Student Response to the Haitian Earthquake

We held our student meeting today.  The turnout was good and the students were excited to get to work.  They decided we would have a FINE FRIDAY. Students can pay a fine and be allowed to listen to Ipods and wear hats inside the school.  It allows all to participate for a minimal fine.  In a school of 1000 students we should be able to raise up to $1500.  We are allowing students to pay a double fine if they wish.

The group decided to create posters to create awareness, get a PSA spot on the announcements and make presentations for the rest of the school.  Each group would be responsible for different grade levels.  There are many gripping images out there.  Some just are not appropriate for the younger students.  On Wednesday the groups will fan out throughout the school talking about the earthquake and how it has devastated Haiti.

Here is a draft of the parent letter that have sent for proof reading...

Dear Parents

On Tuesday January 12 Haiti was devastated by a large earthquake.  Haiti already one of the poorest countries in the world scrambled to save its citizens.  In recent days aid agencies have been working hard to help the people of Haiti.  These agencies require money to keep the supplies going to people in need. 

On Friday the school is holding a fundraiser.  It is called FINE FRIDAY.  Students are encouraged to bring a dollar or two and participate.  The Elementary students will be allowed to wear a hat during the school day or bring a stuffed animal to school as their "fine".  For the Junior High students the will pay a fine to be able to listen to their Ipods or wear a hat.  This is a fun way to raise awareness about this important world event. 

All students received presentations about what was happening in Haiti.  For more information please check out the following websites:

•  The Big Picture from the Boston Globe Haiti 6 Days Later http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/01/haiti_six_days_later.html
•  The Big Picture from the Boston Globe Earthquake In Haiti http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/01/earthquake_in_haiti.html
•  2010 Haiti Earthquake from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Haiti_earthquake
•  The Haitian Earthquake and the student comments Sargent Park Math Zone http://sargentparkmathzone.blogspot.com/2010/01/haitian-earthquake.html

Thank you for your understanding.  All donations will be donated to UNICEF.  This agency looks after children.  The students felt it was important to have all donations go to children.  The Canadian International Development Agency or CIDA will match all donations.  Any donation is greatly appreciated. 

It was great to give the power to the students.  See them take charge of the situation and start to get the message out.  To often we adults take control, this takes power away from the students when they need it the most.  With all the work the students have done on their movie projects this year they are finally learning what it is to be global citizens.

I will keep you updated... thanks for reading.

Using Ustream in the Classroom.

I love my Smartboard.  I use it extensively to connect my lessons to the web.  Slides go to slideshare and video is streamed and recorded through ustream.tv. I use ustream instead of the smart recorder because the recording is instant and you are able to embed the video into blogs and wikis immediately.  Here is how I do it.

Attached to my smartboard is a Logitech Camera.

I use this as my mic and as my streaming camera.  I could use it to capture student work being done in the class. I have had students make videos using this device.

Now I use Camtwist to capture the desktop.  This allows me to use the camera's audio and to capture all that happens on the smartboard instead of filming the board from afar.

This is what the camtwist setup looks like for me.

Now I am able to select Camtwist from the ustream menu.  This is my video input.  I use the camera as my audio and I have an instant screen recorder.

For those of you on PC's I will have to figure out how you use your screen casting abilities.  Camtwist is only for Macs.

Tomorrow gets kids involved in the recording process.

Streaming, Smartboards and Mini lessons

I am going to do some innovative thinking over the next few weeks.  Most of it surrounding smartboards and streaming.  Hoping to get kids to create mini lessons and post them to ustream, or have their mini lessons done live in class to ustream. 

This should be an interesting week.  I know this is a small post but I think it is important to get back into the blogging spirit again.

Most of the work will be initally housed at the Sargent Park Math Zone

Haitian Earthquake Part 2

cc licensed flickr photo shared by Got Phi

I showed the students another photo essay on Friday.  I also showed them the comments other students have left behind.  All students agreed that something had to be done.  As I read the comments to them the more head nodding I was seeing.  They have decided to meet a lunch on Monday to come up with a fund raising idea.https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1019297942530526331&postID=7854468568988799374

While we were doing our own investigation of the Haitian Earthquake the other teachers in the school came to the room.  They wanted to make what the Grade 8 students had thought of a whole school project.  This was fantastic.  I was impressed with how the students ideas were spreading already.

