Workshops anyone?

As the school year goes on, time seems to go more quickly.  As usual our class has been busy.  In the last couple of weeks we have had many workshops it seems.  We did one entitled Peace It Together, that was a nice connection to a couple of the films that we saw at the Reel to Real festival.  The kids really enjoyed discussing big ideas connected to how conflict can occur and how resolution is possible.  To learn more about this project check out their website.  As a teacher the trick is always how can you take the big ideas and really see them in the reality of your own context but through workshops like this and the series we are doing through Human Eyes I hope that it all does come together.

We had our second Human Eyes workshop as well the  that week.  The kids are really enjoyed this series and were disappointed that we didn't have one this Friday.  One of the lessons I keep learning from my students is how they do welcome the Big Ideas.  They are always willing to participate as well in whatever is planned.  It's a great way to be!  For me personally this workshop series is interesting as when the project was conceived I was working at the school board with Angela Brown who was our Anti -Racism consultant at the time and I remembered her excitement about this project as it began.  One reason my students really enjoy this series is the active involvement.  In our last session they looked closely at how you can prevent violence, how you give and get support.  The students really enjoyed the drama exercises and we were able to follow them up in the classroom as well.

This week (technically the week that just passed) instead of going to the Moberly Arts Centre, Naomi and Natalie come to us for our storytelling workshop.  And as is typical sometimes in schools. although I had booked our music room for the workshop other people thought they had the room  booked as well!  It's a good thing Naomi and Natalie are good sports as we had to do some shifting from room to room and I forgot that not everyone knows about recess so our time was a bit shortened.  More drama and movement...

Once again I can't underestimate how these wonderful these interactions are for my students.  This whole story telling project has been so amazing.  My students have had so much fun just using their imaginations.  Plus imagine getting to be part of the Vancouver International Storytelling Festival!  Having the Moberly Arts Centre in the neighbourhood has been such an asset.  Today we are off there and we are going to get to watch a community elder prepare a dish and we get to see how our onions are growing.  We have also been working on drama in the classroom so that the students have written skits based on their story and a couple will be preformed for Naomi!  And just wait until she sees the kids latest writing and art projects for her!

Well there is lots more to write about-the Grade Six students' amazing projects on poverty that they did with our teacher-librarian, the Grade Seven's Roman projects, more about the ipads but I really need to go to work so stay tuned...