We have been truly privileged to this week to be working with Josh Hite of Arts Umbrella from Granville Island in Vancouver. And fortunate, too, to have the assistance of Franzeska, who is visiting the Valley from Germany. By some lucky fluke, our school was chosen for an outreach opportunity.  Josh and I met ahead of time to do some planning around creative use of some free, open-source software created through the The Glocal Project.

Josh lead us through a process of thinking about image making through a new lens–both literally and figuratively. We talked about abstraction and representation, appropriation and remix, and how to represent an idea through metaphor. Students created images around two themes: electricity and justice. One aspect of the process that was particularly illuminating was providing critiques of images; this extend much of the work we had been doing on how to provide quality feedback.

In the two weeks we created almost 1000 images. Josh printed of many of them and we then collaborated to create (and curate) a gallery of images which we installed at our neighboring high school. Some grade 11 and 12 students took part in providing feedback, again adding to the richness of the experience.

It was a phenomenal learning experience for all of us. The students and I learned a tremendous amount about creativity and design through the process, and most of all we came away feeling fortunate to have met and worked with Josh and Fanzeska.

The images below offer a taste of the eye-catching images we created. Check the student blogs for their reflections.

“All rise, Judge Smith presiding!”

Have you ever thought about what it’s like to be in a Canadian court? Well, today we (Catie and Rebecca) will tell you all about it so that you’ll be ready for a real case someday! We have just recently been working on a unit in Social Studies about justice. We have been focusing mainly on court. In this post, we are going to share with you what we have learned.

Court Members and Their Jobs

Everybody in the court has an important role to serve justice to the citizens and their community. We are going to define and explain what their jobs are.

1. Judge-The Judge is one of the most important people in the court. He/she makes the decision if the accused is innocent or guilty, and listens carefully to the people in order to make the fair decision.
2. Court Clerk-The Court clerk prepares the court’s schedule, and reads the charges of the accused. The court clerk also asks everybody in the case to swear on their religion to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
3. Crown Counsel/Attorney-The Crown counsel/Attorney is the lawyer for their province or territory. They represent society, and ask the witnesses questions and to tell the Judge the truth about what happened.
4. Investigating Officer-The investigating officer investigates the crime, and collects evidence. He/she also helps the Crown prosecutor.
5. Accused-The accused is the one who has been charged with committing a crime. He/she has the right (in most places) to remain silent and let their lawyer (the Defence counsel) speaks for them.
6. Court Reporter-The Court reporter records everything that is said in the court room during trial. He/she sits close to the witnesses to hear exactly what they say.
7. Defence Counsel/Attorney-He/she is the lawyer who works for the accused. He/she makes sure that the Judge hears the accused person’s side of the case, so the Judge can make a fair decision.
8. Court Officer-The Court officer/sheriff is responsible for keeping everybody in the courtroom safe during trial. Another thing that he/she does, is bring in accused at the right time.

Important Things in the Courtroom

Now that you have learned about the important people in court, we will teach you the important things, in the courtroom to make the trial run smoothly.

1. Closed Circuit Television-This item is used to show evidence for the accused (under 18 if it makes it easier for them to explain).
2. Coat Of Arms-Used as a very important symbol.
3. Canadian Flag-The flag is another symbol used to represent Canada. In other countries, people use their flags for the same reason.
4. Prisoner’s Box-This is used to hold accused if they happen to be in custody (jail) at the time. This is where the Court Officer would bring in the accused.

   All of these things and people, help make the courtroom FAIR. The Judge listens carefully to everybody, the Jury are unbiased and have no connection whatsoever to the Accused or the Witnesses, the Crown Counsel/Attorney defends the law while the Defence Counsel defends the Accused. Each one of these jobs and people are very important in making the procedures fair.

  We really have learned so much about court and justice in Canada, and it’s only been a few days! We really hope that you have learned as much as we have about this important topic. We couldn’t have learned all of this without this website. Thank you so much for reading this post, and we hope that you will visit Huzzah again soon! Until next time… this has been Catie, and Rebecca on Court and Justice. See you soon!

Photo Credits

Courtroom One Gavel by lambdachialpha
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License