Inspiration

Writing can be a difficult process for some, and if you mention a poetry or creative writing unit in school be prepared for a loud groan to rise up from the masses. That being said there are many different ways to inspire kids in ways they may have never thought of before. The follow three ideas are my favourite ways to help inspire students creative writing process.

1. Memory Box- Have students bring in a box and fill it with pictures, items, books, or materials that they have a connection with. If a student gets stuck they can look in their box and it may help them gain the inspiration they need.

2. Quote or Lyrics Journal- Have students keep a quote or lyrics journal which they can keep with them and bring to class. Any time they hear or read something that they feel passionate about have them write it down. This can be a great springboard for all types of inspirational ideas.

 

3. Starters- You can help students start off their stories, poetry, or writing processes by giving them general starting idea and seeing where their imaginations lead them. Three examples of this would be:

• You give a modern twist to the beginning of the classic story "Three Little Pigs" and see what they come up with.
• You ask your students to write one sentence endings to the start "I am" (give a 5 minute time limit)  to inspire a self reflecting poem. 
•  You put up a picture on the board and ask students to write about that picture.

 



 

 









Movies I Think Should Be Part of the Classroom (Clean versions of course!)

Crash 2004-


In Crash, a simple car accident forms an unyielding foundation for the complex exploration of race and prejudice. This incredibly thought provoking movie succeeds in bringing to the forefront the behaviour's that many people hold. This movie makes its audience consider these attitudes and  puts racism front and centre.

Dead Poet Society- 1989


An idealistic teacher stirs up the conformed roles of a 1959 prep school, inspiring his students to break free and find their own identity.

Schindler's List- 1993


A profoundly shocking, unsparing, fact-based,  look at the Holocaust done in black and white.

The bucket List- 2007


Two men who meet in a cancer ward and go through a list of things they want to do before they die.

Gladiator- 2000


When a Roman general is betrayed and his family murdered by an emperor's corrupt son, he comes to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge.

Where I've been... Where I'm From...

I am a advocate of travelling and experiencing other cultures. I think it is a necessary part of understanding our own significance as well as our own insignificance. It allows us to see humanity, issues, and the world from different perspectives and invokes empathy, understanding, and action. I have had the privilege of travelling to many amazing places in the world with so many more places I wish to go. The top 5 places I have travelled are:

5. Yukon and Alaska- There is something memorable to me about nature. It sooths my soul and makes me feel at home. I love the Majesty of mountains and coming from Northern Alberta I find trees to be a comfort. We went on a trip here years ago with my family and it left a lasting impression. My husband and I plan to travel there together in the next couple of years as it is something he has not got to do yet.

4. Victoria BC- There is something appealing about Victoria for me. With its warm climate, funky shops, and culture, it is a great place to go. I personally love BC, it has always been one of my favourite places to go though I must say I would love to do a trip out East.

3. New York- I love people watching and what better place to do so than NY! I honestly loved everything from the hustle and bustle to the noise, from the people and places to the museums (oh and I cannot forget the food... oh my the food was amazing!). There is something gritty and real about NY, and by that I mean that you see people in all walks of life all occupying the same space. Some are not afraid to approach you because they have such a small window of opportunity to do so, and others fold within themselves not wanting to be bothered the outside world.

2. Taiwan- My gosh what an amazing experience it was to go to Taipei. The only thing that made this trip hard was the fact that I was 4 months pregnant when we went (something that does not go well with 40 degree Celsius weather and 100% humidity). That being said I love history and buildings, something Taiwan has in spades. If I have one thing to say about Taiwan it is that the people there were so friendly. When we first arrived off the plane I will admit I was more than a little overwhelmed. It is amazing to see so many people living in such a small place. I was proud of how self reliant I became while we were there, I even became the subway planner for the day. Funny fact though, as much as I wanted to try much of the food I mostly lived off of 7-11 Pringles and water (pregnancy was not nice to me- morning sickness for 9 months!) while I was there. My husband was a lot more adventurous and tried a variety of local favourites.

