This is a question that we ask at the end of each day, as we are composing our Blog to the Grade Two parents in our class.  One afternoon, we also had a question added to the Blog to figure out at home:  What makes tomatoes turn red from green?

Just before Spring Break, we had been focusing on our garden, the worms that make compost and the tomatoes that are turning red.  This is our second year with our Little Green Thumbs garden and how we approach it this year has morphed with the students.  This year, the students had a say in what we were going to grow.  They needed to use persuasive writing to convince their classmates what we should grow.  From last year, they knew that we made treats from our garden bounty (tomato and basil pizza, steamed green beans, salsa) and were thinking ahead to what they would like to make to eat.  Our little garden has tied into studies of the Inuit (contrasting what they could not grow), the Acadians (who the students thought were devastated to leave their gardens and homes when they were deported), and now while learning about the prairie pioneers and how they grew their own food in our climate.  Our garden work is starting to spill into the students’ homes and they have encouraged their parents to grow food in and outside of their house.  A few students have brought home red wiggler worms from our harvests to start their own vermicomposting bins, seeing the cycle of food waste being able to help fertilize new food growth. 

So, what makes tomatoes turn red?  After some home discussion and research, it was reported back that it is because of the chemical changes in the tomato when it is the full size.  Next, we wonder if it is the same as what happens with fall leaves?


Fiona Watkins learns alongside her students and is trying to turn her black thumb green.  When not at school she can be found outside with her sons and dogs, usually close to mountains or lakes.

On March 18 students at Bishop Pinkham Middle School took part in a Health & Wellness Morning.  This coincided with all of our Grade 9 students taking part in the PARTY Program.  Grade specific learning opportunities were put together by staff that complemented the Health Curriculum. This is the third year we have be providing this to our students.  This year was quite dynamic, and varied from grade to grade.  Grade 5's had speakers talk to them about their careers, and also did a session that focused on goal setting and hope.  Grade 6's rotated through two sessions that looked at the benefits and examples of leading an Active Healthy Lifestyle and Nutritional Awareness.  Gr 7's also rotated through  two sessions.  One that had them listen and ask questions to a panel of speakers on their respective careers.  Followed by each student creating their own personalized Vision Board.  Lastly our Grade 8’s had the opportunity to go through two of the following five session topics:  Body Image & the Media, Drug Awareness, Compassion, Presentation from Calgary Mental Health, and Nutrition. (174)

At Bishop Pinkham we follow a Comprehensive School Health Model in providing our students the information and skills they need moving forward in their schooling and their lives.  In our case it takes a whole school.  The students, staff, administration, and outside supports like our school nurse to provide these types of days so that all can see the benefits of a Healthy Active Lifestyle.

Doug Jordan is a Physical Education / Environmental Outdoor Education Teacher, and the Health Initiatives Learning Leader at Bishop Pinkham.  When not in the building he will be on one of his bikes in the mountains year round, or on his skis in search of the elusive powder!

As you step into the hallway of Panorama Hills School there is a noticeable difference. Colored tiles, in different patterns, are spread throughout the lengths of the hallways. Children are jumping, skipping and clapping their hands. They are patiently waiting for their peers to finish before beginning their own personalized dance routine, and then you hear - “Did you see the pattern I just did?” 

This year I learned something scary from my friend and co-worker, Mr. Fenlon-MacDonald: 

This means students are engaging in less physical activity on a daily basis… Yikes! 

So this year, my team partner and I have been consciously incorporating movement into as many everyday activities as possible. Enter numeracy, agility ladders, bean bags, hula hoops AND a hallway full of strategically placed, colorful floor tiles!

Now - these floor tiles aren’t just for students to get out their “wiggles” when moving through the halls. They are a chance to MOVE and LEARN and PRACTICE. Students are developing their literacy, numeracy and physical literacy through engaging, rich learning experiences. Physical literacy (moving with confidence and competence during activities) is as important as our students’ ability to read, write or mentally calculate how much it will cost to buy their new favorite video game! 

By keeping specific outcomes, diverse student backgrounds, flexibility to “go with the learning flow” and learning styles in mind, our student engagement and understanding across math strands is enhanced daily. Completing activities such as skip-counting while doing two-foot jumps, using different strategies to count the blue tiles and creating routines with an increasing pattern rule, students are solving problems without even realizing they are using math. 

And it doesn’t stop there! 

Measuring the width of the hallway, comparing lengths of the different strips of colored tiles, estimating how many patterns could fit down the hall, designing their own hallway patterns… these are just some of the ideas being “thrown around” by our staff. 

Now we’re just waiting for our students to have their say. We know there will be lots of questions, ideas, explorations and opinions, just waiting to be had! 

