I think it's really important to prepare for something like Anti-Bullying Day so that it doesn't just become a fun excuse to wear a pink shirt to school.  Bullying is, and has been, a hot topic in education so rather than present my own ideas on bullying I wanted to hear from my students and have a candid discussion about bullying. We started our class with the question: What is bullying? Here are their ...

A colleague, Teri Potma, gave me the amazing idea of using the board game Settlers of Catan to kick off our next big idea in social studies.  We are going to be looking at resources, trade, exploration and economy in connection to Canada and a variety of ancient civilizations.  Briefly, Settlers of Catan is a game where players attempt to settle and build on a new land full of resources.  The roll of the dice imp...

April 25th was International Pay It Forward Day.  The term "pay it forward" is well known from a movie in which a young boy tries to change the world as part of a class assignment.  He did 3 great things for 3 people in need and then they in turn were supposed to go on and pay it forward to 3 more people each. While we did not have the time to plan anything huge to change a life, we decided to fill the day with ...

We have been working really hard at blitzing our school with random acts of kindness.  Students wrote notes, gave out treats, decorated with balloons, and even did a 2 minute surprise dance party.  It has been amazing to see the impact of these random acts and the way that they spread through the whole school. We topped things off with a surprise video message for family, staff, and students during our Christmas p...