Thanks once again to Kristine Jack for sharing her knowledge with the class and for bringing all the Okanagan foods in for our class to try! Kristine made Indian Ice Cream and brought salmon, deer, bannock and bitterroot. Students documented the experience using their phones and iPads and will put together a video reflection tomorrow.
Thanks so much to Teresa Haberstock for giving our class the tour of the Ooknakane Friendship Centre today. Very few students had been to the centre or were aware of services offered there. Thanks as well for the awesome bread that Mrs. Haberstock made for us!! We were very lucky to have a visit from Zoe's mom Kristine today. Kristine infused her presentation with humour and interesting stories as well as a wide variety of baskets and regalia for the students to learn about local Okanagan culture. We were sorry that some of the class had to miss the presentation to go to the Calgary University information session. For the rest of us, it was a great day!
Great job today getting photos taken with our "Mystery Props". We will use these to base a creative writing piece on next Wed. Today began with the paragraph response to Thomas King's First Essay in "The Truth About Stories". This assignment is in preparation for the "Response To Text" section of the provincial exam where students will be given a general theme and have to find examples from texts they have read during the course.
Response to Text Paragraph The second part of the day was used to plan and work on the projects for the Multicultural Banquet. Can't wait until next Thursday!! Reminder that we have a mystery field trip on Friday!! Dress for the outdoors but not hiking. 1. Started out today with the decision to move the multicultural banquet to next Thursday Oct. 16th. 2. Went over questions students had posed after reading "You'll Never Believe What Happened" (Essay by Thomas King) last week. Students worked in groups of 3 to pose answers to each other's questions. 3. Watched 8 minutes of a Simpsons episode re-capping the Garden of Eden story. 4. Comparison of Earth Diver story and Garden of Eden Story and the styles in which Thomas King presents each of them. 4. Discussed importance of being open to different perspectives and how much our views are influenced by the stories and perspectives and belief systems we grew up with. Re-emphasized this is a course about respecting all belief systems, and acknowledging there isn't one "right" way to look at the world. 5. Showed class the quote shown in the photo below: "The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you, they are unique manifestations of the human spirit." -Wade Davis 6. Introduced the "Candy Cultures" activity. Students reflected on what was frustrating and uncomfortable about the activity and what the problems with communication were. 7. Continued watching the TED talk "The Danger of A Single Story" which contains key themes from the EFP12 curriculum. We almost made it through this time, but stopped with about 5 minutes left so students could complete their free write. Finished the last 10 minutes of class with a free write on the following prompt:
What frames your world view? (What are the factors that influence how you see the world?) What an amazing day! Beautiful weather and a team effort to get to the pictograph site. Thank you again to Lisa Stephens for giving us the background on the pictographs. As well, a big thanks to all the other adults who came along and who offered to drive. This was definitely a great trip and I know I will remember it for a long long time. Yeah Grad '15!!
Today we took our first class trip to the En'owkin Centre to listen to Rob Edwards give some background on traditional living and some personal stories. The En'owkin centre is a wonderful resource that too few people in Penticton are aware of. Your homework is:
1. Complete the following reflection guide. 2. Read the short story "Vanishing Points" by Richard Wagamese. We will focus on the metaphor of life as a series of stages and viewpoints on our hike tomorrow. Today was a short day because of collaborative planning. Today was meant to connect the work we've been doing in class to the two active days we'll be having on Thursday and Friday. We started with a reminder to use this website and this blog to keep track of the sometimes chaotic nature of the course as we balance work done outside of the class with reading and writing tasks completed in the school. We spent 10 minutes reading Thomas King's essay "You'll Never Believe What Happened" and taking notes that connects the essay to big themes in the course.
Then students wrote down one question that they had about the essay (something that confused them or that they wondered about). These questions will be used to start class on Monday when we are back in the school. Two key themes we have been focusing on this week are: A. The importance of exposure to other perspectives and beliefs from our own. B. The value of storytelling Both themes will link directly to our activities on Thursday and Friday. Students did a quick partner activity where they had to talk continuously for one minute to a partner and then listen for one minute. This is an introduction to our work on oral storytelling. Ms. Searcy gave an example of an oral story by telling about her salmon mug. We started watching "The Danger of a Single Story" TED talk again but ran out of time. We'll finish watching it on Monday. Reminder: We are going to the En'owkin centre tomorrow so please be on time for class. There is no need to have any special clothing/footwear. |
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November 2014
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