Spreading Happiness with Flipgrid

Imagine as a kid you are told that the biggest event you look forward to, the whole year, is cancelled! That’s what most kids in Sri Lanka felt this year as they went into lock down due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sri Lankans celebrate their New Year in mid April. And it’s a festival that kids of all ages look forward to, because families get together to celebrate, and they receive gifts and new cloths and visit all their relatives. There are lots of traditional ceremonies that take place with lots of traditional sweets and food involved. Children engage in traditional song and dance and there are competitions to choose the ‘New Year Princess & Prince.’ So imagine all this coming to a halt because everyone is forced to stay at home as the country is under a strict curfew.

That’s when our school came up with the idea of celebrating the New Year online! We came up with an initiative for children to stay happy and positive during these dark days and for them to appreciate the rich culture of our country. Gateway College launched the virtual celebration of ‘Avurudu’ (New Year) through the amazing StudentVoice amplifier Flipgrid!

https://flipgrid.com/virtualavurudu2020

Children in three age groups are able to take part in Music, Theatre, Dance and Games and upload their performances onto the relevant Topics in the grid. There are also competitions for Avurudu Princess and Prince, the Funniest Laugh and Fancy Dress. Considering the plight of all children, we opened the competition to all children residing in Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan children living the world over.

Our effort was so successful that the Ministry of Education took notice and wanted to take it forward! They were joined by the most popular television network in Sri Lanka and of cause we were over the moon!

All you have to do is take a look at the amazing number of videos shared with happy and smiling children to know that, we, along with Flipgrid have successfully spread happiness to the children of Sri Lanka!

Take a look at them from here:

Digital Art with a Voice

Being a Microsoft  Showcase School, we at Gateway College strive to bring in technology integration in a positive manner wherever and whenever possible. We also strongly believe in adding that ‘A’ into STEM, and drive all forms of STEAM education.

Keeping these factors in mind, we introduced a Digital Art Competition to our students in  2018. Being a group of 5 International Schools, each school takes it in turn organising this event. This year, Gateway College Kandy took the responsibility and set the theme as ‘Sri Lanka in 2025.’ Gateway College prides itself in providing world class education in a Sri Lankan setting, which made this topic align with our ethos very well.

We had over 450 entries in 3 categories – Junior (Years 3 to 6), Intermediate (Years 7 to 9) and Senior (Years 10 to 12). The level of creativity and innovation in each of these entries were amazing. It was wonderful to see the students’ hope for their country through their art. Their skill levels in using digital means as a medium of art was very impressive.

Students used various tools such as Microsoft Paint, Paint 3D, Adobe Photoshop and graphic tablets to produce their art. As much as I’d love to include every single entry here because each one was beautiful and creative, I can only showcase the winners from each category in this post as we had nearly 500 entries.

Junior Category winners

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Intermediate Category winners

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Senior Category Winners

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The judges found it very difficult to limit the awards to just a few in each category and many students were appreciated by receiving Merit awards

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Junior Merit Award Winners

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Intermediate Merit Award Winners

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Senior Merit Award Winners

This year, with Flipgrid fever hitting us, we thought of giving our young artist a voice through Flipgrid to describe their art. Every entry accompanied the QR code to their flipgrid video and visitors were able to enjoy the student’s art in many media. The parents were thrilled to see their child ‘appear’ in front of them and so eloquently describe their vision for their country. I’ve had many parents and teachers coming to me and letting us know how much they appreciated seeing how confident their child/student was or how eloquent he or she sounded and that made me so proud of all of them.

https://flipgrid.com/digiart2020?embed=true

Each of our schools have enthusiastic MIEExperts who drove this project in each school. MIE Experts Umara Ratnayake and Gayana Darmasena in our Kandy school have to be commended for shouldering the difficult task of organising this wonderful competition and exhibition.

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You can see the more photos of the exhibition here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1948674855277159&type=3

All in all, what an amazing example of how technology and art can come together to helps students learn transferable skills, also known as 21st century skills. The competition allowed us to create positive learning experiences, give students the tools and methods to explore new and creative ways of problem-solving, innovating and exploring new ideas and ignite their curiosity.

OneNote to the rescue

I was invited to conduct a few seminars for our students sitting for their IGCSE exams this May/June to get them ready to face their exams with confidence.

Along with exam tips and guidelines, I wanted to show them strategies for acing their MCQ questions. For example, I wanted them to make note of key words in questions as multiple choice tests examine your ability to read carefully and thoughtfully as much as they test your ability to recall and reason.

Since the location did not support a smartboad and I was using my laptop (which is not a Surface-pro) along with a portable screen and projector, I was wondering how I should best demonstrate underlining these keywords on the screen.

The solution came in the form of using Onenote with it’s draw features.

It was very easy for me to demonstrate to the students how they should underline the key words so that they know what exactly the question requires them to look for. I also wanted to show them how to eliminate the options that were obviously wrong, thereby leaving them with a limited no. of choices to select the correct answers from. That too was easily demonstrated using the help of the draw features.

