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

Assignment #9: The Golden Rule

Hello R8A,

Your newest assignment is a collaborative one. Ms. Crosbie's students have been reading and thinking about The Golden Rule. They will be posting a response to her assignment on their blogs.

Your buddies' names are listed on the right hand side of my blog, with links to your blogs and theirs. Please check on your buddy's blog (or buddies' blogs) often and make sure to leave thoughtful comments and questions. You will be evaluated on this.

For this assignment, visit your buddy's blog, read his or her post about The Golden Rule and, in the comments section, do a 3-2-1. 3 things you liked about the post, 2 other ideas that could be added (maybe links or your own personal connections), and 1 question for the poster.

Layout your comment like this:
3 things I liked
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2 further ideas
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1 question
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Remember to be thorough, thoughtful and respectful in your comments.

Kenneth Oppel

Hello eights,

As you know, this is Ottawa's first ever Teen Author Week. There are lots of free events being put on in libraries around the city to promote reading and writing for teens.

Tonight, Kenneth Oppel was in town. He is the author of many books, including the Silverwing series (great books about a bat named Shade), the Airborn series (set in airships) and a brand new novel called Half Brother (an only child gets a chimp as a little brother).

Jeffrey arrived with his mom and little brother and I ran into them in the parking lot. We found seats in the front row and enjoyed a GREAT show! Ken Oppel was entertaining and engaging. The audience gathered in the theatre at the Nepean Centrepointe Library was in the palm of his hand.

Mr. Oppel told us about his writing process, his inspiration and read to us from Half Brother. The book is both hilarious and heart-warming. I wish you all could have been there tonight, he was inspring. I was amazed by the amount of reserach he does before he even starts writing. He becomes an expert on a topic and makes book after book of notes before the story itself begins. He showed us photos of his many, many book drafts. Together, one book makes up a pile about the height of my two-year old nephew, Andy! His earliest editors are his two oldest children, to whom he reads aloud and gauges their attention and interest. Mr. Oppel rewrites his book four times before sending it to his three international English language publishers. Editors at each of the three offices (in London, Toronto and New York) send back tons of notes and he takes those into consideration before writing his final draft.

Jeffrey bravely asked the final question of the evening. Mr. Oppel had showed us a photo of his inspiration board (a bulletin board full of images in his office) for his new book, it was like a display of Flair! There were a few old maps, a photo of a strange looking bird and a photo of a bright blue fish. We tried to make inferences based on our observations. I thought maybe he was writing about mutations of some kind. Jeffrey asked Mr. Oppel what the book was about and he answered! Now, we have a sneak preview of the book that will be coming out next fall. Ask Jeffrey if you want to know about it. I was incorrect in my guess, but it's way cooler than what I thought of. Perhaps, he'll even write a blog post about it!

At the very end, Mr. Oppel offered to sign autographs and gave everyone a bookmark (that he had promised us at the beginning of his presentation!). There was a huge line of fans waiting to meet their favourite author. When we met him, he signed our books (he signed mine, "To Miss Pollock") and we snapped a quick photo.

I have several of Mr. Oppel's books in the classroom and I strongly recommend them to all of you. Now that it is the Read-A-Thon, you should think about checking out one or more of his books. Tyler has already devoured Half Brother.

It was a wonderful evening, and I hope you all think about attending some of the other events this week, and I hope this becomes an annual event.

Live Blogging from a Workshop

Hello friends,

I am at a workshop this morning with Mr. Glossop, M d'Entremont, Mme Martel, Mme Dorion and Mrs. Eliasson. We are using a cool new program called "Smart Ideas". We will play with this in class. It's super fun and a great way to organize your ideas.

Here's what I've made so far:

I got to eat some dragon fruit, too.

See you this afternoon!

Assignment #8: HOW are you Creative?

Hello pups,

I was asked a very interesting question the other day, which is "HOW are you creative?" This person took for granted that everyone IS creative, but we are all creative in different ways. I loved that attitude and I totally agree with it. Sometimes people claim, "I'm not creative." All I can say to that is WRONG! Each one of us is creative, but sometimes in very different ways.

Your task is to tell and to show us how YOU are creative. Some of you have wonderful talents that I already know about. Willeme denies it, but he is an AMAZING dancer. Noah can navigate a basketball court. Tyler loves to draw. Amy is a writer. Haneen is a poet. Melissa is a songbird. Hannah is an empath. Jeffrey is an animal tamer. Sara is a rocker. Charlotte can express herself through art. Qavi is a stand up comedian. Reshad is an artist. Mateen is a programmer. That's not all you are, though. Each of you is so much more than that, you may not even want to focus on those talents that I've listed. There are SO many talents that you each have and you often keep them hidden. It's time to bring them out into the open!

