Grade 7 and 8 Overnight Trip to Mansfield Outdoor Centre

So students are about to embark on a three day, two night trip to Mansfield Outdoor Centre, which is located just 1 hour from Toronto in the beautiful area of Mulmur. Students will be staying in the cabins at the Main building and will be participating in a variety of outdoor based activities. Essentially, our students will be coming to a traditional kind of summer camp, only we're going during the school year.

I believe strongly in the value of getting kids outside and having them experience nature, learn and be connected with their world. Once you get them outside and experiencing and learning they love it and become even more curious. Richard Louv author of the "Last Child in the Woods", discusses the importance of kids gaining independence and getting outside.

These types of activities are so important for our kids. Firstly, many of our kids never get to come to a place like Mansfield and experience the outdoors. So many of my city kids have no idea what it's like to spend 24/7 outdoors, in nature.

When we come here kids  get an opportunity to explore the nature. We give them freedom within a set of boundaries. For instance, during free time kids can go and explore the area as long as they see the main building at all times. This rule allows kids to explore approximately a 4 or 5 acre area while still being within eyesight of our home base. The kids play soccer, basketball, volleyball, etc. They explore the fields. I make the rule that students can climb trees as long they stay on branches that are thicker than their wrist. The reality is they never really get very far off the ground but it feels like a huge freedom. So many of them have never climbed trees before. Last year we taught a group to make a horn noise by blowing on thick pieces of grass. Some of them were so entertained by this they spent the whole week playing with grass horns.

The programs we participate in are also extremely valuable. Kids, participate in pond study, where they investigate pond creatures, or they complete orienteering maps and explore the forest. They learn about nature through experiential education.

I'm truly looking forward to this trip and can't wait to see what happens.

Education Week and The Activities here at Lagerquist!

Education Week is quickly approaching and I find myself rushing to put together this post. I want to inform everyone of all the different activities that will be occurring here at Lagerquist. There are a lot of staff who have worked very hard to put together a variety of different activities for our students.

We decided to go with the theme.

Explore!

Our Hope was to present students with lots of opportunities to Explore information they wouldn't normally be able to experience during a normal day at school. 

So here it is.... Our Education Week line up. 

Explore Birds of Prey-

The Canadian Raptor Conservancy will present in the gym on April 23rd (presentation takes place in the gym)

Explore the Past-

Guess which baby picture belongs to which teacher. Guess them correctly and win a prize (pictures are located in the downstairs hallway)

                                          Explore Music-

Monday April 22 the beatboxing string trio Infinitus will perform in the gym.

Explore Human Experience-

Discover the human side of your teachers! Hear fascinating stories!

 Learn about the variety of human life! (Human books will be read in the library. Students can sign up for different books)

                                                                                              

Explore Ideas-

Listen to your classmates present their thoughts during the speech competition (Speeches will be presented in the library)

Explore French- Listen to and look at French Speeches, Skits, and eBooks– all created by Lagerquist students! April 26th (find the cafe located upstairs in the library)

Photo Essays on Migration

Recently, students in Mrs. Naidu's grade 8 geography class completed a research assignment on the push and pull factors that affect human migration. Students utilized smart ideas to organize and map out information which compared the quality of life in Canada to life another country. Students utilized The CIA World Factbook, and many other sites to find information about birth rates, literacy rates, unemployment rates, etc. Students then took this information and synthesized it into a photo essay with captions for their chosen images. Students had many different options available for creating the photo essays. Some used the iPad or their Mac book, others used Prezi or PowerPoint. We gave them many options for creating their photo essays.
Students were given several periods to research their topics and Mrs. Naidu and myself guided the students through the numerous facts and information as they built their webs on Smart ideas. All in all the results were pretty successful. Students learned a great deal and had to do a lot of thinking about their topics. Some found that their countries weren't very different Canada in terms of health care, education, etc. These students really had to think about what might draw a person here to Canada if their home country was so similar to our own. We watched the students think they're way through the project and learn a great deal about life in other countries. Many of the students were surprised by infant death rate in many countries. It's fairly unheard of here in Canada to lose a child so this statistic surprised them quite a bit.
The project was an enjoyable experience for both teachers and students and the results were valuable. We look forward to working together on the same project next year. Of course there will be items that will be tweaked and the amount of data will probably be lessened. Student feedback on the project mentioned that this was a difficulty they had with the project.

