Sharing the Learning and Learning from Sharing

I recently invited several educators to visit our classroom to see our 3D technology setup, look over student work, and to reflect on their visit by providing my students and I with some of their "wonders". It was a pleasure having +Kellie Grant, +Jennifer Duarte, +Mary Diemert, +Diane Laverty, +Michael Leonard, +Katrina Gouett, +Sean Ferguson, and +Jessica Weber participate in looking at the ideas my students brought to life and helping me reflect on the learning that my students and I have experienced this school year. 

Prior to our visits and meetings, my blog posts about our learning journey were made available to them to provide some history and context. I have spent a lot of time sharing our learning and gathering feedback about it via social media and face-to-face conversations with people at my school. It was a treat to meet up with and share the learning with educators in my school board who I consider to be cutting edge, open to new learning experiences, and critical thinkers who don't hesitate to ask tough questions about what they encounter. 

As a result, my students and I have been provided with a lot of great "wonders" to reflect on and address. My students and I are grateful for the different views/perspectives that "outsiders" have provided us with. We are using their questions and comments to build our capacity and assist us in growing as we wrap up our time integrating the 3D technology into learning and demonstration of learning. Here are some of the wonders that our visitors provided us with:

• Did most students catch on to Tinkercad easily? 

• Is it difficult to find the time to print all of the 3D objects during school time?

• How does integrating technology, in particular the 3D printer, “meet the multiple intelligences?” (Visual-Spatial; Bodily Kinesthetic; Musical; Intrapersonal; Interpersonal; Linguistic; Logical mathematical ).

• How did students who have difficulty visualizing establish a ‘design mindset?’

• How frustrating was it when the 3D design did not work?

• Did the students ever build a 3D design with other materials?

• The narrative story looked like a lot of fun. I liked how their characters came to ‘life.’

• Were the characters created on the 3D printer before writing or after?

• If before, was it easier to write the narrative?

• I’m curious about the cost of the 3D printing post TLLP budget, is it expensive?

• What made some students use clay etc instead when doing social studies Early Societies representations? 

• Are students aware of the differences in the process between using the tech and using their hands? 

• Can they articulate why they choose the format they did?

• If you can code can you Tinkercad?

• Did your students have any experience with coding before your project?

• What were some of the challenges when using Tinkercad?

• How did your students handle their successes and failures?

• Did your students rely on each other to problem solve?

• I would think perseverance would be a trait that your students demonstrated through some of the activities. Was it difficult for your students to picture their characters in 3D form and transform that image into real life?

• What will your students do with their new knowledge? Can they apply this knowledge to other subject areas?

• The 3D printer really made me wonder about how I could best use it in visual arts and integrate it with measurement in math (cylinders and circles).

• I wondered also what types of paint could be used on this plastic? (model paint, nail polish, etc).

• I also wondered how using a 3D printer would propel students forward in a growth mindset.

• Because of the newness or ‘novelty’ of this technology do students overcome the failures and challenges of design with ease?

• I keep wondering if this is something I could financially pull off in my class...thinking about funding options that might work.

• My question that I was wondering about was do the kids ever represent large numbers proportionally (in reference to the lesson about teaching them to represent a four digit number)? 

As you can see, we have been provided with a lot of great questions to consider. What I have been doing is posing one or two of the questions above to my students each day. We form a classroom meeting circle and I ask the question. At first the students felt a little worried about the questions - they wondered whether people would judge them based on their thoughts/opinions. I reminded them that the purpose of questions were to help us grow as learners, that there is as much value in being able to easily answer the questions as there is in struggling with them.

Taking risks and trying new things has been an over arching theme in our class this year. I reminded them that I think of myself as the chief risk taker in our classroom and that when I invited my colleagues to enter into this process with us that it was a big risk and that I felt the same as them. I also reminded them that my growth and learning has benefited because of the risks I have taken and that my teaching practice will improve from the feedback I receive.

We are lead learners in this area now and as responsible citizens and life long learners, we have a duty to lead and teach others. As we go forward, my plan is to continue to integrate 3D technology into my classroom community and into the general population of the school. This year's group of students know that I want them involved as we move forward - that I expect them to assist in teaching and mentoring the students who start to integrate this type of technology into their learning during the next school year.

With a little less than two weeks left in the school year, we will be spending a lot of time processing the questions above and figuring out what we know, what we don't know, and what we want to learn. I am confident that our reflections will lead us to great insight about ourselves and the directions we want to take to improve and how we want to keep sharing our learning so other will do the same.