Jen Kelly's thoughts on teaching French in the 21st Century
Written by Jennifer Kelly
Like many of my fellow Cohort members following our last face-to-face session, I spent some time reflecting on the SAMR model and how I’ve integrated technology into my classes. It became clear to me that I am focused on the social aspect of learning when implementing technology in my classes. Padlet, glogster, google sites, google … Continue reading “Using technology to get students talking”
Written by Jennifer Kelly
Do you provide your students with essential questions before launching into a new unit of study? Do you always create the questions, or do you allow students to come with and explore the questions themselves? When I began teaching in the independent school system ten years ago, I was introduced to Understanding by Design during my … Continue reading “Revised: Who should ask the (Essential) question?”
Written by Jennifer Kelly
With the long weekend behind us, it’s been nice to return to our classes this week and pick up where we left off, with a crew of students who now know a lot more about us, about their classmates and about what (generally) to expect when they enter our classroom. It feels good to arrive … Continue reading “Connecting students via google hangout”
Written by Jennifer Kelly
Last year, the big ideas connected to 21st century skills (collaboration! critical thinking! communication!) really resonated with me and the focus of my Action Plan centred around personalized learning and having students find their own path towards an end learning goal. This year I’m back in the Cohort to continue the exciting dialogue about those big … Continue reading “How we learn and 21st century tools”
Written by Jennifer Kelly
I’m looking forward our first face-to-face this Saturday at The York School! It’s going to be great to meet the new Cohort 21 members, and to re-connect in person with those I haven’t seen in awhile. There were so many rich layers to my Cohort 21 experience last year. What were the highlights? The face-to-face … Continue reading “Cohort 21: looking back, moving forward”
Written by Jennifer Kelly
My last blog post (updated this week with the most recent results of my Action Plan) had an intentional “to be continued” feel to it. I’m not ready for this experience to end, so I’m a bit reticent to wax poetic here about what a great experience it’s been as if it’s all over! I’ve … Continue reading “Final Blog post… prior to tomorrow’s F2F!”
Written by Jennifer Kelly
My students are about to wrap up their French game challenge and will be presenting their original creations to members of the grade 4 class this week. The following are areas of focus that have evolved from this project, which I’d like to refine and take forward with the students’ next project: 1. Reflections, or … Continue reading “Setting the stage for personalized learning”
Written by Jennifer Kelly
Action Plan, part 2 The first part of this post deals with what I have read and learned about since our last face-to-face meeting. At the end of the post, I chart out my next steps and would love some feedback about how I could use technology / coaching strategies to assist with a personalized … Continue reading “From personalized learning to PBL and back”
Written by Jennifer Kelly
Thanks to everyone in the Cohort for a valuable day of sharing and feedback during our third face-to-face session. Our action plan support group discussion about the planning process for personalizing a unit of study was extremely helpful as I grapple with the parameters of my action plan. I left with plenty of resources on … Continue reading “Next steps for a personalized unit of study”
Written by Jennifer Kelly
When I mapped out my grade 11 course for this year, I left a little question mark over the month of May. Typically, I’ve chosen themes, literature, and cultural content for my French courses based on my interests and what I think students would be interested in learning about. Like music, math and physical education, French is … Continue reading “Action Plan for Personalized Learning”