helping students to develop the Maker Mindset creates opportunities to develop these dispositions. Using the Split Screen (what I am doing/what I am learning) to be mindful of learning really helps students.

Again - it's hard and requires a lot of energy. I have a lot to think about on this. Perhaps this post can be the start of it?

I think that this is a book waiting for me to write. I need input though. Shared learning is so much richer.

More later ...

This is a photo of a current project of mine. I leave my work out for students to see and to comment on so that they can see my process to learn from it. I particularly show my failures - 

this is one example of a failed project. 

Online Book Creator App via iPad

I have been a huge fan of the Book Creator ever since it first began. My son John Tambunan was indeed the first child in the world to publish a book with the Book Creator app to the Apple iBooks Store. His book is called 'Little Fish'.

Imagine my excitement when Book Creator online become developed! To be able to use iPads (or MacBooks) to create online books which can be seen and edited by teachers on their own device is so powerful. I started using this app last year in the Makerspace. It is easy to use and has been a great way for students to document their learning in real time. I have hundreds of iTime journals to manage and this tool has made that process much more efficient. It is easy to see the books and you can see all of the ones that have already been published to Seesaw - by the little globe icon. Here is a screen shot of just some of the journals created this quarter.
After this New Year, I am planning to use a template. I have noticed that some of my students do a great job to document their learning but some struggle with including all the details. I have tried many strategies. First I tried using starter sentences on each table. Then I made a display with a checklist of what needs to be included. This did make an impact, but there are still gaps in many of my student books. iTime is such a busy hectic session so the documentation needs to run fairly independently.

I have been chatting with some of the homeroom teachers, and I am planning to try using a template with some of the classes. Here is that template.
 
I am hoping that this will help my students to better understand what needs to be included. I thought that including a key question for each session will also better direct their reflections. I have also created this display board with sentence starters to help reflections. This display features the JIS learning dispositions of Relating, Resourceful, Resilient and Reflective. 
I really need for student reflections to be more efficient so that it doesn't take away from the project time. Reflection is such an important part of the iTime process as this helps to make the learning more visible and give students an opportunity to make important connections in their learning.

Laser Cut Wooden Puppets with Keynote and Apple Pencil

We have a new Laser Cutter in the ES Makerspace. I have been wanting to extend working with wood for our students.

The first hurdle that I had to overcome was how to use the Laser Cutter. It's a Glowforge Pro. My first cut was documented on my IG account. I read as much information on the Glowforge site as I could. It was very easy to use as Glowforge supplies you with wood for your first project.

I wanted to start using the cutter as quickly as possible with my students. A Grade 1 class that I was teaching in the Makerspace provided me with that first opportunity. The students were interested in animals and learning more about the form of animals. For example: What makes an eagle look like an eagle? I asked each child to make a silhouette drawing of their animal.

It took a few attempts for the students to understand that they only needed to draw the outer shape. Next we looked into making some fo the parts move. I worked with each child to identify which body part could move by adding a split pin.

The students took a few attempts to draw their puppets which they did on paper . Next I photographed each one with my iPad inside the Keynote app so that I could trace over their drawing with an Apple Pencil to create a digital sketch.

I really like to use Keynote with an Apple Pencil for this and it is easy to export to PDF. PDF files are easily read by the Glowforge laser cutter. To send it to the Glowforge, I uploaded the PDF to the Glowforge online app and then added the settings for the cut.

As I was using local plywood (uncertified material), I needed to make some test cuts and watch carefully to make sure the wood is cut through safely.

I posted my progress to my Instagram account, which was liked and commented on by Glowforge. They even asked me if they could share my Grade 1 work on their official accounts which is very cool considering that this is my first try at using the laser cutter with students!

After successfully cutting out all the parts the students painted their puppets and put them together ready for the puppet show. We were the first class to use the new puppet theatre in our school library.