Below are some links to examples of the project and the finished photo essays.
Jordan's Photo Essay
Nesha's Photo Essay as a website
Amy's Morocco Photo Essay

A Fall Report on our Library

I just wanted to write up a little progress report on the activities occurring here in the library over the fall term. There’s been a lot and I’ve learned a lot. We have a lot to do still to keep building this place into a learning commons.

My Goal to build this library!!!

1. A welcoming, service-oriented, tech-rich environment that is open on a regular basis and that invites students in to find resources and services that support their work.
2. Comfortable reading areas that attract students to books and to developing the lifelong habit of reading.
3. Comfortable working areas that enable different groupings of students to work, from independent learners, to pairs and small groups to whole-class instruction.
4. 24/7 access to digital resources as well as a collection of dynamic print resources all supporting curriculum and reading.
5. An area that would invite teachers, and guests to work with a class or group, with the support of the teacher-librarian to present multimedia or other performances.
6. A place that would provide students and teachers with opportunities to learn more advanced technology skills and create more complex digital products.
7. A place that is available for teachers to work in groups in workshops/lunch n’ learns to build new skills or collaboratively develop new resources, tools, etc.
8. provide a multitude of literacy initiatives and reading programs

Total number of Forest of Reading Books - 160
Total number of students participating in Forest Voting - 194 signed up
Activities for Forest of Reading

• Book Club
• Award Design Contest
• Talks with Expert Teachers
• Voting
• Imovie for the blog

Library Helpers
Currently 17 students come to the library regularly to shelve and restock books and help with maintaining the library

Study Hall
This runs Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - 99% of the time I’m full and have to turn people away


Total number of checkouts to date - 2971
grade 6 total = 567
grade 7 total = 847
grade 8 total = 784

Total new items purchased by year
2011 - 503
2012 - 788

Total number of items in the library
Books - 2594
easy read/picture - 246
Graphic novel - 210
Magazine subscriptions - 8
Prof reference - 334
encyclopedias/reference - 180

Age of Books
Average age of books is 11 years old by publication year
2004 - 1111 total books published this year these are fiction and non-fiction
2001 - 887 total books published this year these are fiction and non-fiction
2008 - 442 total books published this year these are fiction and non-fiction

Graph Age of books by Dewey system

Teacher Research/Collaboration

• grade 6 research for Biodiversity - students researched and created presentations using poster board or prezi or powerpoint
• group research on Aboriginal peoples - students created a presentation for class on a specific group of native people
• completed Dare Arts cards
• research for grade 8’s completed Island City project
• grade 7 french project to create comics using Bitstrips
• utilized Tumble books
• website creation with live reenactment utilizing twitter for confederation
• recording radio advertisements in french for restaurants
• utilizing ipads and screenchomp for explaining websites for a charity “Shattered” novel study
• utilize computers to work on gizmos for science
• utilizing Imovie to create TV ads for a French Restaurant
• utilizing Ipads to film skit for french
• research project on mixtures and solutions end product was powerpoint or prezi
• research project with students on Canadian Artists
• research project on famous musicians students create a presentation for the class, like Prezi, powerpoint, frames 4, or jeopardy
• research project for migration students are creating photo essays on push and pull factors
• robotics project
• collaborating with me to train students on premier

Upcoming Projects/Plans

• using both the cart in class and the lab students will do research for cells
• will use Imovie to create trailers for the book the Twits - we will split the class and do storyboards then alternate filming times
• students will research water then create children’s stories about water utilizing Storybird
• utilizing audacity to make podcasts in music

