The problem with teaching is I just don't seem to have time for everything I want to do.  And this week I am behind on blogging.  Yesterday, our staff was supposed to do team building on our Professional Day.  We were going kayaking at Deep Cove.  Unfortunately the wild weather, wind as well as rain (rain never stops you on the wet coast) prevented that occurring.  Thus I had a chance to do a bit of catching up, but I am  still behind on blogging so here I go...

Other than trying to figure out how I can get my class on a field trip due to our current job action, it was a good week.  I am very much still building foundations  and assessing where my students are and where they need to go and how I can help them get there.

Many years ago I designed a generic picture book/novel response form.  The students draw a favorite part of the book or chapter on the front cover.  Inside they record a summary, what they like, notice, connections, favorite words or phrases, predictions, what the author does well and on the back they have a whole range of projects they can choose such as interviewing a character, doing a found poem etc.  Right now I am teaching them how to do those with which they may not be familiar.

It's the National Terry Fox School Run tomorrow so my students read the letter he wrote just before he began his run and then picked up favorite words and phrases and turned them into found poems.  Earlier in the week we had done work about Rick Hansen and his Man in Motion tour and the new 25th Anniversary Relay again thanks to the resource, What in the World, and it's great online resources. 

My students were fascinated by how Terry inspired Rick and then we learned how Terry inspired Steve Nash who made a movie about Terry and how Terry inspired Steve in his own life and career from watching his marathon as a child.  Using Moodle, they are posting about whether they thought there should be a museum built in Terry's honour.  One student noted that it wouldn't be how Terry would want money spent, he would want the money to go straight into cancer research. 

I quickly reviewed my students' files after school on Friday and there were very few A's or B's on their report cards.  We have a long way on our marathon of learning but so far I feel very hopeful.