It is Thursday and Monday is coming. No, it is not Easter. I am busy cross referencing every student in Grade 6 and 7, praying I haven’t messed up a student’s allocation for their X-Block 5 Module. Cooking can only take 12, so can Cookie and Cupcake Decorating, Maker Taker can take 6, Design Thinking [...]
BY WENDY ENNS, LEARNING SUPPORT SERVICES COORDINATOR What on earth could I possibly offer teachers from a rural village in Ethiopia? In November 2016, I had an incredible opportunity to travel with Run for Water to see a village that ACS Elementary raised money for clean water and a school. I was asked if I [...]
The email was followed up by a text; the kind that starts off with polite pleasantries about the weather and courteous queries about how I’ve been, only to make the awkward shift into, “So…while I’ve got your attention, I was wondering….” It’s the ever-popular approach of requesting a favour of someone or reminding them of [...]
BY HELINDA VANDERKOOI, ACS PARENT Middle school…yikes! I heard stories from parents about middle school. Claims like: your kids don’t need you as much in middle school, hardly any parents come to chapel, the teachers don’t want your help, the kids ignore and avoid you. With all this chatter I was not looking forward to the [...]
I remember it like it was yesterday. Grade 9 Band Tour. My suitcase was packed. We got on the bus at night. I was nervous. We were going to drive through the night and arrive in Alberta the next day. I remember the sun was just starting to go down, the smell of fresh fallen [...]
“Puh-lease?!?!?” came the persistent begging, once again, from my Star Wars crazed son. He had only asked EVERY DAY to battle me—light-saber style, which is really not my style at all! Always after dinner. Always just as my hands were getting sudsy, cleaning the mess from the last half hour. It was always then that [...]
I stood barefoot on my blanket as a First Nations person. We were a gregarious people who moved around, visited other groups, traded, conversed, shared stories and listened to new ideas and techniques. While I did that, my blanket was taken away. As I watched that happen, I lost my identity. I no longer belonged. [...]
I admit it…I’m a late adopter. I am careful in approach and rarely jump into anything new without appropriately assessing all options. Then I weigh them, and observe the early adopters to be sure I don’t experience the same pitfalls they will inevitably find themselves in. And although I consider myself a digital native, I [...]
Most people think Twitter began in 2006, but a form of it actually existed in my grade 7 classroom long before that. I didn’t call it Twitter, I called it “Notion Notes.” When I first came to Abbotsford, I taught grade 7. Besides having fun learning all that science and English, we also did fun things for their own [...]
Feathers floated through the air; strands of wig hair lay scattered on the ground. Kids were running around in circles practising a classmate’s fish swim move, and the one counter space left in my classroom had become an apparent make-up station. My classroom resembled anything but a learning environment. “Mrs. Barthel, I can’t find [...]
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