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Earlier this school year, Grade 8 Humanities Teacher Jaime Groeller worked with her students to purposefully engage them in Active Reading. Below is an excerpt from her class blog around “Talking to the Text”. Inspired by a student video created … Continue reading Talking to the Text
Deirdre Bailey and Jocelyn Monteith “I just feel really confident since the “all-girls” elective. I feel like I could go into the backcountry with boys or girls and do everything and feel strong. Knowing that I am capable is something I will for sure carry … Continue reading Girls in the Backcountry
-a research project by Kevin Sonico and Louis Cheng (grade 8/9 Math teachers) Terms such as benchmarks, competencies, standards, and outcomes are used interchangeably (Brindley, 2001) to indicate objectives that students must achieve. Hereafter referred to as outcomes-based assessment, the … Continue reading Outcomes based assessment: Planning for assessment tasks
By IanV., Trevor B., and Parker S.In April, the grade 8’s had the pleasure of visiting the University of Calgary for a human body performance lab . During this time, we had the opportunity to visit 6 different stations, all with a general focus on human body performance. The reason for this trip, aside from the learning experience, was to judge a university level kinesiology contest. The grade 8 students were provided with a sheet of paper, containing subsections for each station. We were required to provide feedback for each and every station, as well as a mark out of … Continue reading University of Calgary Human Performance Lab
“I on the Sky” Brittany Babott ~ Grade 4-9 Fine Arts Pre-service teacherWerklund School of Education https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/BddBZYCetv4&source=udsA reoccurring theme in my drama classes the past term has been the exploration of what a ‘punctum’ is and how it relates to theatre. The word punctum is a Latin word:punc·tumˈpəNGktəm/nountechnicalnoun: punctum; plural noun: puncta1. a small, distinct point. I had first been introduced to this seemingly strange word a few years back when I attended a Ghost River Theatre workshop on devising theatre. Co-Artistic director David Van Belle had asked us to participate in an exercise where we would listen to a … Continue reading Connecting with the Performing Arts
Our grade 8 students and teachers are very fortunate to be working with Telus Spark and schools from the Rocky View School Division in the Science Communication Mentorship Program. Our students will be working with Telus Spark Exhibit Developers, members of APEGA, and Telus Spark Facilitators in creating exhibits for a public celebration of learning at Telus Spark on December 4, 2013. Our RIG “You be the Wires” Teachers from the two divisions met at Telus Spark on August 30, 2013 to discuss the project and participate in a RIG process (Random Idea Generator) in their prototype lab. The Calgary … Continue reading Science Mentorship with Telus Spark and RVSD
Grades: 6-9 Subject: All As part of our Collaboration and Outreach Program, the Calgary Science School is creating and sharing podcasts and PDF handouts of inquiry-based lessons designed by our teachers. We encourage feedback, comments and dialogue on the materials we publish. This podcast contains one approach to assessing website credibility by introducing three criteria for students to use when conducting internet research projects. These materials on website credibility were designed by The Critical Thinking Consortium, and are shared here with their permission. Here’s the accompanying PDF of the handouts. You can download the PDF by clicking on the download … Continue reading CSS Podcasts: Assessing Website Credibility
Ivy Waite and Jaime Groeller~ Grade 8 Humanities This post is part of a series. Read the previous posts here, here, here, and here. After 10 months of experimentation, the question remains: will we continue to approach teaching in such a manner? Have the benefits to all stakeholders outweighed the challenges? We believe the answer is yes! As mentioned in previous posts, team teaching in this manner does not “fix” all problems: in fact, it comes with its own set of challenges, but we truly believe that with a few small changes, many of which we have already instituted, our … Continue reading Team Teaching: Our Adventures & Advice to Future Collaborators
Jaime Groeller & Ivy Waite~ Grade 8 Humanities This post is part of a series. Read the previous posts here, here, and here. As discussed in a previous post, on April 30 we conducted a formal survey of our students regarding the team teaching approach we have taken up over the last 9 months. We had conducted informal surveys twice before, and tried to take into account the concerns and suggestions provided to make the experience more positive for the majority of the students. Here is part 2 of an anecdotal analysis of the formal survey. (Part 1 can be … Continue reading Team Teaching: Student Survey Results & Analysis Pt. 2 – Triumphs!
Jaime Groeller & Ivy Waite This post is part of a series. Read the previous posts here and here. On April 30 we conducted a formal survey of our students regarding the team teaching approach we have taken up over the last 9 months. We had conducted informal surveys twice before, and tried to take into account the concerns and suggestions provided to make the experience more positive for the students. Here is part one of an anecdotal analysis of the formal survey. (Part 2 can be found here.) As is human nature, the less supportive comments often overshadow the … Continue reading Team Teaching: Student Survey Results & Analysis Pt. 1 – Challenges