Month: April 2012

grade6, math, science1 Comment

Big Numbers and Sky Science: Grade 6 Math/Science Integration

Deirdre Bailey

-by Candice Shaw, Grade 6 Math/Science In the Grade 6 curricula, there are many opportunities for meaningful integration between subjects. The Sky Science unit and Large Number topics fit harmoniously together. With a focus on problem solving, students first went about solving a variety of astronomy themed problems, such as “How many times further is Saturn’s distance from the Sun than Earth’s distance from the Sun?” These problems had students working with numbers in the millions and billions, as well as estimating, rounding, using appropriate units and converting distances. This problem solving was culminated with a major group problem: “How … Continue reading Big Numbers and Sky Science: Grade 6 Math/Science Integration

electives1 Comment

UCreate Elective: Developing Entreprenuerial Spirit at CSS

Deirdre Bailey

-by Jody Pereverzoff Elective Description: “From the fashion industry to the sports and electronic gaming industry, there is money to be made. But how to these ideas turn into money??? Well, if any of these thoughts have ever crossed your mind, then this elective is for you! In this elective, you will have the opportunity to create a product, business, and/or app from the ground up. You will start with an idea, and work your way to a finished product that you will market to potential investors. If you enjoy thinking outside the box and have ever wondered how ideas … Continue reading UCreate Elective: Developing Entreprenuerial Spirit at CSS

assessment, grade8, humanities2 Comments

A Different Kind of Test

Deirdre Bailey

-by Margaret Leland, Grade 8 Humanities Over the Spring break I was reading Seth Godin’s “Stop Stealing Dreams (what is school for?)” and began to question how best I could develop the unit final for my students to finish off our Worldviews in Conflict: The Spanish 
and the Aztecs. I was mulling over the following quotes by Seth Godin: “The obligation of the new school is to teach reasonable doubt. Not the unreasonable doubt of the wild-eyed heckler, but the evidence-based doubt of the questioning scientist and the reason-based doubt of the skilled debater.”  “Unfortunately, the things we desperately need … Continue reading A Different Kind of Test

leadership1 Comment

The Winding Road to Exemplary Instructional Leadership

Deirdre Bailey

-by Phil Butterfield, Assistant Principal As you may know from visiting the Connect! Blog or the Calgary Science School website, we have developed frameworks for exemplary teaching and exemplary learning. Together these two documents form the guiding principles by which we believe students can enjoy rewarding educational and social experiences that will equip them for success beyond CSS. But what mention is made of the role of school administrators within those frameworks? Certainly leadership as a desirable attribute of teachers and students is a key element but there is no specific reference to the nebulous and hard-to-define capacity of instructional … Continue reading The Winding Road to Exemplary Instructional Leadership

grade8, humanities, science2 Comments

Thoughts and Viruses Interdisciplinary Inquiry Unit

Deirdre Bailey

-by Dave Scott, Grade 8 Humanities This year one of the goals of the Grade 8 team was to undertake an interdisciplinary unit that brought together the four core subject areas of math, science, language arts, and social studies. With the aid of Erin Couillard, PD and outreach coordinator, after an afternoon planning session seeking an inquiry topic and question that was generous enough to engage all these domains, the team settled on a unit exploring the similarities between how viruses spread, and how ideas, social movements, and trends can become contagious in similar ways. Here we saw a question … Continue reading Thoughts and Viruses Interdisciplinary Inquiry Unit

grade4, humanities2 Comments

Connecting with an Expert: Grade 4 Humanities Picture Book Project

Deirdre Bailey

-By Heather Fawcett, Grade 4 Humanities Through the Learning Through the Arts (LTTA) initiative, Grade 4 students at CSS had the opportunity to work with local artist, Val Lawton, to develop professional grade picture books. LTTA partners local artists with schools to facilitate rich integration of Fine Arts and the core curriculum. The picture book project had students working in groups to write short stories set in one of Alberta’s natural regions. Magic in the Mountains, a picture book by Carol McTavish, Lori Nunn, and Linden Wentzloff, was used as a model for the project. Students were provided with graphic … Continue reading Connecting with an Expert: Grade 4 Humanities Picture Book Project

assessment, physicaleducation, research-and-innovation1 Comment

Video Assessment in Phys. Ed – A Reflection

Deirdre Bailey

-by Dean Schmeichel, Phys. Ed Teacher This is my final blog for the Research project – Video Assessment in PE. This was an extremely worthwhile project and it has shaped the future course of assessment for me in my career. From past experience, I know that I will continue to develop, adapt and modify this process. What works one year, might need to be overhauled the next, depending on the group of students, parents, teachers and my own level of commitment and excitement. There was an 86% response rate to the survey that I asked the Grade 9 students to … Continue reading Video Assessment in Phys. Ed – A Reflection

grade7, humanities, research-and-innovation, technology1 Comment

Using ShowMe in the Humanities Classroom

Deirdre Bailey

–Jody Pereverzoff grade 7 Humanities After reading Lisa Nelson’s blog on using ShowMe in the Math class, I thought it would be a successful tool for students to demonstrate their understanding of editorial cartoons. Students first read the short story “Back to our Roots” by Fernando Sorrentino (translated from Spanish by Iris Maria Mielonen) and brainstormed the main themes of the text. Students, as a class, decided that the two major themes in this text were consumerism and the complexity of “simple” in the world. We provided students with a few exemplars and techniques and had them create an original … Continue reading Using ShowMe in the Humanities Classroom