late literacy

Making Masks

2012-01-28T06:44:00.000-08:00

The big excitement this week had to be making masks. Thanks to the Vancouver School Board's Artist in Residence program, potter, Phyllis Schwartz, is working with us. For the first time in many many years I am teaching my own art. The only thing more terrifying would be teaching my own P.E. And although I like art and I like coaching that doesn't mean I actually feel confident or really enjoy teaching these subjects. When I found myself teaching my own art, I told my principal that if anyone needed the artist in residence it was me!

Our school, having been an annex for many years, doesn't have a kiln, so our kids haven't had that opportunity of doing much with clay so I thought that this would be a good choice. Having taken a pottery course myself, I knew how satisfying working with clay can be.
We have a wonderful SEA who has given many children the opportunity to work with plasticine and as a result I have had some amazing projects done with plasticine. I thought that they would enjoy the opportunity to work with clay. And they have. I missed the last hour of their work yesterday as I was involved in a students individual educational plan meeting and forgot to get the camera out again so you will have to wait for a look at their finished masks.

It's been a crazy year due to job action we haven't been able to plan many field trips so it's nice to be able to give my students this type of opportunity.
Before we began the students wrote a bit about their masks and did a bit of research about masks. I had them write how they felt after the first session and I will have them write again after we work on them on Monday after they have been fired. Needless to say I have to bring writing into all things! I know we are all looking forward to Monday afternoon!

Chasing snowflakes

2012-01-21T21:48:00.000-08:00

I write this blog and think about the pictures I should have taken. We had snow at school and that is quite unusual. When we had snow at my house in November about 47 blocks away, there was none at school as I am on the edge of Little Mountain and my school is on what we call the south slope with the Fraser only a few blocks away. This week there was snow and the kids were ecstatic.
Once again the sixth graders were at work with microscopes and I wanted to see a snowflake up close. Well it never happened too effectively but it was fun trying.

If you actually read this blog on a regular basis you know that we have Grade One reading buddies. Every Thursday last period the kids read with their reading buddies. Sometimes we do different activities, making Halloween cards for instance. This week I thought it would be fun making paper snowflakes so I gave my class a quick refresher lesson during music appreciation and away we went. Both Angela, the grade one teacher and I thought what a great way to end a day (especially one where we spent lunch hour at a rather depressing VESTA meeting discussing our lack of progress in bargaining).

I really try to challenge my students academically but have to remind myself how important it is to make time for fun and that there are different kinds of learning. Every year I think how wonderful my class is with their buddies but each time the buddies seem to get better and this year they are just so kind and patient and fun with the "little kids". As I write this I am thinking that we need to invite the buddies to look through the microscopes. For any of you using microscopes this is a very useful website. I have had the kids turn their drawings into mini books, always a fun format.

Back to trying to study snowflakes with a microscope. It is a bit like trying to capture a classroom through a blog. Hmmm...

Canadian Artists and Microscopes and Order of Operation

2012-01-16T07:17:00.000-08:00

Each week I ask my class what the highlights of their week were. For me, this week there were a couple.

The grade six social studies/art project went really well. For one thing I finally went totally paperless and the the assignment is only on our moodle site so that all students had to go there to get the information for the assignment. I also encouraged them to save all work in a word document and that makes it easy to cut and paste websites for their bibliography etc. That doesn't mean all my students did this but many did. The project is fairly simple but gets them using different sources of information and responding in different ways. They had to "interview the artist, choose a favorite painting and recreate art in the style of the artist.

I showed them a simple way to display the project by folding a large piece of construction paper and mounting it on it. I also like it that the whole project was completed in a week and I was able to have them working on this in the computer lab or classroom while I taught the grade sevens math or science. Although the assignment was due Friday, I encouraged them to have them done Thursday as we all know how things can go wrong at the last minute. Most did have the project completed. We were going to present them Friday but I had had to postpone working with microscopes from Thursday so that I couldn't postpone that again so today is the day. I did look them over this weekend and discovered one of my students was rather mixed up so that I little reteaching re researching needs to take place. Oh well. I am going to post a few pictures I took of their projects.

I am going to show you a few more of their projects. First you can see the art that they did in the style of their artist and then their research and the pieces of art they chose.

Another highlight this week was the grade six students working with microscopes. They were ecstatic. That is the only word I can use. In the text they were to begin with preparing slides of onion skin to look at, but I decided to start with prepared slides that had been given to us by the scientists that visited us last year. I think that worked out really well because they could get used to using microscopes without worrying about preparing slides. We will do this this week.

We had a great variety of slides and it was a great afternoon. I had a small group as the seven's were doing Social Studies in the library and we had students move from station to station so that they were able to see all the slides. Students had one microscope for two students and were at a table with two other students.

Finally a low point became a high point. I had the worst time with the grade sevens doing order of operations in math. Why is it students seem to hate to write things down and go through the steps? Anyway we did succeed by going back to whole numbers and then back to decimals and the next day they all could do it. I also think they began to see that a little method could save them time and frustration in the end. Hmm... a lesson I often seem to need to relearn...

Meandering the internet but finding the essential...

2012-01-08T06:58:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Pavan, creator of a great blog, Pancakes for Recess, I discovered these great posters by Christian Jackson. I can't help but think what a great lesson for theme or what is the essential essence of a story, having kids create the image for a favorite story.

When I was a child my parents bought an Encyclopedia Britannica and I would go to look up something for homework and then start looking at other articles, not always completing the initial homework far later than I should have (in case my students might read this, of course I always got my homework completed eventually...) and I find myself doing this as well on the internet.

I look at a posting on twitter and that leads me in other directions such as today but many times just like many years ago these meanderings are often quite useful and often delightful.

Back at school...

2012-01-07T16:47:00.000-08:00

Always a shock to the system to go back to work after a two week vacation, but I think that as a teacher it is perhaps more of a shock than say, working in an office. Teaching school is intense, at least if you teach at the grade six/seven level. They have a lot of energy! It's a transition for us all to be back. Long ago I realized you need to start slowly after a holiday but I think I forgot my own advice Tuesday. That may have been how I skipped a couple of units Monday in Grade Six math and neither the kids nor I noticed!

I also had those terrors of what do I teach next. The creativity button didn't seem to turn on easily. But I think I have myself more in gear. I came up with a rather nice variation of a suggestion in the grade six social studies book. My grade six students are happily researching and doing mock interviews of Canadian painters. I stumbled on to a very nice website and let students each pick an artist who they will pretend to interview and then pick a favorite painting and then do a drawing in the style of their artist. I will post the assignment here for you. I am also moving into microscopes (something that I always rather dread as much as they love) with the grade six students.

Yesterday they began working on a scientific drawing of salal leaves (given to me when I was buying flowers at The Flower Factory) and then started using magnifying glasses to make more detailed drawing and what fun they were having...) The Grade Sevens are into Egyptian projects and plaguing me for clay. As well yesterday I met our artist in resident and soon the kids will be doing making clay masks. My principal has also signed us up for a story telling project so the fun never ends.

I signed up for a project to post a picture on facebook every day so I think I may put a few of my favorites here. Please note that it is definitely the rainy season on the Wet Coast! Now I think I will take a nap!

A New Year-random thoughts and pictures

2012-01-01T09:43:00.000-08:00

I have been very neglectful of this blog over the holidays! I am just going to say I have been recharging! I can't believe I have been on holiday for two weeks. Of course this time of the year is a busy one with lots of socializing. I keep thinking of the posts I have meant to write but haven't yet. Well I have a couple of days before I go back to work! I also need to catch up on my class blog-many pictures not yet posted!

One of the nicest things about a holiday is getting to spend some time in your favorite places. One crystal clear morning I met friends in Deep Cove. I got the time wrong and was there an hour early but I had a fine time working on the not yet sent Christmas cards! Deep Cove has to be one of the prettiest places in this beautiful area and I hadn't been there I am sure since the summer if then. A great place for breakfast or just a home made doughnut has to be Honey's.

Another evening friends and I went to the Light Show at Van Dusen Gardens, which is very close to where I live. This show gets more amazing every year and this year they also have their new Visitor's Centre as well. It was pouring rain when we arrived and I thought perhaps we were a bit crazy but a good raincoat and an umbrella are all you really need. And I even took a video.

Today I am going on my annual walk along the beach in Spanish Banks-something I always do with friends regardless of the weather if I am here and today I think we are going to get off easy as it isn't raining or horrible. It's a great way to start the new year and I am looking forward to the walk and the year. Just thinking about resolutions, most of them probably not kept on my part! But one "truth" I realized awhile ago is that it is important each day to do something you really enjoy and to feel as if you accomplished something (however small) and that is a resolution I have tried very hard to keep and that is actually not too difficult. Wishing you a very happy 2012!!!

Book making and the end of term

2011-12-18T07:27:00.000-08:00

School is over for two weeks. One term ended. I lost my voice last Saturday and spent a quiet weekend in more ways than one. I probably should have taken a couple of days off work but there just seemed too much going on. What other job do you have to plan to be away? The planning for another often seems more work than being there yourself and then there is the catching up when you do return.

Other than being rather tired, it was a good week. The week before, we began writing picture book. This process starts with the students looking at good picture books (and I have lots) as well as thinking about the stories they liked when they were younger. Students wrote stories and planned storyboards with their pictures. Then finally go to final copy.

The books all were finished more or less on time and we were able to share them with the grade one reading buddies Thursday afternoon.

At the beginning of the year I was a bit bemused by the lack of artistry of my new class. Although I would never call myself an art teacher lots of drawing does occur in my room, and these books were really well done. They were really proud of them and were taking them home to share. All you need is construction paper, card, and wrapping paper, scissors, a ruler, and imagination. I learned how to make these in a workshop long ago and have helped many classes make books over the years. It is a very satisfying process!

Having buddy classes is great. We made up simple presents for the first graders and as you can see they were proudly wearing their bell necklaces. I made up packages for my class and some of them were wearing bell necklaces the last day as well. I think this all partly started with my favorite Christmas picture book, The Polar Express, when the boy only wants a bell from Santa's sleigh as a gift.

As I may have mentioned due to our job action, we didn't do report cards this term and what a blessing that was. These take hours and hours of our non teaching time at the elementary level. We still had to figure out marks just not share them formally. I keep parents informed if there are problems through the students agendas and meetings if necessary. I always have my class do their own report cards with comments so I shared my marks and comments with them this week and they filed these in their portfolios. The students' marks and my marks were quite close, but I think this helped eased some of their anxieties.

We had a party Friday but between recess and lunch as we had a holiday assembly in the afternoon. We had Secret Santa ( and everyone brought their gifts and all seemed happy-they didn't have to participate if they didn't want to do so), they brought food and drink, listened to Christmas music, etc., and everything was cleaned up by lunchtime. Yeah!!!

Students Council had a successful food drive, my class brought in the third highest amount with 187 items (no party unless they had 100 items, always an incentive). Our class diligently sold Paperblank journals for the last couple of weeks and raised almost 400 dollars for the Nepal Library Foundation. They were also thrilled to get old leftover day planners and journals as an unexpected reward.

They have also been excellent Hall Monitors and Peer Helpers. Kids feel good when they see themselves making a difference.

We had a lovely Christmas concert (in our multicultural school I am not going to worry about labels). Since the principal does choir with all the students and we have had two more talented musicians join our teaching staff to help with this, everyone gets to participate. We also had some talented solo and group and class performances. By the time we got our chairs back to the classroom, it was basically time to call it a day! I was exhausted and fully planned to leave early and come back next week to sort life out, but a couple of my students wanted to help so I am basically planned and ready to go for January when I left at 5:00 (and I wasn't the last teacher to leave I can assure you). It was a good first term but I am definitely ready for a vacation.

Great Inventions

2011-12-11T07:15:00.001-08:00

Well this week the grade six students presented their multimedia projects on Great Inventions. As I watched these presentations it reminds me that we really need to look at what our aims are when designing projects. I was a bit bemused about what they thought were great inventions (a bit candy obsessed). Perhaps, I should have stuck to the suggestions in the Social Studies text book. I also sent them for a period of research in the library so I imagined that they would have used a few print resources. That did not generally happen. I also didn't specify how many resources they had to use, and some only used one or two and seemed to be heavily dependent on Wikipedia. I can see we need to do some work on search engines. Quite a few did do their bibliographies correctly.

Rather than have each present to the class, I let them present in the computer lab with half the class presenting and the other half watching their classmates' presentation and evaluating as they went. Having presentation one at a time can be quite time consuming and often involves waiting for technology to kick in.

But generally I was quite pleased. There were a couple of presentations that I thought were quite perfect. Now several students didn't come with their evaluation sheets so I docked them marks for that. Most students did do multimedia presentations. Most did prezis, some used bitstrips to create cartoons, There were quite a few models. Those who did posters did a neat job. One student created a big book. Most students were knowledgeable on their subjects, some very knowledgeable.

We invited a grade five class to see their presentations. Their regular teacher was away and they aren't the easiest group so I planned carefully. Two students went to each presentation and then in about three minutes moved to the next (my class knew where to send them next). That worked out really well. I was a bit concerned because the one presentation I hadn't seen was because this student had been away. It was supposed to be about the invention of video games but mostly focused on Modern Warfare and had a few too many guns on that prezi and not great information. I think I need to have a conversation with his parents about how he is spending his spare time and if they have closely looked at this game.

I do think the project was a good experience. The students got lots done in a couple of weeks and learned how to use different media as well as learning how inventions came to be. As a teacher, what I want most, are students who want to learn and know how to find information. I think we have had a good beginning.

The grade sevens (I don't currently teach them Social Studies)have been begging for projects so they are researching decomposers for science. Stay tuned...

Some Days Are Better Than Others

2011-12-08T18:33:00.001-08:00

Yesterday at the end of the day, I have to admit I wasn't feeling overly successful. I was telling a fellow teacher that, and she asked me, "Are you wishing you were retiring at Christmas?" and I said, "No, I would feel like a complete failure!"
Today I had cajoled a friend,Val, who has just retired as a high school home economics teacher to come in to teach my class how to make peace dove Christmas ornaments. Another friend, a retired teacher, came to help as well. Now a project that Val thought would take an hour took all morning and I was still finishing up with a few when my class had choir in the afternoon, but it was a total success. At the end of the day everyone had a peace crane and knew a heck of a lot more about sewing than they did previously. Most of them really hadn't sewn anything until today.
Of course I should have taken pictures but I was just a bit too busy so this blog will get finished tomorrow because I know you will want to see the finished project. I am writing this today because who knows how I will feel tomorrow and the experience won't be so immediate.
Today was wonderful. They were really proud of their creations. They were in the zone of creation and were working well cooperatively. The usual stars weren't necessarily the usual stars. They were also experiencing the exhilaration of trying something new and succeeding.
I had the joy of having "an expert" enable me to do something out of my comfort zone, teaching sewing. Val was great, figuring out how much fabric we needed, providing the pattern, cutting fabric pieces etc. and then providing the model and instructions and coaching. Sandy, both a teacher and an accomplished needlewoman, was great cutting thread, helping thread needles etc. I could never have pulled this off without them being there. You may remember I am teaching my own art this year for the first time in decades!
I think one of the funniest moments was when Renfil couldn't remember Val's name and called her Mrs. Beautiful.

I think we often try to do too many things in a teaching day and we lose the thread of what is really important. This may be why I was feeling rather fragmented on Wednesday. Anyway thanks to my friends, we all had a great day today and I am looking forward to tomorrow!

Heroes of the Olympus and other young adult reads...

2011-12-08T18:23:00.001-08:00

I thought I would review a few YA novels I have been reading lately,appropriate for more sophisticated readers in my class. I just finishedthe second book in the Heroes of Olympus series, The Son of Neptune by RickRiordan. I loved it as I did the first in this series and I now amlooking forward to the the third in the trilogy. Many years ago Idiscovered The Lightning Thief and thanks to the movie, last year, myclass were all keenly reading it. That book turned some of my class intoreaders. One of my students I actually nicknamed The LightningThief. I must admit I think I read the first couple in the series but notthe rest but lots of my students read the whole series. Then lastyear the kids and I discovered the KaneChronicles. And these were so perfect as we studied AncientEgypt.

In the new Heroes of Olympus series in the first book, TheLost Hero, we meet three new demi-gods, one Roman and two Greeks. The Roman demi-god, Jason, has lost his memory, somewhat disheartening to histwo friends, Leo and Piper who are Greek demi-gods. All three findthemselves transported to Camp Half-Blood from where Percy Jackson, thelightning thief, has disappeared. The three, Jason, Leo and Piper, end upgoing on a quest to once again save the world. Their rather windyadventures take them from Quebec City to Chicago to finally near San Franciscowhere of course they are victorious but more battles will occur.

In the Son of Neptune, we find Percy, who like Jason, has had a memory loss,and he finds himself in a West Coast Roman camp for Roman demi-gods. There he teams up with two Roman demi-gods (one actually from North Vancouver)and they end up having to go to Alaska via Portland, Seattle, andVancouver. In the last book, these six gods plus Annabeth, Percy'sgirlfriend, are to go to Greece for the final battle.

I thoroughly enjoyed both books and look forward to reading thethird.

I also read the sequel of The MazeRunner, , The Scorch Trials. This series is now atrilogy with a prequel coming out. Again I was swept away by thestory. I often think I am not much of a fantasy or science fiction fanbut then I find these books I really do enjoy.

My current read is Bruiser. I have read a couple of NeilShusterman books along the way and once met him and found him verycharming, a fan of our racetrack because you could watch the ocean and a horserace. I had not read anything recently though The Schwa Was herewas a favorite in my class last year. I somehow thought of him as ahumorous author, but Bruiser has humour but it is a very serious book. Initially Tennyson is very upset because his twin sister is interested in a guythinks he is a loser, but when he follows home he realizes the situation ismuch more complicated. Told from the points of view of Tennyson, alacross player; his sister, Bronte; and Brewster and even his younger brother,we learn that Brewster is a truly unique person sensitive beyong anything youhave ever seen. I am absolutely fascinated and really enjoying reading. I can see why it is winning many awards.

I am not very systematic about the books in my classroom. I am verycareful of my favorite picture books but any of the other books, I just wantread. It's always interesting what disappears, and disappear and reappearthey sometimes do. Right now Dormiahas gone missing and it's a signed copy to the class. I know these areimportant books. For instance, Anne Frank's Diary is another that oftenseems to walk away. Somehow it's also reassuring that there are booksthat still can't stay on the shelves.

War and Peace and other goings on in my classroom

2011-11-19T18:31:00.001-08:00

I am back. I get busy and just don't get to writing this blog but here I am. It was a good week. My classes and I love projects. They take us out of the mundane. War and Peace newspapers are an old favorite of mine. Not sure where the idea came from initially. I used to do lots with newspapers so perhaps that was the beginning, and sharing the history of the Second War World seemed to be a bit of an obsession of mine. I love picture books and have quite a collection of those on this theme. And again anyone who has taught six and seventh grade boys knows you are always going to have a few with a fascination about war!

September 11, 2001 changed things because wars seemed to become more immediate as we felt the impact of that day... And as those of you who follow my column may remember, I have been reading my class Eric Walter's book We all Fall Down about a boy who goes to work with his dad at the World Trade Centre on that date.

One the nice thing about having a brand new class is you can repeat projects when you feel like it. My class two years ago had done newspapers but because I kept ten of my students last year we didn't do that project, though we all learned lots about World War One as we read Charlie Wilcox.

Well we have had a great couple of weeks as I shared some of my favorite books and they responded and researched and created. I have to admit I kind of wondered how this would all turn out but as I see bits and pieces of the projects they are looking rather amazing. They are passionate about their work. One thing that is helpful is the fact that I had kept some of my past students' projects so that they had an idea what their work could look like.

There have been such magic moments... What a gift it is to share the story of Anne Frank through the lovely picture book, The Picture Book of Anne Frank by David A. Adler and illustrated by Karen Ritz and the story of My Hiroshima through the eyes of author and illustrator,Junko Morimoto. These are such excellent starting points as was the students learning a beautiful new song version of Flanders Field in choir. Another high point was reading the new picture book, Blowing in the Wind illustrated by Jon Muth, and then playing the original CD by Bob Dylan and my students listening with rapt attention.

But of course I do have a few other subjects I need to teach and I realized that my students hadn't really "gotten into" a basket of more books I had on War and Peace so that I did one of my favorite activities for both children and adults-quick book shares. I stuck two of a variety of books I had, mainly picture books on each group's tables. Students had to share the books quickly and write quick responses and then after about seven minutes pass them on to the next group. I think we were able to do six switches in the seven groups. Then students decided their favorite books. This worked out really well with lots of great conversation and enjoyment.

