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Elementary Connected ClassroomsSchool District 74 (Gold Trail), British Columbia, Canada

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History and Context

A project that started four years ago and is unique to Gold Trail

Was created to connect students within our district who are geographically separated from each other and create a larger peer group beyond the walls of their classrooms, schools and communities

Creates new learning partnerships between students, teachers, and the larger communities

Uses technology in a transformative way to enhance the learning experiences for students, increasing engagement and motivation

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Our Three Sites

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Aislinn Mulholland’s Grade 4/5 Class at Ashcroft Elementary

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Tarla-Rae Sayenchuk’s Grade 4/5 Classat Lytton Elementary

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Errin Gregory’s Grade 5 Class at Cayoosh Elementary in Lillooet

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In our classrooms…

Class set of laptops (one for each student) Video conferencing equipment Desktop sharing software (Brigit) Ceiling-mounted Projectors and Smartboard Shared Connected Classrooms Moodle site Digital Cameras iPod Nanos for audiobooks Headphones for each student USB drives for each student

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How We Connect

Students engage in four teacher-focused instructional lessons a week

Students also connect to share and explore new Moodle forums weekly connect on Moodle at school and at home

Students meet three times a year (once at each site) for Connected Classrooms gatherings focus is networking and building

relationships Classes share a monthly news broadcast

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What Connected Classrooms Instruction Looks Like:

Lessons are skills-based, project-based and cross-curricular

Each teacher has a teaching focus based on individual strengths, passions, and expertise

Aislinn Mulholland : Reading and Writing Power

Errin Gregory: Digital Photography

Tarla-Rae Sayenchuk: MindUP & AVID Strategies

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Moodle Site

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Moodle Site:Collaborative Hub Online

• password-protected website where teachers and students can communicate content and share online.

• available to the students, parents and teachers

• contains a variety of weekly forums, including online literature circles

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Weekly Current Events Forum Each week students engage in discussions

about current events. They are given a prompt on a developing topic, and are posed a deep thinking question.

The core idea of this forum is that real-world problems capture students' interest and lead to serious thinking as the students acquire and apply new knowledge in a problem-solving context

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Reading Power Deep Thinking Question

Each week students are posed a thought provoking question that encourages critical and creative thinking, as well as inferring skills.

Students can reply to the question with their own thoughts and opinions, or can take the discussion further with by asking their own question related to Deep Thinking question of the week.

Students are engaged in thinking through an online conversation, strengthening their ability to reason their way through a question or problem.

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Digital Photography Forum

weekly photo posted with link to source basic critique questions asked:

What’s good about the photo? What’s bad about the photo? What could be better?

questions connect to the Visual Arts curriculum

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Parent Section

There is an section on our Moodle site that provides information that supports the use of technology in the 21st Century Classroom: Moodle criteria Online safety Technology performance standards Media content

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Inquiry-Based Learning

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Year Long Inquiry Project

Students have chosen a topic based on their own interests and engage in a weekly focused lesson on the inquiry process. The goal for this project is for students to become experts on their topic, and experience deep learning. Used as a context within which to teach all curriculum areas Students will share their work at a Year End Celebration of Learning.

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Connected Classrooms Gatherings

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Online Literature Circles

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Online Literature Circles: Goals Our goal for online literature circles is to motivate students to engage in a variety of texts and share this experience in an online community of learners.

These circles encourage and develop a joy of reading, aid in reading comprehension, and critical thinking skills.

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Online Literature Circles: Books Students are given a wide variety of books

to chose from based on a specific theme.

Books include a variety of text: fiction, non-fiction, picture books, First Nations Literature.

Themes for novels this year were Heroes, Student Choice, Teacher Choice

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Book Talks

The book choices are introduced during Book Talk Week.

These book talks build background knowledge and spark personal interest.

Summaries of these talks are also posted on Moodle for student’s reference.

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Online Literature Circles: Forums

The discussion forums and book talks are moderated by teachers and principals; each book leader takes a different book and poses a weekly deep thinking question.

Students read independently throughout the week, and are responsible for posting weekly.

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Find more information here:

http://about.me/ConnectedLearning

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