Our grade 8 students are currently in the middle of large-scale study, combining both the Worldview and Renaissance components of the Social Studies curriculum. This study contains two sections, first the creation of a worldview survey, and then a study on the Renaissance, comparing the Italian City States to the conditions in contemporary Calgary. To help with the first component, we’ve had few experts participate in the study, bringing the element of authenticity into the work. A few weeks ago our students Skyped with Wes Fryer, who informed us of some of the recent changes in networking technology, and how … Continue reading Grade 8: Creating Effective Surveys

One of our grade 7 Humanities teachers, Dan McWilliam, just finished a project with his grade 7 students. In order to understand the concept of perspective in historical accounts, Dan had his students re-write a ‘picture book’ on colonialization from an alternate perspective. Dan used the book “The Rabbits,” written by John Marsden and illustrated by Shaun Tan. “The Rabbits” is an incredible visual story of a group of rabbits (the colonizers) who arrive in a new land, spreading their worldview over the native marsupials who reside there. The art work is stunning, and weaves in fantastic imagery of western … Continue reading Grade 7: Remixing Historical Perspective

Some of our grade 6 students have recently finished a large scale writing project, called the Penny Book project. This project involves students writing a series of short stories, capturing memories from different years of their lives. The students have just finished all the planning, writing, editing and polishing of the stories, and the next step is to get their writing ready for printing. To do this the students are going to be introduced to the basics of graphic design and page layouts. To get the students creating effective page layouts for their stories, we’re using a two-step process. First, … Continue reading Grade 6 Graphic Design

Last week, our grade 8 students had the good fortune of having an hour and a half skype chat with Wes Fryer, an educational thinker and blogger from Oklahoma. Wes was very generous with his time – and we were very thankful for the opportunity to chat with him. Our students are currently working on a project combining both the ‘Worldview’ and ‘Renaissance’ elements of the grade 8 curriculum. During our skype chat, Wes was able to assist our students’ thinking about the changing role that technology plays in the spread of ideas. He also provided some suggestions about particular … Continue reading Grade 8’s Skyping With Wes Fryer