1. France/Cannes- This will be my favourite forever because it was the first time I travelled out of Canada and I was 18. The first time you do anything big in life I think it is almost overwhelming to adjust to at first. I was very much a country girl out of my league when I went to France that first time. It did not take me long to fall in love with it though. Like NY, Paris has a grittiness to it, though maybe I feel its a bit more whimsical at the same time. You cannot help but feel romantic in both France and Nice. I loved visiting the old castles and also the perfume Fields. We got to go for a brief day trip into Monte Carlo and Italy as well. I would love to go back to Europe and travel around for a few months. I have family in Germany that I would like to meet and have always wanted to go to Prague.

Ok so those are some of the places I have been. As wonderful as it is to travel I seriously feel there is no place like home. I was born and raised in Alberta, and I still live here to this day. There are different types of beauty you can see from the plains, to the forests, to the mountains. My husband came across a touching video about Alberta and I thought I would share it with you. Hope you enjoy my home.

Burger Madness!

 

I created a lesson plan this week using the tales of "The Gingerbread Man" and "The Gingerbread Baby" as examples of how stories can be change based on who is telling it.

For the assignment we wanted the students to create their own gingerbread tale with a twist (maybe having a French fry boy or maybe it is set in a jungle). They had to keep the same trouble (the main character runs away) and resolution (the main character stops running) but they could be as creative as they wanted for the rest of the story. We used a CSTAR burger- (character, setting, trouble, action, and resolution) and had them fill out each section of their burgers as a way to help them organize their ideas before they started their stories. Below is the handout I created for them as well as the corresponding smart board lesson I used.

We then emphasized the structure of stories by having the students make their own burger story based on their CSTAR handout. I tried to emphasize which parts of CSTAR go in which structural components of a story. Below is the smart board lesson that corresponded with this portion of their work. I do not have a copy of the handout I gave them but I will try to take a picture and load it tonight. In the mean time it was a large, lined, 2 page worksheet with a bun top for their introduction, a large section for the "meat" (body) of the story, and a large bun bottom for the conclusion of their story.

 

I then turned the tables on them and told them I didn't think they should be the only ones to have homework. I told them that if they worked hard for the period I would use the last 5 minutes to share my story with them and they could be the "teachers" (and judge whether I met all the criteria of CSTAR in my story). The kids lit up at the idea of being teachers and they worked very hard. I was a great way to end the class and everyone had a fun time. I would defiantly do this lesson again with a few small tweaks. I will try to type up my story and add it later.

Lest We Forget...

Today in our school we had a very lovely Remembrance Day Memorial. Many were moved to tears, including me and I wanted to share some thoughts with you about it. First I think that memorials like these give students a true glimpse of how hard soldiers work to protect our freedoms. Several students cried during the presentation and I think it was because they were not just reading about an event in a textbook, they were seeing the faces behind the history. This leads me into my second thought which is; when students become aware of the reality of war it can create empathy and understanding. If we want our children to have a hope of success, they not only have to learn from the past, but understand it so they can make better decisions for the future. These students may be the future leaders and representivies of Canada one day and they need to understand the effects of war, culture, politics, and the economics of society in order to make informed decisions. Lastly, students need to respect those that have helped give us the freedoms we often take for granted.

A tribute done by Global Edmonton for Remembrance Day (Song is Soldiers Cry by Ronald Majeau)

Activities to do with your students:

Write postcards- As a language activity around rememberance day (or as an all around good thing to do) you can have students write postcards to soldiers overseas right now with inspirational or lovely messages written on them. Teachers can contact the Canadian forces and send them out bulk to a group of soldiers.

Students can either make the whole thing from scratch...

or write on the back of a appropriatly designed  postcard.

POETRY-

Have students read inspirational poetry and write some of their own. Ask around, maybe there is a Senior citizen home that has a few Veterans and go and share them with the seniors.

REMEMBRANCE

Long ago and far away

across the ocean

wild and wide,

the young men stormed

an alien shore

where many of them died.

Here and now

old men remember

the valor and the gore,

and the boyish faces

of their youth

that are young for ever more

William Bedford

In Flanders Fields- John McCrae

Bugle Calls-

Teach students why bugles were used historically and play some of the different calls for them (if it is a music class you could have them try some of the calls). Students can help participate in a Remembrance Day Memorial or perform if they are musicians.

