CIS Connects Unconference 2018 IMPACT REPORT Supporting our schools by sharing our collective expertise

Educators Conference Format Collaborative group CIS School In Attendance structure built around Participated ideation, iteration and 152 sharing of expertise 36

Impact STEM based on number Learning of attendees impacted portfolios by session Conference 608 Hashtag Session Facilitators #CISOPD Sessions 17 on offer to Each Attendee Inquiry 4

Use of Save the date: Conference space website Jan 28th 2019 GUIDING How might we best use portfolios to capture and share student learning QUESTION 1 ?

Answers and Insights Tips, Tricks & Advice

Need to make a school-wide decision about In order to best use portfolios, you must first determine the purpose or “the why” for using them type of portfolio (growth, assessment, with students. You need to know whether you are using the portfolio to (1) show growth over time, showcase or combination) and platform (2) as a showcase, (3) for assessment or for (4) a combination of reasons. Get clear on 5 Ps (Purpose and Philosophy, To be meaningful, portfolios should include student reflections of their learning. Portfolios give People, Platform, Practices and Pedagogy, students choice in how to capture learning and to be agents in their educational learning in order and Planning and Particulars) to show a holistic picture of the student. For each student, portfolios show “meaningful, manageable, Takes time for students to document learning measurable, moments of me”. Need guidelines/protocols for posting Follow up questions & comments heard within the session: including number and type of uploads, • “Meaningful Manageable Measurable Moments of Me” reflection needs to be a part of this • "Learning is about reflection, and portfolios gives students and teachers a platform to make time Consider age & stage, curriculum needs, and for meaningful reflection" audience • "Portfolios aren't easy because they require dedicated energy and time, and they have to be Gives students choice, voice and agency in meaningful, so figuring that out is important" showing learning • "Choosing the right platform is simple, once you have your ‘why’" Consider who the audience for these portfolios are Resources Schools to follow up with to follow up with Making learning meaningful by connecting concepts and skills Feedback Seesaw - https://web.seesaw.me/ • Crestwood Prep (Fresh Grade) • (Seesaw) Fresh Grade - https://www.freshgrade.com/ Interactive, Practical, and Inspiring Sesame - https://sesamehq.com/ • St. Clement’s School (Portfolio Frameworks) • Havergal MYBlueprint - www.myblueprint.ca/ Mind Blowing...my mind is spinning with • Pickering Google + - https://plus.google.com/discover ideas, great tools, and new colleagues with • Holy Trinity School Google Slides - docs.google.com/presentation/ whom I can connect for further insight. Non-CIS schools using portfolios Google Sites - sites.google.com • Fletcher’s Meadow School • Meadowvale Session slides: http://bit.ly/2Iy3Yhw • Surrey School District GUIDING What new teaching & learning opportunities do Maker, Design & STEM spaces QUESTION 2 present to us ?

Answers and Insights Tips, Tricks & Advice

Making is the literacy of expressing ideas through the use of tools, materials and imagination. Focus on Task/ideas rather than tools Matching ideas to making should be the goal of educators using a makerspace. It is important to Making is a mentality, not necessarily a room educate the teacher on not only what tools can physically do, but also how they can be used to express ideas, passions, and creativity. The maker mindset of trial/error, iteration, and multidisciplinary Have ideas first, find tools second. nature offers educators a great model for learning and exploration. Design and STEM spaces need to be curated carefully and with intention. The set up of these spaces Start small and grow toolset as needed should feel different to the student and teacher as space is the third teacher and can send a powerful Service/tool maintenance is important message that these are spaces and pedagogies that allow for risk and creative thinking. Integration of one or more courses should be encouraged by these spaces as well, but the impetus needs to come from Cool ideas: the school’s willingness to give time and space for the design of these integration units and/or courses. Follow up questions & comments heard within the session: Licenses/badges for tools users Combining the makerspace with artspace • "Who manages this space?" • "Space is the third teacher" can lead to more creative making • "Is it a room or a cart or a combination?" • "Consider having someone hired to curate • "Do we need a “maker” expert?" and steward your dedicated space - like a lab Well labelled parts/materials and tools • "Should all classrooms be makerspaces?" technician" bins - Material buffet

Resources Schools So informative; great to talk to like-minded to follow up with to follow up with teachers. We are all on our way to facilitating awesome changes in our schools. Outsourcing/suppliers Making help sites • 3d Hubs - 3d printing Thingiverse.com • The Digitmakers A great opportunity to connect Creatron • Feedback Making class vendors with like and diverse fellow Ponoko • Hatch • Crescent School teachers from all across Ontario. Programming/Coding/Robotics Fab Academy • Bayview Glen Scratch, MicroBits, TinkerCad • Holy Trinity School SteamLABS A relaxed active learning experience with Circuits, Lego EV3, mBlock/mBots, • Branksome Hall MakerKids Code Combat • College like minded colleagues and a format that Raspberry Pi, Little Bits, Arduino, Tool Library • Hillfield Strathallan College incorporates participant choice! Trinket.io Future Design School • Kingsway College School Maker Bus • St. Mildred's Lightbourn School 3D Design Tinkercad, Fusion 360 Teachers Learning Code • Maker Ed TO Session slides: http://bit.ly/2K7osLb Makerbot, Ultimaker http://makeredto.org/ GUIDING What are the essential elements of well scaffolded and executed inquiry QUESTION 3 ?

