Vote - October 14th

Are you going to vote? Voting is a privilege we have as Canadians that many people around the world do not have. How can you decide who to vote for? The best way is to spend some time learning about what the issues are and what each candidate's opinions are on that issue. In this election it seems as if the main issues are: environment, troops in Afghanistan, health, economy and crime. In addition to the links given in this post, check out blogs and other things to find out what is going on - it can be pretty interesting once you get involved.

Both the following sites have up-to-date news on the Canada Election 2008. Watch videos, read news and keep yourself informed
CBC - Canada Votes
CTV - Election 2008 There is an interesting game of choice on this site that you can work through to find which party is closest to your views. Play the game - Click

Party Websites: All the parties have information about their parties platform (that is what they propose to do if they are elected as a government) Remember, when you are reading from any of these sites the view is of that party only. Use your thinking skills to evaluate what is being said.
The following parties have candidates in our riding - Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River
Liberal - David Orchard (Bio)
Conservative - Rob Clarke (Bio)
Green Party - George Morin (Bio)
New Democrats - Brian Morin (Bio)
First Peoples National Party of Canada - Rob Ballantyne .(Blog)

Political Party Leaders - info on main leaders of parties

Elections Canada website provides information on voting etc.

Your vote is important no matter who you vote for.
Have your say -- Vote on October 14th, 2008

Setting up blogs

There are many different places to Blog. For teachers and learners here are a few blog sites you can get set up on. These blog sites have features that lend themselves to schools.

21Classes ( This one is free for a basic account. If you want access to more features, you pay a fee. )

edublogs Edublogs.org is a site specifically for teachers, students, librarians, researchers, professors, administrators, corporate trainers and anyone else involved in education. I find it interesting to note that this tool is Currently powering 225,294 blogs.

Blogger.com This is the one you are viewing right now. It has some really useful features and templates.

If you are interested in setting up a blog, I suggest exploring some of these links to determine what sort of blogging service would be most useful for the blog site you would like to set up.

Google docs rocks!

If you don't have a google account yet, I strongly urge you to get one and start exploring the features. We are using google docs at the school to collaborate on documents on a regular basis. We also use google docs to send information to other communities.
This morning I reviewed over 20 documents that five other people have also reviewed and made changes to. These documents will in turn be reviewed by support people in each of the participating schools and programs. The time saved this morning using google docs was refreshing. Another huge positive here is that no paper was printed to share and collaborate on these documents.


Click on the googe image to go to set up your own google account.
If you want to find out a bit more about google docs in plain English, watch the video below. ...Yes, I know it is already here in the blog somewhere, but here it is again. This is an amazing set of tools.

How many passes do you see?

Here is an interesting experiment.

Watch the video below and observe how many passes the students in the white shirts make. Record your answer in the comment to this post. Be sure to include your name and gender.

And the Winners are......

The first online assembly this year was a success. Many students from a number of communities participated. The discussion focused on planning for success in online classes. Students came up with a good list of things that they should do to be successful - we all know though - that knowing what to do and doing it are two different things. So what was on the list...

Students were happy to learn that they are eligible to win several different awards by being successful in their classes.

Lucky winners of the assembly participation awards for this assembly were: Kim, Alysha, Trisha, and Susan. They will all look good in their edcentre.ca gear!!

Hoe Hoe Hoe

This is what has been happening outside the school window all day today. Looks like we are getting new walkways.

Cranberries

Looks like it is going to be a great weekend - so maybe a good activity for you would be to go an pick some cranberries! The wild cranberry crop is great this year so it won't take much time to get all you need for the winter. Info about Cranberries

Why pick cranberries - They are good for your health. Check out the research.

What to look for - For those who have never been out to pick cranberries, look for small plants that grow close to the ground and have small dark green leaves and sort of a purple-red berry.

What to do with Cranberries - make sauce or juice, put them in pancakes and muffins. Here are some links to recipes and how to's for using cranberries.

Home Cooking
Simply Recipes - Cranberries