I don't have a complete book list for you but I have attached a copy of the assignment and I promise some pictures of the finished newspapers.

Honolulu to Hanoi to the Amazon-my latest adult reads

2011-11-06T18:03:00.000-08:00

In the dark mornings of October and November it's appealing to read a book set in Honolulu. I just finished reading Honolulu by Alan Brennert. I absolutely loved it. It's the fascinating story of a young woman who dreaming of an education and more freedom than she can have in Korea she becomes a picture bride in Honolulu 1914. Focusing on life in Korea and then Honolulu from the turn of the century to the 1950s but particularly between the two wars, it is a fascinating glimpse into the history of Hawaii.

Once having spent a week in Kauai I was fascinated with the multicultural society and history of the islands as various workers came from different parts of the world and how these societies were able to mesh together. One thing that is fascinating in the novel is how the attitudes of the mainland USA varied with that of the reality of Hawaii.

I just finished another book that I really enjoyed. That was The Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb. I think I heard Camilla speak about this book a year ago at the Vancouver International Writers' Festival, but somehow it took me a year to read it! I loved her book, Sweetness in the Belly. I think I liked this one just as much, perhaps more. Set in Hanoi, it focuses on an old man who sells the best Pho from his cart and a young American woman of Vietnamese ancestry who has returned to try to find out what happened to her artist father whom she and her mom were forced to leave behind thinking that he would one day join them. Between them is a young Vietnamese former math teacher and current tour guide, and his father, a carpenter who was the son of a writer who was tortured and killed for being a free thinker. The mystery unravels and we learn a little of the history of those terrible times. And yes, it actually has quite a happy ending.

A third book that I enjoyed reading was Ann Patchett's latest, State of Wonder. This time I was transported from Minnesota to a Brazilian jungle. A pharmaceutical company has a woman researching fertility but she isn't giving regular reports so that Anders, a researcher is sent to investigate. It's then reported that he died and was buried at the research camp. His colleague, Marina, very reluctantly goes to find out more information about what has happened. I do love a novel set in an exotic location (not that Patchett makes it any too appealing) and the issues that are raised are very interesting. This is a very "discussable" book.

And now I have returned to reading children's books so stay tuned.

Granville Island and the Writers' Festival

2011-10-24T07:44:00.000-07:00

My goal is to write once a week but not always easy although there is always lots to write about. A highlight last week was the Vancouver International Writers' Festival. We have a fantastic writers' festival in Vancouver every fall and I try to take my class. This year proved a bit of a challenge as we are on work to rule and are not supposed to have anything to do with money. Unless you have parents who offer to take care of this or an administrator willing to do so, you aren't really able to take your class on field trips. As a result no one has been on a field trip at our school this term.

The staff at the Writers' Festival offered to count the admission money, and we went by public transit so the kids brought their bus fare or bus passes or bus tickets. It was a bit of a scene as 56 children put in their bus fare (do the math) but we made it via two buses down and a bit of a walk and the Canada Line and a bus back. The rain held off and the day became quite beautiful. We had a great session with Kit Pearson, Maggie de Vries, and Alan Cumyn. Seeing and hearing real authors talk about their work is just so important to inspire young readers and writers.

The kids enjoyed lunch and some free time at Granville Island. Kids in Vancouver don't have the freedom we enjoyed as children, and not many of my kids have spent much time on the island so they love it. Most of them had been there on school trips previously so were familiar with the surroundings. Our intermediate divisions went to a play last spring and then we had them do a scavenger hunt checking out the various businesses and activities on the island. Both Clara and I have lovely kids so it was a great day. I actually wished we had had more time as we had a beautiful though a bit of a rushed walk along the water and by parkland over to the Olympic Canada Line Station. It's a beautiful area and would have been perfect for studying ecosystems. Rain had initially been forecast and that would have made it a more challenging day.

I am feeling sad that it probably is going to be a year without many field trips but again there is always the possibility of a bit of creativity...

The best lesson is the one that you don't actually teach...

2011-10-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful day but I am feeling still a little lazy... I need to hit my yard, maybe think about planting some bulbs... But I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the best lesson I taught last week-let's change that to the best lesson I didn't teach.

Last year our teacher librarian, Alanna, and I discovered that we didn't need to know how to do technology to teach kids how to use it. All we had to know was to give them the directions to get to the appropriate site and watch them learn themselves. Our part was giving them critical literacy skills and interesting assignments to make use of their knowledge. I also discovered that when my students were working on elaborate projects they didn't even see it as work but pleasure. Hmmm....
Thursday half my class had gone off to We Day so I was left with half my class. I decided to spend a couple of periods in the computer lab and exposing them to glogster where one can make online posters (and print them if you like). I have never made a glogster and honestly, I don't think I really desire to do so, but I can assure you my students loved doing so in the last couple of years. Usually they kind of learned as they put together projects but Thursday I basically said here's the link to the website and away you go. These students are all new to my class this year and none of them had ever made a glogster. If they asked me anything I honestly had to say, "I really don't know much about this so you may have to ask each other" and they did. It was interesting to observe how different students discovered different features and my student with the least amount of English was the first to discover some form of animation. I did suggest they might make a Hallowe'en poster or a poster of something they were interested in. They did. They found out how to put in pictures and how to link videos.
Later that afternoon I had just my sixth graders and a couple of groups hadn't completed a poster on social responsibility and using their new skills did rather good glogsters. Of course I didn't have my camera to capture the sheer joy on their faces as they learned how to use this new tool. Many of them told me it was their highlight of the week. My expectation now is that they can help those who were at We Day to learn how to make glogsters. Next, will probably be prezis.

Earlier in the week I had one of those aha moments. Long ago Jeff Wilhelm said school should be more like video games, a very interesting analogy. Thinking about this I asked the class how many of them enjoyed playing video games. Needless to say almost all hands went up. I asked how they got to the next level. They told me you had to read the instructions. So I made the point that they should treat school like a video game where they wanted to get to the next level. Hmmm... don't think that is exactly what Wilhelm was getting at, but I think it's an analogy that could work for me... And when you teach each other how to use Glogster students are definitely engaged and have another tool to demonstrate their literacy.

Remembering Kitty...

2011-10-10T18:50:00.000-07:00

There are teachers and there are teachers. And there are union leaders and union leaders. And there are friends and there are friends. And there are people who are just more vivid than the rest of us. This morning we lost a teacher, a union leader and just a vibrant person, Kitty O'Callaghan.

I first met Kitty when I moved here and as a substitute teacher got involved with the union. Kitty was on the executive and later the president my first few years teaching in Vancouver. She later went off to Ottawa to be President of the Canadian Teachers' Federation. When she returned she taught many years at Moberly School where I had the privilege to work with her. Nine years ago she retired and that summer we went off to India where to meet our friend, Harjinder. It was an unforgettable trip and Kitty was the best travel companion anyone could wish to have. I have so many vivid images of that adventure!!!

Kitty was one of the most passionate people I have ever met! She was a passionate teacher, hardworking, dedicated to her students, and to making our school the best that it could be. When I first came to Moberly, she had a student in her class who had attended MacCorkindale exactly four days the previous year despite everything anyone could do. With Kitty as his teacher he seldom missed a day. He didn't have a choice. She was fearless. As the oldest in a large family, she was used to leading. Those leadership skills stood her in good stead as a remarkable union leader in very difficult times.

She was a great friend. She was the friend who could tell you exactly what rug you needed in your living room. Yes, there was that remarkable sense of style-how could I forget... My first impression of her was how absolutely stunning she was. And how we loved the parties at her and Steve's beautiful heritage home... She was kind, she was generous, and she was honest but always caring of her friends.

I still can't believe she is gone, her voice seems to ring in my ears. I feel very privileged to have known her, and my sympathy goes out to all her beloved family.

The picture is of a rose that her great friend, Maureen MacDonald said reminded her of how Kitty brightened any room she entered. The poem also comes from Maureen...
Dirge without Music

Edna St. Vincent Millay

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains, --- but the best is lost.
The answers quick & keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,
They are gone. They have gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.

Getting it right...

2011-10-10T17:57:00.000-07:00

I am definitely behind in posting. Other things have obviously gotten in the way! Now it's Thanksgiving and a cold has slowed me down so that I am finally found my way back to this blog! School seems a bit distant when it's a long weekend. I think it's now been about four weeks with my new class. It's funny how every year is a learning process. So much of these first few weeks with a new class is assessment, figuring out where we need to go. I am also having to figure out again how to do the tricky business of covering two different curriculum with two different grade levels. I have also gone from the end of grade seven to the beginning of grade six and seven...
Sometimes people ask me how I get the great work out of my students that I do and quite honestly, it often is a bit of a mystery to me. The last few weeks I think I could tell you quite a few ways I haven't done things right! The best part of teaching is you do get the opportunity to try to get it right at least some of the time. So stay tuned...

2011-09-27T07:04:00.000-07:00

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.

The end of next week...

2011-09-16T20:24:00.001-07:00

Well here we are at the end of the next week. And how am I feeling? It's always such a mix of feelings. When I was trying to juggle grade six and seven math today I was feeling a little overwhelmed! But when Barry who seemed always to be in trouble last year told me he had a great week I felt really good.

I have to say I love having grade six students again. I just love that age level. Actually my grade sevens are lovely as well, but there is just something about grade six students... And this is a very "cute" group. I don't have many academic shining stars like I did last year, but we do have a whole year together to work on that! It's also a situation of going from students at the end of Grade Seven to the beginning of Grade Six and Seven. I found I had to slow things down and remember to teach the "basics'. I spent quite a bit of time on how to organize work. I had to help a few learn to use their new compasses to draw circles. I was struck by how unartistic and "messy" many of them were but I could see improvements even by the end of the first week. In my room, neatness counts! Except for the teacher, of course!

I also like to have something to pin the beginning of the year on. Last year having just returned from a great trip to Newfoundland and beginning the year in science with geology, we started with a unit on "The Rock". This year I picked the anniversary of 911. It occurred ten years ago when my students were only toddlers. Most of them didn't know much except having a vague awareness of Bin Laden, so we did some rather intense work. Initially I had them watch a video of the events of 9/11 from CNN. Then we used print and online materials from this month's edition of What in the World News4Youth. They watched the September 11 Brain Pop and took the quiz. I read the book 14 Cows for America, a wonderful picture book based on a true story of how a young Masai graduate student returned to his village in Kenya to tell a tragic story and have a gift blessed and what happened next. I searched materials from the New York Times for teachers, and had the students view and comment on these incredible photographs. Over the weekend most of them had watched some of the programming on TV about 911 ten years later. Thursday, I had them write down important facts that they had learned, and we were all impressed by how much more they had learned in a week.

Yesterday I read them the first chapter of We All Fall Down by Eric Wilson. This is the story of a boy who goes to work with his dad at the Twin Towers on September 11. We had a good discussion of foreshadowing.

I think it's hard for our students now to really imagine a world before 911. For instance, I can still remember being in Washington National Airport a few months before 911 and people greeting passengers coming off the plane as soon as we landed. That certainly doesn't happen anymore!

As you can see this is a constantly evolving unit. As I write I think what next. One thing is I am sure my students will be performing the beautiful poem, Voices, by Sonia Sones at our Remembrance Day Assembly. I found this poem in the great book, 911 The Book of Help. And when I searched for this link I found Jamie Adoff's beautiful poem. Hmmmm....

A New Class

2011-09-10T07:01:00.000-07:00

So many of my friends are happily retiring I think they think I am just a little crazy as once again I am back in the classroom. My favorite time of the school year is the first few days. I love setting up the classroom. I have to admit my classroom set up is a bit different as I actually leave up the last year's class's work as I like my students to see where I want them to go. I also don't really like blank walls!

I love all the new supplies. I know the students love all those new books and pencils as well. We put together my list of suggestions as well for extra supplies such as dictionaries and calculators and keep adding as we think of things. For instance, I hate the sound of pencil sharpeners so that I like them to have their own hand ones. I do get pencils sharpened on the electric sharpener in the office as well.

Last year was easy because I had ten students from the year before who all knew my routines and reminded me when I forgot plus another ten I had taught French. This year though all my students are new and so everything is basically a fresh slate. I have 26 students to get to know and discover.

Last year I had all grade sevens but this year I have a split six/seven. Splits are definitely more challenging but I love grade sixes. It really is my favorite year-the last real year of childhood and the year when somehow they begin to really be aware of the world around them. And now I have a much better awareness of Grade Seven and I have hit all those Ancient Civilizations and understand all that "getting ready" for high school involves.

I kind of fall in love with a new class. The first few days are definitely the honeymoon phase. There is all the fun of discovering these new students and they are usually trying to make a good impression. They are excited to be back with their friends and in a new environment. The grade sixes now get to be on more school teams and the grade sevens have finally reached that senior student status. This age level is so enthusiastic. One reason they tell me they want to be in my class is that they get to do lots of projects. Another tells me that she has heard that students who aren't that good students become really good students. Needless to say I like that comment.

Anyway it's day one with my new class. We will see how I feel at the end of next week. And just wait until I start trying the juggle the math, the science and social studies with two grade levels and meet the needs of kids at many varying levels but until then let me just enjoy the moments...

Back at school-and wanting to make things work properly

2011-09-08T06:29:00.000-07:00

The new year has begun. I found myself distracted due to electrical problems in my home. The first electrician didn't fix the problem but told me my house needed to probably be rewired for between 12000 and 15000 dollars and charged me 200 dollars. The second told me probably just needed old wiring section replaced for 13000 dollars, problem not solved but at least I didn't pay him anything. Third electrician opened up the control panel, found the old control panel, diagnosed and fixed the problem for $40. Maybe my house could use rewiring at some point but for over a week I had no electricity in several parts of my house and several small appliances were "fried". Two certified electricians weren't assessing and diagnosing carefully enough, not looking under the control panel etc.

Sometimes in education this happens as well and of course, this affects children's lives very seriously. If students aren't learning we need to have the right tools to diagnose why and know what we need to examine. We need to listen and observe and experiment carefully to see what can "fix" the "problem" or what the problem actually is. Spending time and money, for instance, administering and scoring standardized tests is a very ineffective use of resources. This isn't opening the "control panel". Careful observation by a skilled practitioner of how a student learns does open the control panel.

P.S. I just found this website (not that this was exactly what the third electrian did) -maybe the first two electricians should have watched this video.

catching up on my eastern trip...the short version...

2011-09-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

I finally got to writing about the three weeks I spent back east when I was sitting by a pool at Whistler. What can I say?

The trip began in Toronto with a visit with friends who live in Peterborough. This is a friendship that began long ago when Anne and I did our Bachelor of Education degrees at Queen's University, a friendship forged in classes and in practicums and one that has lasted almost forty years (how scary is that?) . Great fun seeing Anne and Barrie and their grown kids and new grandchild. Then I met a good friend, Mary, at the McMichael Gallery where she once worked. It was fun to tour it with her and catch up over lunch. Then I set off to the Niagara Peninsula to visit my cousin and good friend, Janice, and her family. One highlight was seeing My Fair Lady at the Shaw Festival.

Next I was off to Montreal where I lived for six years to visit my other good Queen's friend, Linda, and we set off on a road trip with her sister, Carol, and her amazing mom, Lorraine. It was just a great trip with lots of fun and adventures such as spotting a mother moose and baby on the road coming out of the woods. I love New Hampshire and Maine and the Maritime provinces and it was great to get some time there with good friends. As I drove up the Sea to Sky Highway this week, it was hard to believe that I had been on the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton looking at the Atlantic Ocean two weeks ago.

Back in Montreal I again had time to catch up with friends and relatives and get to spend time in some favorite places. Having seen Montreal's current traffic situation I am not sure Vancouverites should be complaining too much.

I have been back a week and it's been busy partly due to my seemingly never ending birthday celebrations. It's also been stressful getting a diagnosis that my house probably needs to be rewired. The joys of older homes. I can't believe that next week at this time I will be back at work and of course, I keep saying this is the last year!!! Summer is ending-dark at 9:00!

What I have been up to...where I am right now...

2011-08-21T04:36:00.000-07:00

It's difficult keeping up with two blogs and I have been just posting some pictures of my trip on my school blog. I have been in "The East" traveling for the last couple of weeks. I love the West Coast but it's been wonderful being in Ontario and Quebec and the Maritimes connecting with friends and family and spending time in some of my favorite places and discovering some new ones. The picture here is a near where I am currently along the "lakeshore" of the west island of Montreal. I used to love to bicycle along here...

Long long ago I used to live in Lachine, where this picture is taken, in this house. I absolutely loved it. It was the neatest house inside and out, and close to my school and the swimming pool and Lake St. Louis,but I only lived in in a few months before we decided to move to Vancouver. At this point I am nearing the end of the "journey" and when I get home I will get caught up a bit with this blog.

Lazy Days of Summer-

2011-07-29T00:07:00.000-07:00

I actually found teaching summer school a more positive experience than I initially anticipated. I actually really did enjoy it and thought that it really was beneficial for the students. It really was pure teaching with no interruptions for one thing and we had quite a bit of fun as well.

But it's a week since I finished teaching summer schools and although I haven't gone anywhere, I feel as if I am in another country. For one thing the weather has improved! For another I don't have to go to school every morning! Summer school ended with a lovely lunch with my colleagues and we noted that for us summer seemed to be just beginning (again our crazy weather contributed to that feeling) instead of as it normally does the last day of June!

I have to admit I have had a busy time since then getting to do early morning beach walks and early morning leisurely coffees with friends. I finally tackled the garden properly and worked on cleaning up the attic! I made a big list and have actually checked off quite a few items on it. Since I am heading back east soon there is a bit of pressure!

I have been dining in all my favorite restaurants-La Tapenade in Steveston, Grub on Main Street, and today thanks to Groupon, a four course lunch at Nu. I also got to ride the ferry back and forth between the Aquatic Centre and Granville Island. Yesterday it was brunch at Sophie's on Fourth Avenue. Tonight I'm off to Bard on the Beach. Tomorrow it's Crescent Beach and tomorrow night is the Harmony Arts Festival in West Vancouver.

I think the lousy weather and working the first three weeks and having a cold for two of them has made me really appreciate this week as the sun finally shines again in Vancouver...And as much as I can enjoy it, I don't miss teaching one little bit!!!

Ipads

2011-07-23T08:24:00.000-07:00

I promised I would write about ipads. As mentioned, I borrowed six ipads from media services at the school board. I would have taken more but that is what I got. Then the trick was how could I use them effectively. I organized it so that each day all the kids have had access to the ipads from 10 to 30 minutes depending on what was going on. With 20 students I could organized four groups and one group could be using ipads. In this picture the boys are picking pictures from Explore Flickr to write about.

The kids absolutely loved them. Everyday the kids went used the Brainpop application. Each day there is an informative video on a wide range of topics with a multiple choice quiz they took. One truth I have learned in teaching is kids actually do like to learn and they enjoyed a range of topics from Bastille Day to Apartheid South Africa to astronomy.

To go with my novel study of Call It Courage, the kids did research on Polynesia, each picking a country on which to do a presentation. The initial research was done with the Wikipanion application. Later we did Hawaiian stations I had organized long ago. I think I lost my version of The Three Little Puaa but found a summation and a utube video of kids in Hawaii who doing a version so that the kids watched that as part of a station. That was neat as the children could really hear what a Polynesian language sounds like.

As a teacher I would find it very useful having an ipad handy as it doesn't take much space and I could quickly look things up or check e-mail without going to my desktop computer with my back to the class! I am not convinced I personally need one though but if the school would provide me with one that would be delightful because sometimes I end up bringing my own laptop to school for a variety of reasons. Making my classroom wireless with a router was one of the smartest things I have done-so much easier and essential to having the ipads. I found they worked fine out in our covered area outside my classroom as well, as I found them a bit noisy. One of my kids kindly brought his own earphones. I think if you were to have them in the classroom earphones would be necessary. At times I did set the kids up with one in each table group to use as another dictionary for instance when we were doing word study.

I found lots of good free apps, but at this point I think I have only touched the surface of using ipads. I probably should put up a separate page on some of the apps that I liked best for intermediate students such as BBC World, the NASA site etc. It sure enabled me to make summer school a fun experience for the students.

