Category: Communicating Student Learning

How do you make slime with glue, water and Borax? Slime is made after a chemical reaction occurs between two main ingredients; polyvinyl alcohol and borate ion. Glue contains polyvinyl acetates (PVAC) molecules. These are long polymers that are like long strands of spaghetti tangled together on your plate. The Borax (borate ions)hook these together so they don’t flow so well and begin to act more like a solid and their viscosity increases.

During the slime lab students learned that increasing the amount of water in their slime mixture helped it flow better, while increasing the amount of Borax made the slime firmer.

After reading “The Great Realization” by Tomos Robert the students create a similar poem on their own global issue. They worked in pairs to create a 6 stanza poem with A, A, B, B or A, B, A, B rhyming scheme.

Below are the poems they created.
Student Poems

Link to Read-Aloud: https://youtu.be/Nw5KQMXDiM4

Today, in class Ms. Knowlan our student teacher taught a lesson based on the book The Great Realization written by Tomos Roberts. The book is about the pandemic, times of crisis, and the many  global issues we are facing today. It also highlights how the pandemic has helped us open our eyes to some of  these global issues during the global pandemic.

A few questions we discussed as a class were:

What do you think the meaning of this poem is?

What are some things that resonated with you?

In the video how does the relationship between Roberts and his siblings influence his message, choice of words, delivery and impact?

Does Tomos Robert paint a positive or negative picture?

Do the illustrations from the book change your perception or understanding?

Why do you think the author chose the title “The Great Realization”?

What are some key issues he identifies?

How does he portray the world after lockdown?

What does he mean by “hindsight’s 2020”?

For the next lesson we will be partnered up and asked to write and illustrate our own poems on global issues affecting us today (poverty, pollution, climate change, inequality, technology consumption, war, natural disasters, over population, corruption, etc.).

Blogpost written by: A.W.

This art project was inspired by the work of Yaacov Agam, the inventor of the agamograph. This kinetic art form uses optical illusion, making the image shapeshift before the viewers eyes when viewed from different angles.

Today we had a presentation from the Youth Crisis Centre on mental health and self-care.  Our presenter Nick taught us more about what mental health is.  We learned that mental affects the way people think, feel and act and that taking care of our mental health is just as important as having a healthy body.

We learned that life isn’t always easy and that sometimes there are challenges along the way and that by using a variety of self-care tools we can learn ways to overcome these challenges and bounce back.

We learned that we cannot always see the emotional baggage people are carrying and discussed why it is important to be supportive and kind to others. There are many self-care tools we can use to help improve our mindset, eliminate negativity, reduce stress and anxiety, improve mental clarity, and help us cope with and overcome challenges.

We also learned that when dealing with challenges that affect our metal health we should always stop, take a breath, observe with curiosity, proceed with caution and use trial and error to help us figure out which self-care tools are most appropriate for dealing with the  situation. Things won’t always be easy and to develop good mental health it will require daily effort and a variety of tools.

Lastly we learned that sometimes we don’t always have the answers and there are many organizations and people we can go to for help if we cannot solve our problems on our own.

Student Feedback Survey:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfAJNNgwRNpTWeBChopXpJfyn3pabHtLfyNtcz5HtaNuZKalA/viewform

Youth Mental Health Resources:

https://sd41-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/e19647_burnabyschools_ca/Efd9qYF5dVpFiQS1abYOn94BAyYj64hxc3aorRbeWZexYA?e=NCqKAb

This week in class we’ve been learning about the harmful effects of residential schools and past government policy.  We’ve discussed the meaning of reconciliation and have learned that reconciliation “is the reestablishment of broken relations, or forging of positive accord where there has been discord.” We’ve all learned what it means to be an ally and have identified ways we can resolve differences and build a path forward. In doing so we explored the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s 94 Calls to Action.  Afterwards we identified calls to action that resonated with us and discussed why they are an important part of the reconciliation process. As Justice Murray Sinclair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said, “education brought us here, education will help us get away from this.” By educating ourselves on Canada’s past wrongdoings we can ensure we do not repeat these same mistakes in the future and work toward building mutually respectful relationships with our indigenous communities in Canada.