Now the students will be running the show on Monday and taking responsibility for fundraising.  Here is one way to make students become activists.  I will update this post on Tuesday to tell you of how the meeting went and what the students have decided to do.

An experiment with Humanity... and 2 Minutes to Make a Difference

In recent weeks the students have been working on choosing a topic for their Movie Project.  With the recent earthquake in Haiti it is time to see if they are learning that one person can make a difference.  I am going to introduce the classes to what happened in Haiti and see if any of the students pick up on the need to do something.  Odds are they might not do anything but it will be interesting to see what does transpire.  Keep you updated.

Here is the post that the students will use.

Yesterday a great tragedy occurred in Haiti.  It was hit by a earthquake that was a 7.0 magnitude on the Richter Scale.

Why is it important to care?
Can you make a difference?
Leave a comment about what you can do.

Starting eportfoios

I feel very guilty that I have not written in a while.  Here is a cross post on the instructions I give my students about getting their eportfolio ready at wikispaces.  More content to follow. Sorry for my low output of posts lately.


We are getting ready to do some work on our e-portfolios this year. You need to have certain things done by the end of the week (January 15th).

• You need a wikispaces account. Please use a name, email and password that you will remember.  
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• You need to ask to join your class eportfolio wiki.  Here are the links to the rooms.
• 816 eportfolios
  
• 817 eportfolios
  
• 841 eportfolios
  
• 873 eportfolios
• At the class site click edit. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The wiki is now a word processor. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• You need to find your name, highlight it and then create a link. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Now press save. 
  
  
  
  Your name should be a red link.  Click the red link and you should see this.
  
  
  
  
  
• Now you will hit the edit button and your eportfolio page is ready to be created.

Now you have your own eportfolio page.  You have some small instructions left.  Please follow them carefully.

1. Type [[toc]] and enter twice.
   
2. Type your four main subjects in this order each on a separate line Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies.  Please add a fifth topic of Other.
3. After you have typed each of these topics highlight them and choose Heading 1 from the editor bar.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Click save and you should have a framework for what your eportfolio page.
   
   
   
   
   

Please do your best to follow these instructions.

A Day at Winnipeg Harvest

I am truly blessed to work with some incredible students.  This year the Grade 8 team decided to take groups of students to a local food agency.  Winnipeg Harvest supports food banks, soup kitchens and many other organizations throughout Winnipeg. Harvest feeds over 47 000 Winnipegers a week.  This in a city with a population of only 800 000 people. 

They are located only a few blocks away from the school. 

3 teams of four students and a teacher supervisor went to Harvest for three half day shifts.  The first day saw the students work on creating emergency kits for harvest.  These kits have one can of protein, one can of vegetables, soup and a grain (pasta or rice).  These kits are then placed into a larger bag with 7 other kits.  These larger bags are then put on pallets to be shipped around the city.

 

Here are the students working on that first day.  They packed enough kits to fill 1 and a half pallets. Sadly we would have done more but we ran out of protein and could not finish the task.

The next 2 crews of students were on onion and potato detail.  Harvest receives produce from local Hutterite  Colonies and Peak of the Market.  These items come into Harvest in large pallets.  They need to be repacked into smaller boxes (banana boxes each weighing 60 lbs).  It was fun to go through the large pallets and find mushy onions and potatoes.  We even found an Alien Onion and a Heart shaped potato.  In the two days the students repacked 4000 lbs of potatoes and onions.

What impressed me the most was when we were about to leave.  Onion skins on the floor and a bit of a mess to clean up.  No one asked but the kids took it upon themselves to clean up the area for the next crew.

Since the trips to Harvest students have been asking if they can go and help.  I do not see any reason to say no.  After all Harvest is just up the street.  Kids can be amazing if you let them be.  Give them a chance and inspire them to become activists and see their world as something more than just a school experience.

Here is the students take on the experience.

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