Learn Create Inspire
Sharing successes and challenges through teaching while becoming a (hopefully) published author.
Be an Archaeologist: Active Learning in Social Studies
Help students become archaeologists through active learning. This is the first lesson in my mini archaeology unit and it is always a hit. The kids explore sample bags from a dig site to try to learn about a family/culture that living in Surrey in the past. This post walks through the lesson, the follow-up activity, and how to set up your own dig. Have fun making social studies hands-on!
Social Justice Symposium: Creating and Learning about PSAs
We spent one intense week making TWO PSAs: one visual and one video. The kids learned all about public service announcements and used what they had learned about social justice topics to make PSAs for a student audience. We also made a Kahoot! to test our knowledge after watching and reading all of the PSAs.
Transgender Awareness Week Resources
It is Transgender Awareness Week. This blog post will provide you with literature that you can use from primary through high school. I have also outlined a lesson I ran today using the book Red A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall.
Picture Book Study: Exploring the Alternate Experiences of War
As we approach Remembrance Day and Veterans Day, explore the alternate experiences of war through five powerful pictures books. Help teach reading comprehension skills, compassion, and history in a powerful way that every child can participate in. This activity has built in structures to support all students.
Catastrophic Tech Failure AND a Wonderful Day!
When technology fails…PSA Executives solve the problem and still provide powerful professional development. My thoughts on the catastrophic technology failure yesterday and my gratitude for the PSAs.
Reader Request: Exploring the First Peoples Principles of Learning
This is a lesson that helped my kids unpack the First Peoples Principles of Learning. We unpacked the language and then used these as a lens through which to view literature. This could also be done at a staff meeting or pro-D to help adults unpack the principles as well. I did make a mistake and have corrected it within this blog post. We are all still learning and when we know better…we do better!
Reader Request: Hands-On Forestry Stations AND a Few Extra Activities… (Cross Curricular)
How do you make resources more hands-on? Run stations! Here is an outline of forestry stations I ran in my grade 5/6 class as well as a framework for designing your own stations. I also include a few additional forestry activities. Get messy! Play! Have fun!
Hands-On Residential School Truth & Reconciliation Day Lesson
This is a hands-on simulation lesson that explores the intergenerational trauma of residential schools and the impacts on communities left without children. It is designed to support teachers talking to kids about The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Refugee Crisis + Math Lesson = Compassion and Understanding
This outlines a cross curricular refugee crisis math/social studies lesson I did today. It includes graphing, counting collections, and the refugee crisis. It is hands-on and each class I worked with loved it. It is our job to help kids unpack and make sense of hard topics.
Unit Planning 101 & Navigating Curriculum Websites
This blogpost is all about Unit Planning 101. If the BC Curriculum Website is daunting…I hope this helps! Right now it is all about connection before curriculum, but I know many teacher are doing their best to start planning engaging units. I hope this helps.