6 Teachers bring their classes for regular book exchange

Fundraising

• Book Fair - 250$ - store credit
• Chapter’s night - 400$ - gift card
• Dare Arts - 95$ - cash
• Adopt a School - 500$ - gift card

Major Expenses for library budget

• Purchasing Fiction titles appropriate for grade 6’s - 1500
• Purchasing Graphic novels - 500
• Purchasing replacement book tape - 150$
• Repair books - 195$
• Magazine subscriptions 275$
• Incidentals like barcodes, magazine racks and board games took up the rest

Lessons learned from this year so far

• I can’t let teachers book regular weekly periods for computer use. There isn’t enough flexibility to schedule around them in 4 period day
• I needed to purchase more than 8 copies of Red Maple for Forest - they’re very popular
• The cart is a huge maintenance issue - reliable students should be trained in September to help with upkeep
• Cell phones are too small for BYOD to be useful awkward for kids to read
• The cart needs to monitored every period to ensure everything is back
• If Ipads are constantly plugged in to charge the battery dies
• Netbooks must be shut down with each new user or you can’t get on the network
• Each Wi Fi hub has 30 logins
• The cart is heavy
• Not everyone knows that you can sign out books from the library
• Not everyone knows that they can bring kids to the library to do research and collaborate/team teach with me
• Many teachers aren’t aware of the need to scaffold research so students of all levels are successful
• I have a lot to learn :))))

Finished Aboriginal Projects

I would like to display some of our finished projects from the grade 6 aboriginal peoples unit. Please see the blog entry entitled The Actual Assignment Pages to refresh your memory as to what the assignment entailed. Students were very enthusiastic about the assignment. They worked hard to complete the assignment and worked well together. Mrs. Camarda and myself worked hard to have to students conference with each other in order to ensure that each part of the assignment was completed. I have included samples of the students work below.

1. The Cree - this is a power point presentation which has been uploaded to a Google drive file. 
2. The following images display the models of traditional aboriginal wigwams, teepees, longhouses, etc.

Wigwam

A Salish house

A Longhouse

A teepee

Salish Longhouse

A Wigwam

The whole collection

The following images show some of the display boards that students created for their presentations.

A Story board for an Iroquois Creation Story

A presentation board on the Blackfoot

All about the Iroquois

A drawing of a teepee that explains different parts of the structure

All about the Salish

Mrs. Camarda and I consider the project to have been quite successful. The students have learned a great deal. They were able to be creative and  appeared to enjoy the work. They were enthusiastic and confident when they presented to their classmates. This is the first time that we have run this particular project with the students and Mrs. Camarda and I will discuss some things that we plan on changing in the future. This however is what teaching is all about. We learn just as much as the kids do each time we prepare and present a unit. Sometimes the manner in which a project is introduced is changed or the order in which the background information is changed. Each time a unit is taught there are always little changes or tweaks for the better. Teachers analyze and assess the effectiveness of a given unit and then work towards building it into something better each time it is taught. 

An Update on the Aboriginal Peoples project

Students are working well on the project and seem to be enjoying the activity. They are productive and are starting to produce some amazing work. I've included some images here of their work in progress.

So far students have utilized the web and a variety of books to search for information, make notes and begin work on their final product. We have taught students to look for info in the books by utilizing the table of contents and the index. They have been quite successful at finding infomation in the text sources we've given them.

The hardest part of the whole project for students seems to have been skimming through internet information to find what they need. Students look for websites that will discuss exactly the information they need. They struggle with the idea that a website might be a site that contains information about Iroquois but that it will be broken down into subsections.

