A Class That Runs Itself

I just got a GREAT email from our awesome guest teacher, Catherine Turner.

Sara and I were at a Digital Advisory Panel meeting this afternoon. I'm always sad to leave the class, but know that the Rainbow Eggheads will have a good time with Catherine.

Catherine just updated me about the afternoon and even sent me some adorable photos of students working on a Science challenge.

I LOVE these photos! So happy-making!

Thanks Catherine and Rainbow Eggheads for the great news. I love hearing about students using ADD EGGS and having a class that runs itself!

No Internet for a Week! Could You Do It?

NO INTERNET WEEK: FULL DOCUMENTARY from Mother on Vimeo.

This is an hour-long documentary about several people trying to make it through a week without using the Internet. At all.

Just thinking of that makes me jittery. I can't imagine going a day, let alone a whole week without Internet. That makes me think that it would be really important for me to try. Anyone want to join me for an Internet free day (to start!) in January?

There are so many things I use the Internet for every single day, and having access to it at every instant on my phone has made me totally reliant on the Internet. If I went offline for any amount of time, I feel like I would need to warn people well in advance. On the Internet.

I will test myself tomorrow and see how long it takes from when I wake up to when I check something online - email, social networks, Google Drive, the weather, directions, play a game, or finding an obscure piece of information.

I think going Net-Free for a bit of time could be really cleansing, allow me to be more mindful and hopefully feel more relaxed. Why is it, then, that I get jittery just thinking about turning away from the Internet?

Let me know in the comments below if you think you could do it - go Internet free for a day, for a week or for longer. Also, tell me what would be the most difficult parts of going Internet free for you.

A Great Push in the Food Drive!

 Ray's class challenged the rest of the Junior students to think long and hard about ways to help others. After they visited all the other classes, we were totally inspired and brought in a huge amount of non-perishable food items! It was great to see everyone work together to help out another school in our board!

O'Canada Challenge to Welcome Pandas

I sent this memo out to the staff tonight and Dana and I have been chatting about it on email. I wonder if we can come up with a creative song to enter this contest with? Dana's idea was really good, she thought of singing "Safe Here".

Two giant pandas are coming from China to live at the Toronto Zoo for five years. FedEx is holding a contest, inviting Ontario schools to send in a video of their school "band/ensemble" performing any song. Then, they'll pick their top entries and have people vote for several days (starting March 14th). We'd only have Thursday or Friday to pull this together.

What do you think? Can we come up with something great? We'd have to upload the video to YouTube...

UPDATE:
We are going to sing "We Are Going to Be Friends" in Dana's room at 11:10 a.m. tomorrow (Friday, March 8th).

Please wear a plain red, black or white top.

Please practice your singing, and if you have an instrument and want to practice that and bring it in, feel free to do that as well!

Food Drive Challenge by Camden

This year, Churchill has been paired up with RE Wilson, another Ottawa school, on the OCDSB board. The only difference is that RE Wilson has more needy families that are less fortunate. So, this year, we are doing a Food Drive and Penny Drive. At RE Wilson, they have a big cupboard where they keep all non-perishable foods for the families that need food or clothing or other items like that. The needy parents would come and the teachers who know them would let them pick out a few foods that they might like to have. This March Break, we are doing a Food Drive for them so we can fill up their cupboards twice as much so they could live healthy through the March Break. So far, we are doing a challenge, so tomorrow (Thursday), Ray's class has challenged all the Junior classes to see who can get more food to RE Wilson between all the classes!

-by Camden