Knowledge Infusions (also known as summer school)

2011-07-11T19:46:00.000-07:00

As you may remember in March teaching 12 mornings a week in July seemed a fine idea. It seemed much less like a fine idea in June. And definitely by July 3rd it seemed like a very foolish idea! I was exhausted and knew that I was getting a cold (the one I managed to evade a week or so before). In 1996 I decided I wasn't going to teach summer school for awhile (I had taught five or six courses in about four years at SFU and I had enjoyed it but after a year teaching sixth grade six weeks of summer school even if it was only eight hours of teaching time a week seemed much less a good idea). I put my "all" into teaching and feel as if I need the summer to recharge my teaching battery. But this year summer school was going to be at my school and only for three weeks. I also liked the idea of that extra shot of learning for our kids and figured I could put the money towards many good uses. I also didn't have any really exciting summer plans so...

Last Monday we all had to go in for a couple of hours and I was there more than that and then my cold and I went home to bed practically. I felt a bit overwhelmed although a bit inspired by the six ipads I had borrowed from media servics.

Tuesday, 22 bodies showed up in my room and the show was on. Two of the students were from the grade six class, 12 were from my class, and the rest from the other grade seven class.
The first day I gave them the initial grade seven RAD which is a reading strategy test. This was quite helpful to help me see who needed to work on what. Wednesday we read an article on Tom Thompson working on main idea and detail. The class had never heard of him nor the Group of Seven. And before you knew it they were doing projects on the Group of Seven.

Class goes from 8:30 to 10:15 and then from 10:35 to 12:10. That really isn't a great deal of time. I knew I wanted to begin the morning with independent reading and then do responses and a quick math drill because this had proved really successful in my regular classroom. That took me to 9:15 so then I needed to think how I wanted to set things up. I also had decided I wanted to see how I could use six ipads effectively in the class and one way to do this seemed to be to set up with groups and stations. Let's face it, it is summer and I also wanted to make it fun and interesting. The ipads have been a great incentive. I have also had fun figuring out good free applications.
Something else I wanted to see was if I didn't have my computer hotshots there would other students rise to the occasion. Well, we shall see, but it looks as if students are all learning now to do prezis and glogsters and bitstrips. And I can assure you they are teaching each other. You also have to love how familiar the students now are with The Group of Seven. All these students are the children of immigrants and some have only been in Canada a couple of years. Tomorrow we will all see the projects and if they look good (I am sure they will) I look forward to sharing them with some UBC student teachers on Wednesday.

I have set up the stations in a variety of ways. Today for instance half the class spent a hour each working on their projects in the computer lab and the rest did a group vocabulary lesson, then five or six did assignments on the ipads while I did a math lesson on multiplication of decimals with the rest and then we switched. After recess the first large group went to the computer lab and the rest went through the stations. This followed with a whole class reading of the first chapter of Call It Courage. Other days there has been a cretive writing station or a whole class reading strategy lesson etc. At the end of each day I give the students a few minutes to reflect on the day in writing.

Tomorrow after reading and responding, I will go over the assignment for the first novel chapter and give them working time and cycle groups through ten minute working times with the ipads. I also think I will work with whole group on math as well as we will all watch and evaluation presentations on the Goup of Seven.

Stations are great though today I gave four mini lessons on math (that's a little repetitive for me but the kids love the small group instruction.
Marking and prep take a lot less time with 22 kids as opposed to 29 and it's nice not to have to worry about teaching science or social studies or French, and there are no interruptions the way there are in regular school. And I think the kids are actually quite happy to be there. And now that I actually seem to be recovering from the common cold, so am I!

The Year is Over

2011-07-02T14:54:00.000-07:00

I am so tired that I am sitting here aimlessly although I have many things I should or could be doing and it's even a beautiful day. I think I am exhausted! Someone after my fitness class today asked me why I was so tired.

There is a lot going on at the end of the year-not necessarily teaching but still learning. I had field trips last Thursday and Friday, and as fun as they are there is a certain amount of stress as one is concerned that all will go okay. Friday we did manage to all get soaked as we navigated around downtown in the pouring rain. In Vancouver expect to get wet at least on one field trip! My fellow seventh grade teacher couldn't talk so she missed the field trip and I felt as if I was getting sick by the weekend as well but with Cold Fx and Vitamin C I managed to stave off the disease. The field trips were actually huge successes.

Most of my class thought that I should quit teaching this week, but I managed to finish the last math unit and they did some good writing on their last field trips. We saw a performance of Latin music Monday afternoon and Tuesday was the graduation assembly. It was a bit warm and stuffy and long especially for our kindergarten children but this was the big moment my students had been waiting for in some way since they were those kindergarten students.

My whole class wrote valedictorian speeches and presented them as well the last the week before, and then they picked what they thought were the best two to represent them. Many speeches were really quite amazing and the fact that the students all wrote and presented them was also great. I also can see how good their critical skills were as they judged them. I had linked them to a web site on how to write a valedictorian speech and they really took cues from this. Teachers were all asking Gaven for the quote he used. I decided to make a few books of the speeches, some to give teachers who were leaving, and a couple to leave in the staffroom for teachers to read. So many lovely things were said about their various teachers and their whole experience at our school. I also blew up the speeches and students put them up all over our hallways for everyone to read.

We finally got the class yearbook from the printers. Friday after the field trip downtown and the day my car's battery died forever, I ended up after school at the school board print shop for a couple of hours sorting out this with Dirk, the patient printer who had inherited the job from Tony who put his back out. There were some difficulties and Dirk phoned me Saturday night to tell me he had finished the job. But they turned out quite beautiful with each student having designed his or her own page in full colour. We did these at the Apple Store. I think they were pleased with the result.

Then there were all the certificates putting my calligraphy skills to the test. All the grads got a certificate, the prize winners got certificates, and then I always do certificates giving each student some kind of award in the class and we guess who got what.

I wasn't going to do it but due to "pressure" from the students who had been in my grade six I did read them my favorite touching story and they each wrote compliments about each student in the class. I managed to get these collated but still have some lists to give out as I managed to lose a few at home.

Wednesday, the certificates and lists were given out in the classroom after our school assembly. This was a great assembly as we had a great video of the year done by one of our staff members as well as a recreation of the flash mob our Me to We club did at Metrotown. It was also sad as it was filled with good-byes as we have several popular teachers leaving as well our grade sevens. One teacher quoted Gaven saying to the effect- let's not cry that we are leaving but smile thinking of all the great times we have had.

Other than a bit of clean up we spent the afternoon at a nearby park with our grade one reading buddies. Later the grade sevens organized a party there after school. I drove by. The main event seemed to be throwing water balloons but I think they had some refreshments and hey, I didn't have to supervise. I have to say there was a feeling of release at 3:00 that all had gone well and we had finished well. Eventually most of our staff drifted into the staffroom to collapse and munch at the various food that always seems to end up there.

Each year I can't help but think of what I could have done better. I always know some things went well but I will never be the perfect teacher however long I might teach. It is gratifying to have a grandmother ask to hug you for what you have done for her grandson I do admit. And my students this year have truly amazed me time and again. I see them change and I have to think that all my nagging and encouraging has had some effect.

In the last couple of weeks I had to really question myself why I agreed to teach a summer program at my school for 12 mornings over three weeks this summer. In fact I couldn't think about it too much. I have never taught summer school as such. I used to teach sometimes in the summer at SFU and have done a few summer workshops. I kind of feel as if it's good to have a change, but because the program was at our school with our students I thought it would be okay. I guess we will see but now that this chapter is closed I don't mind the epilogue actually. Stay tuned...

Teaching Seventh graders is intense!

2011-06-22T07:47:00.000-07:00

Last year was my first year dealing with the end of the year with seventh graders, the last year in our elementary system. I mean I had taught them creative writing and French but hadn't been a grade seven classroom teacher. One reason being that I didn't want to deal with all this transition "stuff". I also loved teaching grade six. I loved the Social Studies. I could handle the math. I just loved the age level-the beginnings of thinking more widely and the last year of real childhood. Strangely when I went job hunting, after being a consultant, there were a lot of six/seven splits (no one usually wants a split of course and many people don't want grade seven).

Those of you who have followed my blog knew that it was quite a year but having ten grade sixes kept the energy a bit different plus I only had five girls of my 17 grade sevens so that made an energy difference as well.

This year I have a straight seven with 12 girls and 17 boys. And it's been interesting. And those 12 girls pack a punch! They speak to Rotary clubs, they go on the radio. They run assemblies. They build schools in India... Last year when it came time for our Grade Seven Assembly, I couldn't quite imagine the class doing valedictorian speeches. The ones who liked to write hated speaking out loud. I ended up using all their writing to create a choral reading of everything and everyone they wanted to thank and they all did it together in the assembly. This year they are all writing speeches and this afternoon we are going to hear them and choose who will speak for the class. And as I write this I am getting an idea of another choral poem... hmm...

There is so much energy to contain. I have to say I love my first periods when they actually get lost in their reading and I do get some peace! In all my frustrations at times, I can assure you that this is a class that loves to read. But this time of the year there is a lot of emotion as these kids get ready to leave their small elementary school (many of been here since kindergarten) to go off to high school. Our grade sevens are going to 11 different high schools-some will be the only one of their friends going to their new schools so that it's both scary and exciting. At this age your friends are everything so it isn't easy although they are wanting to go to the next step.

Yesterday they talked about their favorite places at the school and went there for a few minutes and wrote and drew about them. This is my last "teaching day" this week. Tomorrow we are off to Playland and Friday downtown for a graduation lunch and wander (well okay, try wandering with 53 kids).

Monday afternoon we had a great time with one of my students' dads who did print making with them. Yesterday after school many were involved in a flash mob with their Me to We club at a Metrotown . We have all been fascinated with the flash mob phenomenon so that they loved finally getting to do this. It is so hard for me to imagine our school without our wonderful teacher-librarian who once again made magic happen.

This is kind of my meditation before I go off to school this morning...

Back in the classroom (or the post I was doing before the riot...)

2011-06-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

The end is near and I never seem to be ready to quit teaching although it isn't easy this time of the year and especially when your students know that they only have a couple more weeks of being grade sevens before they go off to high school.

There has been lots of excitement from the big Me to We assembly(that I blogged about) to Bike to School Week culminating in a Bikers' Breakfast, the District Track Meet and finally, our first Writers' Festival with children from kindergarten to seventh grade all sharing their writing. This week finished off with our Sports Day. Our Sports Day had a literary theme and wouldn't you know my station was, "Captain Underpants!"

As you know, my class loves projects. My last project was called Giant Steps. I had decided to read the class the book, Small Steps , one of my favorites, by Louis Sacher . This story tells how Armpit, one of the "graduates" of the detention centre described in Holes, decides to turn his life around by taking five small steps that become the plot of the novel. There is no way I am going to finish it but that's okay.

Then I had discovered the book, Giant Steps to Save the World by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee with illustrations by Sean Quales. Before reading or even seeing the book, my students had to research and do presentations about the people that are the focus of this book. The kids had 10 days to work on this and not much class time to do so, but all the projects were ready on time. Needless to say, Van and Steven built a model of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. Each group did a different person or in one case, a group of people, so that it was interesting for the students to learn about each other's research. The presentations were very good with students having learned how to talk to their presentations and not generally duplicate information. Here's Jane and Meili's prezi on Jean-Michel Basquiat.

After they had finished the presentations, I read them the book, Giant Steps to Save the World,which they loved, especially the illustrations. I also made them a copy of the poem and they did response booklets about it. I let them think about the steps they had taken and the steps they want to take in the future.

I really enjoyed this project and I think the students did as well. I have enclosed more detail on a page for you.

The Stanley Cup Riot

2011-06-16T18:37:00.000-07:00

I had my class write about the Wednesday evening this morning. They had appeared at school yesterday all dressed in Canuck colours and some in Canuck shirts all excited about the game (especially since I had promised them a homework free night long ago if the Canucks won the Stanley Cup). They gave in today dejected about the loss but far more disappointed by what happened after the game. They all wrote about it and it was probably, on the whole,some of the best writing I have seen this year.
As many of you know I have a very multicultural classroom, most of my students' parents have immigrated from other countries, but the pride in their city and the love of their hockey team is strong. And we had had so many peaceful evenings through the series and last year during the Olympics, this came as a shock to us all.
This is the work of one of my students...

Stanley Cup Chaos

Wednesday, June 16^th, was the final game in the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The game was to be held in Vancouver to decide the winner of the Stanley Cup; the contending teams were the Boston Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks. Sadly for Vancouver fans, the final score was 4-0, for the Bruins.

You would have thought that the fans would have just gone home, disappointed but accepting defeat. Many did, but others instead chose to take their anger out on their beautiful city. Things such as cars were set on fire, and many Canuck fans were drunk. It was very hard for police to keep this under control. My grandma actually had friends over for the hockey game who were unable to get home due to the chaos.

We are all very disappointed and ashamed that our fans would do this. It caused much destruction to our city and made Vancouver look bad. The people who have done this have not displayed good sportsmanship at all.

Now, people are trying to identify the troublemakers using the photos taken that night, and by using various social networking sited. All I can say is, I hope these people are found and are rightfully punished. If our fans are acting like this, then maybe they never deserved to see a Canucks' victory at all.

Not yet released-reading advance copies rather than tackling report cards...

2011-06-11T14:04:00.000-07:00

I was quite sad I wasn't able to go to the International Reading Association conference in Orlando this year and I have to admit one reason I love to go to these conferences is due to the books. I always have to bring a large empty suitcase because I always come home with literally pounds of books. I love those free advance copies. There have been times I have felt a bit overwhelmed by all those books but I love reading books that are new and free!

Since I couldn't go my friend, Donna collected, and her husband transported the books that she thought my students might like. Now since I am supposed to be working on report cards and I have a reading addiction I managed to read four of these books this week! So stay tuned for some short reviews!

The first book I read was Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson and Chris Tibbetts and illustrated by Laura Parks. Patterson, a very popular adult writer, also enjoys writing for children. He actually has a rather neat website as well dedicated to making kids readers for life, so you have to like that, even though I swore at one point I wasn't reading any more of his adult suspense novels-too gritty for me. I think kids will like this partly due to the great comic illustrations supposingly done by Rafe, the hero's best silent friend, Leo. Leo begins a new middle school as a sixth grader and decides to break a few rules. Although it is humorous, it also is poignant. It reminded me of one of the boys in my class so that he was the first person to whom I lent the book.

Flawless by Lara Chapman was my next read. This is a YA version of the famous Cyrano Bergerac story. I can not help but think of movies such as Roxanne and The Truth about Cats and Dogs that also picked up this theme. Anyway Sarah's mom is a news anchorwoman who had a nose job and thinks her daughter should have one too. Sarah is resistant but is rather haunted by her large nose. She and her perfect best friend meet the new boy in their senior class. Both are attracted to him but Kristen calls it first and Sarah doesn't think he can possibly be interested in her so doesn't tell Kristen her feelings. Before she knows it, Kristen convinces Sarah to help her message him for her etc. Kristen's beautiful but isn't very intellectual. It's a book with of course a good moral and I know that it will definitely appeal to my girls.

Now for a total change of pace I moved on to Now is the Time for Running by South African writer, Michael Williams. I loved this book! It takes us into the world of Deo and his older brain damaged brother, Innocent. They live in a village in Zimbabwe with their mother and grandfather, their father having disappeared long ago to a job in South Africa. Deo loves soccer and despite tough living conditions has a happy life until Robert Mugabe's soldiers come and basically murder anyone in the village they can find and Deo and Innocent flee. Their odyssey teachers the reader much about conditions in Zimbabwe and the lives of refugees. In Johannesburg, things really take a tragic turn. But like the best books for young adults this one has hope as after he flees once again and feels suicidal, eventually Deo's skills are discovered and he finds himself on the South African street soccer national team.

I feel as a teacher of middle school students, it is so important that they learn about the world, and books like this really give them a picture. The fact that the main character has such a love of soccer just as many of them do, really gives them a connection. I also really love, as will other readers, his brother, Innocent. A must read!!!

Well, once again, there seem to be many YA books dwelling with the supernatural. I don't think Vampires are quite as popular as they once were but... Last year I ended up learning about Pixies from writer, Carrie Jones in her book, Need. I really did enjoy that story set in Maine. This time she has a new book, After Obsession, co-written with Steven Wedel. Again in this book, two teenagers, Aimee and her friend, Courtney's cousin Alan (who has just moved to town from Oklahoma) battle a demon who is trying to take over Courtenay. Aimee is haunted by dreams and the spirit of her dead mom but has a healing touch. Alan brings his interest in and knowledge of Native American spiritualism to the cause. Carrie Jones has a light touch and this book is more engaging than you might think. I also like how she and Wedel have written the book with Carrie being the voice of Aimee and Wedel, the voice of Alan.

Now back to thinking about report cards...

Brick by Brick -another week

2011-05-28T08:52:00.000-07:00

Sometimes four day weeks can seem long or a bit jam packed and this one certainly did. I also feel like I need to read again the book, Never Work Harder Than Your Students. I seemed to spend a great deal of time marking and reading. And I still don't have field trips organized that need to be organized. I can't say 29 Science chapter reviews are the most exciting reading. I do feel as if I have been very diligent tackling science experiments this term. My students enjoy them more than I do, fortunately, and they are acquiring some good group skills and learning how to write up experiments rather well. Plus by having them working in groups of three or four at least I only have eight experiments to check over. Somewhere I read that collaboration creates better science so I figure I am doing okay.
We also finished up our unit on cyber bullying. After a shaky start when we wondered if we would have to change a group, this unit turned out really well and the kids did very thoughtful reflections. It's so nice to do co-teach a unit! And great when other people design the unit.

The big excitement this week probably was the Me to We Assembly when this dedicated group of sixth and seventh graders presented a check for 8500 dollars to Alicia Doo from the Free the Children organization. The club chose the project to build a school in India brick by brick last year and reached their goal a couple of weeks ago. The assembly was lovely. The assembly was totally ran by students and the emcees did a great job using a prezi created by our Sadie. This prezi is great and tells the whole history of the project. Jane has also done a wonderful job on her blog as well.
Some of the primary teachers were saying it was the best assembly they had ever attended and they were really curious about prezis, as this was their first viewing. It was also great to have some of the people who had made generous donations there as well. Kudos especially to Alanna Wong, our teacher librarian, who has been the driving force behind this organization in our school. The kids in this organization gain such great skills, learning how to effectively fund raise for one thing. I also love how some of our students put their language skills to good affect by being guests on a Punjabi language radio station and describing the project there. And imagine as a seventh grader presenting a project to the local Rotary club!?
I have to say it was a bit disappointing not having anyone from our central office able to attend this wonderful event. I guess there were important meetings but they really missed seeing what a group of elementary students in a small east side school can do.
Next on the agenda, Bike to Work week, and the Young Writers' Festival. Stay tuned...

Reading Fantasy-all about Emeralds

2011-05-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

After a meeting at the school board and before returning to school, I ran into Kidsbooks, hoping to supplement a lit circle set, but Maniac Magee was sold out. I couldn't waste a trip there so ended up with two new fantasy novels. With difficulty I managed to wrestle them home before any of the kids could grab them. Note, I am waiting to read the latest in the Red Pyramid series, The Throne of Fire my copy disappeared into waiting hands as soon as it arrived from Scholastic.
Leslie, at Kidsbooks, told me The Emerald Curse by John Stephen, was the hot new book. The author was a writer for The O.C. and The Gilmore Girls as well as most recently, the executive producer for Gossip Girl, so that would suggest some good connections. The book begins with three children being hustled away from their parents to a secret location due to reasons of safety and then picks up the story ten years later with them living in a terrible orphanage on their way to what probably is even a worse location. The book is a quest as the children time travel in order to change the fate of the town where their new "home" is located. It's an engaging tale and I am sure it will be popular. Personally, I prefer the Dormia series. I think it's better written and more thought out. I will be curious what my classroom critics will say.

Well being time pressured I was "forced" to read the sequel to The Billionaire's Curse this weekend. The Billionaire's Curse became a popular book in my classroom after we went to the Vancouver International Writers' Festival and met the author, Richard Newsome. Some kids bought the book there and chose that as the book they wanted me to buy as well. I think I briefly mentioned that book in an earlier blog. The kids love this book and I enjoyed it as well. Gerald has an ordinary life in Brisbane, Australia, until his Great Aunt dies and is family is whisked to England by private jet and he is informed he is her only heir. His parents disappear off to check out all the homes she owns in exotic locations, leaving him to deal with all sorts of dangers as well as unhappy relatives. Fortunately, he makes some good friends.
In the second book, he is off to India to visit one friend,Alisha, whose father's diamond was stolen in the first book but of course rescued with Gerald's help, with his twin friends, Ruby and Sam. They are also in pursuit of the emerald casket, a source of great power and mystery linked to his family.
Interesting the appeal of these books where kids are basically on their own with some help from some adults but often adults, are the villains or just not helpful. I think kids love seeing what these fictional characters are capable of doing on their own.

