The Beginning of a New Year!!!

How did it get here so quickly? I'm overwhelmed to say the least. The school year snuck up on me. I'm sitting here at my kitchen table reading my emails and realizing I have less that 48 hours left before work begins again. So I thought I might as well get the first blog entry of the year over and done with. That's right it's Saturday night, at the end of August and I'm blogging about work. You are allowed to shake your head and call me a geek. I don't mind.

I learned something interesting over the summer. I like most people believed that the summer school holidays were created to match the Victorian Era farming harvest. Well that's a myth. Check out this link to The Independent to find out about holiday myths. It turns out there are all kinds of reasons for the long break including pressure from the tourist industry and parents changed the school calendar to create a longer summertime break for the benefit of families. Other articles state that concerns for the spread of disease through insects in the summer heat may be behind the summer vacation. Read up about it. Here's another link.

So what did I do with my summer? Everyone says we have so much holiday time. They're right I do have holiday time. Technically, we're unemployed during the summer but that's not what's important. It's precious time. I didn't get into teaching for the summer. It was never even on the radar, it didn't occur to me that it would be a really great thing.  In fact the time didn't become special until I had kids. I am extremely lucky to get the time and I spend it with my kids. What a gift! I have two months to bond and share the world with my boys. It's a dream come true. I hope my kids realize how lucky they are, not every mother gets this kind of time with their kids.

I haven't really been clear about summer activities though so here goes.... I don't think I really stopped once and took a good long break. We took a bunch of day trips in and around Bruce and Grey county (mostly hiking and canoeing). My husband and I took a three day holiday where we backpacked and camped in Bruce Peninsula National Park. Nope sorry no grand world travels, just simple affordable little vacations in and around our lovely province. Oh, and I experimented with underwater photography!!! Finally, I also did an extraordinary amount of home renovation. You are now reading the words of a laminate flooring master. My kids are masters with a hammer after a summer of practice.




Summer also included reading a collection of books and book reviews so I can go shopping right at the beginning of the year and fill the library with some new titles for the kids. My son helped me with the reading, he's 12 this year so right smack in the middle of the RHL cohort. I read a great many articles on technology. Here's a link to just one of them. "Critical mistakes made with iPads". I spent a good amount of time running over my plans for both the library and our technology program.

I've spent part of the summer emailing ideas back and forth with our new Principal Mrs. Neela Zinn. I still need to work out some details but our technology should be more innovative than ever and well the RHL Library/Learning Commons will be even more dynamic than last year.

I also plan to add a photography club and an outdoor adventure club to the mix this year. What am I thinking, this sounds like an awful lot of work. The answer is it is but it will make my year fly by and I get to do things I love with a bunch of people I love being around, namely kids.

The Mansfield Trip

Here are a few photos from the Mansfield trip which by all accounts was a total success. Kids said they truly enjoyed the trip. We had cool weather and then brutally hot weather but fun was had by all. Some students slept outside on the final night on their porches. The stars were awesome that night. Thanks so much to the students for making it such a fun trip your laughter certainly brought me joy.

Investigating creatures at the pond

Searching the whole pond

Playing Instincts for Survival in the woods

Playing Hucklebuckle

Low Ropes Activities in the Barn

Getting Right in the Pond

Foot to Butt in Huckle Buckle

The Pond is filled with Tadpoles and Newts

Teachers were hunters during Instincts

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.

Music Class on the iPads

Recently I have been working with Mrs. Caroline Singh on a music project that utilizes the app Garage Band.   We worked together to plan the project. We discussed timing and coordinating use of the iPads, along with how many periods students would need to complete their work. We also discussed the actual use of the iPads for making music.

Caroline and I decided that it would be best to stay simple for this first project. We decided to focus on teaching students how to use Garage Band rather than the actual musicality of their songs. The plan is to have them master the app itself and then next as a progression students will begin to focus on creating music that focuses on rhythm, chords, etc.
Students were very enthusiastic to learn about Garage Band. They were curious about all the different features available and spent a great deal of time experimenting with the app. They have  created some very short but interesting songs.
I've upload a few here.

Gen and Taylor song

Caroline's song

Matea's song

Nishaans song

Our plan is to take these songs and upload them into iMovie then students will utilize iMovie to edit and create music videos for their songs. The focus of the project is more on creativity and learning the apps then it is on the actual musicality of their work. We will upload some of the music videos once they are completed.

The 21st Century Principal: Transforming Our Schools by Changing Mindsets Not ...

The 21st Century Principal: Transforming Our Schools by Changing Mindsets Not ...: “Teacher mind frames are the most important enhancer and barrier to students’ learning.” Alan Bain and Mark Weston, The Learning Edge: Wha...

The Human Library!!!!

We recently held a Human Library event here at R.H. Lagerquist. Inspiration for the event was taken from Human Library.org.

The Human Library is an innovative method designed to promote dialogue, reduce prejudices and encourage understanding.The main characteristics of the project are to be found in its simplicity and positive approach.

In its initial form the Human Library is a mobile library set up as a space for dialogue and interaction. Visitors to a Human Library are given the opportunity to speak informally with “people on loan”; this latter group being extremely varied in age, sex and cultural background.

The Human Library enables groups to break stereotypes by challenging the most common prejudices in a positive and humorous manner. It is a concrete, easily transferable and affordable way of promoting tolerance and understanding.

It is a “keep it simple”, “no-nonsense” contribution to social cohesion in multicultural societies. Read more about the history .

The aim of the day was to expose students to the varied and vast experiences of their teachers. We wanted to show the human side of people working in the building. The goal was to open students eyes to the fact that as teachers we do more than mark tests. The event stayed small with only 12 books and we had students loan out these books in groups of about 20. We had a whole variety of different books available. Some teachers discussed their travels to other countries, or childhood experiences, others discussed trying out for Canadian Idol. We had a very good mix of books available to students.
Ideally I would have liked to search for community members that could also participate in the Human Library but for our first attempt I kept the library small. It was successful students said they really enjoyed the event. I will definitely plan another library for next year. I had included some small sound clips in this entry to give you an idea of what the Human Library was like for the kids.

Education Week and The Canadian Raptor Conservancy

As part of our education week activities we had James Cowan from the Canadian Raptor Conservancy visit us here at Lagerquist. All Lagerquist students attended the performance. We were able to get all 600 students into our gym and seated comfortably for the presentation.

James brought five different birds of prey with him and students learned about the birds and James also flew the birds for the students. One of our teachers, Mrs. Dwyer got to hold the Harris Hawk as a present from the students for her birthday. It was an interesting and engaging performance, both students and teachers had a lot of positive things to say about the birds, James and all of the information they learned yesterday.  

Here are some examples of the information they received from the presentation.

1. A Harris Hawk can land on a cactus so it wouldn't hurt if one landed on your head.
2. Great Horned owls like to hunt skunks because they don't have a sense of smell.
3. The Red-Tailed Hawk is on the list to become the Canadian National Bird. 
4. Canada does not have a Canadian National Bird.
5. Turkey Vultures have bald heads so that when they eat carrion it doesn't get all over their feathers.
6. Bald Eagles were extinct in Ontario up until 15 years ago.

The kids really loved how James flew the birds. He made a point of moving all over the room and ensuring that the students got a very close encounter with the birds. In all it was a great morning here at Lagerquist check out our photos.