Tech Tuesday is Here!

  

December 2022

Dear Grade 1 Families,

The students, at South Perth Centennial Public School, have an amazing opportunity to engage in some rich, learning tasks through technology called ‘Tech Tuesday’. These will be held approximately bi-weekly in our class throughout the remainder of the school year with tomorrow as our starting point with our learning buddies to kick off 'Tech Tuesday'.

Goals of the Project

One of the main goals for this project is to address the application and thinking components of mathematics, as well as meeting the coding expectations in the updated math curriculum. With this project, we are looking to support problem solving questions in innovative ways to address the student’s ability to think critically about math based problems. ‘Tech Tuesdays’ will work through the problem solving models early in the school year to set the foundation of ways to problem solve that will engage and interest the students that can then be transferred to their math based problems. The very calculated steps to complete our ‘Tech Tuesday’ will be experiential learning on how we apply strategies, revise strategies and check our thinking. Increasing student’s ability to take risks and dive into a problem is essential to our application and thinking of math questions.

This project is curriculum based following a STEM model incorporating the four specific disciplines - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. STEM integrates these components into a cohesive learning paradigm based on authentic and engaging problem solving tasks. Our other goal is to start students early to experience innovative ways to explore the skills and components of what future jobs require as 21st Century learners. We are confident that through this experience, students will be using student voice and self-selection by offering them choice of activities and to build on skills that are transferable to math and science education, as well as learning skills combined with building positive character traits. We are looking to build and enhance problem solving skills (transferable to our math work and to our scientific/technological inquiries), specific learning skills (initiative, independent work, organization & self-regulation), as well as executive functioning, critical thinking, creativity, goal setting/reflection and perseverance. Coding has also been adding to our math curriculum starting in early primary.

Description of the Project

Investigation/Inquiry/Exploration - Students will engage in an introductory activity where they will explore in small groups activities, such as:

• Sphero Mini Robots
• Ozobots
• Osmo Kits
• Mouse Coding Robots
• Codespark
• Scratch Jr.

  ** other technology/activities will also be substituted due to access to class availability**

Through student voice, self-selection, and play-based learning, students will be able to explore new technologies that work directly with coding and executive functioning. After challenging themselves to process the mechanics of the technology, students will then select one to work with throughout their Tech Tuesday sessions. 

Skill Building/Problem-Solving Application  - As they become more familiar with the technology and what it can do, students will create or be guided to create a ‘challenge’ to complete with their technology (ie. create an obstacle course and run the sphero through the course, create a dance sequence with the beebot, etc.) later in the school year. 

Goal Setting & Reflection - students will be using the problem solving/scientific method to create a challenge/goal for themselves and pausing within the project to reflect on their goals and re-evaluating their strategies to reach their goals. Students will be either blogging or completing recounts about their experiences by answering questions such as:

What is my plan for reaching my goals?

What strategies can I use to help me reach my goals?

When I encounter obstacles, how can I solve this problem or redirect my learning pathway?

Who can I ask for help?

What worked to achieve my goals?

What could I have done differently or could be done differently in the future?

What skills have I had to use to complete this challenge?

We look forward to this exciting time in our classroom! If you have any questions about this program, or would like to discuss ‘Tech Tuesdays’ as a method of teaching and learning further, please contact me directly at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

Ms. Nicole King
Grade 1 Classroom Teacher
Tech Tuesday Project Coordinator