One young lady was rather frustrated that there were no sites that specifically discussed the types of tools used to build longhouses. It took a while to explain to her that she needed to scroll through the site on the Iroquois and find a section about the longhouse and that if she read that section she would find out how they built longhouses. Students seem to have a need for the information to pop up instantly. The hardest part of all of this is teaching them to research not expect the answers to be there at their beck and call.
         

How do you battle that? How do you get a student to start researching properly?

The answer is simple. You really have to reinforce the concept of skim and scan. You also have to be extremely patient. I have found that time and time again I will say to the same students.

"Slow down read the site carefully. The information is there hiding and you have to search for it. Research is like a scavenger hunt. The answers aren't obvious. If they were there would be no challenge to the whole task." 

Learning to research is like learning to walk. First you crawl, then you stumble and fall, but if you keep trying you start to walk and then  run. Research is the same way. It takes for ever to find the info you're looking for. Then you have to read through a site and discover it might not be what you were looking for but then when you find what you need the whole project moves at great speed. The kids will get it we just have to be patient and guide them.

Two Heads are Better than One: The Advantage of Collaboration!

Today I would like to discuss the beginnings of a great collaborative relationship with one of my colleagues, Mrs. Clara Camarda.

We have worked together to create and structure a research project for her grade 6 classes. Collaboration is important and so is structuring the research for students.  It's not good enough to say to students, "Here's your topic! Here's your due date! On your marks get set go." In almost every case releasing the hounds, so to speak will not result in effective research.

Lets begin with collaboration.... The old saying two heads are better than one is absolutely correct.

Research projects can be complicated, time consuming and overwhelming for both a teacher and the students, having a second set of hands to assist with the whole event is very important.

Today at school Mrs. Camarda and I engaged in collaborative teaching with her grade 6 classes. The students are beginning a research project on Canada's aboriginal people's. Students are being asked to learn about their history, culture and the lives of modern First Nations people, here in Canada. Students will present their learning at a potlatch type event later on this month in class. The kids are looking forward to the event.

Over the past few weeks Mrs. Camarada and I have discussed the project thoroughly, planned out a schedule for research in the library and created a structure and set of guidelines for the students. We then discussed what I would cover with the students and how I would guide them at the beginning of the research. Mrs. Camarda created the task checklists and daily work summaries for each group to fill out, along with a list of resources to use. Mrs. Camarda searched and found some resources. I also assisted by finding some of the resources and websites we would supply the students in order to help give them direction. I also pulled a large number of print resources from our shelves that have been reserved solely for here classes use in the library.

On the day when we introduced the project to the students Mrs. Camarda and I took turns explaining different elements of the project and we also worked together to meet with each group and help them to consolidate each person's role within their groups. Kids seemed to be focused and confident.

Students decided on their roles and negotiated with group members to resolve conflicts over who was going to complete which tasks. Rock, paper, scissors was used occasionally to rectify disagreements. :)))

At that point we began our preview of available resources. Students perused the print resources and made quick notes of page numbers and book titles and myself and Mrs. Camarda circulated throughout the room assisting students in using the index and table of contents to help them find  information on their topics.

Then students were introduced to the online resources in the same way and we discussed using Boolean terms to help narrow down their searches. They were given about 20 minutes at the end of the period to begin their research. Here's a link to the digital library we introduced to students today. It's one designed solely for Peel students. Library eResources


During all this activity Mrs. Camarda and I worked to help students we would make comments about each other's suggestions and the discussion with the kids was very much a give and take between the two of us neither of us led the lesson while the other was silent. We had a conversation with the kids. When one of us forgot to mention something the other would jump in.  It worked very well.

I hope that we have provided the students with an example of good collaboration that they will use with their groups and that we have enriched their learning by having two of us available to assist them with their learning.

So I will end here by saying I will definitely post samples of student work when they finish up their projects and I look forward to working with Mrs. Camarda again this year. It was a blast and we're not even finished the project yet.

I've included the assignment pages here.

As a side note here's a link to another project I'm currently collaborating on with 4 other teachers.
The motivation tap