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Canadian heritage can be hard to define and even harder to bring to life for
your students. Thanks to the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough and its
new canoe school, you are no longer up the creek without a paddle.
More than 200 teachers showed up on June 2nd during a special teachers’
day to learn about the types of field trips and opportunities available
through the museum. The program is run by James Raffan, formerly the _head
of the Outdoor and Experimental Education _program at Queen’s University,
and Bryan Poirier, the museum’s teacher.
The four new curriculum-linked programs cover all levels from Kindergarten
to Grade 12. Beginning with Paddle to the Sea (K-3) primary school students
are introduced to the birch bark canoe, using the book by the same title as
their guide. Two Grade 4-8 programs are available: Traditional Knowledge and
Skills is an integrated native studies program; Trappers and Traders is an
experimental journey into the fur trade, using costumes and role playing,
held on the traditional dock and encampment on site.
At the secondary level The Evolution of an Idea focuses on the designs,
features and myriad materials used in the various craft present in the
museum’s collection.
For more information, visit www.canoemuseum.net
or contact Bryan Poirier at 1-866-34CANOE or e-mail: bpoirier@_canoemuseum.net
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Rick Hansen Kids in Motion
A Canadian whose name is synonymous with determination has released a new
educational Internet resource designed to foster the values of determination,
personal achievement and social responsibility.
Rick Hansen Kids in Motion (RHKIM) is a free online learning program for
students in Grades 5 through 7. The web quest extends students’ research,
problem-solving and computer skills through interactive, fun approaches to
topics that include media, transportation and medicine.
Students and teachers participated in field-testing the program, which is
classroom-ready and includes teaching aids such as a lesson plan, quizzes
and other activities, and personalized tracking and assessment tools.
Keep in mind that the web site only runs with the plug-in software Flash 4,
which can be downloaded from the home page.
For more information, visit the RHKIM web site at www.rickhansenkids.com
or contact the Rick Hansen Institute at 604-822-4433.
Toyota Evergreen Learning Grounds
Children spend much of their
school day outside, yet too often school grounds are covered by asphalt,
concrete or turf grass. They are not designed with learning in mind. Since
1993, Evergreen, a national non-profit organization, has been working to
green our school grounds.
Together, Evergreen and Toyota Canada offer the Toyota Evergreen Learning
Grounds program. They hope to involve 500,000 students by helping transform
barren school grounds into healthy living and learning spaces.
. The
benefits of this program are wide-ranging. Outdoor classrooms provide a
healthy place to play. But students also enjoy the opportunity to
participate. Those who have helped plant a garden at school are more likely
to feel they belong. Schools that have already transformed their playgrounds
report a significant drop in vandalism and bullying.
To help start or expand a school ground naturalization project, Toyota is
offering schools the opportunity to apply for a grant of up to $500.
Information about the 2001 grants will be sent to all schools in October.
For more information, contact Cam Collyer at 416-596-1495, ext. 28 or e-mail
ccollyer@evergreen.ca or visit the Evergreen web site at www.evergreen.ca
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Clean, Cook, Chill,
Separate
Food safety is serious
business, but you can teach it in a fun and interesting manner.
The Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education has launched a
learning program to educate Grades 4 to 7 students about the importance of
safe food handling.
This program builds on the Kindergarten to Grade 3 Learning Program launched
last year. The new program aims to teach students to FightBAC! against
foodborne _illness by focussing on four key messages: CLEAN — wash hands
and surfaces often; COOK — cook to proper temperatures; CHILL —
refrigerate promptly; and SEPARATE — don’t cross-contaminate.
This kit contains a teacher’s guide, a poster, a video and stickers. Its
contents can be easily connected to the requirements of the Ontario
curriculum. The program uses the inquiry approach to learning so children
are inspired to _discover the science behind food safety through
experimentation, investigation and exploration.
The Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education was founded in
1997. It is a non-profit organization representing industry, consumer,
government, health and environmental groups.
For more information, call Christine Moses at 613-798-3042 or visit their
web site at www.canfightbac.org
100 Per Cent Clean Fun
Teacher Gerry Donoghue is
Toronto’s funniest comic with a day job. The College member won the honour
in 1999 in a competition to find the city’s funniest new comic.
Gerry Donoghue is a teacher to the bone. The passion in his voice when he
talks a thousand words a minute about his students, classroom management and
oratory skills is contagious. And he talks just as fast and passionately
about his new blossoming career as a stand-up comedian — using the stage
name Gerry Dee.
"Have you ever tried stand-up comedy?" his students always used to
ask him. "One day," he says, "I promised them I would try it
before the end of the school year. As a teacher, I knew about presentation
and oratory skills. The first experience went OK and I decided I’d try it
again."
Since then, it’s been the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal, YukYuks in
Toronto, numerous school functions — some with parents — and festivals
in Canada and the U.S. And this fall, Donoghue will be showcased during a
one-hour special on The Comedy Network’s Comedy Now and will be a guest on
TSN’s On the Record and Open Mike with Mike Bullard.
"I pride myself on doing a show that’s 100 per cent clean," says
Donoghue. "My principal, parents or former students could be in the
room and I — or they — would not at all be embarrassed by my act. I
think being clean has served me very well. The show works for everybody."
Donoghue — a qualified physical education and kinesiology teacher in a
Toronto private school — uses comedy in his own classroom too. His anatomy
lessons include the analogy of drives on the highway, exiting on side
streets and stops at Beckers to explain how the brains sends messages that
direct the rest of the body.
"When it’s appropriate, I use humour to explain things, but I don’t
do it every time. And I always repeat the message in a serious way,"
says Donoghue. "When a lesson is serious and I feel that students are
getting tired, I’ll tell a few jokes for five minutes to give them a break
— although they don’t know that’s what I am doing — and then I start
the lesson again."