Bugles- Wikipedia

Technology and Online Resources

After taking an educational technology class in school, I realize how little I know about technology in the classroom. As someone that has been out of the classroom for over 10 years (most of which have been either working on my Bachelor of Arts or being a stay at home mom), I was shocked to see the advances that have occurred over the last decade. To say that learning about smart boards was a shock would be a gross understatement. So now as I muddle my way through learning the latest digital advances the world has to offer I thought I would share a few online resources I have come to love.

BBC- Online Teaching Resources- I have linked you straight to the Science page to help get you to the teaching resources as it can be slightly difficult navigating this site. This being said it has fantastic ideas, games, experiments, worksheets and teacher resources in most subjects (there is a subject menu list on the right hand side of the page).

Prezi- A New Way of Creating Presentations- This is a unique and fun way to create classroom presentations that have a more fluent transition than your typical forms of presentations. Kids can have a great time with this program but be aware that you do need to "sign up" to use this site.

Graphic Organizers- For the Visual Thinker!- This site has a great array of graphic organizers useful for both assignments and assessment. These are great for fostering creative thinking and teaching students how to organize material in a different way.

As I find more sites and resources that I like I will update this page and add them.

Literature Fair 2011- UofL

I had the privilege of attending the University of Lethbridge literature fair in September. To start the day we enjoyed an informal speech by award winning author Michael Kusugak, followed by small group workshops. The workshops covered a variety of areas (the full list can be found @ Literature Fair Link). Below are the three workshops I attended along with some thoughts I took away from them.

More Than Wheat and Snow: Canadian Literature in High School

-         Empathy and Reality- I’m encouraged to see this more controversial type of literature being incorporated into the curriculum because children need to understand what is happening in the world if they are going to help change it. I do not think we help our children by ignoring the "elephant" in the room. Children, like adults need to process, explore, and talk, about those issues that are important to them. It gives students that may be lost a sense of identity, those that feel like outsiders, acceptability, and those that fear what's different, empathy. I loved the quote presented “If it can be born in a story, it can be endured." Sometimes it is easier to deal with our own feelings when we read (especially through books as I think they are a powerful medium) and know that others have gone through something similar, even if it is just a character on the page.

-        
Fostering new writers- These types of stories have an air of realism to them and because of that I think that students may feel a bit more that they could do something like this. As a potential teacher I believe that it is important to give children every available resource they may need to succeed. Having stories they can relate to that make them think, feel, and write is a step in the right direction.

Integrating Literature into Social Studies

-          You can use books!- The actual concept of using literature in social appealed to me because I a) LOVE to read and b) LOVE social, therefore the idea of combining the two makes me ecstatic. It was particularly interesting to hear ideas on how to use literary books as a springboard for lesson plans. There were many good idea’s suggested to us like how to use a fiction and factual book to explain a point from two different angles, or how images could sometimes speak louder than words.

-          What makes a good book? - I neve considered what actually made a book good for teaching. The idea that something may look good but can actually be offensive to some caught me off guard. It made me look at the books I have considered for lessons in a new light. We also talked about how a book should broaden or deepen our understanding of social studies, and that we need to be age appropriate.

Exploring FNMI (First Nation, Métis, and Inuit) Literature

-         There are so many ways to implement FNMI literature into your teaching- I loved the suggestions that we were given on how to implement FNMI into all subject areas. This gave me several ideas of how I could use FNMI literature not only in my social studies lessons but in all areas of my teaching.

-         Using literature with props- It was suggested that we not only ask questions of the students to get them thinking about a subject in a book but that we bring in a object that correlates with the story.

Three Books From The Fair I Would Recommend

 Is a story about a young teenage girl in foster care named Tamara (Skinnybones) and Miss Barclay (The Wrinkle Queen) a ninety year old former high school teacher that lives in a senior's home. They meet when one of Tamara’s teachers pairs students up with seniors at a nearby facility.They end up on a Thelma and Louise style roadtrip to the coast to pursue their different passions—the Wrinkle Queen wants to go to the Ring Cycle Wagner operas staged in Seattle one last time while Tamara is desperate to take a modeling course in Vancouver.

Is about a little girl that goes out shopping and finds a box of crayons that do not like each other. The story helps the crayons realize that everyone is important and they can all help each other make things much more beautiful that if they work together.











Children in an urban school are curious about a classmate’s moccasins and ask, Where Did You Get Your Moccasins?