Wednesday, 13 March

I have now received 18 of 27 signed report card cover sheets and manila envelopes; thank you!

Mia, Simon, Sam, Kiah and Amber - snowshoe paperwork missing 

We began the day with the following question: "What would the best school in the world look like?"  We did a short sharing to identify what elements there were to this question.  For example: 

Where would the school be?
Who would attend?
What would they learn? How?
Who would teach?  How?
Would the calendar be the same?  How about the day?
Would everyone learn the same thing?
Etc...

I told the class they could meet in groups if they wished and that if they wanted to change groups, they could.  I did ask them to keep track of their discussions so they could share them later.  It was very intriguing to watch.  Some groups focused more on uniforms, physical setting and architecture, while others focused on academy-style specialization.  The students really seemed willing to challenge the notion of what school should be.  Ask them to share their thoughts with you and be ready to share your own.  This TED Talk about school "in the cloud" might be a good follow up to your discussions: Sugata Mitra dream for education and the S.O.L.E. project .

After recess the grade 7s did the Ministry of Education Satisfaction Survey.  The survey is being done by all students in grades 4 and 7.  Next, we did math.  The 7s did the practice test on p. 215.  Tomorrow, we'll do the Unit 5 - Fractions test.

After lunch we read for 20 minutes and then worked in our film groups.  I asked that the film treatments and mind map plans be finished for today.  Not all groups are quite there yet.

At 1:45 we had early dismissal for parent-teacher interviews.

Please remember that tomorrow is band - Mr. Grice needs everyone to remember his or her instrument and music folder.