Airdrie teachers win national contest

Five teachers from École Edwards Elementary School have been named the western winners of the fifth annual Canada’s 21st Century Classroom Video Challenge held by MindShare Learning.

Judi Poole, Katie Quinney, Sarah Lewis, Julia Dobbelsteyn and Jillian Masson created a winning video for the contest that outlined their use of technology in the classroom.

“We are proud to be recognized for the collaborative spirit of our teaching team as well as our learners,” Masson said.

The teachers will be awarded more than $15,000 in classroom technology for the school.

“We are really excited to have the chance to access such amazing 21st century learning tools as a result of winning this year’s prize,” said Masson.

The École Edwards group video included information on the applications they use in their classrooms and the mobility of the technology that allows students to access the information and projects they are working on from any location.

Some of the technology the group uses includes a class wiki that is shared between the four French Immersion classes the teachers lead. The wiki application allows teachers to post student information and lets students leave comments.

One student in the video described the application as “like text messaging but on the Internet.”

Another application utilized by the group is called Google Drive, which allows students to complete collaborative projects together with access to the online group work from any computer at any time.

Other technologies include the Show Me application that some students use to explain their thinking in solving math problems and Spellboards, which is used to practice words in a tactile way and lets students record the word to help with reading practice.

“I’m so proud of these teachers and the exceptional work they do to ensure for strong learning with our young leaders,” said Sharon Cronin the school’s principal.