Tracey Coghlin taught us about her time in Sudan at an orphanage and how much life is different in Sudan. With her was Yunia Mulhenge from Uganda who is a social work and lives with 12 teenage youth as they attend high school in Uganda. Yunia shared about her life and we were able to ask questions. We learned that she makes $250 per month and how she marvels at our easy access to water and electricity. In her words "you have everything!"
HISTORY LEARNING - BY MT History has a linear effect, one thing leads to another. And that effect has an impact on how life is today. In class we’ve been using role play to learn about history. We get to reenact points of view from those in the past. Using our own ideas to think what the British, French, Indigenous, Americans, etc. would have thought during those times. We’ve so far learned about these main events: the 7 year war, the battle of the Plains of Abraham, the Pontiac rebellion, and the American revolution. Having roleplay as a teaching mechanism helps with the thinking process for what was going inside their heads in the past. History has been a very entertaining and learning experience with using the aspect of roleplay, and the majority of the class has enjoyed it.
Geography This past week, we focussed on what geography in by analyzing maps. We discussed how it is about the land, people, and culture, and how the land impacts people. From there, we analyzed 7 different maps (e.g. maps about conflict, where McDonalds are located, IQ, and more). We looked at the differences between Africa and Canada. This allowed us to establish the complexity and challenges in making sustainable change in Africa, supporting our content for Monday.
Science Fair There are many things I want you to know about this endeavor.
Please save this date to attend. I am hoping as many students, and family members, can attend. Note the evening time.
Homework - While I don’t give a lot of homework, these are they type of tasks that will likely require some work at home. I have really been encouraging students this week to reflect on how much time is needed.
Modern approach to learning - This approach is centred around the inquiry process and the fact that information is readily available at our fingertips. It appears that critical thinking skills with information combined with self-regulatory skills are going to be coveted commodities. The fair works through how to ask questions, dig deeper, modify research searching, and organize/communicate ideas.
Conferencing - The entire process is based on a conferencing model. I lead some mini-lessons to guide students. Then, there is a circle of support where students are to be routinely checking in, sharing what they have done, and receiving feedback. I like to say that the lessons happen through the conferences.
Feedback - The goal of the conferencing is to provide personalized and timely feedback. I try to document this feedback in Showbie as a reference.
Process - Students have been guided each week to accomplish something by each Friday:
Week 1 - Pick a topic.
Week 2 - Do basic research (I call this grade 4 research… the basic content that can be easily found)
Week 3 (this week) - Students were to dig deeper into their research. They needed to ask “why” and “how” repeatedly and redefine their searching with more targeted and specific google searches.
Week 4 - Put project together
Dec 12 - Science Fair - project at school
Communication/Media - Part of this project is to communicate information effectively with the audience in mind. Students are being guided to make it interactive. To the left is both an image of effective projects from last year as well as a success criteria for the put together of the project.
CHRISTIN DENNIS - By E.S. Last week we started our History unit. Mr.S invited in a man named Christian Dennis. He is an astounding artist and is a very inspiring first nations person. He taught us the harsh cold reality of what the canadian government did in the 60s-70s. He told us his life story. When he was 6 he was separated from his own family and was forced into another family. He was then put into a boarding school. Boarding schools were schools where all different races were not treated equally there. If you spoke your own language or practice anything religious you would get strapped. He had to deal with this for the rest of his school career. After that he was put into a mental hospital because they thought he was insane and had mental issues. But he was really just suffering from PTSD (Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder) from all of the horrible things done to him. Eventually they realized this and he got therapy. Fast forward a few years and he has become reunited with his culture once again. Now he educates children and people alike his culture and his story. He brought in multiple items and told us the story behind them. Every item was special and had purpose. He showed us how the first nations believed in everyone having a sort of aura around them. And when invaded it disrupts their aura. He showed of this by walking in front of KG and looking down at her. This disrupted her aura. To restore her aura he brought out a medical herb called sage. He burnt it and everyone in the classroom smelt the beautiful aroma. Christian Dennis is a very inspiring and spiritual person and he was a great introduction to history, and our theme of “the choices made in the past have an impact on who we are today.”