This is a classroom of readers.

Many students pop open a book first thing everyday and get ten or fifteen minutes of reading done before the school day starts. I often over-hear students talking to each other about the books they are reading.

To add a special something to our regular silent reading time, we will be taking over the library once again. Blankets, pillows, and really great books will be the perfect combination for a relaxed reading experience.

Huzzahnians, you job this week is to recommend a really good read.  It can be any genre, and can even be a book you might recommend to a younger reader. Think like someone who is browsing the stacks: what can you tell them that will make them reach for this really good book?

Call your post DEAR Reader, then include the title and author of your book as a size 3 heading. Tell your readers what makes this book so good. Is it the plot, the characters, the setting? Is it the writer’s way with words?  Please include a thumbnail image of the book cover–because you are writing about the book as a reviewer would, using the image is considered “fair use” so attribution is not necessary.

Your posts will be a help to anyone who has ever thought…hmmm, I can’t find anything to read.

We are very fortunate to have many adults working with our class this year. Some are close to home, and some far away. Ms. Fender is a student teacher living…somewhere else! We will solve the mystery of her whereabouts with her help, because she has made a video for us to help guess where she lives.

Here are seven random things about her–notice these facts don’t identify her personally. However, her picture connected to her name does, and she has given permission to share it on our blog.

1. I love reading but never get time to read what I want!

2. I have 4 children involved in performance orientated arts.

3. I wish I could live on a farm or acreage.

4. I love animals but don’t have any pets.

5. I am an artist but don’t paint.

6. I am allergic to wheat, yeast, soy, and dairy.

7. I love technology and love learning how to learn about it.

In class, we’ll view Ms. Fender’s video and then do some educated guessing about where she comes from.  Huzzahnians, what clues helped you? At what point did you have enough information to make a reasonable prediction?

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

What an exciting few weeks we’ve had!

We participated with Mr. Bridges’ class in the school-based Heritage Fair. The Heritage Fair gives students an opportunity to explore a topic that relates to Canadian history, culture, or heritage and that is of personal interest to them. We have learned about bannock and the Avro Arrow, Sarratoga Speedway and Tim Horton’s, the SPCA and Niagara Falls. Seven students researched family members and in the process learned about whaling, war brides, homesteading and Lo Han Jai or “Buddha’s Delight”. The slide show below gives a little taste of the event.

Voices of Experience

Here is great advice from Huzzahnians about how to complete a successful project:

• choose a project that fits you, that you care about, and that pulls the reader in  (Daniel W., Kristopher, Michael G. )
• don’t copy and paste info! (Sophie)
• research your topic well (Catie)
• if you are presenting your project on food, bring samples! (Austin)
• choose a topic so you can ask family & friends for information (Michael T.)
• add lots of colour and pictures to make your board visually interesting (Haley)

Sharing Like a Pro

The most challenging aspect for many was doing an oral presentation in front of classmates before we presented publicly in the library. It can be nerve wracking to stand up in front of a group like that! Students received great feed back from each other.

• think of really strong openers and closers and choose one (Sam)
• if you forget what to say, just say what you know (Daniel W.)
• prepare! (Boyd)
• use your model in your presentation (Kris)
• be brave, try to relax, don’t be tense (Dom, Blake)
• point out things on your display board (Chelsea)
• tell stories about the person and link them together (Michael T.)

The experience of this event will help us to create even better projects next time. Many students found that presenting in the library was satisfying (and not as scary!) because it was more like a conversation, and that because they had presented to the whole class and had received feedback they knew how to improve. Where you were in the library and the age of the students who visited also made a difference.

Here’s what the Fair looked like:

(The slide show takes a little time to load–be patient!)

Many thanks to Catie’s mom for sharing her pictures with us, and to all the parents, students, and teachers who visited our projects and asked us about our learning.

