Welcome to all of our new students, families members, and returning folks from last year! Our Division 5 learning community is already hard at work investigating these questions:
What is a school? What does a school ‘need’ to have?
How can we make our classroom a safe and caring space for everyone?
Why do we come to school? What is the purpose of school?
We also read Grandmother School by Rina Singh, the true story of the Aajibaichi Shala (a school for grandmothers and elderly women) in India. This school was created to provide an opportunity for the grandmothers to learn literacy and numeracy skills. Many of these women were not able to attend school as children. and now take pride in learning alongside their grandchildren.
Check out the video below for more information on the amazing students of the Aajibaichi Shala!
We will continue to explore schools around the world, both in the past and in the present, and what our ‘perfect’ school would look like, feel like, etc.
Hi, historians! As part of our discussions about historical changemakers and innovators, such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we read short biographies about 2 more influential people: Jesse Owens and Stevie Wonder.
Stevie Wonder: Singer-Songwriter & Music Producer
Stevland Judkins (“Stevie Wonder”) was born in 1950. He always loved music, and showed a remarkable talent at a very young age. Stevie was visually impaired, but not being able to see did not stop him from pursuing his dream. He auditioned for MoTown records at only 11 years old! His first #1 hit album was released in 1963, and he continued to make music with messages of love, compassion, justice, and unity through his entire career. He even collaborated with Ariana Grande on a song, “Faith”, in 2016!
Stevie Wonder played the piano, harmonica, and sang. He felt the music, and could often be seen dancing and swaying as he performed. He loved music and loved to perform.
Wonder used his voice to change the world, writing about the problems facing oppressed groups of people, particularly the racism that African-Americans faced. But we are sick and tired of hearing your song / Telling how you are gonna change right from wrong, he sang in 1974.
Wonder continues to inspire musicians with his message, his heart, and his legacy. Feel free to click the link below to watch Wonder’s live performance on Sesame Street.
Jesse Owens was not only an amazing athlete, but his success in the Berlin Olympics shook up an entire nation (and the world). Born James Cleveland Owens, Jesse had several health conditions that made him feel sick and weak most of his childhood. But by 5th grade, Jesse grew into a strong athlete who could beat almost anyone in a race.
He began setting world records for sprinting and jumping. His athletic skill and talent led him to be a member of the American Olympic track-and-field team. His coach once said it seemed he could “float on the air”.
But there was one problem with Jesse’s dream to compete in the Olympics… they were going to be held in Berlin, Germany (which in 1936 was under Hitler’s government). Hitler and the Nazi party were confident that no Black athlete could beat their Aryan athletes (white, blonde, blue-eyed).
The audience was shocked when Jesse began to beat German athletes in several different races and competitions (the 100, 200, and 400 meter sprint as well as long jump). He even won a gold medal! But when the time came for him to receive his award, Hitler refused to shake his hand.
Jesse later pointed out that the racism he experienced in Germany was something he also experienced in America, saying “I wasn’t invited to shake Hitler’s hand, but I wasn’t invited to shake our President’s hand either”. Jesse proved to the world that the colour of your skin does not limit your athleticism or what you can achieve.
Click the link below to watch Jesse competing in his gold medal winning race in the 1936 Olympics:
Today, we read Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down. This story was based on the real-life peaceful protests that took place in Greensboro and spread across the southern United States. Four young men, tired of being refused service at businesses because of the colour of their skin, sat down in a segregated restaurant and ordered coffee. Even when they were ignored, mocked, threatened, and attacked, they demonstrated patience and perseverance.
What began with 4 Black college students peacefully protesting against segregation quickly led to a movement across the U.S.A that inspired integration. Please feel free to watch the video clip below to learn more about the Greensboro sit-in movement.
Tomorrow, we will be discussing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy as a Civil Rights activist, and how his message of justice and equality is still as relevant today as it was during his lifetime.
Tomorrow, we can wear a black shirt to acknowledge everyone, both in the past and in the present, who takes a stand against racial inequality, prejudice, and injustice.
Tomorrow, we can reflect on how we (as individuals and as a community) can take steps towards equity.
Check out our evidence we’ve examined so far! We’ve been using our critical thinking skills to create our own theories about who, or what, is to blame for the Titanic tragedy. Feel free to read through the resources and watch the videos we posted earlier this week and discuss your own theories!
Hello, historians! Our class has been investigating the mysterious fate of the ‘unsinkable’ ship… the RMS Titanic. So far, we have examined the lack of lifeboats, the treatment of 1st class and 3rd class passengers, and some of the engineering feats and flaws of the ship.
Tomorrow, we will begin to explore some of the main people involved in the Titanic (and her untimely tragedy).
Feel free to refresh your memory or share what you’ve learned by clicking on our PowerPoint below!
We have been hard at work creating our 3-D Micronation models! Take a look at a few of the completed projects so far! Our class has created their own individual ‘tiny countries’ that have their own flag, identity, economy, and topography. I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of these models completed!
Who is an Elder in your life? It might be a parent, grandparent, coach, teacher, religious leader, family friend, etc. An Elder is someone who has lived longer than us, demonstrates natural leadership, and possesses lots of life experience and knowledge that we can learn from.
Over the next few weeks, we will be thinking of interview questions to ask an Elder in our lives. Whether over Zoom, Skype, a phone call, e-mail, texting, or in person, each student will ask their Elder 3-4 questions. We hope to be able to share what we learn with each other!
My (Ms. Ward) Elder was my grandmother, Lenore, who lived to be 96 years old! I interviewed her a few weeks before she passed away earlier this month.
Feel free to watch the video below, where 100-year-olds were interviewed about how to have a happy life!
Today, we learned that many countries, cities, and communities use flags to represent their unique identities. Canada has a flag that includes red and white, with a maple leaf in the center. The LGBT+ community uses a rainbow flag to represent their identities. We read about the creation of the rainbow flag and the life of Harvey Milk. Then, we created our own flags that will be used when we make our own ‘micronations’!
What symbols, colours, plants, animals, etc. would you use to represent your identity?
Have you ever heard of a ‘code talker’? Code talkers were a ‘secret weapon’, a group of Indigenous soldiers that translated American and Canadian messages into different Indigenous languages (ex: Cree), then sent the message to another code talker who would translate it back into English. This way, when the message was sent, if any soldiers on the opposing side were listening in they could not decode the message!
Though these brave Indigenous soldiers were very crucial to keeping important messages safe, they rarely receive any mention in history textbooks or acknowledgement during Remembrance Day ceremonies! Hopefully, but learning more about the important role Indigenous soldiers played in Canadian history we will be able to honour and respect their sacrifices.
After watching this video, we discussed our reactions to some of the facts. Why do so many people across the globe have so little access to healthcare and medicine? Why are girls and women more likely to be illiterate than men/boys? Why do so many people not have a safe, clean source of drinking water?
And, most interestingly perhaps, would the results of this survey be different now in 2020 due to COVID-19?
As we continue examining sociology on a local and global scale, it is important for us to acknowledge how many people still do not have access to resources (such as clean water, education, and food security) as well as human rights (such as voting and freedom of religion) that many Canadians do.
While we can learn a lot from videos, statistics, and maps, it is always important to practice critical thinking and ask “why” and “what source is this from”!
