Late Night Update

I am presenting a tutorial about the use of SmartBoard technology on Wednesday afternoon, and spent this afternoon re-familiarizing myself with the wonderful piece of technology that we find in so many classrooms at Beachy Cove Elementary. The capacity of the SmartBoard to help with teaching, learning and practicing in immense. I think that as we incorporate more and more technology into the day-to-day running of the class, it will open up opportunities to use the SmartBoards we have at our disposal more often.

We had the first "All-Canadian" edition of Geography Wars on Friday, which exposed a number of the challenges that are posed when using research materials and tools like maps, charts, tables of contents, and a variety of indexes and appendices. As long as the class is engaged, I will not shy away from exploring these ideas with the class, especially as a way of framing material we are covering anyways. Students have already made huge leaps in their ability to research, locate information and recognize familiar data.

I am using our unit on poetry as a means of learning many elements of English grammar and style, and it seems to be going quite well. It is hard to impress the importance of setting some limits in order to allow for increased stylistic freedom. Once students start to realize the value of the guidelines of a particular literary style or technique, they are quick to start adding detail and their individual identity. 

Hopefully we get a whole day in tomorrow before the snow blitz hits, but if we don't, I hope everybody has a great day playing in the snow.