This blog began in Room 52 at AMG Junior and Senior Public School in 2011.
This site has followed me to a few schools since then and now joined the roster of retired blogs in the social media universe. The journey and reflection will continue in different and exciting spaces.
Room 52 remains one of the most significant places of teaching and learning for me and grateful to the students and staff who supported me there. Thank you.
I am certain that you will see major policy changes in the city, as they relate to the recycling of plastics. Gone are the days, I am sure, when every item of plastic can be tossed in our blue bins. This is an example of how Interrelationships work when when we think Geographically.
There was a question about the recent Charles Gritzner project, so I went looking for another example. Actually, Saya brought up the redevelopment of Galleria Mall.
The what is whereanswer could be given by pointing out the Mall's location. The why there section would look at some of the information about the mall and the planned ideas relating to the redevelopment. This section involves some research on your part. The why caresection is where you share your ideas about your topic and should involve you using your geographic perspective and looking at the issue -- in this case the redevelopment -- from different points of view.
I was looking for some issue relating to this on YouTube. Instead, I found an offensive video. At least I thought it was, as someone who shops at Galleria Mall from time to time. It referred to the mall as a Ghetto Mall. Oftentimes, this word is thrown about and few people understand it and it is usually used in a negative way.
I point this out since it is important to think about the language we use. As my Partner points out to me, language structures thought and we should cautious about making judgments about who frequents a particular place. If I shop at Galleria Mall, instead of Dufferin Mall or Yorkdale, am I not as cool or less than a person? If I am struggling with a lower income, is my value in the community less? These are difficult questions that GEOGRAPHIC THINKING contemplates.
I am going to mention this but return to it as a future Geography topic and connect it to a news story about the water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa. I posted a link to this story here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/cape-town-water-day-zero-1.4518226
The origins of this important day are rooted in the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960.
Usually, I spend a lot of time plowing through the teaching material but I am not going to do this. We are going to use the STUDENT section of the play's guide and use this YouTube video, provided by Ms. Brougham, to help us through this discussion.
I posted this story because it reminded me of the interesting video we watched from International Women's Day a couple of weeks ago. This is an example of a trend and a disruption to the pattern of how children see Scientists. Still, a pattern seems to still exist, especially when older kids draw Scientists.
This lesson coincided our recognition of International Women's Day. As a teacher, I work hard to try to have a program that is inclusive and representative of the voices in our classroom.
video link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE2VhzSGiSU
This is an interesting story, which highlights some of the ideas we have looked at in Media Literacy. In this case, all media are constructions and sometimes these constructions can be both sexist, racist and exclusionary.
The next story, which many of you are familiar with, relates to a short, in-class writing response for Geography. The exercise relates to 2 of the concepts of Geographic thinking on this chart: Patterns and Trends, Geographic Perspectives.
Today (Friday) will be our Black Panther screening! Here is the last set of notes from a class discussion on the film and its link to our key concepts of Media Literacy:
Finally, some Math.
Pi, the third letter of the Greek alphabet is the relationship/ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. However, the number is infinite. Here is the list of 10 000 digits which follow the 3.14 that we are so used to seeing.
On Friday, the Grades 4-8 classes will be traveling to watch the Marvel's Black Panther film. While I cannot explain the layers of discussion we had in class today, I can summarize part of the discussion through a photo I took and two videos I used. I will be using this as an entry point for discussion with the other classes.
For those of you who read this, the point on the right side of the board is very important. It was prompted by having the students think and respond to the first three paragraphs of this article from Time magazine: http://time.com/black-panther/
The magical power of Vibranium, found in the fictional country of Wakanda, is supposed to be a contrast to the plundering of resources from the African continent.
This short video attempts to summarize a short history of Colonialism in the continent. The main idea, in relation to the movie, is that Wakanda was never colonized by any European power and has used the resource of Vibranium to run the technologically advanced civilization.
The conversation was weaved together during Media Literacy class by looking at some of the key concepts and making connections with the film.
Here are a few of the key players who were involved in the creation of the film and the potential they see:
It seems that apostrophes can be a point of confusion for a lot of students. I went to school during an era where Grammar was taught and we picked up on some of these important lessons. It is my hope that the students will take something away from this.
I was very pleased to see the effort that Justin and Hom put into completing these two Math questions. Actually, the only one that is made up of parts is the one with the triangle and square. Hom, showing her persistence and hard work, solved it with some coaching.
This is intended to be a summary of how the Gritzner assignment aligns with the type of thinking I hope we develop in Geography class. The development of this busy corner will happen and, someday, you may remember talking about it in Geography class!