 
Sara Laslo (@saralaslo) teaches grade 3, is passionate about engaging students in meaningful, authentic learning experiences, would do anything for coffee and loves teaching her dog, Optimus Prime, new tricks!  

You know that feeling the night before a big trip? You're not sure you're ready? Are you bringing what you need? Or, have you packed too much?

That's me.

Right. Now.

I've been selected for the CBE Educational Tour to Vietnam. Tomorrow I'm off on an adventure with colleagues and many soon-to-be friends. These are people in my life that push me and challenge me professionally. But, it’s my students that motivate and drive my passion for teaching. They will be with me traveling virtually, watching my blog, instagram and twitter.  I will have the honour in delivering the pictures and letters they wrote to their new Vietnamese school friends.

My students are in grade four at Captain Nichola Goddard. It's an exciting time for students; they enter middle school and discover important things about themselves, their community and how to connect to the world. They decided they would like to reach out to students on the other side of the globe, and began writing about their lives. For some, this was first time they wrote a letter that truly means something important and real. It's not instant and may not produce the desired result of a reply, but it's step towards global citizenship and feeling connected to the world around them. I love seeming my students develop into competent students embedded in the world through their writing and reading; it's even more incredible that they experience this through my own personal learning journey in the world!


@mrsbanksteacher (http://vietnamcbe2015.wordpress.com) can't believe her good luck - great kids, amazing staff and incredible opportunities!

For our 21st century learners, Digital Citizenship (DC) is a very important concept to understand and apply at a very young age.  A small group of grade 3 students at our school set out to learn more about what it means to be a good digital citizen.  Unfortunately, most of the information available to them was geared towards older students. Undaunted, our young pioneers were inspired to develop their own DC informational video.  The video is geared toward other Kindergarten to Grade 3 students and was well received by the target audience.  The following was the process used to facilitate the project.

The process:

• Brainstorm - what we know
  
• Ask questions – about what you want to know more about?
  
• Research - what we need to learn
  
• Plan - the content, assessment tool and the ways to represent the learning and understanding
  
• Create - using Green Screen, iMovie, and Explain Everything Apps on the iPad
  
• Assessment – self assessment, peer assessment, feedback, rubric and criteria
  
• Share - with peers, school, administration, CORE “How to be a Good Digital Citizen” and through CBE182. 
  
• Reflect – on the process

Colleen Gainor

As both a new PE Teacher to Olympic Heights School and a new teacher in general, I’ve had more questions than answers when it comes to teaching PE to our Div 1 Students this year!

I am fortunate enough to have an experienced teaching partner with me and she has been very generous in “showing me the ropes”.  However, I also wanted to add my own value to both our students and our gym, so I came up with the following idea early into the school year.

As is probably the norm in many school gyms throughout the city, we were lacking a lot of “visual learning” or “print resources” on our walls.  That, combined with the fact that I wanted to assess what these young minds and bodies thought was expected of them in gym, motivated me to do the following project with all of my students.

For two days, in October, while my teaching partner was away, I brainstormed with my students on “What PE Means to You”.  Hands flew up in all grades, from kindergarten to 3, with answers ranging from “It’s fun!” to “Trying new Activities” to “Doing your Best” to “Playing with Everyone”   

Little did our young charges know that at the time, I had three strategies in mind when planning and creating this project.  Not only did I want to add more visual learning to our walls as well as determine what our students perceived gym class to be, but I also wanted to empower them and to have them take ownership of their learning space!  I wanted to give them the opportunity and responsibility to self-assess – to be accountable for their words that are now on our walls...to understand and to believe in those words and to take ownership.  After all, it was all of them who created this together!

The Poster has been completed and I was able to share it with our students only about a month ago!  They were thrilled to see it looking so great – after all, it started with a bunch of their words scribbled on a white board and it is now a colourful, awesome poster complete with pictures!  We refer to it frequently and they feel so proud of their great work and I am so proud of them!

Kim Gosselin is a Physical Education teacher at Olympic Heights School. 

The Grade Ones in Mrs. Fernandez's class are discovering all about community and how a community is more than just a physical space. It is a place where:

"A group of people belong together and who: follow rules, teach each other, respect and help one another, listen to each other, keep each other safe and work together."

Students worked together using their existing understandings, as well as Google maps, to determine the physical components of our community of Chaparral. They represented these components in a model. Students worked to plan and construct our community out of paper, clay, paint, and paper mâché. Reflecting on this process the students commented, "We used teamwork to build our community model."

Students began to wonder about the people in their community. They wrote letters to various people such as, a school principal, T.D. Bank manager, the vet, and the dentist. In each letter, they asked questions to understand each person's roles and responsibilities, as well as, how each of these people contribute to Chaparral. When asked why they were learning more about their community students responded, "Chaparral is important to us because we live here and we love our community."