Again, I will be curious to see if the kids like this as much as the first. Many of my students love fantasy while others prefer more realistic fiction. I have to say though to watch the evolution of some of my students as readers is so gratifying. I don't think high school is where we hook kids into reading so that it's really important to be able to have this happen in elementary school. I loved it when we had our earthquake drill and a couple of my students were busily reading as they stood waiting outside for the all clear signal.

Teach Like A Champion-a few months later

2011-05-17T07:43:00.000-07:00

If you follow this blog you may remember that our school book club decided to read the book, Teach Like A Champion. Tomorrow (well now today), I am going to present about this book study at a meeting of literacy book clubs at the elementary level at our school board. To read my initial bog just click here.
I think this book club worked out rather well. First our school goal is in the area of social responsibility so that this book was kind of a perfect fit. Our students are vibrant and fun but sometimes listening skills are not the best. Our students are chatty. We also are a school with a high number of students who have English as an additional language. I think this book gave us all some great management strategies and ideas to have more efficient classrooms and more listening and participatory classrooms.
Much of the "research" and examples were done in American charter schools and for us Canadians, things at times seemed almost militaristic but we all kind of swallowed that part of it. But I think we all loved the idea that runs throughout this book that all students can achieve. Many of the strategies really worked at getting all students to participate and be actively engaged. It also helped give us common language. We were also able to link strategies in the book to what we were already doing.
We had really good discussions at our "formal" meetings and often informally in the staffroom. Other staff members became interested in the book as well.
When we met to look at our school goal for this year and next year I think that we were influenced by our discussions in book club as we look at increasing common language and expectations in the school.
Book clubs in general I think are a great idea. We introduced them in our board while I was a consultant and I think they have generally been successful but there are a few keys to success. Set up your meeting times at the beginning of the year. Commit to meeting and agree on how you are going to approach the book. In our case we discussed strategies we had used, we didn't all read the same pages at the same time and that seemed to work for us with this book. We did have a framework to use for note taking and discussion. I also kept minutes and distributed them which people found helpful. We had a group e-mail list. Food is good. I tried to remember to bring a snack.
One nice part for us is that I actually have three periods a week to do literacy activities in other classrooms so that initially I was able to help with some of the implementation of strategies. Several of our group members actually worked with different classes so that was helpful as well to give the bigger view. I think we also loved in this case that we had both primary and intermediate teachers in our group.
When I surveyed our group members last week we all felt positively about the book and the experience. People are planning to keep using it and to use it for setting up next year. We totally agree this is a great gift for any beginning teacher or good to be used with student teachers.

For more information check out the facebook page. I thought this was quite interesting.
And thanks to my friend, the commodity trader, for giving me this book. Here's one of our classes "slanting" (sitting up, listening, ready to ask and answer questions, nodding when appropriate, and tracking the speaker or in this case photographer).

Is it really May???

2011-05-07T18:06:00.000-07:00

It has been one strange day here from pouring rain to a bit of a let up to snow and hail! Today was the UBC Perennial Plant Sale and I didn't know if I was going to be able to handle it! I have gone for many years and don't remember a really rainy day before. Mind you, they used to do it on Mother's Day and I don't think it's supposed to rain tomorrow. After the rain let up I did go and now I have plants but it doesn't really feel like planting time when the yard is a bit flooded and has snow!

This was one of those weeks filled with mainly highs and some lows at work. Some highs were getting to do poetry with a grade one/two class. Too much fun... And then my class helped them publish their poetry and that worked like a charm. Later in the week the my Grade Seven students were able to present their Rome projects to other classes and did a great job.

Wednesday one of my students involved in the Vancouver School Board Mentoring program shared her writing with her family, some of our staff, and her mentor and her mom. This is a great program and we were all very proud of Meili.

Thursday night I went to Moberly School's 100th anniversary. I taught at Moberly for 11 years before I went to work at the board. When I went there it was the school board's largest school with over 800 students. By the time I left the board after four years the population had dropped about 200 students. My current school was initially Moberly's annex until a few years ago.

It was a great evening and it was fun to see former colleagues and students. It amazes me all the memories some of the students have and it's neat when someone tells you that she went into media because of what you said to her in sixth grade. As I watched and listened to former students at Moberly (and one had even attended in the 1920's) it struck me of what a good job we do as teachers and how important we are in making memories for our students.

I was at our local high school Friday afternoon for the student orientation where 18 of my 29 students will be attending. We let them go on their own to this and I met them there. They seemed so independent though I know this change is exciting yet scary for them as well!

The school year is going fast, too fast as one student said. I was thinking how great it actually is to keep blogs just to remember some of the highlights!! Now if the snow and rain would go away...

And now for Ancient Rome

2011-04-30T21:54:00.000-07:00

Well after hip hop there were the Ancient Rome presentations. The kids began these about three weeks ago but were rather interrupted with the Easter long weekend, a field trip to Granville Island to see a play set in Ancient Egypt, that they of course really enjoyed, and all that hip hopping. Don't ask about science and French kept getting delayed...
The presentations again turned out well and kids learned on their own to use prezi, not that Alanna, my faithful teacher librarian or I have mastered it. I am going to attach some of their presentations and maybe even a video. We will see how that works out.
One form of presentation they enjoy are online posters called Glogsters. These are neat and they even can embed video. Here is a sample of Jane and Anjana's.

Steven and Gaven used Prezi and here is a sample of their presentation. If you want to see this in full screen just go to where it says more. Another Prezi was done by Sadie and Simran. They also did a neat cartoon (those bath houses kind of fascinated the kids) using a program called Bitstrips.

Again we had some neat models. Van, this time built a ship and even used pine, a wood that the Romans used.

What impresses Alanna and me is how far they have come in terms of quality of presentations and their use of technology in particular. Also this requires not only research skills but such skills as choosing the right video clips, and really making the information their own. I laughed when students noticed that one group had Julius Caesar dying ten years earlier than another group. Earlier while preparing the projects their was a spirited argument about who was the first emperor, and yes, it was Augustus, and not Julius Caesar. I honestly don't think they see it as work and there are no complaints about doing these projects, and I can have quite a few critics in my class. Steven was shocked to hear that I had been a spelling judge for a TV program, for instance, and questioned why he had to do a scavenger hunt at Granville Island as to its educational value.

As students were doing their presentations, they were asked to tell what they liked about each presentation and what suggestions they had to improve the presentation. We went through this at the end. Usually the students were dead on. In addition to self evaluations using the criteria I will use, I asked the students as well to look at themselves as learners to see what they are able to do now that they couldn't do at the beginning of the year. They demonstrated again lots of insight. Now, of course I have to use the criteria to evaluate and decide who is going to be the grand research winner this time.

Me, I am still trying to learn to use my new camera and we will see how successful I was with my videoing attempts. Well, okay, but I haven't managed to upload my video here.

I am going to post my last assignment as a page here in case anyone is interested. And yes, I am already being asked what their next project will be. I suggested that I needed to do some science! Now maybe they could just design their own experiments. Sounds good to me!

Hip Hop and a Sense of Community...

2011-04-30T21:51:00.000-07:00

Thursday, our students all performed hip hop-it was a dance performance by the students for the students kindergarten to grade seven. They had six days of lessons, two classes at a time, with a very amazing teacher. At first as there didn't seem to be enough room for all the students and the more and more parents who appeared, I really wondered how insane it would be, but soon I was totally captivated as was the audience. It was really amazing to see the delight of an entire school. As I noted earlier I think we all need more laughter and we had plenty Thursday. These are the kinds of experiences that are so fun to be a part of, even if you have done nothing, but it's just fun to be part of the community, and see the delight on the part of parents and students and teachers.

When I have looked back at great experiences in my life, it was this feeling of being part of a community that gave some of my best times-from working in a crippled children's camp (in French) to a writing course for teachers at the University of New Hampshire to a French Immersion course for teachers in Quebec City. Being part of close knit teaching staffs has also given me that feeling. Growing up first on a farm in a house my grandfather built to living in a small town, I was born into having a sense of community. For many of our immigrant families, some community was lost by moving to Canada, and often the school provides an even more important community to these children then perhaps it did to me... The place that really knows them is their school and in a school of 350 it's easy to be known.

When you talk to retired teachers, most of them don't seem to miss teaching but they often miss the camaraderie of the staffroom. Having spent four years as a consultant and returning to teaching knowing I would retire in a couple of years, I think I have been able to have a slightly different perspective, perhaps a bit more appreciative, and not so worried about annoying trivia because honestly I won't have to put up with that much longer. I can kind of focus on what is most important and what I will miss. And I have to say an afternoon of an elementary school performing hip hop might sound like some people's nightmare but for me it really was a gift for me as well as for those children and our school community.

A kids' book read for a change, The Wednesday Wars

2011-04-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

I was just reading a book review from The New York Times of The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt that started by the author, Tanya Lee Stone, wondering if this is a kids book that is perhaps more for adults, particularly those who grew up during the 60's. I wondered this myself as I began reading.

Sometimes when I have read Newbery Award Winners in particular I have wondered this. Are these books more for adults than children? Will kids really like them? Some books I think take more discussion than others. Good children's or young adults' book lend themselves to discussion well. Those have often books that I have chosen for read alouds or class novels. One of my favorite book, The View from Saturday by E.M. Konigsburg was one that I loved doing as a class novel as it was great for lots of projects, teaching calligraphy, discussion of protection of loggerhead turtles etc. It's one I have just put out for literature circles and I will be curious how the kids enjoy it.

Back to The Wednesday Wars. It was a bit of a slow start for me, the book not really grabbing me, although it had been highly recommended by the bookseller at Kidsbooks where I had bought it. I was reminded of how I had felt this way, as had several of my students, about Maniac Magee initially. But like Maniac Magee, before I knew it I was spellbound, not wanting to stop reading as the story engaged me.

The book takes place during the Vietnam War, and we also witness the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. For me I was taken back to watching Walter Cronkite and the CBS news. I think I still have an aversion to TV news from those years of so much horror.

The book chronicles the coming of age of one seventh grader through his relationship with the seventh grade teacher who he initially thinks is out to get him, and his own family who strive for perfection but it is as fragile as their living room ceiling that comes crashing down. He also is helped in this quest of understanding by none other than William Shakespeare.

Again, I loved the book. It brought me back to another place and time, one that was quite familiar. I loved the story telling ability of the author who was able to write the best kind of book, one that is able to turn from comedic to the serious and back again. The discussion that his teacher has about what is comedy really pertains to the book the author has indeed written. I thought it was all quite brilliant.

At the end of the New York Times review, in case you don't read it, the author's ten year old son is laughing out loud as he reads The Wednesday Wars and wants to read Shakespeare, proving to her the success of the book for younger readers. I am curious how my seventh graders will like but I have a feeling they will. Their lives are quite different from Holling's. They don't live in New Jersey and in a town where most of the kids are Jewish or Catholic (Holling, being Presbyterian, he alone spends Wednesday afternoon's with his teacher) and they didn't live in the 60's and don't know much about that era, but Holling's struggles are struggles they can relate to as our his dreams, and they will be taken to a different time and place that they now will understand a little bit more.

Little Bee

2011-04-23T08:10:00.000-07:00

What I want so much for my students is to be swept away by a book. And one way I have to laugh at myself almost any teaching day is saying to a student, "Stop reading and get your work done!" I really hate to say it and of course one could argue that reading is the true work of the class.
In our lit circles I quiz the kids," What do you rate this book? What's the best book you have read so far?" Most of my class has other books going all the time other than their lit circle books but these are the shared books, the books that we really can share conversations about. We just meet a few minutes each group once a week but I know the conversations about books are truly ongoing. There are 17 boys and 12 girls in my class who truly love to read, some more than others but reading is a joyful activity. And that makes me happy. Now there are other elements of my teaching that definitely need improvement, teaching is a profession that I don't think anyone can truly master or only a very few and I am not one, but at least my students have grown to love to read.

Now anyone that reads this blog knows that I love to read but sometimes it can become almost habitual for me. I can't not read. I can only remember a couple of times in my life that I didn't finish reading a book in a week. I was really busy! Some people need to run I need to read. And although I always enjoy reading (well usually) there are books that really sweep me away.

Little Bee by Chris Cleave is one of them. Note that its British title is The Other Hand. Someone recommended it. I have no idea who but I borrowed it from the library and have just finished reading it. And I loved it. A friend and I were talking about main idea yesterday (imagine) and I was saying I often try to say to my class what's the big question? This novel has the big question, would you cut your finger off to save another person's life, and what if you did and what if you didn't?

The story is told partly from the point of view of Little Bee who we meet at the beginning of the novel in a holding centre for illegal refugees as she is released with no papers into Great Britain. She has one phone number and one place she can possibly go, to the home of the people she met briefly on a beach in her native Nigeria.

When I taught grade six, initially Nigeria was one of our country studies, but then it became difficult to get up to date information about it due to problems there and the lack of up to date factual information obtainable. I had enjoyed learning about Nigeria with my students. One big issue became of course the oil that lay in the traditional Igbo people's homeland. Little Bee's village is destroyed in this quest for oil and she is unfortunately a witness when no witnesses are wanted.

This book covers many serious issues but it is also an incredibly engaging story with engaging characters taking me to a place that I haven't been, and giving us a real personification of the sharp contrast between the North and the South. Sarah, who gives the other point of view in this story is a journalist, an editor of a popular magazine. I think many of us can relate to Sarah in that the sadness of the world is really overwhelming and we don't feel very powerful to make real changes, but in many ways, Sarah is fearless. Honestly, to discuss this book much more will spoil the story and I just have to say, you really must read it. Please note that Chris Cleave has an excellent website with many more resources about the issues discussed in the book.

The Postmistress

2011-04-16T17:04:00.000-07:00

I was very proud of myself. During Spring Break, I wandered into Book Warehouse and saw three books I wanted to buy but instead I jotted down the titles and went to the public library up the street and put a hold on them. The first that I received was The Postmistress by Sarah Blake. The book is set during the beginning of the Second World War when the Americans are not yet in the war. The book focuses on three women, a reporter working with Edward R. Morrow in London, the postmistress in a mythical small town on the western edge of Cape Cod, and the doctor's bride in the same small town.

It's been interesting reading a book about the First World War to my class, it's really taken me into that time, and this book does this to me as well. At a certain point in my life it seemed as if I read many books about the Second World War, probably because this was the most important event of my parents' generation so that many books were written by those who had been involved, but not so many now, and this book is written by a young writer who wasn't alive during the time the book is written.

It's a definite page turner as we finally find out what the letter is that the postmistress hasn't delivered. The characters who include the doctor, a German Jewish refugee and the one man in the town convinced that u-boats will try to approach, are all fascinating, and sympathetic. I think the author very successfully takes us to this time whether we are in the small Cape Cod town, to London during the Blitz, or sweeping across Europe on a train, as refugees usually unsuccessfully try to escape.

back at work...

2011-04-16T16:24:00.000-07:00

Well I have been back two weeks and now I am home with a cold... It was a busy couple of weeks. The second day back I had organized a session with Adrienne Gear on Writing Power attended by about 150 teachers as I finished up with report cards and then this week it was the infamous parent teacher student conferences. I started sneezing during the first one Wednesday afternoon and didn't stop as I finished off at about 8:00 Thursday night. Friday we had a pro d day but I slept most of the day.

Going back to school after a couple of weeks is always a bit of a shock to the system of both students and teachers. My kids missed being with their friends and admitted they were glad to be back although thrilled to have a holiday yesterday. Most of my kids were not off on holidays as parents were working. I think that no one should ever underestimate how meaningful school is to many many students. We seem to get lots of criticism but school, especially elementary school, is a really happy place for most students.

One of my students is here for a year from Tofino and his mother and I were chatting about the difference between living in a community like that and a city like ours. Kids in the city also just don't have the freedom of the never ending play in the neighbourhood that I grew up with in a small town.

The kids are now studying Ancient Rome. Once again they picked partners or elected to do their own projects and chose topics. With both print and internet resources away they have gone. I can't describe the enthusiasm these kids have for this research. They are already talking about what projects they want to do next. I gave out the research grants for the Ancient Greek projects, one for 100 000 and several for 50 000. I noticed that several of the "cheques" ended up in their portfolios for their conferences. It all reinforces my belief that if you can teach kids the processes and give some basic structures but give them lots of choice, an audience, and an element of fun, the best learning can take place. It also really helps to have a good library, an excellent teacher-librarian, and a good computer lab.

Here's a model of Ancient Athens...

Laughter-let's take a break from literacy as such...

2011-04-11T06:35:00.000-07:00

As it seems sometimes usually, this blog was written just over a week ago.

Okay, I admit it I am writing that one report card I didn't do before our break-needless to say it's the difficult one. I just thought I would take a small breather to think about laughter and guilty pleasures. Last week at the library I picked up a fast read, Mini Shopaholic by Becky Kinsella. I have to admit that Bridgit Jones' Diary sent me on a bit of a path of Chic Lit that led me to the Shopaholic series, which definitely has to be a guilty pleasure. Now I only like certain types of shopping and avoid changing rooms and am not given to designer clothes if I have to try them on, so not sure about my being drawn to Rebecca and her antics but I found myself laughing out loud as I read this. And Rebecca may like shopping but she does have a good heart.

I told a friend, who borrowed it, and abandoned it after a few chapters. I am sure she just thought it was just silly. And I admit it is, but I think that anything that can make me laugh out loud has to be positive. I couldn't remember anything that made me laugh out loud as I silently read it recently. Now my class does laugh out loud, well we all do at times, when I read them Charlie Wilcox. Again that has got to be a good thing.

Now my second confession has to be about going to the Herman's Hermits concert this week. In my early teen years I had a crush on Peter Noone, the lead singer. At the time he was probably my favorite of all those 60's performers. I even had a fantasy that I would become a well known reporter and would interview him and he would fall madly in love with me. I think I missed the part that he got married at 22 and I think he is still married to the same woman.

I have to admit I haven't thought anything much about the group in years until I saw that they were going to be performing at the Red Robinson Theatre in Coquitlam's casino. I convinced a friend to go and off we went Friday night. There was an audience mainly of Baby Boomers (reliving their, our youths). Some of these people follow the group-one woman had gone to over 300 concerts. Unbelievable!!!

But I have to tell you Donna and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and laughed all the way through. Peter Noone made many jokes about himself, not at all egotistical, and he and the group put on a great show. Donna wondered why there were still performing, but I kind of think it may be why I am still teaching...
Anyway wishing you much laughter wherever you may find it.

Into Spring Break and Thinking of Gardening...

2011-03-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

It's interesting how one's life changes in a week. I am out of school, which takes an amazing proportion of my time. One nice thing is that spring has definitely arrived on the west coast. I am back in my garden trying to prune and get rid of excess leaves etc. I am really not a great gardener but I do love to see things grow. I moan and groan as I plant bulbs often in horrible weather but love to see them spring up (what a pun). I just noticed a new book, Sugar Snaps and Strawberries by a favorite garden blogger,Andrea Bellamy. so I think I might just have to go out and try to buy it. Maybe I will be inspired to grow more things I can actually eat other than herbs, tomatoes and lettuce. She's having a book launch party at Barbara Jo's on Monday but I unfortunately (or fortunately for me) will be in Seattle.

One thing about not going anywhere too exotic is that I am catching up on things, but the more I catch up the more things I find to do!!! I check off things on my list and the list keeps expanding!!! Right now off to deal with my taxes!!! Anyway just wanted to share some green thoughts with you and a couple of pictures from my garden.

And it's now Spring Break...

2011-03-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

Once again I am behind on my blogging but of course I have the best excuse, report card writing! Report card writing is probably what teachers hate most! And I am no exception but they are basically done so I can have a report card free spring break!

A year and a half ago when I went back to the classroom the first set was pure torture as the new version of Silhouette and my old Mac seemed incompatible so that I ended up using Word and finding it tortuous work. Unlike high schools, there are no simple report card comments to hit for elementary teachers. Now at least I have my criteria basically set so that makes life easier but never simple.

The other hard part is trying to teach and then having to turn your head to report card writing! I notice I seem to get significantly crabbier. Oh well!!!

This week was as fast and furious as they come. Thursday Division One and Two had a great couple of hours with scientists from Cardiome who did an amazing job really showing the students how science relates to every day life and all the career possibilities as well. There were hands on workshops and demonstrations, a perfect introduction to our Chemistry unit. The day culminated in getting to play basketball with some of the UBC basketball team.

