As June approaches and summer weather settles in, my students are diligently working away on their final pieces for our SET-BC Synergy project on the Somenos Marsh. Their spoken word poetry is being recorded, final video and pictures are being taken and all big ideas and student work are being synthesized to create meaningful products that can be shared both with other classes and educators, as well as on the Somenos Marsh Wildlife Society's website.
Since my last post, we as a class settled on video as the format in which we would share our learning. We have a few students that are keen on making videos and felt that this would be a great visual way to share both our learning process as well as our newfound knowledge and appreciation of the Somenos Marsh. Initially, as seen in the picture below, we had come up with three video ideas that the class felt would cover all of our objectives.
Final video ideas for sharing our Somenos Marsh learning
In my last post, I had shared the frustrating experience of using Adobe
Premiere pro as a video editing platform and the subsequent switch to
iMovie. This time around, a few of my students were keen to once again
give Adobe Premiere Pro a try. What we have discovered is that while
this is amazing software for video editing, it is VERY time consuming.
Additionally, finishing our marsh poetry has taken longer than expected
so we have now reconfigured our plans once again and will be submitting
two final videos to summarize our project; one video on the learning
process (which can be seen below) and one video that highlights the
importance of the Somenos Marsh (still in progress).
Overall, I am very impressed by the commitment my students have made to working away on this project over a number of months (see video below for a full explanation). The process has not always been easy and there have certainly been moments of frustration as well as unexpected setbacks that have slowed down our progress. Despite all of this, I think that place-based learning is an incredible way to inspire students and deepen their connections to their community as well as to the curriculum covered, as illustrated in the above video artifact. Furthermore, the addition of professional-grade "cool" technology such as the GoPros provided for us by SET-BC has allowed my students to create videos that they are extremely proud of and has helped to engage students that otherwise struggle to connect with curriculum and traditional classroom learning.
As our project end date draws closer, we have been brainstorming various ways in which to share our learning in regards to place-based project work and the use of SET-BC technology. In addition, I have been approached by our District Support Teacher, Courtenay McGeachy, about presenting our Synergy project at an upcoming SD 79 District Showcase of Learning in May. I decided that discussing the SET-BC report and Showcase of Learning with my students might be one way in which to gather the required information while allowing their voices to be shared. While technically at this point in the semester this is more of a mid-project review for my students, their input at this stage can certainly be used in our final report for SET-BC.
We have decided to share students' thoughts on the project via interviews using our GoPro Hero5 technology which is being edited on our SET-BC MacBook Pros using Adobe Premiere Pro, a program requested by a few of my more tech-savvy students, and iMovie. Our class headed to the Somenos Marsh earlier this week to record our interviews. A few of my students have been editing footage to be used for reporting out about our project. While
Adobe Premiere Pro is not as intuitive to use as iMovie, and quite
frankly beyond me at this point in time, one of my students has been
really eager to try it out. Ultimately, he has switched back to using iMovie for ease of use at this time. Adobe Premiere Pro was recommended to my students by professionals in the television industry, however, without substantial practice and support from those more familiar with the program we decided that iMovie would suit our purposes better. I have posted the beginning of the video below.
Students recording observations at the Somenos Marsh
In addition to our interviews, I have also asked my students to submit a Mid Project Review to me. This is helping to inform our final project report as well as serve as a sample of writing and group process that I am using as an assessment piece. Students had the option of writing, typing or orally sharing their learning. I have posted the questions and a few student writing samples below.
The guiding questions I gave students in order to compose their Mid-Project Reviews
Examples of student reflections in their Mid-Project Reviews (still in draft form)
Overall, I think incorporating student voice into a project review such as this is extremely valuable. While we as educators have a vested interest in the success and implementation of such a project, students see things differently and are able to provide insight that we teachers may not have come up with ourselves. This allows for improvements and considerations when planning for future projects.
