Thoughts about Teaching and Beyond

Best Ten Places I have Visited

2011-09-12T19:43:00.000-07:00

The assignment was to blog about a "Best Ten". We have to have three links to pictures, three links to websites and 1 link to another blog about your topic. So as you can see I have chosen, "The Best Ten Places that I have visited". I hope you enjoy it.

10) Schoenbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria
9) The Prime Meridian, Greenwich, England
8) Fenway Park, Boston
7) Tower of London, London, England
6) Venice, Italy
5) Tower of London, London, England
4) Ellis Island, New York City, New York
3) Old Quebec, Quebec City, Quebec
2) Sydney Harbour, Sydney, Australia
1) The Colliseum, Rome, Italy

I have been blessed with being able to travel to all of these places. It's been so much fun to share these trips with my family and students. Please if you have questions feel free to ask.

First Day with One to One

2011-08-31T21:01:00.000-07:00

So we rolled out the netbooks today. They actually won't be allowed to go home until parents and students sign the agreements that we have set up for them. This will hopefully happen on Friday after the pancake breakfast that the School Community Council and SRC have planned for us. Paula, my principal and myself will be discussing the agreements and answering any questions that parents have at that time. From the questions my class had this morning, I'm pretty sure many parents are being told they have to be at that breakfast.

There are still some kinks to be worked out in regards to student profiles and the handin/handout drives that have been set up. I have explained this to all of my classes today and hopefully we see this up and running properly in the next week. I have added folders there for my InfoPro 30 class to drop their first WORD assignments in soon.

My grade 7 and 8's did a couple things today with the netbooks. We had a session on Twitter and used the hashtag #7and8summer11 to share our summer fun. Then I got everyone to signup on www.dailymugshot.com. We are going to add a picture of ourselves here each day during the year to see how much we change. And of course we talked about some of the responsibilities that they have in regards to care and handling of the machines.

The next couple of days we will be making timetables on Excel, continuing our tweets and exploring many of the programs that can be found on the netbooks.

Things I need to learn or figure out:
1) How do I get Integer activities and practise pages onto the individual netbooks?
2) How do I get some assessment built into a google doc or other program that can be quick and easy to do during the day?

Google Search Story

2011-08-30T19:23:00.001-07:00

Julie's Ten in Ten

2011-06-07T10:59:00.001-07:00

My Ten in Ten

2011-04-12T15:19:00.000-07:00

I spent ten minutes at recess today taking pictures around my school. I saw the idea on Twitter from a couple of different teachers that I follow. Here's one of them.

So here goes.

One of our many painted ceiling tiles.

Another painted ceiling tile. This one was made by two of our students and their twins
from Quebec from the exchange trip in the fall of 2006. I have been involved with four exchange
trips in my years at Major, three with Quebec, and one with Nfld.
There have also been others with Quebec and Ontario.

Our teams met and produced posters telling why they think we should value diversity in our school.

This is the picture that has been divided up for our Art Show next week.
Each student is making a piece of it.

Elementary Recess, the snow has certainly melted this week. And someone
remembered to put the flag up at recess. :)

Working in the classroom.

Jam Concert is coming up May 11 - students are getting ready. Here's a link to a video from last year.

No one was in the gym yet.

Graduation pictures for the last 35 years or so. I've taught a lot of them. Yikes!
And I have two sons in pictures on there too.

Some students reading some posters in the hall. They were waiting for their
teacher to let them in the Science Lab for Physics.

Ipod Use in My Class

2011-04-11T19:32:00.000-07:00

I really am loving my students' Ipods. This morning we used one of the several Ipods that can be found in our classroom at any given time. We were practicing our poems that we will be performing on Wednesday at the Music Festival in Macklin. We taped the performance, hooked up to the smartboard and within 30 seconds were watching it. The students realized very easily what they each need to work on. Powerful learning.

