Love is in the Air!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

I hope you are all able to take some time out of your day to celebrate those you love as well as the Love the Father has bestowed upon you!

I had a fabulous celebration of my marriage with a trip up the mountain for a "Snowshoe and Fondue" - a one hour snowshoe tour through Stathcona followed by a 3-course fondue meal.  The weather was wonderful and the food was fabulous!

From romance to work...  I would like to remind you that I would like term 2 portfolios in within the next couple of weeks.  Thank you to those of you who have already handed them in.  I look forward to reviewing them all over the next month.

There are so many items that I wanted to share piling up in my inbox.  First I would like to share some "Resources of the Week":

• Parks Canada will be offering free Parks Passes to grade 8 students.  Visit MY PARKS PASS for more info.
• Here is a really neat video passed on from Judy about a new "state of matter" that I have never heard of.  Really Cool!  FRAZIL ICE
• To keep up on new technologies that can be used for education, please visit Pippa's blog where she highlights a new technology each week!  PIPPA'S LIBRARY BLOG

Now for some "Teaching Tips from Rick and Bruce":

Learning Through Role Play -  Integrated in Health & Career and Bible

Teaching tip:   Last time I reviewed the use of role playing as a method of teaching content in language arts, science or social studies. This week I want to expand that a little.  In health and career you could use role play to set up and practice some safety scenarios, or for the older ones to enact a job interview.  Trying to take the practice as seriously as possible helps everyone discover the strengths and weaknesses of their responses.  In Bible one might role play a news interviewer interviewing a Bible character.  Have fun with it.  You might even go to some lengths to make costumes and video it to show dad when he comes home from work.  Let your imagination fly and you could surprise yourself with what kind of fun you can have with role play.

DEVELOPING HIGHER LEVEL THINKING PROCESSES

Analysis

Analysis is the fourth key component as we look at developing higher level thinking processes. Developing the ability to read, or consider something and then analyze how it is put together is invaluable, particularly to those in leadership.

Verbs that describe “analysis” thought processing are: Analyze, Distinguish, Examine, Compare, Contrast, Investigate, Categorize, Identify, Explain, Separate, Advertise.

Sample question starters: Which events could have happened…? If ____ had happened what might the ending have been? What was the underlying theme? What do you see as some other possible outcomes? Why did … changes occur? When you compare “A” with “B” what do you see? What are some of the motives behind…? What was the problem with…?

    Potential Activities:  Design a questionnaire to give information. Write a commercial to sell a product. Conduct an investigation to produce information to support your view. Make a flow chart to show critical stages. Make a family tree showing relationships. Prepare a report about… Arrange a party. Make all the arrangements and record the steps needed.

Have a LOVEly week!