While my students really enjoyed getting outside and exploring the Somenos Marsh, as well as meeting and visiting numerous experts in the community, they were challenged by the lack of information available on the Marsh. Additionally, this particular class learned a lot in regards to conducting interviews, composing emails, making professional phone calls and doing meaningful research, all tasks that most students found challenging. From my perspective, getting our technology so late in the first semester made the initial plans for the project difficult to achieve. In addition, it would have been helpful to have arranged some tutorials on the various equipment and associated programs provided by SET-BC. Furthermore, delving into a project such as this with the challenges that come with connecting with community experts, visiting sites and finding pertinent information means that such a project is time consuming. This is an important consideration when planning for a similar project in the future. If replicating this project, I would have tried to devise a calendar in advance of the project that includes a time frame for submission of important group documents, in addition to trying to reach out to busy community members well in advance of when we might need to connect with them. Overall, if adequate time is spent planning such a project and there is flexibility built into a schedule that can change from day to day, a place-based project such as this can be extremely successful. Place-based learning provides students with meaningful learning experiences that allow students to learn valuable life skills in addition to forming connections with their local community.
We have just come back to school after two weeks off for Spring Break, however, I neglected to post the exciting events that happened before we left for holidays! This month's post focuses on how working with community members enriches student learning and promotes connections with place. As our SET-BC Synergy grant is focused on place-based learning, it is fitting that our focus has been on connecting with community members both in and outside of the classroom.
Cowichan Elders Philomena and Peter Williams (sitting), local ecologist Genevieve Singleton (third from left, back row) and members of our land-based class
Cowichan Valley Museum and Archives volunteer Blanca, and two land-based students learning about the archives and researching the Somenos Marsh
Dale and Jade delving into archival material at the Cowichan Valley Museum and Archives
Our land-based group has now shrunk substantially to a small group of 11 tenacious students, as our first semester has finished and our second has begun. One of our teachers, Kim, has left us for other community-based work and Joann (our EA) has been re-assigned to support other classes. As a small group, we decided to focus on the Somenos Marsh project as it will allow each student to get the credit they need in a meaningful, community-minded way and hopefully allow students to find an area of interest within the broader project's aims.
At a recent staff meeting, we were introduced to a design thinking approach to planning for change. As a teacher who is always looking out for new and creative ways to engage my learners, this approach seemed like the perfect way to get my students thinking like designers using a clear, step-by-step "placemat" approach. With some minor tweaks, I was able to modify what we did as a staff to suit the needs of my students in their planning for this project (see examples below).
Examples of design thinking placemat process (#8 is our community list shown later in this post)
Individually, a few students struggled to come up with talking points, however,
their conversations with a partner really encouraged shared thinking and the piggybacking of ideas. I was very impressed by the proposals that were presented to the larger group in our whole group community brain share-out (see below). Some of their suggestions were beyond the scope of this project, however, we still listed these as the students decided that we could present them to Elizabeth Bailey, who is the co-ordinator of the Somenos Marsh Wildlife Society. Additionally, we began to link ideas with subject areas and students signed up for projects that at this point they were most interested in (see below). We also began to brainstorm some next steps which we will modify and expand upon this week as we jump further into the project!
Overall, what I loved about this process is that other than creating the tool (the placemat) and facilitating some of the discussions, I really wasn't in the driver's seat. Instead, my students were taking over and deciding on ideas and ways of presenting this material that made sense to them.
January has been a busy month for our land-based crew in terms of finishing up big projects, ending our program in a good way and saying our goodbyes. Unfortunately, that means we have had very little time to dedicate to our Synergy project and have had to start thinking about alternative ways to accomplish our objectives! Luckily, a Film 10-12 class is running in second semester and is being taught by Elliot Fox-Povey, who has expressed interest in collaborating on this exciting project. While we are sad to say goodbye to Kim Lagimodiere, whose land-based teaching contract ends this week, we are excited to be forming a new partnership with Elliot and incorporating his and his students' ideas!
We have decided that we would like to use Google Earth to embed artifacts recorded about different points in the marsh. We anticipate that these artifacts could include audio, video and text; the type of artifact will depend on the point of interest and the students' ideas. We have spoken to our district's tech department and they have indicated that they will be able to support us in turning this idea into a reality!
