Streetcar History

How Toronto's iconic streetcar almost never got made http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/now-40-years-old-the-clrv-streetcar-is-a-piece-of-toronto-history-that-almost-never-came-to-be-1.4460552 Shared via the CBC News Android App

100th Anniversary of the Toronto Maple Leafs: Streamed game at Dovercourt PS

I was quite certain I wrote a description about the screening of Tuesday's afternoon Toronto Maple Leafs game with the Carolina Hurricanes team.  On Tuesday, it was the 100th year celebration of the Leafs.  Originally known as the Toronto Arenas, the team has been in existance since December, 1917 and Mr. Williams applied for, and won, an opportunity to show the game at Dovercourt and our students were very appreciative.

Ms. Kramer, being interviewed by a Sportsnet reporter.

Proud fans

Final school days of 2017: Have a wonderful Holiday

The final day of teaching is coming to a close.

It is probably fitting that we had our final Health class of the year looking at the components of developing a healthy Self-esteem.  We played a matching game, based on the research of Reynolds Bean (https://www.amazon.ca/Four-Conditions-Self-Esteem-Approach-Elementary/dp/1560710683) and matched labels with a series of definitions.

These discussions, as I have mentioned before, are taking place in our unit on developing Healthy Relationships.  I will add those definitions here and on GC.  

The balance of the day was quite relaxing.    The annual writing on the board continued for another year and watching Home Alone.  

I adhere to the TDSB Homework policy and do not assign any during the 2-week Holiday.  In saying this, there are some students who have outstanding work to do. 

Some of the initial History projects handed in

Once we return, there will be about 3 weeks of instruction before there is the talk about putting together the Term 1 Report Cards, which have percentage grades on them.  Until then, enjoy your time off and get in some quality relaxing time.
Regards to you and your families,

Mr. P

from:  http://www.tessadomesticdiva.com/2014/12/happy-holidays-no-afw.html

Updated results: Rewrites work!

The days are winding down...

Great to see more names on this list!  There could be another name added in the next 24 hours.

Dovercourt PS had the pleasure and honour of watching the 100 year anniversary of the Toronto Maple Leafs who were known initially as the "Toronto Arenas."  Billed as 'The Next Century Game,' and organized by Mr. Williams, there was a lot of cheering going on today in the Lower Gym.  Here are a few images from the afternoon:

Ms. Kramer, being interviewed bya SportsNet host.

Goal!

Citations & Health Class

CiTAtiOns

https://mtsac.libguides.com/citations

Here are some sites which will help you.  They are also posted in GC.

http://www.citationmachine.net/apa/cite-a-book

http://www.easybib.com/reference/guide/apa/book

Health & PE:  continuing our conversations on developing healthy relationships

copied from TDSB resource "Talking Relationships"

The resource is excellent and will be part of Health unit for the next ten weeks.  Here are some of the key concepts we will be exploring, to name a few:

developing our class expectations for subsequent discussions

We did not get to this today, but we will return to it.  It is another variation of a video that Officer Paul shared with us on the matters of consent.

As we learn about relationships, it is also important to learn about ourselves and the aspects of our identity and feel pride in them.  We will be doing this by doing the Circles of Ourselves exercise.  It uses a template similar to this:

http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/activities/circlesofself_handout.html

We will continue this next week.  Here is what I began.  It looks slightly different that the one pictured above:

The idea is to tap into the many different things that make us who we are.  A friend of mine, and York University professor, Carl James used this in one of his books.  Sorry, I can't remember the title right now:

When we return to this next week, we will begin to see how we may have things in common with people we don't, on the surface, think we do.

Enjoy your weekend.

- 

a few photos

Subject-specific materials are posted in the Google Classroom sites.

A few photos with short stories:

Award ceremony hosts

Grade 7/8 Award winners for December

Excellent work in the RED ROOM

Media Literacy: Ethos, Pathos, Logos, Unilever and Proctor and Gamble

Media Literacy:

Not sure of the original source, but web page is typed at bottom

Current Examples of each

Ethos:

funny video!! (cheesy, pun intended)

Pathos:

https://www.torontohumanesociety.com/

Logos:  Since we have been exploring Unilever's Dove soap, we can see that the product is now part of the research (statistics) into how women feel about themselves:

http://www.dove.com/ca/en/stories/about-dove/our-research.html

I intentionally took a screenshot of the Men+Care product line.  We will take a look at that, as we begin to explore concepts of masculinity in Media and Health class.

