There are many different types of literacy in the world. Here is a video made in Manitoba on Media Literacy...check it out!
Leave a comment telling me what you think Media Literacy is, from watching this video and from your own experience. In what ways are you working on improving your Media Literacy? Can you think of other types of literacy that you deal with on a daily basis?
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Remembrance Day
To celebrate Remembrance Day each of the students was asked to write a postcard message to either a Veteran of war or a current Canadian Forces member. I am going to share some of the messages that the students wrote:
To Remember
Remember Remember the 11th of November. The day the guns were silent. When the trenches were quiet. When the field was calm and quiet. When the tanks stop dead in their tracks. When the skies of Europe were calm and fly-less. As the poppies grow we shall never forget the fallen. Remember Remember the 11th of November.
By: Waynell
Waynell wrote this poem at home and brought it to school. It is fantastic! The amount of thought that he put into this poem is very obvious. He read this poem at the Remembrance Day assembly at school and he did a really good job! Thanks Waynell for this beautiful poem.
Dear Veterans:
Thank you for fighting for our country and risking your life in World War I and II. One Remembrance Day I am remembering the people who died. Like Anne Frank.
P.S. Thank you
From: Leanne
Thank you for fighting in World War II and World War I. For taking your life for all of us in Canada. For making a sacrifice of leaving your family behind to go to war.
From: Lauchlin
Dear Veteran,
I want to hear your story about the war. Was it scary in the war? How long were you in the war for? Thank you for saving our country.
From: Adrian
Dear Veteran,
Thank you for fighting in World War II. You don't know how much I am thankful. Because of you everyone in Canada has the freedom to do anything they please.
From: Cylie
Dear Canadian Forces,
I know you have been fighting for us. I always thought of joining the forces. But I have to be 18, but someday I will be fighting along with you. Best of luck to you and keep our country safe.
From: Austin
Dear Veteran:
Thank you for the life you given to me. Thank you for fighting in the war and protecting the people of Canada. We thank you.
From: Laycen
To: Canadian Forces member
Thank you for protecting this country. For protecting our freedoms and I like that I have a safe place to stay. Thank you for making a sacrifice so that other people could live.
From: Troy
These are just a few samples of the postcards that my students wrote. Most of them did an excellent job and I am looking forward to sending them to the Veterans and Canadian Forces. Who knows, maybe some of my students will even get responses to their questions. I know that my students would love to see some comments on their work...so feel free to leave comments and I will make sure that they read them!
Hopefully, you can find something to remember on this day, just as my students have!
Monday, October 26, 2009
Literacy Carnival
Exactly two months
Can you believe that it is already the end of October? I can't! Today it has been exactly two months since the start of school. This is so hard to believe because it seems like just yesterday I walked into Dene high for the first time and my students greeted me for the first time!
But it truly has been two months and things are really starting to get interesting in room 114.
ELA 8K has started a unit called "Telling One's Life Story". In this unit we will be reading a novel called Go Ask Alice. This story is writen in diary format and is a 15 year-old girl's story of her battle with belonging that eventually turns into a drug addiction. We will also be reading poetry and short stories that show others telling their life story. Everyone has a story to tell and journaling/blogging is going to be a major way that students in ELA 8K will be given the chance to tell their story. You can check out the students' blogs here.
ELA 8J is still working on narratives of First Nations people. This works together with what we are working on in Social Studies. In SS 8 we are working on treaties in Saskatchewan. As a matter of fact, today we finished looking at the historical world views of different First Nations groups, such as the Cree, Dene, Saulteux, and Lakoda/Dacoda/Nekota people. Can anyone tell me one similarity and one difference between these groups?
As the end of the month is coming soon AMP (Attendance Motivation Party) is also coming up. This will be held on November 3, 2009 and invitations will be handed out to the students invited the day prior. AMP is for students with perfect attendance and less than 5 lates in a month. Hope to see many of the students there!
Mrs. Hepworth's grade 9 SS class will be putting on an Elder's Night at the Dene building on Tuesday, October 27 from 7-8 pm. All are welcome and those students in my SS class are asked to attend so that they know what they will need to do for the Elder's Night we will be hosting on December 1st.
Photo from Flickr Creative Commons LostMyHeadache
But it truly has been two months and things are really starting to get interesting in room 114.
ELA 8K has started a unit called "Telling One's Life Story". In this unit we will be reading a novel called Go Ask Alice. This story is writen in diary format and is a 15 year-old girl's story of her battle with belonging that eventually turns into a drug addiction. We will also be reading poetry and short stories that show others telling their life story. Everyone has a story to tell and journaling/blogging is going to be a major way that students in ELA 8K will be given the chance to tell their story. You can check out the students' blogs here.
