The Glencoe Pod

Welcome to the Glencoe Pod where you will find all the cool projects and links for this school year. We are going to have an awesome year together in learning about new things and exploring many possibilities. I look forward to being your teacher and all that we will discover together. Some of the really cool things we will be doing together are:

Backyard Bio

Both groups will start off the year participating in the Backyard Bio project. https://www.backyardbio.net/

This project celebrates our planets amazing biodiversity by getting students outside in their yards, parks, neighborhoods, and forest preserves to explore and gather data about local plants, animals, birds, insects… Students will use an app to record their findings and share with students from other schools around the globe. I have registered our pod as a class (Mr. K Glencoe Pod) and we have been paired with two schools from Toronto and Calgary thus far. There will be prizes awarded for discovering the most species in your area and sharing them through the app as well as LIVE events with naturalists (check the website for more info https://www.backyardbio.net/meet-a-biologist ). A large part of the project will be learning about the endangered Choco’ Rainforest in Ecuador in which only 2% remains. Students will be able to join a letter writing campaign as well as raise funds to save the 1,220 acre rainforest (https://www.backyardbio.net/take-action). Students will also be creating Save the Rainforest videos using green screen technology to share with our partner schools.

Pinwheels for Peace

Pinwheels for Peace is a program that I have participated in for the past ten years or so. It is on or around September 21st, International Peace Day. Students from all across the globe celebrate this day by creating pinwheels and displaying them around the community.

http://www.pinwheelsforpeace.com/Pinwheels_for_Peace/home.html

Students are peace ambassadors and create pinwheels to share with family, friends, classmates and the world community.

http://www.pinwheelsforpeace.com/Pinwheels_for_Peace/press_release.html

Students from all over the world participate this day and share their messages of peace. Last year approximately 5 million pinwheels were spinning throughout the world.

http://www.pinwheelsforpeace.com/Pinwheels_for_Peace/pinwheel_template.html

Global Virtual Classroom

https://www.virtualclassroom.org/index.html

GVC is a program that I have been participating in for more than 25 years with my students. It is a program that enables, empowers, and connects students from around the globe. Two to three schools from different parts of the world are teamed up and given the task of coming up with a common theme in order to build a website. This will start in mid-September and run through the end of March.

In 2019 our team (working with students from New Delhi, India) won first prize for their website on Global Warming

https://sites.google.com/gsbi.org/gvc1802/

Week of Inspirational Maths

We will be starting the school year participating in the Week of Inspirational Maths (yes with an s as maths is short for mathematics). The Week of Inspirational Maths (WIMs) lesson series for teachers, parents and students includes five lessons that offer students open, rich mathematics experiences that inspire creative thinking and a growth mindset. This was created by Jo Boaler at Stanford University.

Poly Up

I will also be introducing the students to PolyUp https://www.polyup.com/. PolyUp is a 3D playground for learning math and gaining computational thinking skills (modding with math). Solve problems and build simulations using a block-based math environment. They have many challenges throughout the school year and opportunities to build and share machines with classmates and friends. This will work on any device and students can create an account to save their work from session to session.