Episode 8 – Risky Business

Empowering Modern Learners - PDSB #Peel21st

https://modernlearnersca.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/episode-8-risky-business.mp3

In this episode, we interview Omari Rhoden, who is currently the Head of Business and Library at Turner Fenton Secondary School. He shares how he creates a safe environment for his students to take risks, and talks a bit about his journey in becoming an amazing educator.

What’s New in the World of EML?

Jim brought us up to date with the Design Clubhouse at Arnott Charlton and the power of student sharing. Time is set aside at the end of the session where students can share their learning with peers. There is incredible excitement at this point in the meeting.

Thanks @cashjim for inspiring and encouraging our modern learners. Our design studio was so exciting today! pic.twitter.com/Tcfiuu9gdE

— Kelly Taylor (@kellytaylor1977) November 27, 2017

This discussion structure is not only another way to give students a voice but it also strongly implies that their thinking, their learning and their products are important. There is affirmation that there is value in sharing ideas and learning from one another. It’s not just sharing “what did you do” but also “what did you learn. How did you do it? How are you improving?” and so on. Other students get ideas, get inspired, see an immediate resource person to go to, or one to visit to later on. Scratch includes a “Project Page” so that students can include instructions, notes or other information they wish to share.

Amit shared the work he was doing with a teacher at SouthFields Village Public School around using TouchCast Studios to help promote creativity using green screens.

Links from the Interview with Omari Rhoden

• Omari spoke about the work he is doing with the We Rise Together action plan in Peel.
• He also gave a shout out to two educators who have helped him along: Q Hoppie and Leslie Grant
• His book recommendation was Hacking Assessment: 10 Ways to Go Gradeless in a Traditional Grades School by Starr Sackstein
• Omari also mentioned that he was using Slack with his students and that some of them were using Discord
• You can reach Omari on Twitter or at [e-mail]

Shares for the Week

Jim shared some ideas from the book he just started reading by Brian Aspinall called Code Breaker: Increase Creativity, Remix Assessment, and Develop a Class of Coder Ninjas! In chapter 2, he learned about the origin of the term “computational thinking” and that it was first coined by Jeannette Wing in 2006. She published a three page paper in March if that year called Computational Thinking. She wrote a follow up to that article on her blog called Computational Thinking, 10 Years Later. He talked about the role computational thinking plays with today’s modern learners and how he’s made peace with the term, so to speak.

Amit shared the 12 Days of Twitter challenge he saw from Eric Curts for folks to consider:

Amit also talked about the new FREE version of EquatIO that is out for teachers to sign up for. He mentioned a video that explains what it can do, the Chrome Extension you can download and the screencast he created to help teachers navigate through it for the first time.