Making the world a better place and 20% projects

As mentioned in a previous post, students have begun a project for our social studies uni; Canada and the world. We began our project with a discussion around another of the 6 Cs; Citoyenneté (citizenship).

Next, students were invited to discuss and research a global issue in which they believe they can make a difference using concrete action. Students are currently writing proposals for their projects.

Today, in order to inspire students we discussed the 20% project at Google and it's spreading use in education. Google has a long-standing history of letting employees use 20% of work time for their own individual projects and innovation. Gmail is one of the many examples of cool tools we use that came from a 20% project.

Educators around the world are using this same idea with students. Kevin Brookhouser's students in California, for instance, came up with tons of interesting projects to better their world. They have certainly inspired us too!

Un auto-portrait, les premiers selfies!

Check out our beautiful self-portraits. Surely you will recognise some familiar faces.

Social Studies: Canada and the world

Students have started projects to better the world! Students are looking at global issues and Canada's role within them. They are also coming up with concrete actions they or the class can take to affect change.

Here are some of the problems we are studying so far:
- Girls access to education
- Child poverty
- Syrian refugees and the war in Syria
- Climate change

Here is a padlet to launch our inquiry. It has the overall expectations for the Social Studies strand.

Cercle de littérature

We are starting literacy circles today! Students have chosen a book or novel which they will read in small groups. Every week students will be responsible for reading a chapter or passage. They will also have one of 4 roles to fill in their literacy circle. The roles and their general description can be found below. Students can find sheets with more detailed instructions in their google drive folder Cercle de littérature within their French folder.

Literacy circles will take place on Tuesdays.  

Directeur/Directrice  de la discussion

• pose des questions pour stimuler la discussion
• surveille et guide la discussion

Enrichisseur de vocabulaire

• clarifie les mots difficiles (prononciation et définition)

Luminaire litéraire

• choisi des passages significatifs pour partager avec le groupe

Mini Mme

• Vérfie que chacun accomplit sa tâche et que tout le monde participe également