-by Dave Scott, Grade 8 Humanities This post is part of a four-part series exploring the curricular potential of digital textbooks or what I am calling “Integrated Inquiry Resources.” Read the first blog here for an introduction to the ideas that informed this project as well as the inquiry resource itself. And then a second… Continue reading Student Responses to a Digital Textbook Continued
Over the last week the media has been awash in news stories surrounding Apple’s unveiling of their new iBooks 2 application for the iPad. This free App provides a user-friendly platform allowing anyone with an Apple computer to create their own digital textbook specifically tailored to the educational needs of both their students and their… Continue reading Student Responses to a Digital Textbook
by Dave Scott What follows is post number two of a four part series on the curricular potential of digital textbooks. These posts are the result of an action research study I have been involved in as part of a research initiative at Calgary Science School to encourage innovation and reflective practice within an inquiry-based… Continue reading Digital Textbook Inquiry Tasks for the Renaissance
-by Lisa Nelson, Grade 7 Math/Science Teaching a group of grade 7s who have used 1:1 Macbook laptops for the past three years and are now part of a 1:1 iPad initiative has been somewhat challenging. The students were slightly discouraged by the limitations of the iPad at the beginning of the school year. It… Continue reading Geology and the iPad
By Ivy Waite Student engagement captivates me. Why is it that certain elements of our culture are able to draw in our students so easily, while others are often ignored? How can teachers take advantage of those things that captivate to engage our students in the classroom? We can – if we are willing to… Continue reading Student Engagement Captivates Me
by Deirdre Bailey and Amy Park It began with a conversation on how best to develop deep understanding of biological cycles. When we considered simply slicing fruit and vegetables in half and leaving them out in the open to observe the resulting changes, we never anticipated the smells, the new life, or the learning that… Continue reading Students into Scientists
by Tammy Berry, PE Specialist Mr. Schmeichel and I are in the process of working on improving on our reporting process by conducting verbal interviews with specific grades of Physical Education students every term. Our focus questions are as follows: 1) How does an Interview / Conversation (recorded and shared) based Term Assessment allow the… Continue reading Verbal Assessments in Physical Education
by Deirdre Bailey and Amy Park Our Grade 4 classes have spent the past three months inquiring into the topic of “Waste and Our World” with the goal of developing an appreciation and understanding of their roles and responsibilities as global citizens of this environmentally fragile and increasingly endangered planet. We had hoped that our… Continue reading Inquiring into Waste and Our World
As written in a previous post, one of our teachers, Dan McWilliam has been playing with augmented reality in his wood shop elective class. As a new semester begins – students can now visualize how their designs will appear in the real world. And even go so far as to place themselves digitally beside their… Continue reading Mixing the Real and the Virtual
-by Dave Scott, Grade 8 Humanities This term the Grade 8 Humanities team has been experimenting with creative ways for students to demonstrate their comprehension of key concepts and ideas surrounding the Italian Renaissance. Informed by Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design, we are interested in shifting the focus of learning from students memorizing isolated… Continue reading Demonstrating Understanding through Pixton
