The SHIFT Blog

 In this episode of the Shift Show EDU, the Shift Team sits down with Muhammad Zia , acting program lead of Science at the Virtual Secondary School in the Halton District School Board to talk about experimenting with new methods of teaching and learning in a virtual class.  Muhammad worked with Shift Coach Rachel Johnson to experiment with the implementation of the Thinking Classroom, a classroom learning model developed by Dr. Peter Liljedahl , professor of education at Simon Fraser University.  Incidentally, Liljedahl has recently released a book on Building Thinking Classrooms and Nicole Jarvis , Instructional Program Lead for Mathematics in HDSB is leading educators through the implementation of this model of teaching. Continuing our #thinkingclassroom journey with @pgliljedahl and @MsBriggsHDSB . Manipulative, white boards and lots of thinking! @HDSBSecProgram @HaltonDSB @HDSBMath @irhs1 pic.twitter.com/CjDpDNBBxo — Nicole Jarvis (@NicoleJarvis18) Novembe...

  Being embedded as coaches in a school is providing The Shift with many unique opportunities to collaborate with other teachers.  Two weeks ago, we were approached by two Milton District High School Science teachers who had heard about the Thinking Classroom and wanted to try it out with their Grade Nine Science students.  This was exciting, because it was going to be a challenge for us as well as them. Our own areas of expertise currently lay outside of the science curriculum, we could bring the strategies of the Thinking Classroom to the table, but as far as knowing how to apply it to individual topics, we were at the mercy of the classroom teachers.  But this is how we like to learn and grow, collaboratively. The topic in question was Bohr Rutherford diagrams and the periodic table.  This is traditionally taught by the teacher leading a lesson on atomic theory, the parts of the atom, how to draw Bohr Rutherford diagrams and then, how these diagrams related...