Then the class presented their Ancient Greek projects to their classmates, Ms. Wong, and myself. Once again they did a great job, surpassing their Egyptian projects and they did it all in a couple of weeks (half the time they had for the Egyptian projects. Of course, we ran out of time and had to finish off the presentations the next morning.

We also had another great round of lit circles on Friday. My class loves reading and discussing their novels and do a very credible job.

Then they were able to present their Greek projects to several other classes. I hope this will inspire our younger students! I loved it when one of our very lively grade two students exclaimed wide eyed, “Your class is wonderful, Ms. Kezar!” In addition to models and posters, almost all students had slide shows, incorporated video clips, and made use of Glogster. Our next step is to incorporate Prezi (not that I know how to use Prezi)…

The technology in school can again be a frustration. We ended up using my Mac Pro when we presented to our own class, as students at home have better, more up to date equipment than we have at school.

The great thing about project-based learning is that students are so engrossed in what they are doing they hardly realize it is work. In every case students were ready to present so that all deadlines were met. I may have to nag them about other homework but not about their projects.

After the presentations, there was a lunch time meeting of our Me To We Club that most of my class is involved in. After students told about their project to build a school in India on a Punjabi language radio station, they received enough money to complete the project. This was announced at the meeting so that was really exciting for the kids and their teacher sponsors.

Then we had a pizza party to thank our Peer Helpers and Hall Monitors for their good work around the school. I am really not sure how my class managed PE class. Fortunately it was badminton so it wasn’t too strenuous an activity. And I sailed away to Salt Spring thinking that I don’t feel quite ready to retire.

Canada Reads

2011-03-05T16:26:00.000-08:00

Well I completed my fifth Canada Reads selection, Essex County by Jeff Lemire. It was really different, being three interconnected graphic novels, about a individuals living in a farming area in Southwestern Ontario. It also had lots to say about relationships and quite a bit about hockey. I did feel a definite connection having lived on the family farm until I was eight and having a childhood where Hockey Night in Canada was a fixture (although of course I was a Habs fan). I have to say although it was a black and white graphic novel I loved it. That seems to imply if it's graphic I like colour. Hmm...

To be honest I haven't read many graphic novels and mainly those aimed at younger readers! I have gone to a couple of excellent workshops on them and it seemed to be that Jeff has mastered the craft. I found the stories haunting, sometimes heartbreaking but infused with a warmth and credibility. Just thinking that this might be an interesting book to look at with senior high school students.
So my conclusion, all of the Canada Reads selections were excellent. Not a harsh critic am I? And again thanks to North by Northwest book club for the prizes! There is nothing I like better than books, except free ones!!!

always just too many things...

2011-03-05T15:02:00.000-08:00

I just don't have time to blog as much as I would like to do so. I am going to try to do a few short blogs to catch up once again.
In the classroom, we have moved onto Ancient Greece. Last year I did Mesopotamia and India and our teacher-librarian, Alanna, did Egypt (I was working with the Grade Sixes so missed Egypt-one reason I enjoyed it this year). We did a bit on Greece due to the Olympics, but because so many of the class got hooked into reading with the Percy Jackson and the Olympians, I felt I had to do Greece. Now my doing Greece seems to be mainly finding links and resources (with Alanna's assistance) and giving guidelines and then away they go. They love projects and really are becoming good researchers.

The time line is short, presentations to be done March 17. Needless to say the clay is disappearing out of the stockroom and they are learning all about Greek architecture from the ground up. It's bringing me back to my days university days studying Greek drama and remembering later how my Greek trip was interrupted by the government being overthrown.

I am also hoping that they will also do some interesting incorporation of technology in their presentations. I have to say the speed of our computers can be frustrating for all. Good thing they have better technology at home!

We finished up our Egyptian lit circles and we are moving on to just regular ones. There is nothing my kids like doing more than talking about books. We have had some great discussions and I have had surprises about what they enjoyed most.

Math has been interesting. Just thinking about it, gives me a headache. Rotating figures really seemed too much for my brain or demonstration powers yesterday so it ended up with students just teaching each other. I swear some of my students are much better at this than I. That seemed to go amazingly well.

Other issues this week were having a student who seemed to be being left out of the mix. This inspired me to finally use an amazing new book,The Junkyard Wonders, a true story, by author/illustrator, Patricia Palacco. This is just an amazing book about the class that Palacco herself was in, a special class for students with physical and learning problems, who ended up doing amazing things. The kids loved it. It was a difficult read as I found myself trying not to cry in parts.

The one thing that kind of bothers me is that despite all the talk around formative assessment, my students have been subjected to the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) (try negotiating half writing and half not) and now the local high school is making them do the Canadian Achievement Test for placement purposes I guess. I ended up having the whole class do some of the FSA (just not submitting) and trying to use this for my own assessments, but I can tell you the process is flawed. Also if a student has been in Canada for two years, full mastery of English reading and writing usually isn't possible! I have to tell you though some of my students writing was brilliant!

Not a short blog!!!

Every week should have a highlight...

2011-03-01T07:23:00.000-08:00

I think the neatest thing last week was my class and its bake sales. Well none of the basketball teams lost a game either so that was probably more of a highlight for them!!! And then there were the Egypt projects being shared with other classes but back to the bake sale.

In earlier blogs I mentioned Honey Halpern's volunteer work in Uganda at the Stand Tall Primary School in Uganda and then how she came on her return to talk about her experiences there to my class. Last week my class Students' Council did some organizing and three days of bake sales took place. The result was $124 was raised. Since then I have had several great e-mail conversations with Nicole who is involved with the school about how the money will be spent. I was also able to share our class blog and a fascinating video about the use of kids and computers. There are times when the speed of the internet is wonderful. I am going to share a couple of pictures of the kids in Uganda and our kids today.

In case you didn't gather, mine are the ones not in uniform! I can't help but think how neat it is that my children, almost all of whom, have parents who came to Canada from all over the world, now reach out to the world. (Display of fabric art that kids did with their clever art teacher-not me...)

Ancient Egypt and more...

2011-02-21T23:22:00.000-08:00

Well I am trying a new layout. I liked my old one but thought it was time for a change after I had been having fun redesigning my twitter background. What can I say?

Well the Egypt projects were a raging success! They amazed my faithful teacher-librarian and myself. Most of my students had a thorough understanding of the subjects they had chosen and had made the material their own. Students presented their projects in several ways from powerpoints to glogster posters to regular posters to three dimensional models to talk shows to letters written in hieroglyphics to mummified chickens (let's not go there). My weakest students did amazingly well. They are presenting them again this week so that other classes can see their work.
We are in our final round of Egyptian lit circles. Lit circles have been such a hit we are going to keep going, moving into new novel sets. What is gratifying is that they keep reading other novels as well. When people get groaning and moaning about students not reading being too busy texting etc. I just think of how much my kids love to read. Now this is a class of 17 boys and 12 girls, and very active boys at that but they are all totally connected to reading.
Other excitement this week has been a bake sale taking place to raise money for Stand Tall Education. A friend of mine was the first volunteer at this school started by a Vancouverite and shared her experience with my students who wanted to help. 61 dollars already raised today and I can honestly say I did nothing.

Bedtime Story night

2011-02-17T07:19:00.000-08:00

This is a quick posting but I just really wanted to tell about the event I participated in last night. Our teacher-librarian and one of our grade one teachers (my reading buddy class teacher) organized a wonderful family bedtime story night. I am sure we had about 60 or 70 participants came as parents and grandparents brought children who came with their stuffed animals and dressed in their pajamas as we shared books and stories and enjoyed cookies and milk (and decaf coffee for parents). At the end of the evening parents were able to purchase books from Black Bond Books who gave each child a lovely bookmark. It was great and if anyone would like more information feel free to contact me. It was really fun and I think that a few of my seventh graders who came with younger siblings enjoyed it as well!

Canada Reads

2011-02-16T16:22:00.000-08:00

Well as I noted, I actually won all the books nominated for Canada Reads on CBC. I had already read Carol Shield's Unless and Ami McKay's The Birth House some time ago before I won them. I have now finished The Bone Cage and am in the midst of The Best Laid Plans. What I always love about books is they can take me places that I will never get to normally. The Bone Cage focuses on a swimmer and a wrestler as they find out that they have qualified for the Sydney Olympics. Strangers initially, they meet in the gym and become as involved as two people can be who are in the midst of pursuing an almost lifetime goal.
I, personally, can't imagine the type of single minded purposefulness this has to involve so it's fascinating just being taken into this world. The plot is well crafted and the characters interesting.

Now I am reading The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis, which was the winner of Canada Reads. I must say I was a bit incredulous to think that this book beat out Unless and The Birth House and The Bone Cage, but now that I am reading it I am absorbed in it. Again politics is not a huge interest of mine although I have been involved in working in a few elections. I probably have been a bit closer to this world than that of the professional athlete but again there are people who are absorbed in politics and those who are not and I know where I fall.

I found the setting interesting in this book as a former Liberal speechwriter leaves politics to become a university academic and moves a few miles east of Ottawa and is given one last assignment to find a Liberal candidate for the most Conservative riding in the country. The candidate (a crusty Engineering professor who doesn't want to teach English to first year engineers) he finds is promised he won't have to do any campaigning and is guaranteed to lose, but of course anything can happen in politics and it does. As I read this book I find myself laughing and totally enjoying the experience as I sneak into the backrooms of Parliament. Or maybe better yet is the opportunity to glide in an experimental hovercraft over the Ottawa River.

One more Canada Reads pick to go, and I just brought home a bunch of young adult books to read. Stay tuned!

More technological struggles

2011-02-06T15:40:00.000-08:00

I laughed and read that last week was quite a week. And of course this one was as well. Let's face it there are few dull moments when you teach seventh grade.
For instance, I thought I was going to get ahead of things as I brought my brand new MacBook Pro to help demonstrate my students projects on museums that they had visited virtually. Many students were using less technological display methods but a few had power points. Our school laptop is antiquated and we are finally getting a new one and we don't have smartboards like some schools do. We have quite a nice computer lab but in the past we often have had problems with projects students had done at home when we want to show the whole class so I thought I would be on top of things with my new Mac.
Alas, for some reason the computer crashed, froze and had many interesting broken coloured pixils (maybe that isn't the right expression). I didn't even know how to turn my computer off so I ended up in the middle of presentations phoning Applecare. They got everything straightened out but took a few minutes and after all that I still couldn't get Sukhman's powerpoint to work on my computer although it worked on the class computer that I couldn't easily attach to the LCD projector. What can I say?
One thing that I think would be good is getting more of the students do technological workshops for other students and me! Pritha just puts her powerpoints on Utube for instance.
I am finding the trial run of e-book readers interesting. One girl is enjoying reading The Wizard of Oz but is wondering if she can get the book because she's only allowed three weeks with the e-book reader and she doesn't finish she can finish. There is a limited range of books on the readers so that the students have been reading some interesting selections. They seem enthusiastic but seem to still be happily engaged with regular books. My kids kind of love to read anyway so doesn't much matter where or on what. Here's an interesting article about e-books from the New York Times.
Literature Circles continue to be a total hit and I am so impressed by how much the kids are getting out of their various "Egyptian" novels. They are also becoming more skilled in their discussions so hopefully my role will become much less. The love the circles and say that it really is helping them in their understanding. It's interesting because they actually seem to be enjoying their second choice books now more than the first choice ones. I also find it great how they also continue reading other books as well. I like that they have at least two books going at a time.
By the way, I won the Canada Reads books this week when I went to a tribute to Carol Shields this week. I have read two of them but not the other three. Unless and The Birth House are both two of my favorites but I guess I would be voting for Unless.
My adventures on Twitter continue, a whole other series of directions to go. Sometimes it is enough to make you dizzy but did you know Margaret Atwood is doing a reading in Haida Gwaii tonight?

Out of my mind

2011-02-05T06:46:00.000-08:00

I just read a fantastic book for kids called Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. This is a great book about a girl who has Cerebral Palsy and as a result is not able to speak and has many little motor control. She is, however, incredibly bright and finally finds a way to communicate to the world in the form of this story.
I found this particularly fascinating as long ago I ended up working at a camp for "crippled" children. There I heard about a couple of kids who were apparently incredibly bright but had no way to communicate due to their lack of motor control and inability to have intelligible speech. It broke my heart then.
Twelve years later our school was one of the first that was wheelchair accessible in Vancouver. I had a "special class" for primary children. I had already had a child with muscular dystrophy and then I got Gabriel who again was bright but had severe cerebral palsy. I will never forget how when the special education assistant was out of the room, I started to have my children draw their pictures, and I felt like sinking through the floor as I didn't know what to do with Gabriel.
A day later I had to fly back to Quebec because my father had a massive stroke and suddenly he too was physically almost immobile. I think that really got me thinking about Gabriel and what I could do.
I quickly got used to having Gabriel in my class and like the rest of the school, I fell in love with him. Fortunately I had support in the form of great Special Education Assistants, a speech and language pathologist, a "computer" teacher from G.F. Strong (later the founder of SET BC) etc. We all puzzled together to figure out how to help Gabriel and later Ronnie learn best. I still think my proudest achievement was figuring out how to teach the two of them to read and to figure out that they actually were reading. Also I realized that my other students were happy to draw with or even help feed Gabriel and Ronnie. I can also remember the joy as computers enabled them to have more control of their environment.
Communication boards were the first step to help bridge the communication gap (something that wasn't being used in 1972 at that summer camp) and the computers came a long way just in the early 80's when I had that class. Still life would never be easy for the Gabriel and Ronnie's, and perhaps most frustrating due to their brightness.
Reading this book brought these memories back. I love the writing and I love how the author was able to get so convincingly into Melody's head.
I was a bit surprised that more effective computer access hadn't been found for her earlier but I have been often frustrated along the way with education so this perhaps shouldn't surprise me. I think in British Columbia we are fortunate to have SET BC but it still often takes dedicated professional staff and determined parents to get what these children need.
Melody's relationships with the "normal" children and her family seemed realistic to me. And I liked that the ending is not a happily ever after one.
I am curious to see how my students will enjoy this book.

a week

2011-01-29T18:05:00.001-08:00

What a crazy week but then they all have their moments. First, I had a cold. Secondly, I had to give an after school workshop. And then of course I had to teach...

I haven't given any workshops since I went back to the classroom a year and a half ago. I think I know why. It's a lot of work, especially when you don't get to do any of the preparation during work time. Monday, although I had thought my cold was better, I was exhausted at the end of the day (hmm just teaching grade seven can do that to you) so I came home early and went to work on the preparation of a power point to go with my workshop. I thought that would help organize things. That took all evening.

The next day after school my junior girls had a basketball game, then I had to organize and run off the handouts, and of course prepare my own class teaching. I don't think I got home until 7:00. Wednesday I got to give the workshop at my school after school (I also provided the snacks and tea and juice) and then again I had to prepare for my own class so that I made it home again at 7. It was a real relief on Thursday to get to go to yoga after work.

In fact Thursday was a relief to just teach. I don't think I will be doing too many more workshops although it was good to get my thoughts organized re using formative assessment, strategic teaching, and developing a good independent reading to get kids to become better readers.

A great event at school Thursday organized by our incredible teacher-librarian, Alanna, was a Reading Cafe where parents were invited to come along with their children to our library to read and sip hot chocolate. (Note my pictures!)

The Egypt projects are humming along. Needless to say mummies are being created and pyramids being built as well as slide shows, power points, on-line posters through Glogster etc.. All groups finished their first Egyptian novel in literature circles and will be moving onto the next plus their other reading. We had impressive visual journals based on their study.

In science we are studying plate movement and earthquakes and had a lot of fun using sponges as models of divergent and convergent plates and faults. I tell you teaching grade seven gives you a total education. Notice how slowly my science program goes-I keep telling myself we are being thorough!

The Learning Curve-technology and me

2011-01-29T17:36:00.000-08:00

This week I learned to twitter. I felt like I was taking a plunge into a new world once again. But I must admit I found some interesting links along the way and had a certain thrill when I started acquiring followers. I have a certain fascination and yet a wariness about technology. I have noted before how I really felt pressure (self-induced) to use technology so much more when I went back to teaching after being a consultant for four years.

Our local high school has an emphasis on technology and when one of my students in her first year in the mini-school told me she was the only Grade Eight student who was familiar with moodle, which they use all the time in the mini-school, I had a certain pride. I feel fortunate that we have a nice computer lab with easy access. I am sure my class makes the most use of it in the school. A wireless drop in my room would be nice as perhaps, a smartboard, if I had any space to put one. One constant frustration is many of our students have better technology at home than we have at school.

Friday I was amazed to learn that one student had written a very good story using his ipod touch to type it. I can't imagine. I still don't have an ipad, or an iphone or ipad touch, but I do consider the possibility. A new computer and a new digital camera in the last two months is perhaps enough for me to handle.

My students are trying out using e-readers from the library. So now in my classroom chances are 24 are reading books and three are reading books on a Kobo or a Kindle. I have a Kindle application on my computer but I still love turning pages and my current lack of travel isn't making me feel the necessity of a kindle.

I guess what I kind of love about the internet is it reminds me of the excitement of when my parents bought the Encylopedia Britannica (that I still have) and I would look up something for my homework and then wander off into whole new directions. That happens to me on the internet all the time and I often take 29 students with me. Currently my students are preparing ads on museums around the world. They each found a museum or art gallery of interest and are preparing an ad in some form. I look forward to seeing what they come up with.

I am of the belief the internet is here and we might as well learn how to use it wisely. And with technology there is no comparison with what students are able to do now as opposed to a few years ago.

But there is very much a place for reading and a love of books. I want tech savvy kids and ones who know the sheer joy of reading a good book. And no worries it's actually easy to have happen...

The Maze Runner

2011-01-23T20:46:00.000-08:00

Kidsbooks had its annual sale this week and I went to pick up World's End but needless to say I couldn't resist a few other choices. It doesn't help when you run into your favorite teacher librarians recommending books.

Linda from Maple Grove School always has great recommendations and she recommended The Maze Runner by James Dashner, and I thought that this would be a book that would appeal to my students. I really enjoyed it, it kept me reading this weekend! Again this is a book that is for your better seventh grade readers and also good for high school readers. Thomas finds himself literally thrust into a world where he nor anyone else has much memory of what happened before they arrived in The Glade, a community surrounded by a maze with no apparent way out.

This is the first in a series and one almost feels as if you are in a level of a computer game (not that I have played many of those) except of course most of us don't actually want to be a pawn in such a game. It reminded me also a bit of the classic Lord of the Flies but with nicer people generally. Well of course there are villains but again there is an external enemy so that helps a bit with internal politics plus we learn that these boys have been specially selected. Today I learned how to embed video and you can view a bit of a preview.

Ancient Egypt

2011-01-23T18:31:00.000-08:00

Well as I think I have indicated it's been all about Egypt lately in my classroom. The kids are all doing projects about Ancient Egypt. They are all reading literature circle books about some aspect of Ancient Egypt. The groups just meet once a week but the kids are enjoying reading what others are reading. The groups give everyone an opportunity to share their thoughts about the books. Most of the kids are also reading other books at the same time as well.

Last year my grade sevens begged for lit circles and the grade sixes at the time were doing a novel study with our resource teacher so I decided that lit circles could be a grade seven activity. Our teacher librarian and I were able to find sufficient books on an Egypt theme in the school so that there are a couple of extra copies if kids finish early but this time they seem happy to set their reading goals and stay together as groups. I think all the novels will be finished Friday so we can do a switch then. I may later have more lit circles not on any particular theme.

The kids do agree that the novels are giving them another look in a different way about what they are studying. I think lit circles are also good in that forces kids into books they might not normally read. And for the most part they are enjoying all the books. Some of them at first appeared a bit old and perhaps a little dated (for instance, The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder), but the kids are enjoying them regardless. It's also interesting because my kids weren't familiar with the story of Moses that is the basis of another book, The Pharoah's Daughter. This book is not an easy read so that it is good I have some rather good readers.

A real bonus for the research was a website I literally stumbled upon when I was doing research for my french unit. The Canadian Museum of Civilization has an online Mysteries of Egypt Exhibit with great additional web resources.

Neither Alanna nor myself had yet done a close scrutiny of their notes for their projects so I decided Thursday to get them to write Ten Amazing Facts about whatever they were studying e.g. pyramids, Gods and Goddesses, ancient Egyptian geography etc. For the most part it seems like they have learned quite a bit. They are going to change these into mini books and they can be part of their multimedia presentations. Needless to say poster board and plasticine have been secured as well. My grade sixes last year were incredibly creative so that I am curious to see what they and their other classmates are going to come up with this time. Stay tuned!

