Monday, November 24, 2014

Just around the corner!

Yes, Christmas!  Can you believe it?  I can hardly believe that Christmas shopping and festivities are already being planned and are soon to be in full swing! 

Here are a couple of Linky Parties relating to Christmas products that you can use in your classroom over the next month.

Check them out!  All different grade levels are included here!

Christmas freebies linky party

Holiday Creations Linky Party

Lorraine



Thursday, November 20, 2014

Frankenstein! - A wonderful find!

I decided to share a product that I found last year around Halloween that I found to be amazing and something that can be used at any time of the year!  It's a "Frankstein template" that allows you to personalize your own game within the classroom to suit your own subject area needs.  Whether you are teaching French, Spanish or even Social Studies or Science this template can work for you.  I love using this as a review.  There are 4 categories that you can use and within those categories are "surprise" questions.  I use this as an activity for small groups and the students answer the multiple choice questions in their groups.  This is loved by all grade levels!  Try it out in your class. 

A huge thanks to Arik Durfee for sharing this product with us!  Check it out!  It's a keeper for sure!


                                          Frankensteins-Monster-Customizable-PowerPoint

Enjoy!  Lorraine

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

le Petit Nicolas

Oh my gosh!  I have just watched my French class laugh for a solid hour!  We watched the DVD le Petit Nicolas today.  (It will take 2 classes to watch the full story) The French is fast but is quite clear. An upper level grade would know what is going on, immersion students for sure, and lower high school students with a little help from the subtitles.  This light-hearted comedic film tells of the little boy Nicolas and the struggles and adventures he and his friends have.  There is a wide variety of personalities portrayed amongst the boys in the class.  I would definitely recommend this. Great for comprehension and discussion of French culture as well as stereotypes. 

                                                  

Also, I want to let you know that there is another Linky Party sponsored by "Promoting Success" regarding Thanksgiving classroom products.  I know that the Canadian Thanksgiving has come and gone but Thanksgiving in the US is right around the corner.

Here is the link for you!          Promoting success - Thanksgiving products


Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Thanksgiving!

Hi everyone!

There's a Thanksgiving "Linky Party" happening with products for the classroom.  Come and check it out.  There is an awesome variety of products and activities for your students.

Thanksgiving Resources and Activities

Found another one!

Thanksgiving Resource Round Up



Wednesday, November 5, 2014

November has arrived!

October seemed to have flown by with my schedule being very busy.  I thought I would share with you a few of its highlights!

1. Provincial Professional Development day!
Mine turned out to be a couple of days as I attended the CCSDL conference.  This stands for the "Canadian Coalition for Self-directed Learning".  My school belongs to this coalition and this year we hosted the annual conference in Vancouver, BC.  We lucked out with some good weather (no rain!) and a couple of evenings of clear skies which made for fun evenings with colleagues and conference delegates.  The conference was open to anyone who teaches in a CCSDL school and is also open to those who are interested in what we do in our schools as our teaching model is far from "traditional".  Our school (Thomas Haney Secondary) opened in 1992 and is in a building that was specifically built for teaching and learning in the 21st Century.  With much unrest in BC during the preparations for our conference we were very excited that it was pulled together and definitely ran smoothly.  After a day of "visitors" to our school during a day in session, the conference moved downtown to the Pan Pacific Hotel and conference centre in Vancouver.  We had a beautiful view of the harbour and got to meet people from all over Canada and some additional visitors from Vermont this year.  This is a picture of the Pan Pacific where the conference took place.  Since I have been teaching at THSS since its opening I always enjoy being able to meet with others who are stepping outside of the box and trying new teaching methods.


2. Halloween!
The staff and students get really excited about Halloween at our school and our student council puts on activities during the lunch hour for the entire week.  Along with this our languages department hosted a multi-cultural seminar.  This seminar began with a video of "Voici L'Halloween" from YouTube (great version in French) and it was followed by a celebration of "Day of the Dead".  We combined a celebration to include students studying both French and/or Spanish.  Here is the activity our students did while in the seminar.  Great decorations around our classes and hallways. :)


3. Le festival de fromage!
We are studying "la Suisse" in French class for our unit and wanted to bring a bit of Switzerland into the classroom.  So, we had a cheese festival.  The students signed up for a type of cheese or baguettes and I brought in the Swiss chocolate.  What a feast!  Each student had an oral activity to do which included describing and comparing the different types of cheese.  Goat cheese is particularly popular (along with Swiss cheese) for those students who are lactose intolerant!  Everyone can enjoy!


Check out my Swiss products at my store and then finish with the cheese festival.  :)

Happy Teaching!  Lorraine