Answers and Insights Tips, Tricks & Advice

Trust is key - students, parents, community need to trust you’ve “got it right”, use concrete research Design and Planning (and time for teachers to work together to do this) - PBL, Flipped Classroom, Provocations rich enough to spark a variety of Go deeper as opposed to wider in unit planning interests and possible explorations Assessment - student voice on assessment, co-designing success criteria, rubrics with students, emphasis on metacognition and reflection, student-led conferencing, check-ins, and progress Use technology (like Flipgrip) that provides for an reports, real time documentation of the inquiry, conversations and observations easy platform for student sharing / re ection and Mindset - student voice and choice, demonstrate value in questions and wondering, openness to feedback diversity and divergence, process as valuable as product, model inquiry Minimize procedures Interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, cross-curricular, connecting to social justice and changemaking Make the model JK - 12 Talk to your colleagues, visit their classes Start with a provocation: quote, image, music, video Starting a teacher book club at your school to start with common language Resources Schools Take the time to create and build a culture of inquiry - buy in to follow up with to follow up with Allow students to pursue dead ends sometimes Book: Dive Into Inquiry (Trevor Project Based Learning by Larmer, • Havergal College MacKenzie) Mergendoller, Boss Move from structured to unstructured • Branksome Hall deBono 6 Hats Understanding by Design by • The Mabin School Genius Hour, Wonder Wall, Design Day 8 Cultural Forces / 8 Forces We Must Wiggins and McTighe • UTS Teach kids how to ask questions Master STAO • Trafalgar Castle PhET Simulations ISEEN Summer Conference • The York School Buck Institute - www.bie.org (PBL) POGIL A collaborative and energizing day with • The Bishop Strachan School Harvard Project Zero Goalless Problems - Kelly O’Shea exciting and generous educators. • Making Thinking Visible Grand Valley State Target Inquiry • St. John’s Kilmarnock School Bard College Institute for Writing BOLD School by Lara Jensen and Came with questions, left with Feedback and Thinking Tina Jagdeo more questions. Loved it! TC2 - Critical Thinking Consortium - Future Design School inquiry packs Book - Natural Curiosity Innovation and Inquiry in the Ontario Reggio Alliance Classroom by A.J. Juliani NAREA - Knowledge Building Forum Session slides: http://bit.ly/2I2row4 GUIDING When looking to optimize learning, which is more beneficial: mindsets or use QUESTION 4 of space and resources ?

Answers and Insights Tips, Tricks & Advice

Use a small pilot first - test out furniture Primary Answer: Mindset determines use of space. It is the mindset and the approach of faculty and involve student and faculty input and students that is most beneficial to optimizing learning. When you cultivate mindsets of inquiry, growth mindsets, and collaboration first, you can build the spaces and bring in the resources that Build teacher confidence and capacity to support these mindsets. The most significant mindset to foster for faculty is “Educator as Learner”. use furniture and resources effectively This will allow educators to put the student at the centre of their learning, and their classroom pedagogy. This mindset also supports an inquiry approach (see above), and releases educators Shared language established with faculty from the “prison of expertise,” allowing them to learn alongside their students. When this happens, and students having a ‘front’ of the classroom, and/or ‘teacher’s desk’ becomes unnecessary and incongruent. Look at existing spaces and how they might Secondary Answer: Flexible, creative spaces cultivate mindset. It is the space and the resources be recreated (use of outdoor spaces too!) within the space that can be the most beneficial to learning. Diversity of spaces for learning, and creative uses of space, encourage new ideas, ways of seeing, and perspectives that foster inquiry Keep ‘space’ in mind when timetabling and growth mindsets. If ‘learning happens when you feel safe, involved and valued’, then spaces throughout the school should reflect the diversity of needs of faculty and students. CIS Ontario Connects does Follow up questions & comments heard within the session: just that by providing curious, Feedback courageous and innovative • “How do you create a culture if you don’t have a space?” thinkers time to share, • “How might we use and assign spaces to promote faculty collaboration?” brainstorm and collaborate. • “Is ‘how we use time’ a resource, or a mindset?”

The team that made #CISConnects happen. Great conversation, great connections, and Resources Schools great sharing. The ‘How might we...’ effect is to follow up with to follow up with a strong one.

Heidi Hayes Jacobs: Bold Moves • MacLachlan College • Montcrest School Exactly the kind of collaborative event that we all David Thornburg “Re-imagining Spaces” • Bishop Strachan School • St. John’s Kilmarnock School need: no speakers lecturing, no vendors pushing, • Tena Seelig: The Idea Lab • just good old grassroots sharing. • The York School Shift Furniture: SHIFT+ • Hillfield Strathallan College • Holy Trinity School • The Rosedale Steelcase Furniture: Catalogue • Branksome Hall Session slides: http://bit.ly/2IrjtYS