I did not have a stylus. I used a regular mouse and it was amazing how easy it was to use the draw features on my laptop so that my students can view in real time in the way they would use a pencil to eliminate options in their paper.

Embolden by the success of this method, I even went on to use my simple screen and projector as a whiteboard to write text using OneNote! And needless to say the students reaction to the seminar was wonderful!

 

 

 

 

 

Voices heard with Sway

I used to be the teacher in charge of our school newspaper, ‘Voices,’ that was putout once a semester. With growing demands of all my other work, I unfortunately had to give up that role. However, the students still come to me for advice and guidance.

Along with the printed version, I got my previous batch of editors to create a sway version which drastically improved our readership. So when the new set of editors came to me for some advice, I showed them the previous editions of Voices on Sway.

Needless to say, they were so excited and wanted me to show them how to use Sway

Being the Digital Natives that they are, they were pros at using the tool in no time, and took to it like ducks to water while exclaiming “This is so cool Miss!”

It just took them less than an hour to come up with the finished product beause of the possibility of collaboration and teamwork and they were thrilled that they now can add extensions to their printed articles on the web version and that they an add in many more pictures. Adding many pictures to their printed version was a drawback as it increased the number of pages and in tern the printing cost.

https://sway.com/s/PfVF4RsG2ihOvrAy/embed

I must say I’m so proud of their work and so thankful to Microsoft Education for providing amazing digital story-telling tools that are so easy to use.

 

Keep the mystery in Mystery Skype

Microsoft Education’s annual global Skype even was on the 28th and 29th Nov and my students and I had the most amazing experiences through connecting to classrooms across the world.

I was kind of a newbie to this whole Skype-a-thon experience having got on the Microsoft educator community only a year ago. But as my post here explains, in just a few months, I’ve been skipping across the globe as a Guest Speaker in my mission to make sure our digital natives know how to be great digital citizens through my Let’s be Safe Online Skype lesson.

This year’s Skype-a-thon came with an added bonus for our students as we were able to connect with Anthony Salcito, Vice President of Worldwide Education at Microsoft. It was an amazing interactive 20 min session where our students showcased what they do in terms of coding, STEM and Robotics and Anthony shared with us what is new at Microsoft Education such as Makecode and wonderful project using Microbit and Adafruit.

Though there was a long preamble, what I really wanted to discuss in this post however was on what I learnt through my first Mystery Skype lesson. The power of the lesson is of cause the learning that takes place through communication and collaboration of students in guessing which part of the world each other comes from. I’m sure the veterans of Mystery Skype are well aware of the pit falls, but I thought I would document my experience for the newbies like myself.

• Be Mysterious! 

We sometimes forget how smart our students are. I never realized that they would guess the location from the caller ID

Unless you change your settings before your Mystery Skype session, your students might be smart enough to notice it if you have your screen projected before the call.

Here’s how to change your settings: Profile >Edit Your Profile

Then select >Show full profile

From there select the blank option so that your Country/Region as ‘Not Specified’. Of-course if you want to be naughty and throw off the other class you can always choose a different country -but be nice teachers!

• Be Ready! 

I learnt this the hard way. Although there are wonderful resources on the rules of the game, make sure your students really understand what’s going to happen. I had my ‘Questioners’ ‘My fact finders’ etc but because the students were only 10 years old it was very difficult for them to formulate questions to which answers would be just ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ So have a set of questions ready and get your students to practice asking such questions.

• Connect with your counterpart before the lesson

Make sure you connect with the teacher at the other end and learn about the kind of school, the students and culture. Make sure there are no restrictions.

• Have a back-up plan

Always have a plan -B if things don’t workout. For example, if the connection is poor and they can;t hear you, have a board where you can write the questions and answers instead.

If the student’s guess the location fast have some activities ready such as show-and-tell about your country/region.

I want to end my post paying gratitude to Microsoft Education and Skype for the amazing learning opportunities they provide. I mean even the thought having an expert on varied subject areas from another part of the world in my classroom for no cost or the fact that we can connect with students allover the world is sometimes difficult to comprehend. Yet, here we are doing just that!

 

Globetrotting through classrooms on Skype

As much as being an advocate on using technology in the classroom, I firmly believe in using technology responsibly as well.

I’ve been reaching out to students through workshops in several schools for the past few years on online safety and digital citizenship.

Through the amazing platforms provided through skype in the classroom I realized that I can  reach an even wider audience. I got my self registered as a Guest Speaker on the Microsoft Educator Community and the requests to join their classrooms from teachers from across the world came rolling in.

My journey across classrooms the world over has been amazing so far, and as much as I’m reaching out to students, I’m learning so much more from them as well. It’s eyeopening to see how varied the classrooms are and how student’s responses change according to cultural influences. Student’s in one classroom might be so inquisitive, engaging and have loads of questions for you, while students in another classroom might hang on to your every word without questioning as they are used to an environment where what the teacher says goes at all times.

I’m also very much in awe of the teacher who try to reach out and find new ways of making learning fun for students and the effort they put into connecting with other teachers so that they can bring in something more into their classes.