Missing Student found Through Ipod Chat

2011-04-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

A while ago, I had students working on group projects, writing news reports in our Disasters Unit in grade 7 ELA. They were to be making their presentations. One student was home after hurting her leg while riding her horse the day before. Her two partners needed her.
Before I knew what was happening her voice was coming through the speakers loud and clear and she was giving her part to the presentation with her partners. Later, she was also able to send in her information through her google doc.

Students using the tools made available to them. You gotta love it.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is!

2010-10-29T09:12:00.000-07:00

So my students have my blog in their Readers. They know exactly how often I blog. Let me change that, they know exactly how often I don't blog. They've called me on it. "Why do we have to blog every week and you never do?" Hmmmm, cause I'm the teacher and I know how to write already, just doesn't seem to cut it anymore. So I promised them I would add to my blog soon. I read so many blogs, many on education, some on hockey, and of course all of my students'. I often leave comments on them.

I have been a reader all of my life. Fiction, non fiction, often anything I can get my hands on. But I haven't been a writer. I find blog writing difficult. I just don't know what to write about. So I'm putting it out there. I am asking for suggestions for blog topics. Please leave me my assignments for my blog writing.

Grade 7 and 8 Blog Links

2010-10-18T19:41:00.000-07:00

My homeroom class of students in grades seven and eight have their own blogs. Please find the time to read and comment on their thoughts here. Your comments will mean so much to them.
Here's the list: 1) Zack 2) Jaden 3) Kjerstin 4) Shane 5) Brittany 6) Robert 7) Liam 8) Clay 9) Tristan 10) Aimee 11) Shaylee 12) Cassidy 13) Brooke 14) Austin

My Class has learned:

2010-06-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

This morning my grade six and seven students came up with this list for the things they've learned this year. I've also included what I and the EA have learned too.

1) 5 x 5 = 25
2) Algebra
3) What RAFTS stand for - Roles, Audience, Topic, Format, Strong Verb
4) What Twiducate is
5) What Twitter is
6) How to Tweet on Twitter
7) How to operate a SMARTboard
8) Hard and long spelling words
9) BEDMAS
10) Hitler and the Holocaust
11) How to cook better food - ethnic food
12) How to recycle
13) How to make string art
14) Who is Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont
15) Learned about Power
16) what is an ecosystem
17) Learned how to read an analog clock
18) Different forms of drama
19) Learned how to stay safe on a train
20) Learned how to take care of kids (babysitting licence)
21) Learned how to play sports better
22) Learned about Social Issues
23) Learned where Stettler is
24) Learned two digit divisor division
25) Learned more French words
26) Learned how to do a Heritage Project

Stop motion video

2010-02-10T08:21:00.000-08:00

Cool stop motion video.

I Need My Teachers To Learn 2.0.mov

2010-01-21T19:15:00.000-08:00

Cube Illusion

2010-01-18T18:32:00.001-08:00

My Avatar from www.voki.com

2009-11-12T20:03:00.001-08:00

Get a Voki now!

Communications Assignment

2009-09-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

This music video was completed in one take by a group at the University of Quebec! Wow!
Do you think grade 6/7/8's could do this?

Grade 7 and 8 Blogs

2009-08-24T21:31:00.000-07:00

My homeroom class of students in grades seven and eight have their own blogs. Please find the time to read and comment on their thoughts here. Your comments will mean so much to them.
Here's the list: 1) Zack 2) Jaden 3) Kjerstin 4) Kylie 5) Heather 6) Shane 7) Brittany 8) Robert 9) Liam 10) Clay 11) Tristan 12) Aimee

And this is the list from Grade 9 and 10 InfoPro - 1) Shelby 2) Tyler 3) Erin 4) Ken 5) Logan
6) Austin 7) Nick 8) Summer 9) Roy

Music Video made by Google Sketchup

2009-07-17T15:31:00.001-07:00

Video

2009-02-27T07:38:00.000-08:00

Eight Harsh Truths that will Improve your Life!