Our Grade 8 study of Worldviews is in full swing. As written before, the students have created a survey with the hopes of gathering global data on worldview trends. The students worked with Rob Pegg to learn the important elements of survey design. We then had our grade 9 students critique the grade 8 survey… Continue reading Grade 8 Worldview Survey is Live!
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… 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… 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… 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… Continue reading Grade 8's Skyping With Wes Fryer
We recently had our first student-led conferences of the year. Like many schools, this is a time when students walk their parents through some of their learning over the term, as well as reflecting over the first 3 months of the year and setting goals for the next term. This term a couple of our… Continue reading Student Led Conferences: Using Podcasts
In a previous post, Dave Scott, one of our grade 8 teachers, discussed how Twitter and Skype had allowed him to connect with a philosophy teacher on Bowen Island, just outside of Vancouver, BC. Having met and Skyped a number of times, Brad and Dave have now set up a Ning, a site that allows… Continue reading Using 'Ning' to Collaborate Between Schools
Grade: 9 Subject: Humanities, Social Studies Teacher: Jennifer Woodard This grade 9 project centered around grade 9 students telling the stories of new immigrants to Canada. The project was done in partnership with the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society. The hope of this project was to engage students in the issue of Canadian immigration and citizenship… Continue reading Canada: Your Story is My Story
Next week four of our teachers are presenting at the annual Alberta Social Studies Conference. Jenn Woodard is giving two presentations: Canada: Your Story is My Story This presentation will cover a grade 9 project on immigration. Our school partnered with the Calgary Catholic Immigration Services and our grade 9 students interviewed recent immigrants to… Continue reading Four CSS teachers at the AB Social Studies Conference
Grade: 7 Subject: Science Our two grade 7 science teachers are starting a research project for the “Plants for Food and Fibre” unit of the grade 7 program of studies. The plan for the project is to have students examine a number of variables to determine which plant need has the greatest impact on plant… Continue reading Using Wikis for Knowledge Building in Science