If I can save one student from getting them selves into trouble online or save them from cyber bullying, I consider my mission accomplished and thank you SkypeClassroom for providing me with an amazing platform to take my mission global.

OneNote & Microsoft Teams to the Rescue!

I’ve been suffering from a horrible cold and cough and it got worse last night, which unfortunately resulted in me missing school today. But there is indeed a silver lining in every dark cloud because I got to do an amazing lesson through Microsoft Teams and OneNote to my class while I was comfortably sitting on my bed!

In my school, when a teacher is absent a ‘Relief Teacher’ sits in her place. My students are used to coming into class and login onto Microsoft Teams. Just to make sure things go smoothly, I left word for the relief teacher to instruct my students to login and see my instructions in ‘Converstaions’

I too logged in during their lesson and guided them through the task. What ensued was lively engagement and amazing collaboration even though the teacher was not physically present!

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Some of the comments were hilarious and expected from 13 year old’s and it’s those that made me forget feeling sick. As with any class, this one has a few naughty ones who were trying to disrupt the work, but I think we came up with good strategies.

The students had to work on the ‘Collaboration’ space in their ClassNotebook using OneNote. Since everyone was working on the same platform everyone had access to each others work. For me as a teacher, it was wonderful to see the progress of their work as it happened even being miles away from the classroom.

The relief teacher told me that my students were thrilled to be able to communicate with their teacher and told me how amazed she was that a productive lesson occurred even  when I was absent from class.

So, thank you OneNote and Microsoft Teams. You made my day (and my students!)

 

September – Let’s seal it with a kiss

“I don’t wanna say goodbye for the summer
Knowing the love we’ll miss
Oh let us make a pledge to meet in September
And seal it with a kiss”

–  Jason Donovan

I was invited to attend the International forum for Teachers held in Colombo on the theme of “Touching Hearts, Transforming Minds” and had the privilege of listening to amazing Educators on how teachers can touch the hearts of children to transform how they learn.

Professor David Shaw’s (David Shaw is a visiting professor at the Aberdeen Business School specializing in leadership, communication and well being.) session struck a code with me for two reasons. 1. He used a lot of Harry Potter Analogy (#diehardfan) 2. He spoke about giving new tools to disheartened teachers and this is something I work towards in giving the teachers of my school. I believe that these tools can be a new magic wand – the wand of digital technology in the classroom.

In my drive towards making my school a Microsoft Showcase School, I’m in the process of getting all my teachers on board using the amazing digital tools they offer for the classroom such as Onenote and MicrosoftTeams. These ‘magic wands’ help teachers to transform their lessons into enchanting experiences.

At the IFT I met Felicia Brown, Asia Pacific Senior Teacher Engagement Manager  MicrosoftEDU, who my Chairman invited over to visit Gateway College Colombo the next day, as we are a MicrosoftSchool. It was great to show her everything that we do in school along with the Computing Curriculum I have helped develop.

 

Encouraging Teachers to use Hour of Code

I constantly encourage the teachers of my department to conduct HourofCode activities to improve their students’ coding skills. I especially encourage them to do this when a teacher is absent and they are supposed to sit in that lesson as a ‘relief’ teacher.  The student’s love it and it’s no problem getting the girl’s to love coding either. There’s a lot of communication  and collaboration taking place as well when the students help each other when they hit a snag. I think a picture speaks a thousand words so here’s 6 thousand of it.

 

I wish I dedicated separate blog posts for each of these but it was a crazy busy month. But I do pledge to keep this blog more active from October. My September’s been wonderful and I’ll seal it with a kiss.

 

Last Month has been Amazing

With this being my first post, let me introduce my self!

I’m a teacher passionate about bringing in technology into the classroom to enhance learning. I strongly believe that in order to reach our Digital Natives, we need to speak their language. This blog will be about how this can be done.

In my journey in becoming an educator endorsing technology in the classroom, I’ve been fortunate to come across the amazing work that Microsoft Education does MicrosoftEdu. That discovery has led me to amazing technology as well as amazing educator communities.

I became a active advocate in using Microsoft technologies in the classroom and beyond, and I’m just thrilled to bits that I’ve been recognized as a MIEExpert by Microsoft in August.

I’ve just learnt that I’m one of the finalists to be selected to represent Sri Lanka in the Microsoft Education Exchange (E2) Summit which is Microsoft in Education’s annual event recognizing and celebrating the achievements of educators who combine content, pedagogy, and technology in exemplary ways to prepare students for success. Wish me luck!!!

I’m also passionate about making sure my students achieve the best they can and just last week, my GSCE students received their results from Edexcel (Pearsons) with flying colours. More than half of my students obtained A* to A grades with one of my students receiving full marks making her the receiver of the world prize for my subject! This is the third consecutive year that one of my students received a world prize! Monkey praising it’s own tail, I know, BUT I’m one happy and proud teacher 🙂

So all in all, it’s been an amazing August. Here’s to always learning!