 
Victoria Fernandez is a passionate teacher, lifelong learner and strives to engage her students in meaningful learning experiences. She is also a mother to three wonderful children.

Wouldn’t it be cool to see 20,000 students ride their bikes to school on one day? Let’s make this happen Calgary.

We are inviting all schools in the city to take part in Calgary Bike to School Day 2015 on June 2. The event was piloted last year at Simon Fraser School and was very successful with 204 students riding 10-12 km to school in the rain!

The purpose of the event is to get kids moving and to think about alternative methods of transportation. The day is very easy to run and all interested schools will be given a detailed information package on how the event was run at Simon Fraser School last year.

Currently, 50 schools within the CBE and one private school have agreed to participate and more schools are signing up daily. We want more, we want your school to sign up and participate! Many of the local bike stores have donated prizes for our event and any student who participates will be placed in a draw for these prizes. The grand prize for the event will be a new bike!

Have a look at our website, which was designed by Dylan Leclair at www.calgarybiketoschool.weebly.com or follow the event on Twitter @yycbike2school.

If you would like to sign up to participate, please give me an email at kkstewart@cbe.ab.ca

Thanks!


Kyle Stewart teaches grade nine science. Loves the outdoors, particularly mountain biking with friends and family. Promotes any type of physical activity in nature, and thinks we need to unplug and get lost in the wilderness. 

Students and staff at SVS welcomed Ewa Sniatycka, an artist in residency, with great enthusiasm and eagerness. We embarked on this endeavor with an open mind and a readiness to step outside our comfort zones.  The launching point of our journey was the novel The BFG by Roald Dahl.  How our work was to unfold from there was anybody’s guess.

When our team met to discuss the possibilities of this project, we decided not to be restricted by practicality and feasibility.  We dared to dream, and we dreamed BIG!  We wanted to build our own Big Friendly Giant, and we wanted to build him to scale, all 20 feet of him!  While the task seemed daunting and arduous at first, we jumped right in with both feet.

Our journey with Ewa resembled an ever-changing and dynamic roller coaster ride.  We laughed, we cried, but most importantly, we learned.  We learned how to be flexible, to adapt, to let go of our pre-conceived expectations, and that was just the teachers!  

When students were asked what they learned during this process, here is what they had to say…

The following is a stop motion video created by Shane Spriggs, our Learning Lead.  It documents the process of how a seemingly impossible dream transformed into an unforgettable reality.  Perhaps the most significant take-away from this experience is that “dreams is very mystical things.  Human beans is not understanding them at all.  Not even their brainiest professors is understanding them.”  ~Roald Dahl, The BFG

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4cQ-vQp3j89enYzeU4yZ2NoMlU/view?usp=sharing


Lisa Grant (@lisagrantYYC) is a grade 3 teacher and a firm believer that every day is another chance to make your dreams come true.

Some stories are told verbally, some are expressed in writing and others through art. Dance is a physical art which permits emotions to be portrayed through movement. Dance is a compulsory aspect of the Alberta physical education curriculum, promoting kinesthetic awareness and contributing to the physical literacy of the student. Spatial and body relationships are developed through dance and enhanced by music.

Here at Captain Nichola Goddard School, they just wrapped up an amazing month of dance in physical education with a ‘Dance Extravaganza’, an afternoon filled with a combination of several line dances, social dances and amazing energy! Lights in the gym were dim, students strapped on their dancing shoes and were dressed to impress! People walking through the halls were captivated by the energy that exuberated from the gymnasium!!

I’ve had the privilege of being a student teacher in the physical education department alongside Mandi Connolley for the past couple of months. Since its innagural year in 2012, Connolley has created a positive culture within her gym, especially during the dance unit. Typically, students that love physical education are not a fan of the dance unit, however, Connolley has quickly changed that attitude. She has been able to implement dance in a way that is fun and engaging for everybody, including the teachers!

Personally, Connolley has changed my view of dance first and foremost! To be able to influence me as a student teacher is a testament to the greatness Mandi Connolley possesses within the confines of the four walls of her gym that carries through to the hearts of her students. She has made it her mission for students to love and hone the skills of dance that will carry with them through.
                                              
Great teachers like Mandi Connolley remind me of the power of influence we have on others around us. Every day we have a choice to use our lives to affect the heart of others. Connolley’s greatest attribute is her unique gift of being present. She allows herself to be so absorbed in the moment with her students that when she looks back, she knows that moment was hers. Stay in the moment.

Jennifer Le is an aspiring physical educator. As she submerges herself deeper into teaching, students become her true sources of inspiration. She has quickly learned that becoming a teacher is genuinely a life study and she will always be a student of her profession.