I am currently enrolled in EDTECH 543 Social Network Learning as part of my graduate certificate program in Technology Coaching.  As part of our initial course work we have been asked to set up Twitter, Diigo, and of course a blogging platform and reflect on how we feel about using them.

I have had Twitter, a blog (part of which has been archived), and Diigo (though I haven't used it much) since around 2012 as part of the COETAIL course that I took.  My from that time remain the same. 

Blogging, Tweeting, and Social Bookmarking have changed the ways in which educators learn from each other.  No longer are educators limited to only the PD options from their schools and districts that are often cost prohibitive or aren't focused on the specifics of our roles or professional interests.  Rather, now with a click of a button, I can find great PD ideas on topics we are interested in and for free.  It is really empowering to see ideas for and resources being freely shared.

While I love being able to find resources using Social Networks, my difficulty has always been in the active participation on these platforms.  At times I feel like my ideas are not worthy of sharing or that people wouldn't be interested.  That being said, my attitude is changing.  Since last Spring I have been an active participant on the Seesaw Facebook groups by asking and answering questions as well as providing ideas for increasing student voice.

I work as an Educational Coach/Integrator in the Elementary division of my school.  As many of the social media sites require students to be over the age of 13, which rules out my students.  That being said there are platforms that we can use safely.

Last Spring we introduced Seesaw to our teachers and the majority have all created class blogs where students can add comments to each other's work.  We also used Padlet as a way to showcase the Grade 5 Capstone and students were asked to leave comments on each other's work.  It's small but it is a way to slowly introduce the ideas of social network learning along with digital citizenship.

For the teachers that I worked with, I often make recommendations to join various different groups based on their interests.  I remember one instance where a teacher came to me excited about an idea they had found from one of the groups that I suggested and I couldn't help but grin as they were starting to see the power of using Social Media in this manner.

As far as course expectations go, I suppose my biggest one would be developing strategies to increase my network and participation in Social Media and also tips for helping to manage social media.  There is is much out there, that I need to learn how to best optimize my time so that I don't go down the rabbit hole and lose track of time.

When I began my job at my current school, my supervisors were very keen on the idea of a family maker event.  The brief for the event was that they wanted to provide a day for students and parents to experience making together through a variety of teacher supervised activities.  

The school has now held the day for two years.  All the parents commented on how much they enjoyed the event and asked when the next one would be.  In other words you know this event will be held again.  In this post I will share the structure of the day, ideas for activities, and my personal goals for the next one.

As the event was on a Saturday, and I had never organized this type event before last year, I knew that I needed to a team that was enthusiastic about the event.  To recruit volunteers I asked for time at a staff meeting to introduce the idea and followed up with an email.  

The response that I received was extremely overwhelming and I was so impressed by all the people who volunteered. Some even expressed regret that they couldn't commit the time and one even expressed that they didn't want to volunteer because they wanted to take their child to the event. This once again demonstrated how lucky I am to work at the school.

I also want to make it clear, that the day would not have been the success it was without the teacher volunteers.  I made it a point to ensure that I thanked them (repeatedly) for their time and ideas. 

During the initial planning, I asked teachers to come up with making activities that they would feel comfortable leading.  I made a point to explain to them that making is not all about robots, coding and electronics but includes things like sewing, baking, wood work and on and on. The ideas that were proposed from the teachers were fantastic.  I won't share all of the activities that we had but below are a few:

• Lego WeDo 2.0-A chance for parents and students to build robots and program them using a visual block based coding language.
• Robotic Artists-Using markers, papers and a variety of robots (Pro-Bots, Bee Bots, Blue Bots, and Cubettos) students and parents program a robot to draw a variety of images.
• Free Construct-Students and parents were provided a variety of different materials and built whatever they wanted.

I will be the first to admit, that advertising needs to continue to tweak to ensure that parents are informed.  Information about the event was sent out in a variety of different channels including HRT week email, newsletter from the principal, and school promotional materials.

The advertisement included information about registration which was done using a google form (an edited version of the form can be found here).

To facilitate the registration I used FormMule to send reminders to parents about the day.  To prepare paper copies of the activity lists I used Autocrat to automate the process.  

The event was such an incredible success that I look forward to building on the momentum generated over the past two years to make the event even better for the third year.  

I have several goals to improve the event for next year including better advertisements.  However, a personal goal for the next year is to include elements of the local culture in the day.  Kenya has a beautiful history of making using the tools of their environment that I would love to be able to have some form of making from the local culture represented.  In fact, if you are planning a school maker day, I challenge you to look at your local culture and see what could be offered to honour and respect the history of the community in which you are living.

A few weeks ago I was asked if I had any ideas for a grade 4 unit on geography that need to review the students understanding of the compass rose and introduce the concepts coordinate points, longitude and latitude.  I cam up with the usual activities with Google Earth.  However, I felt that I wanted something easier for the students which is when I thought of a newly acquired resource: Cubetto.

When I went into the classes with this activity, I co-taught along with the homeroom teachers and TA's.  This allowed for great flexibility.  Once the introduction was finished, divided the class into 4 groups and assigned an instructor to work with each one.  

While working with the students, the instructor guided the students through giving directions and helping them with the code.  In the groups the students took turns providing the directions and coding the Cubetto.  While a student was programming the Cubetto, I asked the other students for other options for moving the Cubetto.

This lesson was a bonafide success.  The teachers had a ball with it and the students were all engaged and using the correct terminology.  In fact the teachers kept the kits for a few weeks after the activity so they could use it again with the students.

While the activity was a success, there are a few changes I would like to make for the next time:

• Remind students to document their work using their iPads
• Provide additional questions like 
  • Move Cubetto South 3 squares, turn East, move 4 blocks.  Where are you?  What is the corordinate you are at.