September 3

The SAN Script – Wednesday, September 3

“We cannot sow seeds with clenched fists. To sow we must open our hands.”

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel

 

People Away:

everyone’s here!

St. Anthony Today

JK interviews continue

Grade 5/6 prayers in the morning begin

Please let me know if you are interested in Yoga for your classroom

We will start handing out the first three iPads to teachers today!

We will be looking for teachers who want Univ. of Ottawa students this fall – we have a special relationship with the University of Ottawa ‘Global Cohort’, and these students will volunteer with us so we get a lot back from these relationships.  Please see me if you are interested in taking a student.  Thanks!

Have a great day everyone!!

Kids Share Their Thoughts on Student Engagement

from Edutopia – a great blog to follow!

Sept 4

 

A while back, I was asked, “What engages students?” Sure, I could respond, sharing anecdotes about what I believed to be engaging, but I thought it would be so much better to lob that question to my own eighth graders. The responses I received from all 220 of them seemed to fall under 10 categories, representing reoccurring themes that appeared again and again. So, from the mouths of babes, here are my students’ answers to the question: “What engages students?”

1. Working with their peers

“Middle-school students are growing learners who require and want interaction with other people to fully attain their potential.”

“Teens find it most interesting and exciting when there is a little bit of talking involved. Discussions help clear the tense atmosphere in a classroom and allow students to participate in their own learning.”

2. Working with technology

“I believe that when students participate in “learning by doing” it helps them focus more. Technology helps them to do that. Students will always be extremely excited when using technology.”

“We have entered a digital age of video, Facebook, Twitter, etc., and they [have] become more of a daily thing for teens and students. When we use tech, it engages me more and lets me understand the concept more clearly.”

3. Connecting the real world to the work we do/project-based learning

“I believe that it all boils down to relationships. Not relationships from teacher to student or relationships from student to student, but rather relations between the text and the outside world. For example, I was in a history class last year and my teacher would always explain what happens in the Medieval World and the Renaissance. And after every lesson, every essay, every assignment, he asked us, “How does this event relate to current times?” It brought me to a greater thinking, a kind of thinking where I can relate the past to the present and how closely they are bonded together.”

“If you relate the topic to the students’ lives, then it makes the concept easier to grasp.”

for more, please go to this link