New Beginnings with Big Smiles

The beginning of every year is always exciting as we prepare for a classes, new friends and new teachers.  This year is special for me!  

I am very excited to be starting my new school year at a brand new school: Vista Hills Public school. 

Opening a new school means many wonderful things:  new technology, a new room, all new materials, and a brand new start for everyone involved.    Opening a new school also means a great deal of work, collaboration and planning on everyone's part.  Many of that is why this blog post is delayed for the start of year.   

At Vista Hills we are HEROS and we give each other GEMs everyday.  As a school we have character traits that we believe in.  During the month of September we we focussed on H which stands for HOPE!   We showed this by running a Terry Fox run at our school and had a wonder assembly where we brought our community together for the first time. 

As we progress into October we are focussing on Gratitude! At Vista Hills we are grateful for all that is good in our lives.  

You may visit the our School and be surprised that there are many things that are incomplete however one things that we are learning about more each day is:  It is not the building that makes this place wonderful it is the people.  Vista Hills is a special place to be.  

After the 3rd week of school I was trying to figure out why my cheeks were so sore.  After a few moments of reflection it became clear to me that my cheek are sore because the people of Vista Hills make me smile.  Thank you everyone at Vista Hills for making new beginnings such an enjoyable and cheerful place to be.   

So I hope you get a chance to visit our new school not because the building is amazing but because those that fill the building as worth the visit.  

Busy Times in Room 27 Science!

As the year is quickly passing us by we have taken some time to reflect on what we are currently doing in Room 27 Science class right now.  It is fun to sit back and watch the students share and contribute to science in so many ways.

Science Class:
• Students are learning about heat and how it affect us, animals and the environment.

• Students have been scanning QR codes to take them to youtube videos where they watch a prepared lesson by yours truly, they then watch another video or play an online game about the topic and they then do a lab for each lesson to further demonstrate the heat concept for that lesson
• Students in 701 are still working with their learning hubs and sharing  on blogs with students all over North America.  Their last share was a poem or lyric
• Students are continuing to blog about their learning in science and reflecting on where they see science in their everyday lives



Passion Project:
• I also have goosebumps talking about the amazing job that students are doing on their passion projects.  We have heard from so many students about a variety of topics from how to code, help campaigns for those suffering with cancer,  to creating healthy eating ideas for children like cookbooks and classes.  I have to say that I am a very proud teacher.




Science Clubs and teams
• Coding club has been meeting once a week for over 4 months.  We are sending 2 teams to the first WRDSB Sphero challenge where students will code the Sphero to follow a maze
• In a few weeks we will be sending 6 teams to the Waterloo Let's Talk Science Challenge.  The students will take part in a Jeopardy style quiz  and compete in a team building challenges.  Good Luck to all teams!
• I am also excited to be able to send four grade 7 students to Steckle Farms on Earth day.  They will learn about the processing of food and the impact it has on the environment
• On May 2nd we are sending 10 girls to the Think Skills...Think Future Women's Skills Day.  The students will attend workshops and meet women working in the science and skills fields.
• Hakergirlz-- stay tuned for more details about how Year of Code will be coming to Centennial to work with grade 7 students to learn how to code or to enhance their coding skills.


That is all from Room 27 Science.
Keep checking in to see more of the amazing things happening by students every day!

Googleable and Non- googleable

In Science we  have been talking about the different between googleable questions and non-googleable questions.  I placed the two signs in the back of the classroom to post questions we use in class and attempt to place them into the correct category.  
Today two students sat in the back counter for a lesson and as another students turned to look at them she said "Look Toronto Blue Jays are googleable and Toronto Maple Leafs are not"  
Very true today especially as we watch the Toronto Blue Jays in playoffs.  Go Jays Go! 

706 Mystery Skype!

Hi, I'm Katey, and I'm the guest blogger for today from 706 homeroom. Today, in science class, we did something that was both fun and a great learning experience. We had a "mystery Skype" session with a class from another country! We Skyped a class from another country, and we asked each other questions and tried to figure out where they lived, while they did the same for us. After asking lots and lots of questions, we finally found out that they live in San Antonio, Texas. It was an amazingly fun experience, and we would love to do it again sometime. Another great day in science and technology!
~Katey <3

Skype Call

Today, we are doing a Skype call with a different class that is somewhere else in the world! Me and my class are trying to figure out what country, city, state and school they are in. We have now figured out what country, city and school they are at. It was super fun!

Mystery Skype with 703

Hi it's Brooke and Alison from 703 and we just mystery Skype'd with a grade 8 class which was somewhere in the world. Our class's job was to find out where they lived, with questions that we came up with.The answers had to be yes or no. We found out they lived in Manhattan beach California. By asking questions like "Do you live near the ocean?"and "Is it warm where you live?". After a few questions from us they asked us questions about where we lived.We figured out where they lived first. It was hard but it was also fun.

Starting blogs

This year all grade 7 students will be using blogger to document their learning.  We are in the process of setting our blogs up to share the amazing things going on in room 27.  Stay tuned for some more great adventure.