Professor Scott's Tech Talk

Hi R8A,

Below are my notes from Professor Scott's talk about the history of technology today. We'll talk about this more in class this week.

Technological Advances in Canada in the 19^th century (1800s)

-1815-1850 – HUGE population growth in Canada (many Irish – potato famine)

-1815 – about 50 years before Confederation

-end of Napoleonic Wars

-most people lived on farms, very few

big cities

-people worked in the home: textiles,

making food products, farm implements

-resource extractions: lumber, fishing,

mineral resources (mines)

-merchants: shippers, handlers, sellers

-we had grist mills for grinding grain

-power: from water, animal & human

strength

-transportation: walk, ride horse, take

boat

-communication: word of mouth, books,

a few newspapers, Shakespeare’s plays

-use of steam power: steam ships, machinery, railways

-the telegraph, telegraph lines – first way to communicate with people in other parts of country

-used morse code (dots, dashes)

-transportation – canals, railways, roads

-canals – shipping goods

-Canal in Ottawa – Rideau Canal

-Colonel John By – built Rideau Canal

-technological marvel

-ships

-first full steam ship “The

Accommodation” built by John

Molson in Canada (1809)

-also started Molson’s Brewery

-36 hours to get from Montreal to

Quebec City

-John Bennett – engineer to design and

build “The Accommodation”

-archives have records of steam ship

voyages (including contracts)

-1833 – 20 days, first transatlantic

crossing of Canadian steam ship

-carried pork

-sailing ship had taken 6 weeks

-factories: -by 1850s – breweries, distilleries, iron works, stove works

-first formal scientific institution – 1842- McGill, geological survey – make maps, find mineral deposits

-first cotton mill – 1844 in Quebec

-agricultural machinery – Massey-Harris

-Canadians were the first to invent many things

-1850-1885: Railway Age

-CPR completed – driving of the last

spike in 1885 – nationwide

transportation

-$$$$$$ investors, government

loans/subsidies (millions of acres of

land in Western Canada)

-needed steel tracks (steel factories)

-needed coal miners (coal powered)

-width of tracks = width of 2 horses

behinds (pulling chariot 2000 years ago)

-John A MacDonald – took bribes from

Canadian Pacific Railway – RAILWAY

SCANDAL!!

-CONCLUSIONS:

-every time a new technology is introduced, new technologies are needed to support it, and some technologies become outdated

-century of building created all new jobs

-you could get around much faster

-prices of goods dropped – everything was cheaper to transport

-everyone became a little more wealthy, there were needs for new skills and knowledge

-mass communication – telegraph, phonograph, telephone, radio, photography, printing press?

-established ideas in science/technology vs. new ideas in science/technology

Questions:

-think about the effects of technology on urbanization (living in cities)?

-what happened to health care?

-what happened to education?

Assignment #14: Poetry of Hope with Reading Buddies

Hello R8A and EF5A,

Welcome to the lab. We will be working with our buddies in here today (Wednesday). This Friday morning, we have the priviledge of hosting a Holocaust survivor at our school. Some of you know some about the Holocaust that happened during WWII and others will know very little. Today, your job is to do some exploration in partners (or groups of three) to learn more about what life was like for a child living in the time of the Holocaust. We are asking you to use empathy and understanding and read about difficult stories with hope and reverence.

Check out some of these sites and see what they have to offer and what you can learn:
Children in the Ghetto
Hana's Suitcase is a website about a very special brother and sister (Miss Pollock has an autographed copy of a book by the same name if you would like to learn more)
Daniel's Story exhibition photos (a wonderful museum exhibit based on the book of the same name about a young Jewish boy and his experiences during the Holocaust)
Poetry and Art about the Holocaust (this is a website designed for teachers, but you can scroll down and read some amazing poems to inspire you)

Once you and your buddy have done some reading and exploration, you will collaboratively write a short poem (at least four lines in length) expressing hope and a desire for peace, based on the information you have learned and your prior knowledge.

Grade 8s, you can share with your grade 5 buddies about the poem we read this morning, "The Butterfly" by Pavel Freidmann. Hopefully this will help to inspire you. Think also about our discussions about Empathy and your readings about the Golden Rule. Remember what it felt like to take on the persona of someone involved in war in your Assignment #11. You have lots of experience to tap in to for this assignment.

On Friday, we will get to hear the survivor stories of Eva Olson, and as is said about the Holocaust, "when you listen to a witness, you become a witness too".

Let's work together to create messages of peace and hope. The poems you write together will be posted on your blogs as Assignment #14. We look forward to reading your thoughtful words.

My Awesome Post

Remember how much fun the "Behind My Name" assignment was? It was so fun that I had to make a post about it as well. Assignment #12 is so much fun that I also want to write my own post about it.

Miss Pollock's Awesome Things

I am writing a post in response to Miss P's Assignment #12

Part 1 - Awesome Things from 1000 Awesome Things

I read this blog everyday and it almost always brings a smile to my face. Lately, there have been three posts that really spoke to me.

