Last year I used Interactive Notebooks with my Grade 8-10 Math classes with some success. My Grade 8 and 9 students used them the most but my implementation lacked direction and I don’t feel my students got as much out of them as they should have. I still taught my lessons regularly and then we would do an Interactive Notebook entry at the end of that topic as a type of review activity. So, while useful, I wasn’t using them to my full potential and my students could pick up on that, This year I was… Read More
December Currently
If you haven’t encountered a “Currently” post before, it is just a fun post at the beginning of each month that serves as a way to share what is Currently going on in your life! You can link up and share your own “Currently” post by visiting the wonderful Farley over at Oh’ Boy 4th Grade. I can’t believe it is already December! The last currently post I did was ALL the way back in September and it seems like everything has just flown by since then. Christmas is one of my favourite times of the year and I love getting… Read More
First Steps in Math – Day 1
Today I began the First Steps in Math program with four other educators from our division. Several years ago our division sent one of our colleagues to the First Steps in Math training program and he has now spent time each year educating other teachers in our division and was actually trained by David McKillop, who I saw last year in Brandon. My new books (provided by our division): the First Steps in Math Number Sense course book & work book. First Steps in Math was developed in Australia in the early 1990’s as a means… Read More
Encouraging Student Voice Through Social Media
I am currently working on my Master’s degree in the Curriculum & Planning Stream with a focus on tech integration in the classroom. My first class, Educational Issues, involves the completion of four different assignments: 1 blog post, 1 presentation, and 2 papers.This past Saturday our professor drove up to our community (abut a 2hr drive for him) to watch our presentations. We were each responsible for creating a 15min presentation on a topic of our choice and participated in a Q & A session immediately following. My presentation topic was Encouraging Student Voice Through Social Media and I chose… Read More
Hello??? Is Anyone Still There?
Hello! (2004). Uploaded to Flickr by Ken. Available online at:http://bit.ly/1xRryKG It is hard to believe that a full month and a half has gone by since I have actively blogged here! On one hand it seems like forever… and on the other hand I don’t know where the time has gone because it seems to have flown by so quickly. It is not that I didn’t want to be blogging… in fact I’ve started several posts that, for some reason, I just didn’t finish. It seemed as though there were too many aspects pulling my attention… Read More
Manitoba Provincial Report Card Pressure
“…teachers indicated that, on occasion, they had to phone in sick in order to complete their report cards on time and they acknowledged that others did so as well.”[i] In 2010 the Manitoba government announced the development of a provincial report card that would standardize assessment reporting across the province using both a parent-friendly format and plain language.[ii] While provisions were put in place to gain meaningful feedback from teachers, parents, and administrators before the mandatory implementation in the fall of 2013, an unstandardized execution has left many Manitoba teachers feeling the pressure. In a 2014 survey conducted by the… Read More
Flip Your Clothes Pin!
This summer I came across this pin while scrolling through Pinterest: See who handed in work. (Accessed 2014). Pinned to Teacher Life Hacks by Teacher Created Material. Available online at: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/377598749979684674/ I actually had my homeroom Grade 8s last year when they were in Grade 7 Science and even though it was only one class I feel like I got to know them quite well. Specifically…. their habit of misplacing their work and/or forgetting to hand-it in! While I realize it doesn’t take much time to flip through my hand-in box and see what is there, we… Read More
Have You Checked Out ManACE!?
Today I spent my first day out of the classroom attending the annual planning meeting for ManACE (Manitoba Association for Computing Educators). Being that I am almost 4 hours out of the city I don’t get to attend many meetings in person so it was awesome to catch-up with those that I only see once or twice a year! Furthermore, we are welcoming four new members to our board so I am adding new contacts to my circle 🙂 Here are some of the awesome things you want to know about! 1 ) SAGE Sessions – ManACE is… Read More
Welcoming a New Set of Grade 8's to the Blogging World!!
Today my Grade 8 Science class joined the blogging world with the official 2014-2015 launch of Mrs. T’s Classroom! This blog is one that I actually started last year with my Grade 8 homeroom, who ended up blogging regularly for their science class as well as featuring a weekly “Mathlete Friday” post. This year we are maintaining our online presence at Mrs. T’s Classroom as opposed to starting all over again with a new domain. Some of my students have already been checking out last year’s posts and are excited about the potential of competing for page-view statistics! We… Read More
Classroom Reveal!
During the last week of school in June our school began major renovations which included redoing the exterior walls of an entire wing of our building, some roofing restructuring, and a brand-new science lab/classroom. While everyone in our building was (and still is) excited about these upgrades, the construction may continue all the way until January. Understandably, this is creating a lot of inconveniences as we all adjust to new classrooms, half-finished classrooms, unavailable resources, loud noises, etc. Amidst all of the craziness, however, I was surprisingly able to keep my classroom! I am so thankful… Read More