"I have two objectives as a teacher. I want students to acquire
knowledge and to be prepared. I also want them to think that school is
enjoyable and to have good memories of their school days."
ETS Tests Database Available Online
The Educational Testing
Service (ETS), that has been chosen to develop the entry to the profession
test for Ontario teachers, has now made its database of 20,000 tests and
measurement devices available online at www.ets.org/testcoll/index.html .
The database is a comprehensive listing of assessment instruments from the
early 1900s to the present and is useful to researchers and teachers in
finding what tests are available and where.
Teachers and other members of the public can now scan the database and
locate the test they need. About 1,000 of the measurement devices are
available for purchase from ETS on microfiche, and a small number of tests
are downloadable through the site for a fee. Some tests from Canada and
Great Britain are included in the collection. The search page of the
database also includes essential information on how to order tests.
ETS is the developer of a number of well-known measuring tools, including
SAT and Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).
ETS is an American company based in Princeton, New Jersey. It is a
not-for-profit company owned ultimately by Thomson Corporation, which
recently sold a controlling interest in the Globe and Mail and is one of
Canada’s largest textbook publishers.
For more information about ETS, visit its web site at www.ets.org
. For more information on ordering from the collection, contact the Carl
Campbell Brigham Library at library@ets.org or call 609-734-5689.
OECD Report Compares
Education Indicators
The 2001 edition of the Organization of
Economic Co-operation and Develop-ment (OECD) report on the current state of
education internationally is now available on the OECD web site.
This year’s report, Education at a Glance, compares the average salaries
of teachers in Canada and 28 other OECD nations with those in other
professions in the public sector to measure the competitiveness of the
teaching profession relative to other public sector professions.
Education at a Glance provides an annual comparison in key educational
indicators — including human and financial resources invested in education
— across the world’s main developed countries.
The full report is available from the College’s Margaret Wilson Library,
or can be found in read-only format on the OECD site at www.oecd.org .
Printable versions are for sale through the web site.
ETS Tests Database Available Online
The Educational Testing Service (ETS), that has been chosen to develop the
entry to the profession test for Ontario teachers, has now made its database
of 20,000 tests and measurement devices available online at www.ets.org/testcoll/index.html
. The database is a comprehensive listing of assessment instruments from the
early 1900s to the present and is useful to researchers and teachers in
finding what tests are available and where.
Teachers and other members of the public can now scan the database and
locate the test they need. About 1,000 of the measurement devices are
available for purchase from ETS on microfiche, and a small number of tests
are downloadable through the site for a fee. Some tests from Canada and
Great Britain are included in the collection. The search page of the
database also includes essential information on how to order tests.
ETS is the developer of a number of well-known measuring tools, including
SAT and Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).
ETS is an American company based in Princeton, New Jersey. It is a
not-for-profit company owned ultimately by Thomson Corporation, which
recently sold a controlling interest in the Globe and Mail and is one of
Canada’s largest textbook publishers.
For more information about ETS, visit its web site at www.ets.org . For more
information on ordering from the collection, contact the Carl Campbell
Brigham Library at library@ets.org
or call 609-734-5689.
Encounters with Canada:
the Name Says It All
 Twenty-four times every
school year, 138 high school students and six teacher-monitors spend a week
together in Ottawa to learn about each other and their country.
Housed in the Terry Fox Canadian Youth Centre, a renovated school down the
road from Government House, each group learns about Parliament and explores
one of nine themes.
The students and teacher-monitors encounter parliamentarians, perhaps an
astronaut, an Olympic gold medallist, the RCMP commissioner or a visiting
prime minister. Speakers, performers, athletes, scientists, executives and
other accomplished persons volunteer to meet with the group.
Started by the Council for Canadian Unity in 1982, the program brings
together a geographically, linguistically and culturally diverse group. The
relaxed and active learning environment encourages strong bonds of
friendship.
Encounters staff develop the programs. The teacher-monitors facilitate its
smooth operation, but don’t teach. Walkerton teacher Alex Cooper notes
that students return with an infectious enthusiasm: "They take on
leadership roles. They become more active citizens because they become more
aware of their abilities and the forces that shape them. Encounters with
Canada does make a difference."
As student Amanda Weigel of Mildmay sums it up, "Encounters is an
experience that I will remember for the rest of my life."
For information call Encounters at 1-800-361-0419 or visit the web site:
www.encounters-rencontres.ca .
Nobel-Winning Organization
Brings Refugee Reality Home to Students
For more than 30 years Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without
Borders (MSF) has provided medical assistance to refugee and internally
displaced populations around the world. To stimulate public awareness about
the lives and circumstances of these vulnerable groups, MSF opens a major
exhibition — A Refugee Camp in the City — in Toronto’s Nathan Phillips
Square October 11 to 15.
The exhibit provides students with the opportunity to imagine themselves as
refugees and see what a refugee camp really is. MSF volunteers will guide
students through an interactive reconstruction of an actual refugee camp,
introducing them to basic elements of survival in a camp.
Students will experience tropical, desert and cold climates, food
distribution, learn essential elements of survival, basic healthcare and
hear first-hand testimony from medical aid workers, some of whom have been
refugees.
A web site (www.msf.ca/refugee-camp)
includes a virtual tour of the exhibit and learning resources for
Intermediate and Senior students. It also gives a schedule of parallel
activities.
 
Each year MSF sends 2,500 volunteers, including some 100 Canadians, to join
20,000 locally hired staff to provide medical aid in more than 85 countries.
MSF was awarded the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize.
The exhibit will open in front of Toronto city hall October 11 to 15, 2001,
from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Forty-minute tours begin every 10 minutes.
To
schedule a visit, call 416-964-0619, ext. 242; e-mail: bookings@msf.ca .
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