World's End

2011-01-13T19:20:00.000-08:00

I am beginning to have a terrible habit of talking about books that I haven't yetread. Yes, I did read The Red Pyramid (I finally grabbed it during the Christmas holidays) and I loved it. I haven't read the sequel to Dormia yet but I am planning to do so once I make a trip down to Kidsbooks. I just have been listening to an interview on National Public Radio with World's End authors, Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski about the process of writing these books. If you follow this blog you may remember the wonderful visit that intermediate students at my school had with Peter and his musician wife, Nancy (also known as Celia Rose) in September, 2009.
I am thinking I should go back to shorter blogs as they are more apt to get posted regularly! I just have to include this image from Dormia of Uncle Hill arriving and surprising his nephew, Alfonso, who doesn't know of his unique powers.

New Computer

2010-12-30T17:49:00.000-08:00

Well, big excitement, in the form of a new computer. After five years with my last faithful Macbook, I now have a new MacBook Pro so that it is all quite exciting although requiring a bit of adjusting. As much fun as it is getting something new there is always the familiarity of something old... I hope that it will inspire me to blog a bit more regularly but it's always an adjustment to using a new instrument no matter how great it is.

One of the nicest things about having two weeks off is the opportunity to catch up on reading. I just read a book that I really enjoyed. One thing I love about teaching grade six and seven is the opportunity to learn new things or revisit things you once enjoyed learning about but haven't for awhile.

If you follow this blog you know that I started science this year with the geology unit (last year I started with ecology and never really got to the other two units.) Now I admit I am still on the geology unit but at least I know my class did quite a bit on ecology in sixth grade as well. I loved geology when I was in school, not that I took it in university, but I always found rocks fascinating, as do my students. Fossils amaze us all!

The book that I just finished reading is my Tracy Chevalier and is entitled, Remarkable Creatures. I am a Tracy Chevalier fan. She wrote Girl with a Pearl Earring as well as one of my very favourites, Virgin Blue. I had read Virgin Blue just before I went to France several years ago, and brought it along for my friend who was travelling with me to read. She had another book on the go and I ended up reading it again as we traveled in the area near where that novel was set. I enjoyed reading it even more that second time.

Remarkable Creatures takes place in the early 1800's and is set mainly in Lymis Regis (a place I first discovered reading John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman). The story is told from the point of view of two women who actually did live, Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot. The book is Chevalier's usual combination of fact and fiction. Mary is a local girl whose father has always been interested in "curios" but she is the one who really has the eye to find them. Elizabeth, from a higher social strata, moves with her sisters from London for economical reasons and her fascination with fossils leads to a friendship between the two. I think it is easy to forget how little status women had in the 1800's. This book is a good reminder of this. Mary's discovery of the ichthyosaur shook the scientific world and questioned the traditional biblical interpretation of the creation of the world, but initially she was given very little credit for this. Great read...

The weather has been amazing here, crystal clear. This picture was taken during a walk along the seawall in Yaletown.

Teach Like a Champion?

2010-12-28T17:29:00.001-08:00

Sometimes it just takes awhile to get a blog finished! Today I am going to talk about Teach Like a Champion: 49 Strategies that Put Students on the Path to College by Doug Lemov. I was given this book last summer from a friend who isn't a teacher but had heard the author interviewed and thought it sounded interesting. I began with some skepticism as many of the "master teachers" cited seemed to be at charter schools and philosophical I have a bit of trouble with charter schools but I tried to remain open. In the end I decided that this is a good book especially for beginning teachers.

Teaching has become more and more complex through the years. I began my career for instance as a special class teacher. These classes were challenging and you certainly have the danger of children or young adults feeling "stupid" but the classes were small and generally manageable. These classes also meant that the regular teacher didn't have to generally deal with as many difficult students. Also curriculum was more set and there wasn't as much of an expectation of differentiation of instruction etc.

Now there are very few special education classes and most students are in the regular classroom. Initially there was good support but that support has lessoned as well. Also students with English as an additional language are also in your class. Once upon a time there were smaller separate classes for reception level students as well. Now I am all for integration but this all means you have a very wide range of learners with a wide range of needs and the expectations for the classroom teacher have increased as well. For instance, we are now expected to be computer savvy. Currently with the diminished funding there is less and less help from every angle.

Beginning teachers have a difficult time finding positions and are often subbing for several years. They also may find themselves if they do get a job making several assignment changes in a single year.

All this is to say that we may have long holidays, but we need them!!! We also find ourselves reluctant to say how difficult the classroom situation can be because in this city more and more parents who can afford to are choosing private schools thinking that their child will get more attention.

As I was reading this book I tried several strategies that were new to me with the children and actually found them quite effective. Having taught a long time and having access to a great deal of professional development as a consultant, other strategies were not new but I found them well presented in this book.

For those who need to see, there is also a dvd with sample lessons.

When our staff was considering a book club this year, I suggested this book, and since I had demonstrated and talked about some of the philosophy and methods, teachers were interested. Also previously, we had split into primary and intermediate book clubs so that it will be nice to all do the same book.

I think my favourite little strategy is SLANT, one with which many students at our school are now familiar. This acronym stands for sit up, listen, ask and answer questions, nod your head when appropriate, and track the speaker. Students are very good now in many of are classrooms at "slanting".

The following are a few more examples and they aren't exactly rocket science but good reminders to us all.

Technique #1: No Opt Out. How to move students from the blank stare or stubborn shrug to giving the right answer every time.

Technique #35: Do It Again. When students fail to successfully complete a basic task—from entering the classroom quietly to passing papers around—doing it again, doing it right, and doing it perfectly, results in the best consequences.

Technique #38: No Warnings. If you're angry with your students, it usually means you should be angry with yourself. This technique shows how to effectively address misbehaviors in your classroom.

I think this book is well worth reading as it is a good summation of how to set up an effective classroom. There is an art to teaching that can't be really though totally ever be made into a science. I am reminded of hearing of someone who would only go to places in Europe, even for a cold drink, that were recommended by Frommer in his guidebook. But this book is full of methods and ideas that are worth giving a try. And I think we may have some interesting discussions and anything to help the dedicated teachers at my school is valuable.

Paint the Town December

2010-12-16T06:07:00.000-08:00

Well we successfully made it through the school musical, Paint the Town December. It certainly helps when your principal is a music teacher and takes all the students in groups for music classes, and you have a PE teacher who teaches all the dances and motions in PE class and in extra rehearsals. It helps when you have a teacher who is a professional artist and creates the backdrops with her students. It also helps when you have a teacher librarian who does a unit with your students who don't want to be actors so that I could have two periods a week for four weeks to work with the actors-from my class and the other grade seven class. And finally it helps when you have all the classroom teachers willing to put on a show. Our whole school did two shows yesterday. That is 350 children. We also had to borrow staging and chairs from my old school, Moberly (we are close by as our school used to be Moberly's Annex), as we were too late to get them from the board so we had to be creative for the finale when the whole school was at the front of the gym.

This is a multicultural musical, celebrating various celebrations and traditions of December. Now one could say this was a bit forced but the music is great and I think it does give us cultural awareness and appreciation. Just looking at our actors, we do represent the world-students whose parents have immigrated from India, China, Vietnam, Miramar, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Pakistan as well students students with ancestors who immigrated from western Europe many generations ago. These actors have families who may practice Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, or Buddhism.

This is only the second musical our school has done since it opened as a main school seven years ago. Last year was the first. That whetted our students' appetites for the stage and shows what a small public school can do. People may think they need to spend thousands of dollars to send their children to private schools but once again I am so struck by what public schools accomplish. Most of our parents are working hard, often adjusting to a new country, and don't have a lot of time and money for activities for their children that "West side" parents can afford so the school teaches the academics but for many students we give them experiences that they don't have regular access to receive.

I may not make a great deal of money compared to those in some other professions and occupations, but on mornings like this I feel a sense of accomplishment.

Twilight is out

2010-12-09T07:10:00.001-08:00

Well the word is out in my class that vampires are passe! Everyone (well I exaggerate) is reading the latest by Rick Riordan, The Red Pyramid. Rick Riordan first hit the best seller lists with The Lightning Thief about Percy Jackson who discovers that that the reason for his hyperactivity is he is half mortal/half god, the son of Poseidon. The first book was made into a movie and this may have gotten many of my students into that series. Many have read all of the Percy Jackson series so now they are beginning the Kane Chronicles and The Red Pyramid is the first in that series. Here we have moved from Greek mythology to Egyptian mythology. Now of course teaching ancient civilizations in Grade Seven I think this is great. Both boys and girls are reading these. The Twilight series was very hot last year with the girls in my class but now that they have moved from sixth grade to seventh vampires are out and gods are in!!!
I ordered Red Pyramid from the Scholastic Book Club but it was snatched from my hands so I haven't read it yet. We had a book fair at school so several students bought copies and students have borrowed Riordan's books from our library and the public library.
It's fascinating how movies can encourage reading as the movie may have inspired the initial reading of The Lightning Thief. My "worse" reader who is officially ADHD is reading The Lightning Thief demonstrating good comprehension. He relates to Percy because neither has ever known his father. Riordan has hit a cord with my students.

How did it get to be December???

2010-12-09T06:39:00.000-08:00

Time has definitely sped away! After the surprising snow in November when lots of leaves were still on the trees (and some still are) we seem to be back to our normal winter environment around here, rain!
I have had so many good intentions about blogging but it obviously hasn't happened for awhile. I am actually currently writing this blog and my class blog. There is always that question does technology save time or take time.
In my class blog I was just sharing some pictures of my grade seven class and their grade one reading buddies. I love teaching older kids but grade one students have a special place in my heart. And they have a special place in the hearts of their grade seven reading buddies. Now we do more than read.
We just completed three sessions of skating at our local community center, which is about nine blocks from the school. Having my kids along makes the walk easier for the little ones and it really helps with getting all those skates tied (although some of mine have struggles in that direction as well). Our school is a school mainly of children of immigrants and skating is not always a familiar activity so that these sessions are great and can encourage families to have their children have skating lessons that are quite affordable. By the third session students had gained a lot of confidence and for most of the grade one children this was their first experience on ice.
Once a week usually my students read with their buddies and make notes that they share with the first grade teacher. Yesterday we did something different. We brainstormed and then drew and wrote about skating together. This was incredibly successful. Seeing my students drawing and writing really inspired the younger children and of course, my class loved it as well. One really neat thing as well is two my students have siblings in the class. One has his brother,who adores him, as his buddy. Another decided that her sister would do well with her friend and she has her sister's friend as her buddy. It sure is great having this many teachers!

I am back...

2010-11-05T19:29:00.001-07:00

I am feeling once again guilty for my lack of blogging. I have had a cold for over two weeks and I think it has slowed me down a bit although I have been reading lots. One favorite has been The Sanctuary Line by Jane Urquhart. I missed seeing her at our Writers' Festival due to not booking a ticket early enough but I really enjoyed the book. Funny the triggers books have. It's a book of childhood memories and reminded me of my childhood and the many hours spent with my friend, May, who died in February, not that our childhood was as riveting or as traumatic as that described in The Sactuary Line but...

I also had an interesting read, The Good Novel by Laurence Cossé, thanks to my friend, Emilie who works at a neat new bookstore in Vancouver, Sitka Books. I met Emilie at the much mixed Once Upon a Huckleberry children's book store on Main Street, a victim of the recession. The Good Novel is about a unique store in Paris where only the books that a committee of writers' believes to be truly good are sold much to the anger of some who seem to be causing harm to the committee and the store.

I also finally finished Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver, which I started months ago. It's not a book to read a few minutes each night before falling asleep but when I spent a couple of days sneezing and sleeping I had time to keep reading. Having read The Help earlier and Lacuna as the American election was taking place, it helped give me perspective on the Tea Party mentality a bit. I can't help but think political activist, Kingsolver wrote this novel with purpose. Lacuna focuses on a Mexican American man who after a rather horrific childhood, ends up working for artist, Diego Rivera. Through his connection with Diego and Freida Kahlo, although totally non-political, he stumbles into being Leon Trotsky's secretary and cook. After he returns to the United States, he settles in the mountains of North Carolina and becomes a best selling novelist who eventually gets blacklisted in the McCarthy Era, causing another return to Mexico.

Now I have also read quite a bit of chick lit and mysteries. I honestly haven't read much new children's literature or young adult literature, and I am already wishing I could go to the NCTE conference in Orlando and get my hands on those advance copies.

My class though is reading everything in sight. I can honestly say they love to read. I actually did read a new novel, The Billionaire's Curse by Australian writer,Richard Newsome. We had a great day at the Vancouver International Writers' Festival. I had really wanted to take them to see Sharon E. MacKay who wrote Charlie Wilcox but the timing didn't work out so I asked Education Coordinator, Ilona Belks, for her suggestion and she chose well. We had a great morning with Kevin Sylvester, Richard Newsome, and Richard Scrimger. I always have loved Kevin Sylvester's sense of humour on CBC, but his two co-panelists were even more hilarious, especially Richard Scrimger, but also they were wonderful with the kids and had lots of great writing tips.
Here's a picture of the three. The first picture today was taken on a walk in Steveston a couple of weeks ago, both with my new camera!

Feel like a trip to Africa?

2010-10-17T07:57:00.000-07:00

I just have been reading my friend, Honey's blog, written as she volunteers in a school in Uganda. I think many of us, well at I at least, wonder what we will do when we retire. Honey has never really retired and has done many interesting things and this is the latest. This school is different than most African schools, aimed to be student centred and started by another Vancouverite.
I am behind-busy weekend. Big event for 18 students in my class was We Day on Friday. Most of my class belongs to our very active Me to We Club and our school has raised 3000 dollars towards building a school in India so that although not all club members were able to attend, quite a few were able to do so and even got front row seats.
I missed the main event but I went to a follow up that evening, thanks to my friend, Susan. We didn't really know what we were going to see but we ended up being able to spend an inspiring evening with We Day speakers Al Gore, Martin Sheehan, and Jesse Jackson as they were interviewed by Craig Kielburger for the program, Shameless Idealists, that will be broadcst on CTV. More later... Happy week!

Second month...

2010-10-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

It's the second month of school. It's so nice to be there for a second year. So much easier. All ten of my sixth graders are with me for a second year now in Grade Seven and nine more of the students I taught French last year. And even most of the students I didn't teach I knew. Also now everyone knows me and what I am like. My former students are very good at explaining routines and expectations.
I find it hard to believe that in my first four years of teaching I changed schools each year. After my first year of teaching I quit and went to Europe arriving back in late September and managed to get a job within a week. I think it had something to do with my willingness to teach special education. I didn't seem to really find it difficult and although they were really challenging teaching positions and I really wasn't well prepared for what I was doing, each job taught me a lot and I had some wonderful colleagues. And the last six years I got to live in Montreal. Youth is definitely resilient. After that I had longer stays. My last job in Montreal was four years long and I only left to move to Vancouver thirty years ago where I have taught at five schools with a bit of subbing when I first moved here.

I think this year is probably the last but I honestly am having a really good time. In a strange twist of fate I spent my first 20 years of teaching, teaching special education or doing learning assistance from high school to primary, and then I was integrated. And I honestly fell in love with teaching Grade Six as tiring and challenging as it can be (the class size alone). I became a consultant because I think it was something I thought I should do but though it was a great experience I can't say I loved it. I wanted to go back to the classroom but it really wasn't easy. It was exhausting and I sure wasn't always feeling as if I was doing it as well as I should. It's so much easier telling others what they could do as opposed to doing it yourself.

Now I haven't hit report cards yet this term, but this year is good. I have a great class, not without it's challenges, but that is of course part of the fun. I never seem to have enough time to teach all that needs to get taught for one thing. And I miss Wednesday early dismissal and those lunch hours sure are short, but I am coping much better with having to make lunch every day!

I have a class that honestly loves to learn. They are enthusiastic. They are captivated by learning about rocks and Early Man. They work together well. Right now they are preparing projects on different aspects of life in St. John's, Newfoundland (I figure these West
Coast kids need a little Eastern Canadian knowledge.) They love our novel study of Charlie Wilcox set during the First World War in Newfoundland. They are excited about starting buddy reading where they work with grade one students. Most of them are involved with our Me to We Club. They are fun (even if a bit chatty). And technology though our class moodle actually is enhancing the learning experience. Plus now I am familiar with the Grade Seven curriculum (and I even have reports my former students feel well prepared for Grade Eight math). I don't have to try to teach grade six and seven curriculum though I my old grade sixes enjoyed being in that split.

In teaching like life there are definitely the good days and the bad days but you need to celebrate the good.

By the way I need to apologize to my followers (I still find it hard to believe this blog actually has a few followers) I tend to publish posts and then realize that my editing was imperfect. Then I go back and reedit! Just regard it all as practice in your proofreading skills!

The Help

2010-10-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

First happy Canadian Thanksgiving! Four day weekend for those of us in the Vancouver School Board, not sure it makes up though for losing my early dismissal Wednesday afternoons. I miss them! Oh well! While I was in a yoga class Friday morning someone nicked my car backing into a parking space. Fortunately he left a note and actually still was there so my car will be repaired free of charge but a bit of a bad start to the holiday. To cheer myself up I went off to the local library and in the fast read section found a copy of The Help by Kathryn Stockett. The book had been recommended to me about six months ago by a friend so I was pleased to find it. My approach to libraries tends to be, "let's see what looks interesting on the shelf" rather than methodically putting in requests on line.
It was a perfect read, the kind of book you can't stop reading and because it is a holiday you actually can keep reading. I tend to be a late night, early morning reader.
It is set in the early 60's in Jackson, Mississippi. It is told from the point of view of three woman. Skeeter has just graduated from university and badly wants to go to New York City to work as a writer and editor while her mother thinks she should be finding a husband like her friends. The one job she finds is giving house cleaning advice in the local paper and she turns to her friend's maid, Abilene for assistance. In the meantime, Abilene's best friend, Minny, has just lost her job and can't get another due to a run in with one of Skeeter's friends. The book is told from all three women's points of view. With the assistance of these women, Skeeter ends up writing a book about what it is like being the Help. Although it seems doubtful to Abilene the times are changing. It's definitely a morality tale to some extent, and Skeeter's old friend, Hilly, has to be one of the nastiest women fiction has seen for awhile. Again the book tries to describe a situtation that seems almost indescribable to someone not brought up in this time and place. The book is soon to be made into a movie.

Baking Cakes in Kigali

2010-10-04T17:44:00.001-07:00

There are books that you just have to share and Baking Cakes in Kigali is one of them. This book by Gail Parkin is set in contemporary Rawanda. Like many people I have seen the movie, Hotel Rawanda, and read the various reports, and the big question is how do you build a country after such bloodshed. How do you forget, forgive, move on? What is it like to live in such a place?
The heroine.of the book, Angel, is married to one of the many people brought into the country to help with the rebuilding. She too is African but from Tanzania. One reason her husband has left his university position to come to Kigali, is due to a bigger salary, which they can use. as they have been left to bring up their five grandchildren as both their own children have died. I bet you are thinking this already sounds depressing. They live in an apartment complex populated by a wide variety of foreigners who have come to help, most paid and some paid.
Angel has a profession, she bakes cakes. She ends up baking cakes for the other residents of the complex but also for a variety of Ugandans. She also won't bake a cake for you unless you tell her your story. And these are fascinating interwoven stories. In a way it's a tricky concept considering the setting, but I think with the author's knowledge of Africa she pulls it off. I kind of also love the fact that my friend, Val, lent me the book and she was given it by a woman, working in the German consul in Rawanda, whose son was staying with Val while going to school in Montreal. I totally recommend this book to all!

Just to say hello and give you some reading power!

2010-09-27T08:15:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday! Busy times-and trying to limit my digital addictions. Let's see-there is the class moodle to keep up (where students can post assignments etc.) and I now have put our reading association, LOMCIRA on Facebook. Just wanted to give you a couple of news updates on other sites. Both our local Reading Association, LOMCIRA and our provincial association, BCLCIRA, have new updated websites so please have a look.
All you Reading Power fans will be happy to know that Adrienne has a new website as well. What a great resource! Just hit the links on the side to access all of these any time!
I am having posting pictures today!

Newfoundland-the end of my trip...

