December 7

The SAN Script – the week of December 8 – 12

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An Excerpt from Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent by Richard Rohr Richard Rohr examines God’s Big Picture as his meditations for Advent. Here is an excerpt on faith. Less Is More

 

“I have never been busier in my life than I have been recently. What right do I have to talk about contemplation when I have been living on overdrive? It seems that we tend to think that more is better. I am told that busyness is actually a status symbol for us! It is strange that when people have so much, they are so anxious about not having enough — to do, to see, to own, to fix, to control, to change. “Several years ago when I was in Nicaragua, I asked a man if he had time, and he said, ‘I have the rest of my life,’ and smiled. Who of us would possibly say that? That is what we don’t have. What we don’t have is the rest of our lives because we do not even have the now of our lives. The decisions we have made in our past have decided our tomorrows; the credit cards and mortgages, the planned obsolescence of almost everything we own, is keeping us all running. And we are not sure why. We don’t have the rest of our lives. They are all determined. They are all assured, insured and worried about ahead of time. “We have grown up with all sorts of time-saving devices, and undoubtedly some of us will receive even more of them at Christmas, perhaps finding under our Christmas trees a waffle maker to save time at breakfast or a bun warmer to make dinner preparation faster. Once we own these devices, then we build bigger kitchens that require more cleaning and more energy to store more of our time-saving devices. All these things will save us time — not!

“Time is exactly what we do not have. What decreases in a culture of affluence is precisely and strangely time — along with wisdom and friendship. These are the very things that the human heart was created for, that the human heart feeds on and lives for. No wonder we are producing so many depressed, unhealthy and even violent people, while also leaving a huge carbon footprint on this poor planet. “Jesus said it to us quite clearly: ‘Why are you so anxious? Why do you run after things like the pagans do? What shall I eat? What shall I wear? You are not to worry about tomorrow. Each day will take care of itself’ (Matthew 6:31, 34). But for some reason, mostly what we do is reprocess the past and worry about tomorrow. This must tell us that we have not understood the spiritual message of Jesus very well. Now the very earth is telling us so.”

Minecraft – what do students say?

posted in ECOO 2014 by 

gaming-12793345-o One of the great things I  learned this year at the ECOO 2014 Conference is the power of Minecraft.  I never really understood the importance of this game and its potential to unleash creativity and innovation. I took in two workshops on the topic and learned a few things:

  • Minecraft is like an unlimited amount of lego – unlimited amount of math manipulatives at your disposal.
  • you can purchase Minecraftedu – downloaded to each computer. I haven’t figured out the importance of the server yet, working on it!
  • There is a tutorial for use – sign me up for this!!
  •  Servers on-line – if students  have an ip address they can join other worlds and other people. Then you can join other servers – have to be mindful of servers you join.  This is why having a school server sounds like the way to go.
  • You can create an ip only accessible to the students in your class.
  • Regular Minecraft ips will not work with Minecraftedu – so it sounds like edu is certainly the way to go
  • Really need to use a laptop for this – will not work on chromebooks. Ipad apps also not as effective. So – I need to get my hands on a few more regular laptops – not the way we are going right now at our school!  This will help us with Arduino as well – it doesn’t work on chromebooks either
  • Fraps Video – make your creation into a movie.  This is a great resource so we can share what are students are making!
  • Amazing collaborative tool – encouraging high-level thinking because they are working together.
  • Great tool for collaboration for real life problems.

When I came back from the conference, I started asking our students about what they do with Minecraft.  I asked some students to write about what they could learn from the game.  The hope is that our own school board will get its own server so we can offer the game to students safely for free. Here is one response, unedited from one of our grade 6 students – I couldn’t say it any better! Let’s see what the students can do! To Whom It May Concern: I think that Minecraft  Is a good game for learning about architecture.  From playing minecraft I myself have learned that I am  good  at building. For example, I have built this structure.  My second reason for having  Minecraft is that there is something called Redstone. Redstone is a material that is used for a lot  of stuff  like this

1   the red dust thats Redstone and the torch- looking thing is going to make the light light up.  The redstone helped me learn about electricity.

2   Minecraft is also a game about responsibility. When playing Minecraft you also have take care of the animals. Here are my two favorite animals: a dog and we all know dogs are man’s best friend, and a cat who is very purrsuasive.  So as you can see Minecraft is a good game for  our school. how are students using Minecraft in your school?

St. Anthony This Week

Monday, December 8

Please vote for St. Anthony

Sabina in all week

Book Fair Today!

Advent liturgy in the learning commons 9:15 am

waste walkabout

Little Horn Theatre scheduled for today has been postponed

Tuesday, December 9

Please vote for St. Anthony

Grade 6 students to Notre Dame – 9:00 am

Cathlee O’Connell to read with Mrs.Rupnik’s class

Book Fair

Chess Club

Dorothy reading with Mrs. Rupnik’s class

EQAO Cognitive Lab in Maria’s Class (Teresa covering)

Staff Meeting with Alison Evans Adnani (Maker Junior) the staff of St. Luke (Ottawa) and some teachers and students from the Faculty of Education University of Ottawa  will be coming – wine and snacks will be served – all in the learning commons.

Y Kids Club programs – celebrating our partnership with Canadian Tire – gym

Wednesday, December 10

LAST DAY – Please vote for St. Anthony

Book Fair

waste walkabout

EQAO Cognitive Lab in Maria’s Class (Teresa covering)

Paul out at noon – Board Office

Thursday, December 11

book fair

Friday, December 12

Holy Trinity H.S. visits St. Anthony!!

Guest Reader Session in Mrs.Rupnik’s class

waste walkabout

Guest Reader Session in Mrs.Rupnik’s class

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Posted December 7, 2014 by mcguirp in category SAN This Week

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