ELA 8J is still working on narratives of First Nations people. This works together with what we are working on in Social Studies. In SS 8 we are working on treaties in Saskatchewan. As a matter of fact, today we finished looking at the historical world views of different First Nations groups, such as the Cree, Dene, Saulteux, and Lakoda/Dacoda/Nekota people. Can anyone tell me one similarity and one difference between these groups?
As the end of the month is coming soon AMP (Attendance Motivation Party) is also coming up. This will be held on November 3, 2009 and invitations will be handed out to the students invited the day prior. AMP is for students with perfect attendance and less than 5 lates in a month. Hope to see many of the students there!
Mrs. Hepworth's grade 9 SS class will be putting on an Elder's Night at the Dene building on Tuesday, October 27 from 7-8 pm. All are welcome and those students in my SS class are asked to attend so that they know what they will need to do for the Elder's Night we will be hosting on December 1st.
Photo from Flickr Creative Commons LostMyHeadache
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
One week and then a week off...
This week started off with an excellent day! While the weather is starting to get colder, there are many good things that are keeping the classroom busy.
8J has started a Treaties in the Classroom unit in Social Studies and in ELA we are working on Narratives of the First Nations. I am trying to link what we are doing in both classes so that students can relate better to the material. This will also help to make the classes more dynamic and help the material come alive. The hope of integrating curriculum is that school will begin to mirror real life. We don't separate our everyday lives into ELA or Social Studies or Science. Everything happens all at once so it only makes sense to have school start to look like that as well. We have read two narratives in ELA:
Premiere Brad Wall mandated that all educators teach Treaties in the Classroom. The Office of the Treaty Commissioner has come up with a great resource that lays out how to teach this sometimes controversial topic. We have only done a couple of days, basically an introduction, of this topic. One of the major topics that we have been discussing is how long the treaties were designed to last for.
"As long as the sun shines, and the rivers flow" is what is stated in the material and in the video that we have watched. What does this video mean to you and who put these conditions into the treaties?
ELA 8K is finishing up their final projects on Mystery at Latham House. They have two tasks:
Photos from Flickr Creative Commons - River (Levendis) and sun (Thai Jasmine)
8J has started a Treaties in the Classroom unit in Social Studies and in ELA we are working on Narratives of the First Nations. I am trying to link what we are doing in both classes so that students can relate better to the material. This will also help to make the classes more dynamic and help the material come alive. The hope of integrating curriculum is that school will begin to mirror real life. We don't separate our everyday lives into ELA or Social Studies or Science. Everything happens all at once so it only makes sense to have school start to look like that as well. We have read two narratives in ELA:
Premiere Brad Wall mandated that all educators teach Treaties in the Classroom. The Office of the Treaty Commissioner has come up with a great resource that lays out how to teach this sometimes controversial topic. We have only done a couple of days, basically an introduction, of this topic. One of the major topics that we have been discussing is how long the treaties were designed to last for.
"As long as the sun shines, and the rivers flow" is what is stated in the material and in the video that we have watched. What does this video mean to you and who put these conditions into the treaties?
ELA 8K is finishing up their final projects on Mystery at Latham House. They have two tasks:
- Create a cover for the novel. It must include a picture related to the novel, the title and the author. Stay tuned for pictures of how these covers turn out. I have seen the beginnings of this task and they look great!
- Write a different ending to the novel. It must be a page long, double spaced. The students will be posting these endings to their blogs which will be created this week.
Photos from Flickr Creative Commons - River (Levendis) and sun (Thai Jasmine)
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
AMP Night
Students with perfect attendance and less than five lates for the month of September were invited to the first AMP (attendance motivation program) night. This night was organized by the middle years homeroom teachers and was held at the Dene High School from 7-9 pm. There were 36 students from grade 7-9 that were invited to AMP night. When the students arrived they had popcorn, drinks, played in the open gym, watched movies and even played some games of sardine and hide-and-so-seek. Fun was had by all that attended!
Congratulations to those students that were invited to attend this event.
Attendance resets each month so there is still a chance to get yourself at the next AMP night!
How to...
Here is a Jing tutorial that I created to let the students know how to put images, videos and links into their blog posts!
Enjoy!
How to insert images, video and links into a Blogger post
Enjoy!
How to insert images, video and links into a Blogger post
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