2010-09-19T12:38:00.000-07:00

I have so many other things to write about I need to finish off the Newfoundland report-well to be exact the St. John's and surroundings report.
After going to bed at about 2:30 am, we managed to get up and on our way for more sightseeing (unfortunately missing the after wedding brunch). We took a great walk over to The Rooms. This is an incredible building inspired by the rooms where fisherman used to clean and dry their catch. This building is opened five years ago and houses the Provincial Archives, an art gallery, and a museum. It also probably has the best view in town of the city. I totally recommend the restaurant for the food and view! We did quite a thorough tour of the art gallery and museum. Having been to Cupids we really enjoyed the exhibit on its history. This is on until January in case you are planning a visit. Another interesting permanent exhibit was about the Irish in Newfoundland. In the art gallery we enjoyed the permanent exhibit and there was a really great exhibit of Ed Pien's work, Haven of Delight, on loan organized by the Musee d'art of Joliette, Quebec. I loved walking through a giant cut out maze.

Then we were whisked away by my old friend, Daphne, who lives in St. John's and is originally from Newman's Cove. She took us to the Johnson Geo Centre at Signal Hill. Since I have to teach geology in Grade Seven science I thought this might inspire me. And I have to say it did. Too bad I can't just take my class there! They like the idea of a Newfoundland field trip though! The main exhibit was really informative and I must admit I quite enjoyed the special exhibit on the Titantic-what a story of human hubris and error and corporate greed. Also it was definitely interesting virtually visiting an offshore oil platform. There wasn't too much discussion of accidents though.

Next on the agenda was a visit to a visit to Quidi Vidi Village, a small fishing village a short distance away. This was a neat area and we had to buy samples of the local beer. Two houses have been built that take away from the picturesque view and flavour though. Not sure how that happened? They aren't in this picture.

Then Daphne took us on a great tour of the old historic residential area of the city (that we had walked a bit through on our way to The Rooms) telling us some great stories. We ended our tour with great ice cream at MooMoos.

Somewhere in there I managed a bit more souvenir shopping. Daphne dropped Ginny and I off at the condo Diane and Bob (the groom's parents) had rented near our hotel. So we enjoyed a bit more visiting and eating with some of the wedding guests and called it an early night.

Note that my camera was still having battery problems and batteries seemed hard to find. Otherwise I would probably have had another 100 pictures to sort through. (Note to self, always travel with back up lithium batteries though I usually do.)

The next day I felt sad to have to leave especially since Ginny and Diane went puffin watching that day but I think I managed to have a wonderful time in a few days. I totally recommend a trip to Newfoundland and Labrador. The link is to their excellent tourism site. I know you might not get to go to a wedding but...
P.S. Security including the non-line up took me less than three minutes and I still managed to find a few more souvenirs in the airport.

The Newfoundland Report Part 3

2010-09-12T07:19:00.000-07:00

Well I should finish this and move on to other topics! Friday morning we were off to the Memorial University of Newfoundland Botanical Garden. Our walk only took in a small part of this large property but we certainly enjoyed the part that we were able to see. Sometimes one does think of Newfoundland as The Rock so that one can almost think of a botanical garden as being a bit of a contradiction in terms but there is indeed interesting plant life especially due to the unique geography of Newfoundland. Some plants were ones we see here in coastal British Columbia and not in Central Canada for instance. Plants that had stopped blooming here long ago were still blooming there as well. And of course there are those blueberries. To learn more visit the garden's very good site.

I have to note that we were thrilled to have a close up look at Newfoundland's provincial flower, the Pitcher Plant. This plant has adapted to harsh conditions so that it doesn't need soil nutrients but can get nutrients by capturing insects. I learned that some native orchids supplement their diet as well this way. The Pitcher Plant was chosen as the provincial flower because it represents natural beauty, strength, character, and resiliency very representative of Newfoundland and Labrador and the people there.

It was time to return the car as we really didn't need it any more. Typical of the hospitality we found in St. John's, we were delivered to downtown St. John's to meander and shop our way back to the hotel along the oldest street in North America, Water Street, and later Duckworth. I am not sure if I have mentioned how steep some of the streets are, so steep that you can use stairs at some points. Then there are the wonderfully colorful houses that are now being renovated madly. It's probably just as well the room in my suitcases was limited but I had a great time in The Weavery, the Heritage Shops, and the Craft Council Shop, Devon House.

Of course, as you may remember we were here for a wedding and the wedding was a about to begin so we were picked up by bus and for the next 11 hours were on a Newfoundland adventure that included the ceremony at St. Patrick's Church (a church built by fishermen), a stop at the bride's parents' beautiful home in a subdivision surrounding a lake (you can go down the backyard onto the pond for a row and to fish) and finally to the reception at the Murray's Pond Hunting and Fishing Club in Portugal Cove. The picture is from there.

Now as you can see I am a compulsive picture taker, a bit hampered in the latter part of my trip by battery problems but I have to include a professional shot taken by the bride's brother in law, Nate Gates. You just have to love it.

I thought that I would finish the story today but Newfoundland Part 4 will be the end, I promise.

Newfoundland part 2

2010-09-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday was the first day of school-mind you I only had my 10 former grade sixes and one student for an hour but after two days off always a bit of a shock to the system but always the excitement and anticipation of the first day... I don't get my whole "real class" until Friday as we make sure the numbers fall in the correct directions. I have decided to start the year with a bit of a unit on Newfoundland including beginning with the science unit on geology and social studies unit on artifacts. My read aloud will be Charlie Wilcox by Sharon E. MacKay. I am keeping all my last year's grade six students and they were actually wildly enthusiastic about studying about Newfoundland if it involved project work. They love projects. Also I am happy to say that they all seemed to read this summer as well. I am so excited with only having to deal with one grade level curriculum and always thankful for my wonderful teacher-librarian!

Now as I unfold more of my recent journey you will hopefully see the connections. My journey along the Marine Drive where I took some of the pictures on my last blog. When we visited Middle Beach and saw all these rocks my mind turned to Grade Seven Science. We returned to St. John's and went up Signal Hill which we could always see clearly out our hotel window. Then we drove out (with a little confusion due to one way streets and two bridges) to Cape Spear, Canada's most easterly point. We saw the most incredible sunset! I realize we should have perhaps done sunrise but sunset was amazing!

This is just one of the views we had. It was a really magical evening listening to the pounding surf (wondering a bit of Hurricane Earl was going to sweep over us in a couple of days).

Thursday we set off for Brigus and Cupids. Brigus was highly recommended by Verena, and it was an amazingly beautiful place. Once a major sealing port with a harbour filled with ships it now is a town rather lovingly restored. The streets are narrowed and windy so I happily abandoned the car in a lot as Ginny and I explored. We ended up in Hawthorne Cottage, home of Captain Bob Bartlett, famed Arctic explorer, I began thinking that Brigus seemed strangely familiar. Sure enough, when I asked the helpful tour guide, it was indeed the setting for Charlie Wilcox, a boy who sneaks off to board a sealer rather than go to high school but instead finds himself heading to Europe during World War 1. Captain Bob also figures in Wayne Johnston's great adult novel, The Navigator of New York.
When we went up to the old church on the hill, I thought of Charlie running up there to see if his father's ship had come in.

Next we ventured off to Cupids, the oldest English language settlement in Canada. Only the week before it celebrated it's 400th anniversary. There is also an extensive archeological dig there and an interesting display from the National Art Gallery of reproductions of famous Canadian portraits on the street but I must say a highlight for us was a late lunch at Cupid's Haven and then a walk that included wild blueberry nibbling. Okay, again I need to go to work. Stay tuned for more!

Such good intentions...

2010-09-07T08:19:00.000-07:00

Two weddings and two weeks away later and here I am blogging again. I had good intentions of a blog while I was away. I was all set to go in the St. John's, Newfoundland airport only to discover that my somewhat antiquated Macbook couldn't pick up the free hot spot there. Same thing happened to me in a Kingston, Ontario hotel etc. So here I am the morning before my first day back at work writing.

The weddings-one in Vancouver and then one in St. John's. Both couples live in Calgary and one member of each couple was born in Montreal-doesn't that say something about contemporary Canada. The first I was the maid of honour at the bride's parents' wedding, and the second I have known the groom since he was a toddler and can remember him refusing to take his Star Wars boots off before I attempted to make him go to sleep. It was great spending time with old friends and seeing these neat young people taking these big steps. Both weddings were beautiful-the first at Cecil Green House with an ocean view on the UBC campus-the wedding ceremony was outside and much time was spent admiring the views. The second took place in wonderfully historic St. Patrick's Church followed by a reception at Murray's Pond, another beautiful setting.

In between I flew to Montreal, a visit sandwiched with a weekend in Kingston again spending time with old friends. I am bringing my Queen's mug to school today. The last few days I spent in St. John's. Another former John Grant (the special ed high school where I taught in Lachine) and I flew off to another former colleague, Diane's son's wedding. Ginny has been almost everywhere but had missed Newfoundland and I hadn't been there for 34 years so we were planning some serious sightseeing as well.

I really fell in love with St. John's. Fortunately my friend Verena had been there a couple of days earlier and made some great recommendations from coffee shots to places to visit. Nothing like a fresh traveller to guide you. We rented a car for the first couple of days until the wedding festivities pulled into full gear so we took full advantage.

We stayed at the Sheraton, formerly the Fairmont and we were pleasantly surprised that we had a view right up to the top of Signal Hill and into the harbour where a cruise ship was moored. The location was perfect. Verena recommended the coffee shop, Coffee Matters, across the street and in the next few days we ate breakfast there everyone day as well. A friendly local transplanted from Toronto saw us studying our maps and lead us to our first tour, Marine Drive. Okay I have to get ready for school so I will have to continue this later. The pictures are from our drive along Marine Drive-just wanted to begin to give you a flavour!

Phases of Summer

2010-08-18T19:31:00.000-07:00

Back for a week after a week spent in Bowen Island, Gabriola Island, and Whistler. Each phase of summer seems different-sun rising a bit later each day and now when you come out of a movie it is dark. Days are getting shorter. The last few days have been hot and we Vancouverites seem to have a love hate relationship to this. Most of us don't have air conditioning in our homes so we tend to moan a bit. I am in the midst of having the outside of my house painted so that I am hoping the rain will hold off until it is finished. I have missed our old Mount Pleasant outdoor pool, and now we have the new Hillcrest Pool with all its bells and whistles but although great for kids a bit of a circus and twice as expensive.

I am going away for the last two weeks of summer so that I am realizing that there are a few things I planned to do that I won't be doing and trying to fit a others in. That stack of professional reading doesn't seem much smaller. I have to admit I did lots of summer frivolous reading-some would call it beach reading. I now seem more ready for a bit more serious reading. I am reading 2009 Man Booker prize winner, Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel. It's huge and I have it as a fast read from the library but I am not making fast progress and am wondering if I should buy it and take it back east with me. I am really enjoying it. I have always had a bit of a fascination with the Tudors and her depiction of Cromwell is fascinating.

I have spent a fair amount of time looking at new Mac Pros-trying to decide if could survive with a thirteen inch monitor or not, playing with IPads and IPhones, and still here I am with my five year old ibookG4 and my very simple cell phone still. Mind you if I had an Ipad or a Kindle taking Wolf Hall with me would be a bit lighter!

Now for a happy summer beach shot from Gabriola with Maggie and Jake.

12 Sides to Your Story... Simple steps for turning ordinary writing into something extraordinatory

2010-08-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

I'm in Whistler with a couple of friends and it's raining-rather novel of late-we hadn't had rain in about six weeks until a couple of days ago but hear the sun is returning tomorrow. I went to Gabriola Island for a couple of days and refused to bring a raincoat or umbrella so feel a bit of responsibility for the change in weather.

So yes I am actually going to talk about a professional book, 12 Sides to Your Story by Graham Foster. This is one of those nice flip books from Pembroke. I may have mentioned that I felt quite guilty when author, Melanie Jackson, came to my class, and gave an excellent presentation on plot and I realized that I had been remiss about doing much really creative writing, fictional story writing, with my class. Non fiction writing seemed to be more of a focus. Now as someone who had given innumerable workshops on writing this doesn't sound too good but realities of the classroom sometimes vary from the ideal. After Melanie's visit, we spent time on fictional writing.

One thing I decided is that I would put more of an emphasis on story writing early this year so that I was interested in checking out this book. The book is designed to be used by teachers or students but I know there are those amazing students who would conscientiously read this but probably more likely to be used by teachers. I think it's a good step up for teachers at the grade six to nine level who are already familiar with writing workshop and six trait writing approaches. If anyone wants some suggestions for materials for good starting points for these, just let me know.

This book is divided into the following sections: using story writing strategies; organization; content; sentence structure; vocabulary and voice; conventions; and revising and sharing. There are good ideas and examples in each section. I like the layout as well.

I think I am actually staying still for the next few days so am going to force myself into doing some planning for the coming year. Last summer more closely reading Nancy Atwell's The Reading Zone made me rethink again silent reading and reading strategies that I had been using in classrooms in which I had been working as a literacy coach, and in my classroom it helped me hopefully create more avid readers. I find my classroom practice is influenced by a number of professional books so that my silent reading program has elements I am also looking forward hopefully this year to have a bit of time to do some co-planning with some of my fellow teachers around reading and writing. Summer is definitely a great time for battery recharging! It's no longer raining but still cloudy skies here in Whistler. Just thinking of the long title of 12 Sides to Your Story-I think I like just thinking about turning anything ordinary into something extraordinatory.

Favourite Summer pursuits in Vancouver

2010-07-31T08:20:00.000-07:00

I think I have definitely moved into lazy summer mode. Last night a friend inspired me to work on cleaning out my office-a never ended process it seems. Let's face it those thousands of slides overwhelm me just looking at the boxes! And then I look at all the educational books that I have only thumbed through... and half done projects... but last night a few things did get put in boxes to give away or throw. And my sense of urgency did get kick started...

I just thought today I would talk about things I love about summer in Vancouver. First of all the weather-it's been absolutely perfect-warm days and cool mornings and evenings. I love early mornings when I can go out barefoot onto my deck, check out my flowers, do a bit of watering, and visit with Holly the cat who who thinks the deck furniture is just for her or to share with a friend or two. Some mornings I go to Granville Island, take my coffee and muffin and read the paper as I look at the action on False Creek. The other morning I took my bike and checked out the new pool complex in the new community centre at Hillcrest Park. I have been mourning the loss of our outdoor pool that was just a few blocks away at the old Mount Pleasant Community Centre that I used regularly in past summers, but I have to admit the new pool is beautiful and you can see outside! It opens today so I definitely am going to use it sometime this weekend.

I love not having to rush to school! I have to admit a friend had organized an interesting sounding seminar that started at 7:00 am downtown and I have to admit I just couldn't do it.

That reminds me. I love Canada Line- a five minute walk away it can take me downtown or the airport in minutes and you only ever have to wait a couple of minutes. It's amazing. Okay I admit I have only taken it once this summer but I love having it here. I think it reminds me of fun times in Montreal in my twenties for one thing. Building its path was a nightmare but now that it is here...

Summer-I love walking along Spanish Banks-best in the morning or early evening. I also love dining on the patio deck at Jericho Beach Sailing Club-wonderful view and the minute the weather begins looking like it might be summer I try to head down there.

In the summer I love to dine where there is an ocean view - other favorites have to be Monk McQueen's Oyster Bar and Steveston's Tapenade Bistro. Just being there makes me think summer.
Steveston is a place I have always loved-I first started going there long ago and have watched the changes and developments because I am not the only one who finds it charming so now it's a tourist mecca with a lot of newer housing. Honestly I have to stop with the restaurant guides but I love the charm for lunch of Cannery Row any time of the year.

Then there is Bard on the Beach. A couple of weeks ago partly by chance and partly by plan I went to Antony and Cleopatra and to Henry V the same week. The setting is magical and from the big tent you can see the sun set over English Bay. After Henry the Fifth, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I walked with a friend back to her place just before Granville Island. It was beautiful with all the boats lit up along the path.

Maybe I should end this here-note this doesn't really link too well perhaps to Later Literacy but we tell our students to write about what they know and love so... Stay tuned for more favorites...I mean we haven't even discussed prowling farmers' markets, baking with berries, canoing with beavers etc.

Into summer

2010-07-19T07:45:00.000-07:00

Hmm... summer. Well as you can see blogging has fallen behind and that is probably okay. I can't believe how fast time has actually gone! I haven't gone very far afield. I spent a couple of days in Whistler the week after school ended where I saw not one but two different bear cubs in the not very wild. Other than that it's been quality time in Vancouver, a rather lovely place to be in the summer.

The first few days of the holiday were not good weather wise-felt like winter but then suddenly we had a mini-heatwave and then it settled into perfect weather-sun but not too hot. Every morning is a gift it seems. I love looking into the garden when I first get up (or not) and seeing blue sky.

I have been doing lots of reading, most of it very non serious. I just finished the latest Elizabeth George mystery, The Body of Death. I followed it up with another novel by another favorite mystery writer and I just couldn't get into it I think because Elizabeth George is such a beautiful writer it didn't bear well on the other book so I put it aside. If you haven't read her Thomas Lynley series, I totally recommend them to all mystery lovers.

Currently I am on The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, a book I picked off the shelf of the library, vaguely aware it was one of The Books of the year (Oprah stamp of approval). I am actually really enjoying it and finding it quite motivating as I engage in the usual summer activities of trying to clean things out and trying to get a few projects begun and finished. I am also thinking back to my teaching year and thinking what I want to change next year. Several years ago one of my friends noted that people seemed to be always studying depression but not happiness, which she thought would be more productive, and it seemed as soon as she said that I started seeing research on happiness.

I thinking if I make these entries short there is a better chance of getting them up! That will, of course, make me feel happier!

Horror anyone or Beware of Pixies

2010-07-03T21:49:00.000-07:00

And then I think there has been the influence of Twilight. I can't say horror or the supernatural is my favourite genre but there were lots of these books at the International Reading Association Convention in Chicago. I guess we could also call them fantasy. I note that Harlequin has sunk its teeth into YA so it must be fantasy!
Anyway I read a few that I honestly enjoyed. Let's start with those Pixies. I was a Pixie as a Brownie in my childhood and I thought they just helped people in fixes, but now that I have read Need by Carrie Jones, I know better. They are not nice, and often dangerous, especially if you let them kiss you. Zara is having a hard time after her step-dad dies and her mom decides to send her to live with her step-grandmother in Bedford, Maine. We initially think the main reason Zara is sent there is due to her depression but the real reason is that her mom thinks she needs more protection than she can provide. Leaving Charleston for wintry Maine is not thrilling for non-violent, Amnesty International fan Zara and she doesn't find everyone at her new school too friendly especially when she gains the attention of two of the school's heart throbs. Also teenage boys are disappearing and Zara seems to be the only one who can stop this happening. This is a fun book with intriguing characters and a plot with lots of twists and surprises. To paraphrase one reviewer, Stephen King meets Twilight.

Another teenage girl with problems is Emma in Lee Nichol's Deception: Haunting Emma. Her parents literally leave her alone, managing their antique business in San Francisco as they go off to Europe. Their manager has quit and her daughter, Emma's best friend won't have anything to do with her anymore. Emma's brother is off adventuring as well and nowhere to be found. She makes a new friend at school who tells the authorities she is living alone with no parents in the picture, and the next thing she knows she is in foster care. But to the rescue comes a friend of her brother's who whisks her off to the East Coast to attend his old school and live in his mysterious house. Sounds sinister but of course he is a hunk and a total gentleman but he isn't home much and the servants have a tendency to disappear. Like Zara, Emma has powers of which she is unaware. She is a ghost keeper extraordinaire. She can communicate with ghosts and more. Again there are many twists and turns of plot and it's difficult to know who to trust but a great read with an interesting heroine.

Once again we are in New England for Vampire High Sophmore Year. This book by Douglas Rees is the sequel to Vampire High, which I haven't read. Our hero, Cody Elliot, in the first book, moved from California to New Sodam, Massachusetts, and when he wasn't doing too well at Cotton Mather High, he transfers to Vlad Dracul High, where most students are vampires but they need a few humans for the water polo team so that they can stay accredited. Cody doesn't have to do any work to get A's but he decides to actually to take on the challenging curriculum and makes friends with two vampires and gains the school's respect.

In this book, his difficult cousin arrives on the scene and the two of them end up involved in a project to start an art gallery in an old abandoned mill in a ghost town section of town. This project stirs up old animosities and makes him temporarily lose his best friends.
Now I am far from an expert on vampires but these vampires seem rather different than others I have read about. I didn't think vampires could be werewolves or selkies but I am no expert. Anyway this book had lots of humour as well as suspense.

More books briefly reviewed

2010-07-02T06:45:00.000-07:00

This is an entry that I thought I posted but didn't!
This week my class and I went to Sun Yat Sen Gardens (now of course that was now a couple of weeks ago), a field trip I totally recommend. It gave my class a real feeling for life in China long ago. A book that I recommend to tie into Grade Seven Social Studies is Along the River by Adeline Yen Mah whose own story told in Chinese Cinderella sounds rather interesting. Set in China in 1942, after she suffers a head injury, CC finds herself drifting into the setting of China's most famous painting, set in the Sung dynasty almost 800 years before.

