Trina Sigrist Stacey Monette

Virtual Classroom Tour - VCT

Multicultural Canada: Then & Now

What Is It Like to Walk in Someone Else’s Shoes?

Educator(s) Trina Sigrist & Stacey Monette

School East Central Public School

East Central School is a small rural school located 16km’s east of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. It is a

part of Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division. Our 106 students come to us from the surrounding

acreages and farming community.

School / Project

Website

East Central Public School

Multicultural Canada: Then & Now

What is it Like to Walk in Someone Else’s Shoes?

Content/Subject

Areas

Social Studies and English Language Arts

Age/Grade level 10- 12 years old

Grade 5/6

Project Objectives • Compose and create

• Participate in inquiry based learning

• Collaborate and communicate and connect with numerous

outside organizations

• Use ICT tools to enhance learning and solve real-life problems

• Incorporate self regulation by using peer editing and rubrics

Project Description

Design of the Learning

Environment

Web Resources – We used Symbaloo to organize all of the websites we used for our

project.

Lesson Descriptions – This links you to our project website where you will find more

detailed lesson plans.

Photosynth – Take a look at our class at work!

Evidence of Learning

Student Work Samples:

Mouse Mischief Vocabulary

Presentations (You will need to

download the Mouse Mischief add

on to make these work properly on

your computer.)

Museum Box Click Here to go to an

on-line sample.

What is it Like to Walk in

Someone Else’s Shoes

Documentaries

Student Documentary as shared on

YouTube.

“Bumped Up” Student Documentary

Prince Albert Multicultural

Council Website

Our students created a website for

an

outside organization.

Prince Albert Multicultural Council

Please visit our website: Multicultural Canada: Then & Now for more student

samples:

Student Samples

AutoCollage

Knowledge Building &

Critical Thinking

Balanced Assessment

Extended Learning

Beyond the Classroom The learning from this project was not bound by classroom walls or a time-frame. One example of this,

is the pen pal initiative that the students have become a part of with immigrant and refugee students

from other schools in our school division. The students continue to e-mail one another and learn more

about one another’s cultures even now after our unit is complete. This is authentic learning at its best

as the students are creating their own experiences to learn.

This project has had a meaningful impact on our local community of immigrants and refugees. Our

students created a website for a local advocacy group , the Prince Albert Multicultural Council. They

provide numerous services for new comers to Prince Albert and we wanted to help get the word out

regarding the good work that they do in our community.

Prince Albert Multicultural Council Website

Observations

ProductsConversations

Collaboration

East Central

Students

Prince Albert Multicultural

Council

SWIS (Settlement Workers in

Schools) Teachers and

Students

EAL (English as an Additional

Language) Classroom

YWCA

Technology Use Software

• Microsoft

• Word

• Excel

• PowerPoint

• Mouse Mischief

• Windows Movie Maker

• AutoCollage

Hardware

• Interactive White Board

• Laptops

• Cameras / Video Cameras

• Wireless Mice

• Hubs

Web Based Resources

• Bing

• Bing Maps

• Museum Box

• Culture Grams

• Eduglogster

• Tagxedo

• Voki

• Weebly

• Symbaloo

• YouTube

• BeQRious

What makes our

Project

Innovative?

Our project is “cutting edge” in 2 ways Teaching Pedagogy & Use of 21st Century Skills.

1. Teaching Pedagogy

To use a sports analogy… so much of a student’s school life is stuck in the practice mode. This project took student out of the practise and put them in the game. The problems they were required to solve were real world problems not imaginary practise problems that their normal school lives are filled with.

While integrating 3 curriculum (Social Studies, Career Education, and English Language Arts) the students were working with technology in the highest levels of understanding in Blooms Taxonomy – Creating & Evaluating

The way that the project was executed was innovative. We didn’t spend our time teaching the kids the tools. We just said figure it out!

Not only were we in a facilitator “guide-on-the-side” role the students took on a teaching role in several situations.

o They taught English vocabulary words to the English Language Classroom at Carlton Comprehensive High School using the Microsoft tool Mouse Mischief.

o They taught the Immigrants and refugee’s how to create a Powerpoint presentation.

o They helped their e-mail pals improve their English Language Skills through their on-going correspondence.

o They taught each other how to use various software, hardware and web tools. o They taught us we don’t have to be the keepers of the knowledge, we can be

effective teachers by just getting out of the way and letting the students take on the challenge.

