The days are much shorter now; when we left home it was dark but I noticed something new on some streets. The borders of the garage driveways had been marked by poles over the night: that means the house pays someone to have the entrance snow-cleaned in winter. They pay around $240 per season (which I do not find expensive) so that they will have their entrances clean when they leave home in the morning.
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| Calefaccion en todas las aulas |
Period 1: English 1IB
Since tomorrow is a PED Day at St. Thomas H.S., this week has been really short, only 3 work days, so Madison starts the class asking the students about their plans for this long weekend, and many of them raise their hands and share their plans. I am surprised by how much many of them want to share; by the way, a few of them are going to their elementary schools tomorrow, just to visit.
The class activity today is related to short stories. Students were given a short story by Paul Constant, "Locks". Madison explained what ' theme' is and the students were told to read the story, get their Chrome books and note down what the theme of the story was, in their opinion. They were asked to write the main idea of the story in more than one word. I was surprised by some of the answers I heard, they sounded really deep (I have written the students' words in italics and the teachers' suggestions are next to them):
- anger and frustration
- realization and perspective: the boy takes a new perspective on his life
- power and control: father/son relationships
- meeting the expectations of your parents
- being trapped, having no control over your life
The teacher shared, as an online document, a copy of literary devices which they will be learning until the end of Sec 1 and then asks the students to list the devices they can find in this short story.
Period 2: English 3IB
These students got the first 20 minutes of the class to finish the tests they started yesterday: they had to choose 4 questions out of 7 to write minimum 150 words/each. The questions of the test were about things they had discussed in class: 'coming out of the cave', writing tweets impersonating a character...and they had to include a quote and a citation (author + page number) in each answer.
Then the students handed in the paper work related to their Mockumentary Projects and commented their work. Some students mentioned it had been hard to create a Creative Commons licence for the video; a student complained that she had missed more guidance from the teacher - the teacher thanked the criticism and agreed that, since this had been the first time the students had carried out this project, there were too many loose ends; other students complained that it had been difficult to get together outside the school to work on the project.
And next we watched each all the videos. They had to be related either to the characters and/or plot of Farenheit 541 or to anything mentioned there. Some were really good and imaginative. I am not allowed to share them because they are only public at the LBPSC. These are some of the titles: "The Seashell Radio", "The Hound 2.0", "The Book Dealer", "Fahren High"
Period 4: English 3IM
These students had to do the test on Monster; 5 of them had forgotten their test books at home, they got one from the teacher and they will have to bring back one on Monday.
The test consisted of 2 questions the students had to choose out of 3, and they had to write about 100 words/each. Each question was 20 points. The questions were about the themes in the story (peer pressure, racism in Harlem, guilt vs. innocence), the ambiguity in the novel, the significance of Steve;s journal - the introspection.
The students asked the same questions about the test over and over again, but the teacher replied each and every one of the questions without losing her temper or raising her voice. I doubt this would have been like that in Spain...
Period 5: Ethics and Religion
The first half of the lesson was spent talking about the Elections Project due next week. Since a video is part of the project, the watch some videos related to the topic of elections: Justin Trudeau´s speech accepting the Leadership of the Liberal Party in 2013, Donald Trump´s presidential announcement, Kanye West announcing 2020 presidential run.
Then the students worked a little bit on their projects: posters and video
Period 6: Drama Secondary 5
I went to a Drama class with Tannia Ditchburn; it was a big class, over 30 IB and non-IB students. Two groups performed their own play including different conventions: silent performance, dialogue, narration, monologue, flash back and cross-cutting (= two or more scenes performed on stage at the same time).
The teacher asked the audience to pay attention to their reactions, too. After each performance, every member of another group had to give the actors positive feedback: smooth transitions, different storyline, good interaction with the audience, the music added to the emotion, well used stage presence. (I like the way teachers make students focus on positive aspects, and I also like the way they subtly involve as many students as possible in every
different stage of the projects, including evaluation. I also find amazing the amount of work students do outside the classroom/school because any of the projects these students do means hours of group work. Tannia mentioned that the classroom was always open at lunch time, at recess and before the first period in the morning, so many of these students got to school before 7:00 a.m. to rehearse)
After school, I decided to go to the Botanical Gardens in Montreal again. I visited the Insectarium
I saw (again) the exhibition of 3D photographs by Takashi Sato.
And I was there for that magical moment when the day turns into night
Temperature in Montreal: 3ºC / 15º CPeriod 2: English 3IB
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| Finishing the tests; Day 2 |
These students got the first 20 minutes of the class to finish the tests they started yesterday: they had to choose 4 questions out of 7 to write minimum 150 words/each. The questions of the test were about things they had discussed in class: 'coming out of the cave', writing tweets impersonating a character...and they had to include a quote and a citation (author + page number) in each answer.
Then the students handed in the paper work related to their Mockumentary Projects and commented their work. Some students mentioned it had been hard to create a Creative Commons licence for the video; a student complained that she had missed more guidance from the teacher - the teacher thanked the criticism and agreed that, since this had been the first time the students had carried out this project, there were too many loose ends; other students complained that it had been difficult to get together outside the school to work on the project.
And next we watched each all the videos. They had to be related either to the characters and/or plot of Farenheit 541 or to anything mentioned there. Some were really good and imaginative. I am not allowed to share them because they are only public at the LBPSC. These are some of the titles: "The Seashell Radio", "The Hound 2.0", "The Book Dealer", "Fahren High"
Period 4: English 3IM
These students had to do the test on Monster; 5 of them had forgotten their test books at home, they got one from the teacher and they will have to bring back one on Monday.
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| Doing the tests with their earphones on |
The test consisted of 2 questions the students had to choose out of 3, and they had to write about 100 words/each. Each question was 20 points. The questions were about the themes in the story (peer pressure, racism in Harlem, guilt vs. innocence), the ambiguity in the novel, the significance of Steve;s journal - the introspection.
The students asked the same questions about the test over and over again, but the teacher replied each and every one of the questions without losing her temper or raising her voice. I doubt this would have been like that in Spain...
Period 5: Ethics and Religion
The first half of the lesson was spent talking about the Elections Project due next week. Since a video is part of the project, the watch some videos related to the topic of elections: Justin Trudeau´s speech accepting the Leadership of the Liberal Party in 2013, Donald Trump´s presidential announcement, Kanye West announcing 2020 presidential run.
Then the students worked a little bit on their projects: posters and video
Period 6: Drama Secondary 5
I went to a Drama class with Tannia Ditchburn; it was a big class, over 30 IB and non-IB students. Two groups performed their own play including different conventions: silent performance, dialogue, narration, monologue, flash back and cross-cutting (= two or more scenes performed on stage at the same time).
The teacher asked the audience to pay attention to their reactions, too. After each performance, every member of another group had to give the actors positive feedback: smooth transitions, different storyline, good interaction with the audience, the music added to the emotion, well used stage presence. (I like the way teachers make students focus on positive aspects, and I also like the way they subtly involve as many students as possible in every
After school, I decided to go to the Botanical Gardens in Montreal again. I visited the Insectarium
I saw (again) the exhibition of 3D photographs by Takashi Sato.
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| Lake Kibara & Mount Bandai in the morning, with a field of lythrum in bloom |
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| Minumatambo bamboo stands in the morning |
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