Montroyal’s Library Website

Well here it is, the Montroyal Library Website .  Due to a major bathroom breakdown in our house this weekend, I have had limited time to finish the site but i am happy with the bones of the site.  Have a look give some feedback.  I am not completely happy with my opening page and will probably opt for taking pictures of my favorite books or gettting book cover pictures of the books I want to highlight for the week.  More research is needed.  I am using Google sites as my platform and have been learning about Picasa which is Google
and now I am looking at Google Books.Have a great summer !

 

 

 

Oh the Humanity!

Isn’t it amazing how at the turn of this century we are still trying figure how to communicate! What’s interesting though is this art, music and poetry are still (in my opinion) the most effective and inspiring way of communicating our humanity. I hope that in the quest for better technology teachers don’t forget the value of the content and history of what they are teaching. Process is important but we must know how to be human. This course and the people sharing, collaborating and questioning, working face to face with technology helping us to search and learn is the new way. I can say that this experience has changed my perspective of how technology is to work in the classroom .

Learning Commons Post 4 : Obstacles of curation.

Learning Commons Post 4: Can I anticipate and be ready for obstacles
This is the hard part for me. Introducing a site that is going to be used by so many people for so many different purposes scares me. I know that I want to test the site with people that I trust will be honest and constructive. I have great relationships with my staff, admin and parent community as well as my students. I would like to gather a group together that will look at the site and give me constructive and honest feedback. I will start with the technology committee that works really well together and is a good representation of the different users for the website.
The big obstacles will be :
Delegating the curation of the site between myself and my new partner ( no library experience and a new staff member and a new VP ) She is very personable, energetic and tech savvy  Yeah!!!
Maintaining the site : Either weekly or bi-weekly. A decision to be made in collaboration
Making the connections between the pages: How does one page lead to another. Is the website viewer able to move around intuitively and logically and meaningfully.
Not letting the site settle into something that gets forgotten about.

10 minutes of fame- Global Learner at Montroyal

10 minutes of fame
Global Learner – The Global Learner program is designed to prepare students for the future, and to bring students, staff and parents together through collaboration and responsive partnerships. We have chosen three school-wide themes, addressing learning outcomes at all grade levels, across subjects, and aimed at developing global awareness. Under the umbrella themes of Children of the World, World Leaders & Leadership, and Global Stewardship, students will take part in focused inquiries which include progressive learning outcomes focusing on 21st century skills.
Collaboration based on three themes – Children of the World- Leaders and Leadership – Global Stewardship- Each term our staff choose 3- or 4 consecutive Wednesday afternoons to offer workshops to students.
• Divided into 2 multi-age groupings Primary – grades 1-3 and Intermediate 4-7 . Kindergarten students join the primary groups for term 3 only.
• Teachers of a variety of workshops for students to choose from.
• Students watch a video presentation on their classroom smart board for the workshops and select their top 2 choices.
• Teachers distribute students to workshops noting learning needs
• We display the product of our workshops throughout the year .

Global Learner Workshops
Over the past decade, we have seen an unprecedented rise in the amount of information available to people and to the interconnectedness of people around the world. To continue to offer a rich diversity of engaging programs to students, we, too need to grow. Students need to not only be competent in reading, writing and mathematics, but also 21st century skills . They must be inspired to navigate the sea of information through speaking, writing, multi-media, and creativity. Students need to become more globally aware and learn to collaborate with people face-to-face and around the world. A well-rounded education is no longer just the three R’s; success in the future will require digital-age literacy, inventive thinking, effective communication and high productivity. Are we ready?
Global Learner Workshop Presentations
I approached my principal to ask for any pictures or videos that could help you to understand some of the work that is being done in our school by our amazing creative teachers. In doing so, both she and I realized that we haven’t thought about creating a virtual window for our workshops. There were only a few pictures available to show you what the multi-age collaboration looks like. I am going to spearhead a change to publish the work we are doing and possibly archive the lessons for our workshops.

Instead I would like for you to see a video of the work a couple of our teachers did with the Environmental Club. The teacher collaboration is between a grade 1 teacher with a wealth of expertise and a grade 7 teacher who is tech savvy and extremely creative. Together they worked with students to research, create and communicate with the entire school via YouTube and Smart Boards a project that all students could participate in. They utilized their research to create a video which promoted writing, music and a message to engage students to observe their back yard environment. Enjoy Birds in the Hood