We are more or less done our Canada and the world inquiry. I say more or less because only a few groups have brought their proposal and whole project to fruition. Some students are waiting to hear from the principal to see if their project is feasible within the school year. Propositions have been evaluated by both the students themselves and the teacher using our co-constructed rubric. Rubrics will be going home for parents to look at early next week. Below are some general reflections on our strengths and next steps.
Strengths:
- We care deeply for various people around the world
- We are aware of issues that have a global impact (e.g. war, climate change, poverty)
- We collaborate increasingly well within the classroom
- We are much more comfortable solving authentic and ambiguous tasks or problems
- We are good at using technology to collaborate and share what we know
Next steps:
- We need to collect more data to truly understand the problem before we attempt to solve it
- We need to use technology to connect with people outside of the classroom who can give us real-world insight and feedback
- We need to be more creative!
Friday, 29 January 2016
Wednesday, 16 December 2015
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!
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!
Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Un auto-portrait, les premiers selfies!
Check out our beautiful self-portraits. Surely you will recognise some familiar faces.
Thursday, 3 December 2015
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.
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.
Tuesday, 1 December 2015
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
Thursday, 26 November 2015
Student portal
The board has added a few new resources to support french language acquisition in the classroom but also at home. TV5 Monde, Ici Radio-Canada and TFO édcuation are full of games, websites, articles and videos for learning at home. Students access these resources using the Student portal on the St-Gemma website. For TFO, students need a group identifier and password which they wrote in their agendas yesterday. Happy learning! 
Friday, 20 November 2015
L'électricité
Started our electricity science unit a few weeks ago. We started with what we think we know and what we want to know. We have begun to talk about reducing our consumption as well as safety and security measures around electricity. In tandem to learning about electricity, we have been learning about coding and programming. Many if not most jobs of the future will require some form of coding knowledge. On Friday, we had a Google hangout with a class at St-Gabriel's school in Kanata with a lot of coding experience so they could give us their tips and tricks.
Below are the big ideas from the curriculum as well as some resources for students looking to deepen their learning at home
Big ideas: (1) Electrical energy can be transformed into other forms of energy. (2) Other forms of energy can be transformed into electrical energy. (3) Electrical energy plays a significant role in society and its production as an impact on the environment. (4) Society must find ways to minimize the impact of energy production on the environment.
Ressources
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