Awesome Thing #375 - Finding out someone has the same birthday as you

Last week, during Interviews, the teachers all met up in the staff room to wish Mrs. Kenward a fond farewell and good luck with her new baby. While we were there, we started talking about birthdates and due dates. Mrs. Seabrook said that her birthday was in January. My birthday's also in January, and, as I always do, I asked her, "What day?". To my delight, she replied "The 13th!). Mrs. Seabrook and I have the SAME BIRTHDAY! It was so exciting. Now, you can all put January 13th on your calendars as the most important day of the year!

Awesome Thing #376 - Realizing you still remember the words to a song you haven't heard in years

Awesome Thing #378 - Finally making it past whatever was causing traffic to slow down

Part 2 - My Very Own Awesome Thing

Awesome Thing #1001 -

THIS IS A POST IN PROGRESS, BUT I WANTED TO POST IT AS IT IS AS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW YOU CAN LAY OUT YOUR POST!

Assignment #12: Awesome

Hello bloggers,

I have your newest assignment ready to go. There are two main parts to this assignment.

#1. Check out this AWESOME blog, 1000 Awesome Things and read the posts. You will probably find some posts that really speak to you and that you agree with strongly. Write about three that you really enjoyed and link to them. (I think it's awesome when..., and .... and .... - replace "..." with your links)

#2. Create your own AWESOME post. In the style of 1000 Awesome Things, write about an experience you've had that is AWESOME. You can title it Awesome Thing #1001.

I look forward to reading your posts.

Eid Mubarak!

To my many wonderful students and their families who will be celebrating this week - Eid Mubarak!

Have a happy holiday and we look forward to seeing you back at school! Be safe and enjoy a wonderful family time!

Reading Buddies Black History video from last year

Assignment #11: Letters of Remembrance

Hello R8A,

As you know, Remembrance Day is coming up this Thursday. There are many things that we do to remember the people who sacrificed everything to ensure that we live in a free and peaceful country.

The stories that make up history are found through artifacts, journals, letters and passed on oral histories. You will create a historically accurate fictional letter for this task.

This Remembrance Day, I want you to think about the young people in Canada whose lives were affected by war. You will take on the role of one of those people and write an imaginary letter from his or her point of view.

In order to complete this task, you will need to do some research so that your letter will be historically accurate and you can be creative. I have found a wonderful website full of real letters and journal entries from Canadian soldiers who fought in World War I (1914-1918), World War II (1939-1945) and the Korea conflict (1950-1953). You may also choose to write about the Afghanistan conflict (2001-present).

Below are the steps I would like you to follow in completing this task:
-Look at canadianletters.ca to and see what a real letter or journal entry would look like in different time periods
-Get some background knowledge about the events that affected Canadians in these wars/conflicts (wikipedia is a good starting point, but make sure to be a critical researcher)
-decide on a war/conflict that you would like to write about, select a specific event in that war/conflict to focus on (you must include a logically accurate date)
-decide on a point of view you would like to write from (it must be a Canadian participating in an international conflict)
-decide who you are writing to

-in a new post, link back to this assignment
-begin writing your letter, include a greeting and a date
-in your letter include your feelings, your emotions, a description of what you see, hear, smell, feel and taste
-write about how you are thinking about the person you write to and what makes you worried or gives you hope/makes this worthwhile
-paint vivid word pictures (like we did with our Superhero Apartment building in Writer's Workshop) (a tool that might help you to be even more accurate in the language you use is Writer's Dream Tools)
-end your letter appropriately
-remember that it will likely take months for your letter to reach its intended recipient
-ensure that punctuation, grammar and spelling are perfect

-publish your post

-leave a comment here to let me know you're ready to have your letter marked

Some events that you could write about:
-shipping off
-your first participation in a battle
-women heading to work in factories for the first time
-rationing food on the homefront
-WWI - Passchendale
-WWI - Vimy Ridge
-WWII - Dieppe
-WWII - D-Day
-Canada's role in Afghanistan

Here are some possible points of view:
-You may write as a young male soldier in WWI, WWII, or the Korean conflict, or a young male or female soldier in the Afghanistan conflict
-You may write as a mother, sister, friend, girlfriend/boyfriend, wife/husband, or child of someone who is fighting in war, you will be writing from "the homefront"

Assignment #10: Mystery History Maker

As you know, we are going on a VERY SPECIAL field trip on Friday. We will be travelling with Mr. Glossop's class (and my mom, Mrs. Pollock) to The Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec (it is in a different province, but it's only about 20 minutes away!).

In the course of the day, you will be taking part in two workshops, and enjoying the wonders that this amazing museum have to offer.

In order to prepare for our field trip, I'd like you to check out the museum's website.

Please play the game: Mystery History Maker.

Write a new post.
In this post, link back to the assignment, create a link to the museum's website and the website for the game. You will tell us which History Maker you were matched up with. Find a website with more information about this person and link to it.
Post and answer the following questions:
1. Were you able to identify your history maker using the clues provided?
2. What do you have in common with this person?
3. Why is this person historically significant in Canada?
Links: This assignment, Museum of Civilization, Mystery History Maker, further information about your History Maker