A new book by popular author, Kimberly Willis Holt (author of when Zachary Beaver Came to Town) is The Water Seeker. I found this book quite fascinating but not sure if it would appeal to my students. When I was a child, living in a rural area in Quebec, I would hear stories of dowsers who could feel water with a stick so that people would know where to dig for wells. This is the story of a father and a son with this gift describing their journey from the Missouri Territory to Oregon. This is the kind of story you didn't hear from Little House on the Prairie. But again this is a story that takes you on a journey, one that would be hard for my students to imagine. It really describes how hard life was then and how tough pioneers had to be and hopeful. Lots of unforgettable characters in this novel.

End of year thoughts

2010-07-01T13:07:00.000-07:00

Well I did it-I made it through a year of teaching after four years giving advice to others on what to do. Monday afternoon we had our special Grade Seven assembly and it felt really special to be a Grade Seven teacher at their special school assembly. They all looked so gorgeous and grown up, receiving their certificates in front of the whole school and their families. I thought how glad I was to have made this decision to come back to teach before I retire. Tuesday seemed to last forever and a moment. It was such an emotional time I think for the grade sevens, their last day as students at their elementary school. One student who usually smiles all the time looked so sad. My most "active" student didn't want to leave the classroom. There were lots of hugs and a few tears. My poor grade sixes had to just go along with all the drama.
We had our final assembly Tuesday morning. It was wonderful to see how many kids were involved in badminton and track and field as well as how many library monitors there were and most of our grade sevens were peer helpers. Teachers on their own time make these extras possible.

Our Minister of Education and my M.LA was moaning about how schools are getting worse today on the basis of not very conclusive data-the implication being that we are doing a poor job rather than the Ministry doing a poor job of course. I thought why don't you see the job our teachers do? You can't measure the success of education in the short term you have to look at the long term and somehow that seldom is done. Many of our school's students don't have easy lives nor do their parents. We are a school of immigrants-people coming here to make a better life for their children but that has costs-parents busy working so that children don't always get enough time with their parents and money is often an issue. We are losing population because of the cost of living in a city like Vancouver. For many of our students school is definitely their second home, a place where they can see possibilities and they feel cared for and treasured.

I am tired and I know that I did not do the most stellar job this year but I feel a sense of satisfaction no matter what the Minister of Education may think.

Sitting here in the early morning

2010-06-26T07:25:00.000-07:00

I am sitting here in the early morning alternating between typing lists of all the good things my students wrote about each other and reading essays from The Best Women's Travel Writing 2009. I have been compiling the lists for many years, inspired by a true essay I read in the original Chicken Soup for the Soul. I have a hard time reading this story out loud without crying but the idea of having a list of everything good your students in your sixth or seventh grade class I think is a nice one and an experience former students always do remember, whether they keep the lists or not.

This is my first year actually being a seventh grade classroom teacher so this transition period leaving elementary school to go to high school is really up close and personal this year. Such a funny period of life, caught between childhood and adolescence. Yesterday they were telling me how one of my students who had just turned thirteen shaved the night before and he complained how hard it was. Many of my students have spent their whole school life in our small school so it is very much their second home and exciting yet painful to leave.

I am in the midst of writing various certificates, and I still don't have my report cards back to deal with any corrections, sign them, run them off and file them with only two school days left before they are sent home.

Last week I survived Science World and Sun Yat Sen Gardens field trips, both went well but I was tired at the end of both days and then there was Sports Day and the end of the report cards.

This week we made it through the grad luncheon, a buddy picnic, and a day at Spanish Banks West Beach. Although there are many beaches in our city and they are free, most of my students had never actually been to this beach. To give city kids a day like this is always a wonderful experience. The weather was perfect as well.

I came home a bit salt encrusted, tired, planning an exciting evening of laundry, house cleaning, and working on certificates, lists, etc. I had forgotten all about a fundraising event at Nu Restaurant for Room to Read when a friend phoned to ask how to get to the restaurant. I ended up joining her and her husband, getting to sit out on the deck on False Creek under the Granville Street Bridge celebrating a great organization. We had a chance to chat with chapter leader, Sharon Davis, who recommended two books I want to read now. One is Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sharon Wudunn. I can't believe I had missed this one about educating and empowering women to fight poverty and extremism. The second is Dead Aid : Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa by Dambisa Moyo, Moyo, originally from Zambia, is an international economist who writes about macroeconomy and global affairs. Rumour has it that she will be speaking in Vancouver sometime soon.

It's finally looking like summer here and I must say I am looking forward to it. Mind you it has clouded over here. I have to go and water my fertilized lawn and pull lots of weeds and contemplate making it through a couple more days including a Grade Seven assembly etc. Hmm... all those good things.

What I have been reading lately in young adult literature

2010-06-19T07:44:00.000-07:00

What a week! Two field trips and Sports Day but I managed to finish and print off my report cards yesterday afternoon so now I am turning to this stack of books I have read and want to review before I bring them to school or give away to a friend who teaches high school. Some of these books have not yet been officially released and I have been reading advanced copies.

The first is one I had heard of but hadn't read, Cut by Patricia McCormick. I very much enjoyed another of her books, Sold, about a girl sold into contemporary slavery. Maybe enjoy wasn't the right word... Cut is of course about a girl who cuts herself but I thought this book was very well written and engaging. I thought it was an understandable story of why a girl would cut herself.

Teaching Grade Seven for the first time, I have learned a bit more about Ancient Cultures, and the students are certainly fascinated by them. Invisible City. the first of The Joshua Files by M.G. Harris, is about Joshua whose father, an archaeologist, has mysteriously died in a plane crash in Mexico. Strange things begin to happen in Oxford so that Joshua and two of his friends go to investigate in Mexico, and Joshua discovers that a contemporary Mayan culture is still secretly existing. This is a great thriller and the first of a series for middle schoolers.

Many many years ago I visited a beautiful part of the United States called The Outer Banks in North Carolina. One thing we did was go to an outside theatre and see a play that has been playing in the summer for years in Roanoke Island called The Lost Colony . The first settlement that the British made was in Roanoke Island in 1587 but then the settlement was cut off for several years due to the impending Spanish War and when a British ship finally returned, none of the settlers were found. Cate of the Lost Colony, a well researched novel by Lisa Klein, tells the story of a fictional maid of Queen Elizabeth the first, who makes the mistake of falling in love with Sir Walter Raleigh, and is banished to the colony. I found this book to be a real page turner and Cate an interesting character. It was fascinating imagining the contrast of life in Elizabethan England to that in the "wilds" of North America with the Croatoan native people. Were all the colonists killed or died of starvation or did some of them just become part of the native community and hide from the ship's crew?

I am, I admit a Jane Austen fan, every few years rereading all her novels. Needless to say, I was Jane Austen's Best Friend, had a certain appeal. Another well researched novel that is based on Jane's relationship with her real life cousin, Jenny Cooper. Again, author, Cora Harrison, used research as well as her imagination to write this novel. I found this quite an engaging read as one can perhaps see where ideas for Austen's novels began to hatch and get a picture of her own life.

The Unidentified by Rae Mariz, is a science fiction novel, based on the idea of what if in an attempt to save money on education, schools end up in malls run by corporate sponsors. I think this is one that would appeal to some of my students. It presents a scary scenario with believable characters and has the appeal of a mystery. The heroine Kid is bemused when after witnessing an anti-corporate prank, causing her mother to be thrilled and her best friend jealous, she is "branded" but also becoming involved with another group, the unidentified. A good read.

Well enough for now. More to come-find out why I was shocked that despite being one in Brownies, Pixies aren't good after all...

Thoughts coming to the end of the school year...

2010-06-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

The end is coming rapidly or sometimes not rapidly enough and I am keenly aware of all I haven't gotten done. I did okay with the first units of Grade Six and Seven Science (mainly because my resource teacher taught the grade six science for awhile) and our teacher-librarian did two units of Social Studies with the Grade Sevens and one with the Grade Sixes. And let's face it Science isn't my best teaching subject nor probably is Grade Seven math (just hoping I will have it under control by next year). One reassuring thing is I am keeping my Grade Sixes so we can continue onward and I am feeling very good about their math! Those of you who follow this blog know that with many hits and misses reading has gone fairly well. I somehow seem to have had them write mainly non-fiction so I think I will be beginning in with fiction and poetry next year!
I had a fun mini-unit last week when I had a hodge podge of two classes due to the district track meet. I focussed on wolves using fairly tale (I used the first story from the fantastic There's a Wolf at the Door,) an apparently factual book, Emily Gravett's Wolves, (well somewhat factual until the rabbit is eaten by the wolf as he is busily reading a book about wolves), and a factual article from National Geographic Kids and ending with them writing reports on wolves. I think I needed to do more of this kind of thing! We had lots of good listening and note taking and lots of using of strategies and everyone had a beautiful looking finished product in their own words.
I am ending the year with the grade sixes presenting reports each on a city and the sevens picking a subject in Ancient China, Rome, or Greece and doing presentations since we ran out of time! Mind you when I taught grade six I never finished the socials curriculum. Some of my studies this year seemed to peter out and some never happened. But now it's the point where I have to realize this and hope that they have better science teachers next year but have acquired some non-fiction reading skills, and that they will finish Dormia and it's sequel on their own.
But again maybe that is the great thing about teaching. It doesn't end with us in one year.

Next week we are off to Science World and Sun Yat Sen Gardens. At the latter we are going to make gun powder. They asked if they get to bring it home. Hmm...
P.S. I am avoiding writing report cards!

Thank you

2010-05-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the wonderful Brenda Powers through the Big Fresh Newsletter I discovered this website which is nothing but Thank you notes. Brought up on the idea that one should always write thank you notes, this blogger, Leah Dieterich, has a thank you note each day. She thanks objects as well as people, which is rather neat. So today, I want to thank long weekends, days when the sun shines, the rewards of flowers planted long ago that bloom year after year surprising me like the Columbine in this picture. Thank you for books, almost any books because I enjoy reading so much. Thanks for friends who share Purdy's chocolate bars. Thanks for kids who make me laugh. So many things to be thankful for so I am putting this blog on my list so I don't forget about it when I am in a complaining mood.

As indicated before I have been busy moodling and encouraging my class to moodle as well. One thing it does enable is my class to ask questions any time and since they are usually easy to answer it's not really a problem and I think they like it. Now when they say they have lost an assignment they know they can check on the moodle site so no excuses. There is still lots of old fashioned reading and writing going on in class and in homework assignments but I figure this is another place for students to communicate in a focused way. Notice we seem to have a new verb.

I am finishing this Monday morning and the sun is shining and I am barefoot so the outdoor furniture may actually go outside today. Dressed warmly I managed to do a bit of gardening yesterday but it looks as if it could be more pleasant today. Yeah! Thank you!

The joys of teacher and the frustrations of technology

2010-05-12T22:04:00.000-07:00

Well let's see this week I couldn't get my phone to stop telling me I had messages when I didn't have messages, I was given a "box" that makes my old TV high definition but now I can't figure out how to tape shows anymore, and I keep having problems getting moodle to do what I want plus my dear old ibook G4 isn't quite up to the latest technology and I can't keep getting messages to update when the system is incapable of updating. Someone suggested I just invite a ten year old over... and let's face it the computer is over four years old. Part of me seems to need technology and the other part just can't quite handle it. hm mm...

On the other hand, despite several sessions of the homework club this week and the marking and the prepping and never feeling quite on top of things, I have to say that yes, this year has been a gift and I do love it. I have children who carry my books to and from my car, I have one student who ended up mopping the floor yesterday after school because he was bored. They check to make sure someone is on peer helper duty, they put up the homework, they hand it out, they make me laugh, they compliment me on Funny Hair Day, they amuse me with their ads for Healthy Living, they discover the joys of reading a good book, they arrange their own field trips (even if they aren't where I necessarily want to go on). I get to drink coffee in the staffroom and eat snacks on Wednesdays with interesting colleagues. I have a secretary who truly loves all her students. Plus there's Scholastic Book Club, my friend for over 40 years since I was in high school, where you can still find amazing books for reasonable prices. I was almost late for school reading Cut by Patricia McCormick.

So as I survey the world of 28 sixth and seventh graders aged 11-13-19 boys and nine girls from that stool that I rescued from the basement and look at their projects on the latest fadeless bulletin board paper with sky and clouds, as they read during those rare moments of hushed silence I think it's not quite time to retire. Plus then I probably would have more time for technology frustrations.

And now for a little fiction about Afghanistan and lit circles

2010-05-04T07:35:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about going to an International Reading Association conference is all the books, and books for reduced prices or even free! One book I acquired this trip was Born Under a Million Shadows by Andrea Busfield. Told from the point of view of an 11 year old, it focuses on this boy and his mom and their life after his mom becomes the housekeeper for a British woman and her two house mates. Based on her own experience of living in Kabul after the American occupation, this is a fascinating book. Once again you are struck on how every family in Afghanistan has been so directly damaged by the constant warfare that has occurred there. Also I liked this book in how the author attempts to look at Western culture through they eyes of this boy.
A book for younger readers is Shooting Kabul by N.H. Senzai. This book is about a Afghan family who initially return to Afghanistan after the Taliban has taken over having rid the country of the Russians. The father thinks that life will be better and wishes to bring his skills as an agricultural specialist. After the family's return he begins to see that life is becoming more and more restrictive and he is forced to flee back to the United States with his family. As the family is escaping to Pakistan in the confusion their youngest young is lost and can't be found. The family is still forced to leave for the United States but each family member feels great guilt and responsibility for the lost child.
My grade sevens are currently reading books in literature circles and The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis has been a favorite. I told them how the book came out and then 911 and that went the United States decided to go to war against the Taliban the book was an instant hit as most people knew little about Afghanistan. It's hard to believe that these kids were toddlers then but we have done work on 911 this year.

I have had a bit of a hard time really getting reading groups or lit circles organized this year. I blame this somewhat on having a split class and having already to do so much splitting of groups. I have been quite pleased by how much more my class generally is reading now and lots of kids have read 30 novels independently. Doing lit circles with the same book hadn't seemed to be working that well for me in the past so that I started letting kids bring their own books into lit circles and that worked well. In my years at the school board I had been to a couple of Faye Brownlie's workshops on Lit Circles and read her book, Grand Conversations, so when the grade sevens begged for lit circles, I decided to use her strategies somewhat. Books are in groups of six and I started with five choices for 17 Grade Sevens. Groups meet who are reading the same book once a week with me. In three weeks all students are actually reading at least their second book as well as usually reading other books. Students are enjoying the experience and moving into new groups as they finish their books. My grade sixes are doing a novel study with our resource teacher of After Peaches. They are really enjoying the books and one student has had the thrill of an e-mail conversation with Michelle Mulder, the author.

Surviving and Thriving

2010-05-01T07:52:00.000-07:00

In Chicago I only bought one professional book, Surviving and Thriving by Maria Carty. I am addicted to professional books but I have a few too many as it is and some I haven't even seriously looked at yet. True Confessions. I picked this one up though as I glanced through it I thought it had good ideas for experienced as well as new teachers. What a perfect gift to a student teacher! This year back in the classroom has reminded me of what an art there is to classroom management and this book has great tips and ideas for making your classroom inviting, and organized for both group and individual learning.
The flip book format is one that Pembroke has introduced in the last year and one that I really like.

Back from Chicago

2010-04-29T19:59:00.000-07:00

I think I have been neglecting this blog again. Life gets busy and the blog doesn't get written! The week after the musical included hosting a very successful LOMCIRA event with Adrienne Gear in our nicely decorated gym and a walk up to our local high school with four classes to see A Midsummer Night's Dream, which the kids really enjoyed. The hardest part of course of going away when you are a classroom teacher is trying to plan for four days and leave your classroom in shape for another teacher to take over.
The purpose of going to Chicago was to attend the International Reading Association annual convention plus I have become rather fond of Chicago. I think it's a fantastic city. The conference kept me rather busy but I did manage to see Billy Elliot at the fabulous Oriental Theatre and an amazing show, Hephaestus, at the Goodman Theatre, as well as having some time at the Chicago Art Institute and a few nice walks. Our hotel was amazing, the Hotel Burnham, the converted Landmark Building.

What about the conference? One highlight has to be the opening keynote with Queen Rania from Jordan. She was inspiring, informative, and charming. To learn a bit more about her address at IRA here is a link. She gave us some really shocking statistics about how if the money spent in a year in the United States on weight loss programs was spent on education we could send all the world's children to school.

Another highlight has to be another general session with Al Gore, and I actually got to meet him and he took the opportunity to tell me he loved Vancouver. He has a great book for young readers, Our Choice: How We Can Solve the Climate Crisis, that he was autographing for those who had purchased the book early like me! I think sessions like this emphasize the importance of teachers to help educate the world to make the right decisions.

Much more to tell but I need to go to work. I have been operating on Chicago time this morning but still time to get moving. More to come!

Now I can't stop singing

2010-04-15T06:55:00.000-07:00

For the past few days we have been immersed in putting together a musical entitled Up the Watershed. It is quite exciting as the kids at our school have never been in a musical before. For me it's rather nice because of all the musicals I have been involved with this has been the least amount of work! Now I haven't done math in three days and the bets are off for tomorrow, but my class is having a wonderful time as are all the kids in the school. So many thanks to my principal, Jim Lattimer, who has taught the songs to all the students as he takes all our students once a week for music, to my talented fellow teacher and wonderful artist, Alison Diesvelt, for coming up with an amazing set and to her class and everyone who contributed to that, and most of all to Holly Arntzen and Kevin Wright for writing the songs and working with our kids. I think singing songs celebrating the Earth and reminding us of our responsibility to it is making a real impact on the children. Anyway so much fun, and the music keeps bouncing in my head. I will upload a picture later!

After Easter

2010-04-11T12:26:00.000-07:00

It's beautiful out there although there is a lot of snow on those mountains-a little late for the Olympics but yes, we do have snow but not in the city of course! School is definitely spinning towards the end. Big excitement this week is our musical with Holly Arntzen. Having been through a few musicals before this is definitely an easier way to do it. Our principal taught the kids the songs in music class and Holly will come in this week and work with the students. We had lots of fun with musicals of the past but lots of work as well. And ladies and gentlemen, in the four years I wasn't classroom teaching the work hasn't lessoned!
In my own reading of late I have been on a bit on a mystery kick. Many years ago I began reading Sue Grafton. I had been having a stressful time dealing with ill parents, having to pack up my family home etc. and I would retreat to my ex-husband's cottage and swim and read the mysteries that my father-in-law had lying around, renewing an acquaintance with Agatha Christie. Eventually I became aware that there were contemporary mysteries with grown up versions of my favourite childhood girl detectives, Trixie Beldon and Donna Parker. I think the first I discovered was Kinsey Milhone. The first book was A is for Alibi (published in 1983). I just finished the latest, U is for Undertow. Kinsey was born a year before me in 1950 but unlike me she is now only 38! The latest was great! There is just something so satisfying about a good mystery with engaging characters in an interesting setting.
Another interesting mystery I picked up on the library shelf, was The Broken Teaglass by Emily Arsenault. This mystery is set at the head office of a dictionary company and two young lexigraphers (don't you love that word) find some strange citations that go together to tell a true story set in the past with people who worked in their office. Now as someone who has been trying to increase my students' vocabularies this year, I found myself drawn to this mystery. I have to tell you I have never even thought about what goes into making dictionaries so that alone was interesting. I went to university with a Peter Funk (not that I really knew him) of the Funk and Wagnalls Dictionary family.

Apparently mystery readers aren't really morbid but just people who like tidy endings. And there are times that mysteries are just what I like to read. Many of my students are mystery fans and the 39 Clues series is one they are enjoying.

Speaking of needs to escape. More cutbacks at our school due to an 18 million dollar shortfall. Literacy may be the major goal at the VSB but the literacy team will only have a skeleton staff left. I visited my old workplace on the 4th floor on Wednesday and the atmosphere was rather depressing. Those of us who have been in the school system for a long time become almost used to the slashes that seem to come every few years. Many of us keep wondering why we don't close some of our very small schools but that doesn't seem a popular solution. One, of course, always has to wonder what our provincial government's agenda is and why they can't see how important a good public school system is. I also personally find it depressing to see more and more private but partially government funded schools. I also find it depressing that parents will do anything to send their kids to high schools rated highly by the Fraser Institute. Hmm-back to reading mysteries...