Createch-ing

This year the CBE created an Office 365 environment for all the teachers and students. Different applications started to be available during the year: OneDrive, Sway and OneNote amongst others. As a Surface user, I already knew and used OneNote for personal purposes and soon I started to play around with it and discovered a myriad of possibilities for my lessons. I started to use it and soon it became an essential in my class, especially since I do not have a textbook for Mathematics or Spanish. From all the technological tools that I have used in my career, this one has been the most transforming. These are the main 3 reasons why I love it: You can create a Class Notebook for each of your classes. In each class you have, by default, a "Teacher Only Section",  a " Collaboration " section and a "Content" area ( shared with the students in that classroom), and a Notebook for every student. Each student Section has already these sections "Ha

If you teach math, this situation will likely be familiar to you. Students need to solve a problem but they refuse to show their work. I am on a mission to get them to solve problems AND show their work without making funny faces like you are giving them bitter syrup. It is being a tough mission, they do good for a couple days, but then they forget...Anyways, as part of the mission I am creating posters like this so that they see it the way I want to see it. I think I am not asking too much but...maybe by the end of the year? I hope so , this mission is turning out to be an odyssey for now. Pssst...it is in Spanish, but you can easily relate.

Esta mañana he presentado en las jornadas de orientación para los profesores visitantes de Alberta hoy en Telus Science Park, Calgary. Ya no estoy en el programa de PPVV pero continuo trabajando en una ISA y colaborando con Alberta Education de vez en cuando. Animo a los nuevos profesores!

Teaching Inquiry through a second language? Yes, we can! Very often, us , bilingual teachers, debate about the ease of teaching in an inquiry environment while teaching Spanish ( or any other language) at the same time. Well, it is not an easy one, but we can do it. Take a look at this slideshow !

Yesterday, Sra. Hernandez taught our class and Srta. Palma's class a recipe from El Salvador: "Pupusas" . We started by washing our hands properly, like Mrs. Larsen taught us, everybody came ready to be cooks. Mrs. Hernandez had all the ingredients ready when we came to the kitchen. First our students  measured using fractions ( 1/2 cup, 2/3 cups...) , after the dough was done, students split it in two parts and made two balls. They flattened the dough using a dish, after they put the filling inside. Finally, they covered the pupusa with the other layer and put it on the pan to toast. They were ready in a few minutes. While a group was cooking the other half were playing a fraction game in spanish.  The pupusas were so yummy! Everybody had so much fun while learnt more on practical use of fraction in our everyday life and learning a recipe from El Salvador. Thank you Sra Hernandez! PS Every student got a copy of the recipe in Spanish, please let me know if you try it

We are working this year around our inquiry question "How do stories connect the past with the present?" , our focus is to have a strong literacy base that allows us to connect all the core subjects and enhance reading comprehension. At the beginning of the year, we started reading the book "The Witches" , by Roald Dahl. I enjoyed reading this book aloud everyday, it allowed my drama side to happen in the class. We had lots of fun and now I have a group of students that have turned into Roald Dahl fans and are researching, reading and making power points about him ( still, three months after) . The plan was to connect art and Spanish with this story , and based on the chapter where the children disappear, we designed "Missing" signs that were displayed around the school hall. We worked the self-portrait technique following "that artist woman " blog guidelines. 1st.- We used a recycled paper as background , with white paint and a roll

Bienvenidos a todos los profesores españoles que acaban de llegar a Alberta. Espero que tengáis una buena experiencia! Jornada de Bienvenida para los 48 profesores visitantes de Alberta, Canadá pic.twitter.com/r5N8juTd8d — Melissa Valdes (@melissavaldesv) September 29, 2014

This is the link to the news on Calgary Herald...check it out! Spanish program struggles with demand

CHICOS! Nuestra clase ha salido en la televisión de España! Ha sido muy cortito y no salís todos pero estoy contenta de poder haber compartido con mi país como trabajamos en Canada, mis alumnos, mi aula y mi escuela. I am thrilled to be able to see you on tv. I hope you enjoy it. http://www.antena3.com/programas/ciudadanos/momentos/cmo-hacen-pases-dnde-presumen-sistema-educacin_2013100800090.html