Reflections from 2010-2011 - What a school year!

Another school year wrapping up. Time flies. It really does. And whenever another school year comes to an end I make sure I leave time for reflection. Maybe that's cheesy and I'm sure many of you other school teachers out there think "I don't have time for that!" Well to be honest, I don't really either. As I sit here on my prep period when I should me marking, I'm writing a blog post instead. Procrastination is the spice of life. NOT!
Here it goes....
Least favorite part of the year:
My school year started optimistically. I was ready for what was ahead and was willing to face the ups and downs as they came. The school year started with our school being under review for closure, yeah that was a real nice way to start the year (sarcastic voice). We pushed ahead as we always do with our heads held high and continuing to provide our students with a top notch education :-) The process ended with the closure review being halted which was really nice for us (to say the least). You know, it is amazing really how much that review process affects the students. They put on brave faces like troopers but daily as a teacher I could see it affecting them as they worried about their futures hanging in the balance. I mean who wants to be dropped into a new school unless it is a choice of family, or situational such as moving. I know my students who live here wanted the school to stay open so they can graduate from the same school they have always attended, that possibly their parents graduated from, that their friends attend and/or graduated from. The stress of a review process weighed in on them and whether or not you believe it (because teens especially are quite good at hiding true emotion from adults), it took a toll. In my CPT course we did a project that I adapted from the Discovery Channel's Boom De Yada I Love The Whole World commercial. We created a Boom De Yada I Love Nokomis School video and the students put in their favorite parts about our school. Click the link and see the videos if you're interested! The kids took pride in creating the projects and promoting their school. Once the process of review was ended, you could almost see the weight lift off their shoulders and they became happy and started to laugh more again. Lovely, in my opinion.


Highlight:Culture Fair 
During the months of August - October our whole school worked towards projects for our Culture Fair. We hosted a Culture Fair at the end of October and students, parents, and people from the community were invited into the school to experience a variety of cultures. Our students, being split into homeroom groups (K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-10 and 11-12), chose a different culture and researched about it then created a variety of resources to display in the room. My homeroom of 11/12's chose French culture and looked at a variety of aspects. We designed posters about food, traditions, attractions, people, customs, etc. and posted them throughout the room. We had students stay in the room to present their culture to people and each person walking around were given passport to go to the different classes to get stamped after they learned about it.
My students created a ceiling high model of the Eiffel Tower that went over the outside of the door to my classroom - it was huge and really well done! Also, my students created mock-trenches inside my classroom with the desks and covered them with cardboard to create the sense of being closed in - inside the trenches were photographs and information about WWI and tench warfare as well as videos playing on computers. We made croissants and chocolate mousse to give to patrons who visited our room and we had Parisian music playing in the background. We had one student dress up like a mime to meet the people at the door and the rest of us dressed up in the quintessential Paris garb - striped shirt, black pants, etc. It was a blast.
The other classrooms were as follows: K-2: African, 3-5: Japanese, 6-8: Aboriginal/First Nations, and 9-10: Indian. Each room had something creative, whether it be a tent with pillows to sit on in India, a mock-Jeep SUV in Africa, Japanese tea ceremony or Aboriginal stone arrangement circles. The night was a huge success and it will be something I will carry with my for my career. It took a lot, and I mean A LOT of work but it was totally worth it. The kids learned a lot and so did I. Hard work paid off.

  

 

 

      

Highlight: SMARTboard!
After the Culture Fair, life went along as usual, just coursework and learning as normal. There are always those times when school seems repetitive and sort of just a motion you go through, but then you have those days that stick with you forever and you're able to do exciting things in your classroom and get back to enjoying learning and teaching. That day came when I received my SMARTboard! Not like I don't incorporate technology into my daily teaching, assignments and projects - believe me I do. It just happened to get MORE exciting and innovative once I got my SMARTboard installed! I hope to have many more lessons created for my SMARTboard for the next school year. The kids just love it and enjoy that change in pace when I turn it on and plug it in - especially when they get up out of their seats and use it themselves!!

Highlight: Minute To Win It
Another exciting event was our SRC Minute to Win It afternoon. As a school spirit building activity, our SRC came together to create an afternoon filled with the TV game show Minute To Win It activities. There was the Elephant March, Hangover, Sticky Situation, Bobble Head, Face the Cookie, Noodling Around, Defying Gravity and Junk in the Trunk. Here are a few pics for you to see:

 

 

All in all, it was a wonderful year. Extra curricular, and additional enrichment activities are what make a school year fly by and we certainly had our share of them this year. The kids were great and we accomplished what needed to be done. Who could ask for more? Not I, not I. I love my job and love my school. Can't wait for next year!
I just wanted to say thanks for reading my blog and I appreciate you as an audience to bounce my ideas off of, to listen to my reflections and rants and basically for being that lovely group of people whom I likely haven't met but would love to get to know! Comment away and I will keep it coming!