And finally, our project was grounded in sound research from Jay McTighe’s backwards by design planning, Robert Marzano’s vocabulary and effective instructional strategies (summarizing and notetaking, cooperative learning, providing feedback, using advanced organizers, etc.), and Damian Cooper’s triangulation of assessment.

What makes our

Project

Innovative?

”We are currently

preparing students

for jobs that don’t

yet exist”

That’s why 21st

Century skills are

essential. We can’t

just teach information

to students they need

to be able to find the

information

themselves and be

taught the importance

of building your own

understanding /

making your

connections to their

learning so that it

”sticks.” We want to

teach for greater

understaning of

concepts not trivial

understanding of facts

that become outdated

by the time the

Use of 21st Century Skills

Students were introduced to the various technologies (web tools / software / and hardware) and they were given an essential question they were required to answer. It was up to them to use the tools they were given to find their own answers, build their own knowledge through research, collaborate, careful planning, edit, evaluating,

The technology tools they were given were all tools that would enable them to CREATE. A student can’t just start creating… the students needed to work through all of the 21st Century skills to complete their final product.

o Build the Knowledge - Students were given question to solve… essential questions/ big ideas. These questions were open-ended and required students do extensive research and collaborate with others to build their understanding of a variety of topics.

o Self Regulation – The students were required to work on their intrapersonal and interpersonal skills. They needed to learn to combine their knowledge and work together to choose the appropriate course of action. (Robert Marzano)

o Collaboration - We made the learning “sticky” through our collaborations with others. The students had the opportunity to make personal connections with people who were willing to share their stories to help our students learn more about the experiences of immigrants and refugees. The students learned that by collaborating with one another their work became better their ideas were more divergent and that resulted in a better final product than they would have come up with alone.

o Students worked on real world problems. o Skilled Communication – The students were learning about perspective. They

were making connections with immigrants and refugees from our local community. They were starting to understand just how special it is to live in Canada and they were communicating this learning to others.

Peer MentoringHow would we mentor our peers to implement our ideas for innovative teaching

using technology?

We are sharing our project with Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division using a webpage that we created (33 schools).

As the technology coach for our school division, I will collaborate with teachers within our school division that would like to try this project with their students.

We will present our Microsoft project at the annual PAATA convention in August of 2012. This convention is attended by 800 teachers from Saskatchewan Rivers

Public School Division and Prince Albert Catholic School Division.

Reflection

s

Student Reflections Kylee’s Voki Reflection Kirk’s Voki Reflection

Collaborator Reflections

“I found working with your kids extremely rewarding. Seeing different students mix together,

regardless of age, language, gender, cultural background etc. and find common ground demonstrates

how similar we all really are. Sometimes when we only see 'differences' we see certain groups as

'others' and form stereotypes or even prejudices. Meeting and talking makes people real so that we

see the individuals and not the labels or stereotypes that we have developed. My favorite part of the

day was when I overheard an East Central student say to her teacher, "Can we come back here? I

made a friend." Overall, it was a very successful day! You should be very proud to have such a bright

and open minded group of students!"

Thank you,

Julie Raymond, EAL (English as an Additional Language) and Program Coordinator

"I had a great day with them because I found new friends and we discussed many things about

different topics related to multiculturalism."

Mohammed Salat, Adult Student Multicultural Council

"The experience of Mrs. Sigrist and Mrs. Monette's class visit was very enlightening for all of us;

students, teachers, directors, immigrants and refugees alike. Listening to the answers my students

gave in response to the grade 5 and 6 student's questions reminded me of how every individual does,

indeed, have a story and how special it is for us all to live in a truly multicultural country like

Canada.....and the food which was brought for the potluck was incredible. Thanks for visiting, the

website, teaching us as much as we taught you and taking an interest in our stories and centre. It

was a very memorable experience for us all. "

Chantal Chalecky, Teacher of the English for Employment Class

Prince Albert Multicultural Council

Our Reflections Stacey ‘s Blog Trina’s Blog