Google Earth aerial shot of the Somenos Marsh Conservation Area, including boardwalk loop and outdoor classroom.
In addition to our exploration of Google Earth and its capabilities, we have also started exploring iMovie and how to create impactful video and audio pieces. One of our students has put together a short video of our trip to Tofino using iMovie and has incorporated audio, video, pictures and text taken and recorded by various members of our class. Our students report that iMovie is very easy to use as the features are highly intuitive. While there are limitations to this software in terms of high level video editing, it serves our purposes at this point just fine. Stay tuned for more tips and tricks in regards to iMovie and Google Earth and we jump further into this project in semester two!
This week our class received our Set-BC technology which means we can finally get going on our Somenos Marsh project! Many of our students were very eager to get the MacBook Pro computers and GoPros out of their boxes and up and running. Luckily, we have a few technology wizards in our class who were happy to take on this task.
Our next step was to start talking about what we want to accomplish in regards to enhancing the visitor experience, either in person or virtually, at the Somenos Marsh. We put students into groups of four and had them create T-charts which looked at "What is at the Marsh already? vs. "What needs to be added?" Many wonderful ideas were suggested, as noted by one such example below. Finally, we had each group choose their best or most important points and add them to the board so we could begin to prioritize ideas (as seen in the bottom picture). Our next steps will be to re-visit this list and identify the most feasible project ideas based on the time and resources we have available to our class. Stay tuned!
Students brainstorming what is at the Somenos Marsh now and
what needs to be done to enhance the visitors' experience either in person or virtually
More brainstorming!
An example of one group's brainstorming
The class list of most important points and ideas to explore further
This week our class had Sheri Kinney, our district's Library Learning Commons Coordinator, in to lead a lesson on digital citizenship. We started by asking our students to share in partners what they thought this term means. We then used our "community brain" to web our shared learning (see photo) to get a sense of what our students already know about digital citizenship and to identify gaps so we can focus our learning! Sheri then gave students questionnaires created by Common Sense Education and Harvard Graduate School of Education's GoodPlay Project, related to teenagers' technology use. This provided students with a better understanding of teenagers' 24/7, social use of digital media and technologies. It also begins to highlight the importance of carrying out online relationships responsibly and being good digital citizens. Many were surprised to learn about just how much time teenagers spend on their phones texting, using social media and connecting digitally with others!
Our "community brain" on digital citizenship background knowledge
Sheri Kinney speaks about technology use in the teenager population
Welcome to our blog! This blog represents the Cowichan Secondary School's land-based learning program's work in the Somenos Marsh. Our program consists of forty-three Gr. 10-12 students who use place-based, experiential learning to meet curriculum objectives. We spend approximately half of our time working and learning outside of the classroom alongside local organizations and community experts. Students are getting credits for courses such as English First Peoples, Environmental Science, Social Studies - BC First Peoples, Aboriginal Cultural Connections, Independent Directed Studies and Physical Education.
Our land-based learning team at Cowichan Secondary School. Back row (L to R): Kim Lagimodiere (teacher) and Venessa MacDowell (Vice-Principal), front row (L to R): Kelly Dougan (teacher) and Joann Champoux (Educational Assitant).
We received a SET-BC Synergy Project place-based grant to explore Somenos Marsh and create a virtual tour of this important ecosystem. The project objectives are to enhance the existing signage, that include facts about plants and birds, as well as the Hul'q'umi'num words that go with them. The enhancements which could include QR codes and an interactive map or a virtual tour would feature links to audio recordings of the Hul'q'umi'num words, local oral-traditional stories and more about the biology of the ecosystem. Ultimately, there could be tours given by the students to local elementary schools and school trustees. Ideally, the final product will help to bring greater public awareness to the marsh and enhance visitor experiences there.
Example of signage in Somenos Marsh featuring a description, map of geographical distribution and Hul'q'umi'num word for the organism featured
We have visited the Somenos Marsh with our class a few times already and have started to think about the importance of this special place and how our class can help to promote it as an important ecosystem in our community!
Some of land-based program at the Somenos Marsh enjoying the Open Air Classroom