Our classroom FLAIR was a great way for you to demonstrate your passions, and I'm going to let you do that again, on your blogs. Not only will your classmates and I see what you have to share, but so will your buddies in Ms. Thurow's classes in Toronto (hi!) and your buddies in Ms. Crosbies classes in Oshawa (hello!) and my classmates in the course I'm taking at Queen's (hola!). In fact, anyone, anywhere in the world with Internet access, can see where you shine and HOW you are creative.

I want you to be creative in how you complete this task. After all, this is a task about your individual creativity. Your requirements are: start a new blog post and in it, tell us (with words) and show us (with music, pictures, video...) HOW you are creative. Your posts will be very unique, but I want you to make sure you really showcase your abilities. In the words of your post, you need to include a description of HOW you are creative, HOW you express that creativity and WHY it is so important to you.

Some examples: you may want to record yourself dancing and post a video of that on your blog with a description of why you are passionate about this and how it helps you to express your point of view. You may want to photograph and post examples of designs you've created for clothing. The sky is the limit on this one. You may want to embed samples of your video game designs.

If you need access to a video camera or digital camera and do not have one, you can make an appointment with me and we'll use mine. I'll even show you how to upload and embed videos and photos.

You'll notice that this post is a lot of text and not much else. That's deliberate on my part. I don't want to sway you too much one way or another. I want you to create posts that are meaningful and exciting to you.

There is a lot of freedom in this task and I don't want you to rush into publishing your post. You can always hit "Save now" and come back and work on a post in the "Edit Posts" tab. This is a very personal, innovative task when I want you to reflect honestly and share creatively. I cannot wait to see what you come up with!

Good luck!

***when you start your post, make absolute certain to link back to this assignment post*** (you should be doing this on all your assignment posts)

Assignment #7 - World of Work!

Hello friends,

Exactly one week from today, we will be on our first field trip of the year! We will be at Landsdowne Park at The World of Work. This is always a really fun morning for our grade 8s and I'm sure this year will be no exception.

In preparation for our trip, make sure you've returned your permission form by Friday. If it's not in by then, you will be staying behind! If for some reason, you've misplaced your form, please email me right away and I will get one for you.
The purpose of this event is to highlight opportunities in our communities and schools to support you as you transition into the world of work, the trades and college. There will be more than 60 presenters with interactive, informative booths at this event. When we are there, you are encouraged to seek out the booths that interest you, ask questions and pick up materials. There will be presenters there from the following sectors: Construction Sector, Design & Manufacturing Sector, Service Sector, Information & Technology Sector and Transportation Sector. All of us will, at some point in our lives, work in the trades. This is a very important, informative assignment and field trip.

Start a new post and follow these steps:
-Link back to this post
1. Do some research on these sectors (I've linked to some helpful sites to get you started, see below)
2. Think about which sector appeals the most to you. Why? List at least 2 reasons
3. List at least three specific jobs for each sector (5 sectors x 3 jobs each = 15 jobs listed) (you may make some inferences or guesses here)
4. What do you hope to learn more about on our field trip? Write at least 4 questions you have.
5. What pathway do you plan on taking after high school? College? The world of work/trades? University? Why? What do you specifically want to do as a career (or careers!)?
6. Include some relevant photographs to your entry (at least 2)
7. Link back to the sites where you found your information at the bottom of your post under the heading: References

Some places to start looking for information:
Careersintrades.ca
Skillscanada.com - especially THIS page
World Skills Portal
Skilled Trades Guide

It Gets Better - Part 2

Hello R8A,

I'm sorry that I'm not there with you today. The cold that I've been had for weeks has gotten even worse. I'm going to a few appointments and hopefully I'll get much better really soon! I miss you all. Please make sure to read through the new posts and prioritize your tasks. I've changed your SOLE assignment due dates, so you can do your individual assignments and tasks first.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 20th is the Day of Purple. People all over the world will be wearing purple clothes to show support for people's individuality and in memory of the young men who have taken their own lives because of LGBTQ bullying.

I will be decked out in a cool purple dress and purple nail polish at my doctor's appointments. Will you wear purple tomorrow?

Click here to read my post, It Gets Better. Reflect on reasons why it is important to show your support. For a bonus, link back to this post and create a new post on your blog.