Resuming Blogging: United Nations game link on Refugees, the power of photographs, Sentence types, and the Autobiography assignmenttwo weeks

I think it was the second time I heard the following question, "...is this going to be posted on the blog?"I decided to rethink the grinding halt of my blogging activity.  This blog is not a class blog and is not intended for parents, but as a tool for supporting the learning of my students and a point of reflective practice for my teaching.  I also pay Google in order to post the number and size of items on it.

Also, this blog was set up on my own accord and is in no way affiliated with the bureaucracy of the Toronto District School Board.

Enough said.

For Geography, we will be playing this game in the Library today.  While it is not meant to replicate the real life struggles of Refugees, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR)set up this game to allow students to walk in the shoes to understand the plight a Refugee may face. 

https://www.unric.org/en/games/27351-against-all-odds-unhcr

One student in 7A showed a copy of one of these videos to his Mom which we used in class. I don't think I posted this, but here it is:

Another topic that was a part of a Geography homework assignment was looking at the power of photographs. We started with looking at the photo of the young Syrian boy, Alan Kurdi, who drowned on a Turkish beach while trying to reach one of the Greek islands.  

As a BONUS component to this assignment, we looked at some of the photographs selected by the class as game changers.  I am not going to post the photos submitted, but I will provide a link to The Toronto Star's selection of 5 photographs that had a powerful impact on the world.  Here is the link:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/09/04/5-iconic-photos-that-changed-the-world.html

In Language, we have been working on developing an understanding of the three basic types of sentences.  Below is a summary of the work we have done.  It should provide a review, along with the YouTube video I posted.

This review is intended to support the writing required for the Autobiography assignment.  Based on the work we do, you should/will be able to write a variety of sentences.
Again, here are the key parts of the Autobiography/Life Map assignment you need to do:

To support what this might look like, I showed you a sample that I came up with. It follows the requirements of the assignment.

I did not do a Life Map, but I did show the students a link to a variety of images relating to it.
https://www.google.ca/search?q=life+maps+images&safe=strict&rlz=1C1NWPB_enCA533CA556&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0CBwQsARqFQoTCN2Z0IPZq8gCFUWJDQodl2kAig&biw=1366&bih=623

Because I like the colours in this one, I will use it as a sample.  By no means does it correspond to the assignment I gave, but is meant to give you a rough ideas of what it might look like.

to be continued...