Word to your HERD

Scholarships and business capital funding is available through the Rotary clubs of Saskatchewan.

GET MONEY for school and starting a business.

Go to the My Future is Here web site to find out what is available and how to apply.

www.myfutureishere.ca

Is the snow really going away?

It's hard to believe the snowfall in Northern Saskatchewan over the past week. People are still digging out on the west side, and they are opening the control gates for the Churchill River to let some of the extra water go. Buffalo Narrows received 59 cm over four days.
Today has to be the beginning of the end for winter now and spring will be here for real!

Thanks to everyone who was able to make it to the April Online Assembly.
The theme was....."I'll be done in June, how about you?"

Learners shared strategies they are using to get things done by the end of June. Everyone had an opportunity to chat, respond to polls, figure out mystery images and locations.

Check it out if you want to see what was going on. (The recording is 24 minutes long.) I'll be done

Congratulations to the door prize winners:

Evelyn Ross
Susan Ross
Jessica Dionne
Patricia St. Pierre
William Charles

I'll be done in June, how about you?

It's hard to believe that spring is here with the blizzard conditions this weekend and the extra snow we are expecting. Maybe this is some sort of "gift" for those of us who really need to get things done. This could be the time to really "lock on" and clean things up before the next big meltdown and warm weather.

Thursday......Live Online Event!!!
2:00 pm

Theme: I'll be done in June, how about you?

Big Big prizes for participating.
Come and join us!!

breeze.edcentre.ca/assembly

We want to say nice things about you, we want to hear about your plans for the summer, and we want to tell you about the school awards that will be presented in June. Your name could end up on one of these awards.

If you are part of the edcentre.ca online learning community, expect an email

this week.

Online dog musher

I keep forgetting to post this video from , Martina Carriere, an online learner at edcentre.ca.


Here's a short introduction from Martina:
" I am sixteen years old and I live on my trap line. I am taking this course because it suits my life the best. I can take my school wherever I want to be. I find this course to be very flexible. The only problem I have is not getting near a computer enough. So I go back and fourth with my mom who is working in the Pas, and my dad who is keeping the trap line. I could stay out at my trap line all the time, but I have to be near a computer for school.
My trap line is beautiful. In the winter I drive my twenty sled dogs and in the summer I can go swimming out in my front yard, which is the Saskatchewan River. Also in the summers I keep active by canoe racing. It’s how I make money for the year. Anyways that’s a little about my life for now. "


Martina completed the 2008 Challenge Sled dog race from Prince Albert to La Ronge and area this year. (I don't think they were the pups in the video.)
Thanks Martina!

Blogging to learn, learning to blog......to blog, or not to blog...

The sort of teachers we are is defined by what we do......how we select resources, how we design learning activities, how we interact with learners. Blogging is one of the tools available that provides an instant opportunity to publish, share ideas and interact with others about those ideas.

blogmeister.com Go to this site and look at the number of bloggers at the top right of the page.
I came across this link while reviewing keynote speakers at the LeanNow BC Distance Learning conference. The creator of this service, David Warlick will be talking about re-thinking what it means to be a student and a teacher.

"There is much that is new about our world and our information environment — and for much of it, we have responded by attempting to hold it back — to block it. This presentation, by 30+ year educator, author, and technologist, David Warlick, will explore some of these changes and challenges and arrange them as a set of converging conditions that might actually hold the clues for redefining and retooling 21st century education. "

Do we need to hold back? To block change? How do we participate in retooling 21st century education?

Progress Reports: Monday is here again....

It seems like Monday has arrived earlier than other Mondays if that is possible. Could it be that spring, changes in temperature, longer days, melting snow, mud, rain, and other elements shift our perspective? Is time an illusion? Can we compress or expand time? Physicists and philosophers contemplate these questions along with the rest of us.

One of the realities of spring in schools across the north is the need to provide progress reports for learners. Sometimes this involves some form of comprehensive assessment instrument,along with a summary of activity over the past two and a half months.

For learners in most online learning environments, progress reports and summaries of activity are always a click away. Bar graphs or line graphs of daily activity in the online classroom, grade summaries and teacher comments for each activity are available within the online edcentre environment. Learners can choose a variety of different ways to view their record of activity and progress.

One of the advantages of the instant reporting for online learners is that they have the opportunity to get feedback quickly, make changes in drafts, identify problems, get live interactive help, or proceed with confidence knowing that they are on the right track.

For schools and parents, the edcentre team provide a more conventional progress report that is sent via-e-mail to student support staff in each school.

Math Games

Like many people, I like to play games online. I found a site called Arcademic Skill Builders.

The multi-player games enable students to play each other from different computers. Single player games are also available. Grab some friends and play!

Games include multiplication, division, addition and subtraction. Everyone of us could use reinforcement of these important math skills.

Give me a call if you would like to challenge me to a game.