Unilever, which owns Dove cosmetics, also has a lot of other brand names:  https://www.unilever.ca/brands/

Another company, Proctor and Gamble, also have a lot of brands:  https://www.pg.ca/en-CA/our-brands

History and another tidbit of wisdom from Alice

History

The Success Criteria for both the RAFTS assignment and the Inquiry are now complete and will be posted on GC very shortly.

Throughout the process of the Inquiry, I have attempted to model parts of the assignment.   One topic I looked at was the history of the Black Loyalists in Canada.  Here is a very short example of Stage 1 and Stage 2/3:

If this was a real project, the attempt to answer questions would be a lot stronger.

UPDATE:  I am using this lesson to update and bring this project a little more to `life`with a lesson I have done, or will be doing, with the other classes:

In the epic novel The Book of Negores, author Lawrence Hill introduces us to Aminanta Diallo who chronicles her travels from being stolen from west Africa, sold into slavery in the United States, and her journey to Nova Scotia.  Eventually, she returns to Sierra Leone, but that is not part of this lesson.

The Book of Negroes was first on-air back in January of 2015.  I am going to show a short clip and link this with the concept

https://watch.cbc.ca/the-book-of-negroes/season-1/episode-5/38e815a-0096573a06e

The environment for the newly arrived Black Loyalists was not entirely peaceful.  There was a long established history of Slavery in Nova Scotia (http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/black-enslavement/ & https://earlycanadianhistory.ca/2016/02/29/canadian-fugitive-slave-advertisements-an-untapped-archive-of-resistance/) which was very challenging, no doubt.  In the small section I just showed you, the location was Birchtown, Nova Scotia, which is close to a well-established Black community in Shelburne:  https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Birchtown,+Nova+Scotia+B0T+1W0/@43.7552155,-65.6268285,10.08z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x4b568c5405fd6089:0xb48e8efefc3f681e!8m2!3d43.747735!4d-65.3786529

Hopefully, by now, you will see the value in studying History.  Fast-forward 224 years, some of the issues around the land promised for the original Black settlers are still present:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/09/27/nova-scotia-giving-black-residents-2-7-million-to-settle-land-rights_a_23225109/

Originally I thought this was a topic relating to Continuity and Change.  It is, but I would change it now to Historical Significance because it is an important part of our Nation's History.

wisdom

A strategy for improving your memory, Drama, Skills Canada video, Slavery in Canada, wisdom from an Iceberg

Canadian researchers say you can improve memory with this one weird trick http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/second-opinion-december-9-2017-1.4440863 Shared via the CBC News Android App

A quick snapshot from Drama:

 

Skills Canada time-lapse video.  This video link was provided by the super presenter we had a couple of weeks ago from Amy Kearns, a liaison officer with Skills Canada.

I think one the key things which struck a chord with me from this presentation had to do with the fact that pursuing an Apprenticeship is a form of Post-Secondary education.  As a graduate of York University and George Brown, I had this idea that this was what Post-Secondary schooling looked like.  I now realize that this is only part of the story.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/the-sunday-edition-december-10-2017-1.4439351/the-little-told-history-of-canadians-as-slave-owners-not-just-slave-rescuers-1.4439365

Historical Significance Part 2: The Halifax Harbour Explosion, 1917; Media Literacy & soap

History

http://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/halifaxexplosion/

Rorden pointed out on Tuesday that this was also an item of Canadian History, from 1917, that was of historical significance.  The event also illustrates an example of how cause and consequence operates.  For example, check out some of the points made in the following article:

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/12/05/halifax-to-commemorate-1917-halifax-explosion.html

Viola Desmond's sister recounts the experience of the explosion:  https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/12/05/halifax-to-commemorate-1917-halifax-explosion.html

Language Arts:  Media Literacy

I will use the blog to frame the lesson for today.  I will return to this and provide it with some more context.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/dove-ad-1.4347314

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/10/i-am-woman-racist-dove-ad-not-a-victim

http://www.businessinsider.com/doves-racist-ad-2017-10