"One Thing" for Tues. Feb. 25

It was Science Jam over at the Aberdeen Centre today and several Richmond schools were involved. I have never been at a school that has participated in the Science Jam but have been to the mall a couple of times to see the experiments on display. 

Janice Novakowski was there today and put together this cool video display using "Animoto" of many of the projects, participants and even the School Trustees who were there. 

http://animoto.com/play/aL3OWESGPI0tvKPYokGkEQ

It looks like there were a lot more inquiry type of projects than there used to be in the past where students would just "reuse" someone else's science experiment "in a can" from years before. Students actually coming up with ideas, hypotheses and then creating an experiment themselves. Good to see. 

"One Thing" for Mon. Feb. 24

This September a new student named Beres joined us at Diefenbaker. He is in grade 7. You don't often get new students for the last year of elementary school, but Beres was moving here from Gibsons (where the family still lives) during the week so that he could attend figure skating practices more easily. Beres had been competing at a pretty high level in BC and the travel over from Gibsons was proving burdensome. He is not in my class, but I got to know him a bit at Outdoor Education Camp, located in (ironically), Gibsons.

This past weekend, Beres was competing at the BC Winter Games in Mission (and some surrounding areas) in the juvenile boys figure skating category. The BC Winter (and Summer) Games happen every couple of years and pit regions against each other. I attended a Summer Games in Prince George myself many years ago and have fond memories of making friends and participating in the sporting competition.

Beres took home the Gold medal!

Congratulations, Beres for all the hard work that got you to this point and good luck as you pursue your future goals in sport and life. We are proud of you, but not as proud I'm sure as your family is. Way to go!

  Beres in his Green Richmond/Delta/Zone 5 team jacket

Results: HERE

"One Thing/Fun Thing" for Fri. Feb 21

What a great day. Let's reflect on the legacy that the Olympics in Vancouver (2010) left on us. Canada won 26 medals here in Vancouver (a huge success by all standards, in my opinion) and we've got a guaranteed 25 this time in Sochi.

And yes, after Crosby's "Golden Goal" in 2010 and our Women's team comeback against the USA in hockey yesterday, "I Believe" anything can happen...

"One Thing" for Thurs. Feb. 20

I didn't have much of a chance to see anything happening at school today (or the fantastically exciting hockey game either) as I was in meetings for a good junk of it. However, I did get out and was able to enjoy the (February??) sunshine with some of the girls and boys in the gardening club. We are erecting a "recycled" fence made from old hockey sticks (Go Canada, Go!) in the hope that people will stay out of the garden beds once we have planted some of our seeds (which just arrived today). Hooray. We will plant them as soon as it says we are able to.

"One Thing" for Wed. Feb. 19

 From the "A Picture is Worth 1000 Words" file, here are a couple shots from around the school (taken today and yesterday)...

Division 9 doing Art in the round, (art in the style of Sandro Bottecelli

Lots of great looking beavers in there.

I was lucky enough to drop in on Ms. Park and her birthday tradition for Ernesto. She teaches about fire safety and everything after playing that catchy "Happy Birthday To You Song" from the internet. I know that if I was a student in her class, I would certainly feel special on my birthday (if not every day already). 

And lastly, this is our Long Jump Pit. It's just about ready for Track Attack (starting in April)... 

Or is is ready to be water skied on?

"One Thing" for Tues. Feb. 18

There are a couple of important "footprints" out there these days. Our environmental footprint and our digital footprint. Here's what I found on Twitter today about "How to teach students about their digital footprint:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2014/01/20/kids-digital-footprint-937/

It's an article from eSchool News and talks about the consequences of images and words that go up online. We have probably heard cautionary tales about employers finding out information that led to the firing (or not hiring) of their (potential) employees after (easily) finding out information about the individual who has posted incriminating information about themselves online. The question is why was the individual not more discerning about what they were doing (or at least posting)? Did they not feel their boss would be able to search the internet?

Have you tried "Googling" (yes, apparently that is now a verb) yourself? Put your name in quotations (for a more accurate search) and see what comes up. I'll wait and see you after you go down an internet rabbit hole for a minute. The first thing that comes up for me is my Twitter account. Then there's stuff about my school and also the video application I did with my sister in hopes of getting on the first ever Amazing Race Canada (a goal of ours ever since the American version of the show first came out). While that's sort of embarrassing, at least it is something that is intended for the internet and we filmed it knowing this was where it was going. Only 146 people have viewed that though, so I'm not too worried.

Back to the article, it states that "The average young person ages 8-18 consumes 7.5 hours of media per day outside of school." That is a significant number. As a teacher, one of our roles is to try and help our students be smart and safe about what they put online and what they share. As soon as something has been put on the internet, there is always the chance that someone has taken a screenshot of it and that even if you take it down, the original can last out there. Forever. 

Is what is out there about you on the internet a true reflection of what you are like as a person? We would like it to be. So talk about this with your children/students and have a discussion about being a positive digital citizen.

"One Thing" for Mon. Feb. 17

At our Professional Development session last Tuesday with Jeffrey Wilhelm, one of the things he stated was that students will only attend to things that teachers give time to. This includes reading. If we spend no time reading in our classrooms (silent reading or reading novels or reading aloud together etc), then the students will not see reading as important.

One of his ideas was to create something that can be updated and shows what we are reading. So Mrs. Hikida made these for all of our staff and handed them out at our staff meeting today:

A couple of us even filled them in already:

So, take a look for these around the school, start a discussion and we'll see where this goes. Sometimes a great idea is a really small one.