Simulation Activity - Review and Reflection

I know many of you seemed interested, commented on and read my post about my simulation activity in History 10 and I wanted to post a bit of a reflection on the process, and share the results of during and after the activity.  


I mentioned that many students of mine don't really enjoy this kind of learning activity - some are strictly read and dictate in notes kind of kids, and some are just plain old hard to make happy, and it is difficult to engage or at least inspire kids to be enthusiastic about learning....well, this was definitely the case for me. I had a student who didn't really enjoy this topic and proceeded to distract, pester and be ultimately a big nuisance for everyone involved. Once the behavior issue was dealt with, things went smoothly.  Isn't that how it always goes - you plan forever on an activity and on the day of the event, someone has to make it tough on you. 


Anyway, we set up the desks and had the witness stand and bench where I was the judge and we had a few students playing the jury. Each side presented opening arguments, followed by calling on one witness at a time - each group had a total of 2 or 3 witnesses (one group was a bit larger). The students stood up and played the part - I must admit reflectively that I wish I could encourage students and have them actually act out the part which would've made this a lot more fun for everyone - but they did their task and read off the paper for their statement. Their opening statements were concerning their point of view of what the basic outline of the story was until the point where we were now (the trial). The jury and I heard some really convincing arguments in their speeches and couldn't wait to hear from the witnesses to give their evidence and testimonials of the events that affected them. The student moved into the witness box after swearing in and we were off. Of course because of time constraints and trying to deter from more behavioral issues, we did not engage in a cross-examination process (maybe next time I will but at this way was a lot faster). We did one witness from each side at a time, then had a different student present their closing arguments and reiterate the facts presented by their side. We worked for quite some time on how to develop a persuasive paragraph to convince jurors of your "correct" position. These were extremely well done and convincing. The jury and I were actually on the fence for a while about what swayed us more, the evidence or some of those awesome speeches! 


We went outside the classroom and deliberated for 3-5 minutes about the evidence presented by the witnesses, and the points of view of both parties. We discussed who did a more convincing job of each area and when we came back in the room we discussed this as a class, being sure to give credit where it was due. All students were able to participate and to me it seemed as though they all had an enjoyable learning experience. It was a lot of prep work to develop the information packages for each side - I wanted to make sure students were getting a fair amount for each side to work with and it was accurate to the time period and true events (thus why I did not let them Google everything themselves). All in all it was a success and I hope that you get an opportunity to try something like this in your classes because it is a worthwhile activity for students to engage in and it really involves a number of different skills such as reading, inferring, connecting, thinking critically and creatively, writing persuasively, organizing information and thoughts and presenting and sticking to an opinion with a courageous amount of believability. 


I hope you were able to take away something of value from this activity review and reflection, and that you will post some comments and share your own experiences in the classroom and/or your thoughts on my activity. I would love to hear from you! 

The Long Weekend Balancing Act

As I sit here drinking my coffee on this fine Monday afternoon (long weekend), I think what a great opportunity it is for me to have the chance to catch up on all my twitter links, emails, my blog writing and comment replies. I have spent a majority of this long weekend 'off' working on school work - marking, correcting, prepping - and another big chunk of time coaching drama practices for our school drama performance which is taking place on July 8. I think many people who don't understand this profession believe that all teachers spend these long weekends just working on decks and relaxing....yes that may be true for some, and I would be a liar if  I said I didn't spend some time doing those very things, but what the majority of the public doesn't understand is that as teachers this profession really does occupy our minds every day regardless of it being a weekend or holiday.
I am guilty of being preoccupied with thoughts of school and preparing for upcoming lessons, events and sometimes it can take away from the task at hand or things relating to home life. I have blogged about balance and that is the very key to success in being a teacher. It is very true that being a teacher doesn't stop at the school doors - we go home and our mind is still at school - but we need to consciously and daily tell ourselves to be present. That is the greatest advice - be present in whatever activity it is that you are doing. This advice is transferable to all jobs, occupations and professions but truly rings home for teachers.
By no means do I expect any sort of recognition for my many hours of extra prep work, coaching, or marking and correcting of schoolwork. All a teacher would hope for is students to have that light bulb turn on at least a few times a month to show you that the work you do is not being glossed over by all of the other things that occur in a day. So here I am, working away on my long weekend and loving it! I got a few hours outside in the heat to cut the grass, work the garden for my bedding plants and began some landscaping projects. I found balance this weekend by blending my time with school and home responsibilities and hope all other teachers out there find time to enjoy their lives in all aspects while the end of the year is creeping upon us!
Take care out there and smile because summer and warm weather is just around the corner!