***And special thanks to Chelsea for giving me feedback about how to improve this post!

Image credit Happy Canada Day! by Ian Muttoo

We had our third webcast through Yes I Can! Science last Friday. It was an early start for us (8:00 am), but really worth it. We joined eight classes from across Canada in asking questions of Dr. Bob Thirsk–questions for which we couldn’t find answers any other way. Google is good, but not that good!

Among many other things, Dr. Thirsk told us about what the moments immediately before, during, and after take off are like, what working with people of other nationalities and cultures is like, and what experiments will be conducted on board the ISS.

One of my favourite quotes from Dr. Thirsk was in response to a question about what sort of education one needs to be an astronaut. He talked about how the standards were high, and that 5000 well-qualified people applied for two jobs. Then he said, “Don’t get an education to become an astronaut. Learn because you are curious about the world.”

He also told us about his personal pack. He is allowed to take 20 items into space, and among other things is taking a copy of The Hockey Sweater and a Japanese translation of Anne of Green Gables. Here are some of the things Huzzahnians would take:

Catie: I would bring the picture of my family and me because it would remind me of all the good times we have when we are together.

Blake: A small Canadian flag because I am Canadian.

Michael T.: A golden ring my dad gave to me that was his promise ring to my mom.

Julian: If I went to space I would bring nothing because what I will want will probably be there already.

Sam: My brother’s ipod with mine and my brother’s lullaby that my grandpa wrote and preformed on it.

Nicholas: My great grandpa’s WW2 medals in honor of his death.

Jacob: I would ask people to give me letters so I would not miss them as much and it would help when I get home sick.

The special patch above was designed by Bill Helin, a renowned Tsimshian artist.

(This guest post is written by one of Huzzahnia’s students. Thanks for sharing this with us, Chelsea!)

Hey Guys and Gals. It’s Chelsea.

I have something very important to tell you. I am speaking live from my house right now…(dramatic pause)… No just kidding. Well, anyways, that very important thing I have to tell you is “The Alert Program”. You might not know what this means, but don’t worry, you will understand everything after. I am going to explain what it is, what it taught us and what it helped us with.

What Is The Alert Program?

Well, it’s very simple. The Alert Program is two people who came to teach us, how to regulate our bodies. Those two people who came to our class are Mrs. Prager & Mrs. Williams. They taught us everything we needed to know on how to get our bodies and minds just right for learning.

What the Alert Program Taught Us!

The Alert Program taught us how to regulate our bodies when they are hyper or sleepy or as Mrs. Prager would say it, Low, Just Right and High

When we need to get from low to just right we can: do a chair push-up, use a chair band, do a hand press, or a head press. A chair push-up is when you use both hands to push your body up off of the chair. A chair band is just a plastic band that goes around the two front legs of your chair, then you push the band forwards with both feet as you have your feet behind the band. The hand press is simple, all you do is push both hands together as hard as you can, with out hurting yourself. The head press is JUST as simple, this time just press your head with your hands.

When you need to get from high to just right, you can: do the Egg, use a fidget tool, or again the head and hand press. The Egg is easy, all you do is make your self into a ball. A fidget tool is something you play with that does not make noise or distract others.

We also learned what Cognition, Sensation, and Emotion are.

Cognition

Cognition is thinking. When you need to get to just right from high, you can just think of something to regulate your self. Once when I was in a small contest at recess, I used cognition to put all the pressure away.

Sensation

Sensation is about your senses in the body. When your engine level is low you can eat some fruit to calm you down. Once when my Mom made cookies, for dessert, I could not get to sleep, because it had chocolate chips in it, chocolate chips is sugar so…I went hyper.

Emotion

Emotion is feelings. When your engine is low, you need some one to cheer you up, that’s when emotions kick in.

Did you see how they all got our engines to just right?

It is important to know all this, because if our engines are just right you will be able to focus…ON THAT MATH TEST YOU HAVE TOMORROW… No just kidding, but still, remember all this and you can focus, and  get a good report card!

Image By: The Allieness