Primary eNews – May 28, 2021

Using Technology in Grade 2
In today’s world, technology is everywhere and children are surrounded by it from when they are born. Since the COVID pandemic started, our early years classes, which normally had a balance of technology in the classroom, were forced to completely immerse themselves in technology and reach abilities using digital platforms that they would normally not develop at such young ages. 

In our grade 2 class, I saw a need to use more online platforms for student’s learning than what we had currently had access to, especially during our Zoom calls to make them more interactive and collaborative.  I had to find a way to enable students to have access to these.  In Grade 2, children do not have access to their school email accounts and thus are limited to using only Seesaw as a way to share their work.  This is a big limitation, especially when you want to use programs like Jamboard, Flipgrid, and Google Docs in your classes.  However, having an amazing administrator and IT team, we were able to provide the students with their email accounts just to access these platforms without overstepping the technology use rules at our school. 

Being able to now use these digital platforms on our Zoom calls made learning a lot more interactive and demonstrated that Grade 2s are capable of so much given the correct tools.   

Here, I share some slides of one lesson when we inquired into Mathematics using Jamboard.  The class was divided up into teams of 2 and we created breakout rooms on Zoom for the students to easily discuss the task they were given.   Beforehand, I shared the Jamboard link with all the kids and we decided who was going to share their screen and be the scribe of each team.  Once in their breakout rooms, the kids connected to Jamboard using their school Google accounts shared their screens, and were able to complete this activity collaboratively. 

Below are some of their ideas:

Kids are capable of big things. And as a teacher that has been working with this age group for many years, I have to congratulate the grade 2s for their resilience, open-mindedness, inquisitiveness, versatility, and just trying their hardest during these hardest times.  So proud of you guys!!!  You’re all so awesome!!!

Grade 4 Approaches to Learning
“Approaches to learning are an integral part of the IB education and complement the learner profile…” (Principles to Practice, 2018)

During our collaborative project, the Grade 4 Market, students have had the opportunity to develop different social skills as they have worked together to design, produce, market, supply, and reflect on goods and services.

Positive interpersonal relationships are developed when collaboration is guided, modeled, and practiced. Grade 4 have been able to reflect on what worked well and what they would change given the opportunity again.

Students have practiced listening carefully to each other as they share ideas and value each other’s opinions. They have learned how to come to a consensus and encourage each other to use their talents to support the group project. One of the greatest examples we saw during the project was students advocating for themselves and others as they took pride in their role as a productive member of a group. This was true of both our “roomers” and our “zoomers”. It also highlights how important collaboration is in developing skills.

Grade 4 have done a marvelous job on their raffle hampers and are building confidence as salespersons as the market progresses. 

Some of our reflections:

Thank you all for your support.  Tickets are on sale until the 3rd of June with prizes drawn on the 4th!  Got to be in it to win it!