A Simulation Activity and Critical Thinking Skills By My Students

The Simulation Background...
In History 10, we are doing a simulation activity - a mock court-case of the U.S. Government and the State of Georgia vs. the Cherokee Indians. I love doing these sorts of activities with my students because it gets them to be really creative in their wording and thinking.

The Task...which is the hard part for students...
They need to come up with a minimum of 4 good arguments to present to the jury in a variety of ways - such as through witness testimony, charts or speeches. I had the class read all the information sheets for both sides (Plaintiff and Defendant) in order for them to understand the arguments and reasons from both perspectives. I think it is important that students take a view from both sides of the table because not every situation is black/white - many times a situation is various shades of grey. The information is typically one-sided and more favorable to one party, but this is the point where students have to actually use their creative and critical thinking skills. Students tend to dislike any activity that involves them to "think about it", where the answer is not right in front of them. There are always those few students who love this sort of thing but it definitely is not the majority of students I teach!

Here they are...hard at work...

And In The End...
The end of the activity involves students discussing the outcome after the jury has returned a verdict based on the information presented. The historical facts behind the case is given to them prior to the mock case but the outcome of the factual/historical case is kept secret from them until the end of the activity where I will read it out to them and we will discuss the impact and significance the case had for the Native Americans and the Government. Knowing that we are Canadians and the court-case was American-based, the students understand that many of these land claim issues were a problem in Canada as well and we plan to cover the history of Canadian First Nations land claim rights, through our learning of Treaty Education in the classroom - which is a very valuable and interesting addition to our history classes.

Oh how times never really change...
I had a teacher once who always told us - "It's time to put your thinking hat on!" I have adapted that in my classroom and if you ask my students what I always say, they would tell you it is "It's time to put your critical thinking cap on!" - The wheels turn on different paths but the motions are the same....gotta love teachers and education!

iT Summit 2011 Day TWO reflections

Now that iT Summit is all done for the year, I get this sad feeling. I was so elated to see so many great teacher minds in one room and I truly could feel the innovative vibes floating in the air - or in the clicking of computer keys!

Michael Wesch's presentations on remixing our society and schools was really interesting to listen to - I really enjoyed the psychology connections to what he was saying. I have been teaching Psych 20 / 30 for the last two years now and I really found myself understanding those broad and deep topics he touched on - especially the self image implications of using technology. It is super interesting to promote those questions to students to hear what they would have to say about how technology affects their self-image and self-awareness - or would they even know what I am talking about and just text their friends how crazy their teacher was becoming!?!

Obviously winning a new iPod Touch rocked - thanks to my mad skills at website development and understanding ALL programs - HAHAHA just kidding!! No but seriously, I have gotten a lot of ideas from each session I attended. I just wish there were more hours in the day to be able to attend ALL the sessions I wanted to! I would've loved to have seen Shelley Wright's presentation, and I am sorry I never got a chance to attend and support Ryan Hackl, Micheal Hagel, and Mavis Hoffman or Morag Riddell in their sessions! I know it takes a lot of strength to get up in front of your peers and speak about your experiences so kudos to every teacher who presented their struggles and successes with technology. I admire you.
The Cool Tools Duel (Tuel) was very funny and interesting - I have some cool things to check out!

It was an honor to sit beside Kathy Cassidy in the SMART Response session - it is kinda funny when you read about people's stories and realize that you have been following their work in some way or another (blog, twitter, website, books, etc.) and all of the sudden there they are, sitting next to you! It's silly I guess that I don't just introduce myself and tell them what I think but it's intimidating - I'm sure these people like Dean Shareski, Alec Curous, Will Richardson, and many others are all down to earth and would just laugh at me thinking that way but you just feel a bit star-struck. In the small world of teaching - especially in Saskatchewan - it is awesome to be able to attend a conference and sit next to people who inspire you to be better every day in your job. I look at what these people try and do in their classrooms and I get excited to teach. I love this job!

Final thoughts? I wish there were TWO iT Summits a year and I wish I could attend both each year! No seriously, I had a wonderful time meeting up with former colleagues, laughing with friends, being inspired to try a bunch of new things (ipods in classrooms?!), and I will see you there next year!!! Cheers to technology!