Learning Commons Overdue notices go virtual
The Learning Commons Leader Madame Brownell was part of a pilot project this year to try out a new online system for tracking overdue books and check outs. In a school the size of Edwards having overdue notices printed and sent home with each student was clearly onerous and wasteful. With the new system not only are parents and students able to track books and due dates online, the paper trail was completely eliminated.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Up-cycled Hamburgers #168
Grade 2 French Immersion students gathered up all of the left over bits from many art projects this year and created delicious, sky-high, hamburgers. There was even some raiding of the recycle bins going on. Looks tasty grade 2.
We are c
Les hamburger de la classe de 3F on PhotoPeach
(slide the little triangle along the bottom up to turn up volume)
21st Century Competency:
We are c
Grade(s) Involved: Grade 1
Date Submitted: June, 2012
Leaders Involved: 2F
Autographs of Student Participants (grade 2 FI Mme F.)
Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:
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Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:
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Reusable school tote bags #167
Parent council was thinking green when they planned their fundraising this year. They offered parents and staff École Edwards reusable totes. They're pretty sharp looking and they sport our new school logo.
21st Century Competency:
We are c
Grade(s) Involved: Grade 1
Date Submitted: June, 2012
Leaders Involved: 2F
Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:
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Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:
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Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Recycled Skate Park #166
There are many individual stories of student leaders generating innovative environmental projects at École Edwards. One such project is an amazing collection of tech deck ramps built by a young man named Ethan in grade 2 - everything is constructed out of recycled cardboard!
Way to go Ethan! Interview with the builder to follow, stay tuned.
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For more cardboard inspiration check out Caine's Arcade:
Way to go Ethan! Interview with the builder to follow, stay tuned.
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For more cardboard inspiration check out Caine's Arcade:
Friday, June 8, 2012
Meal Worms: #165
Meal Worm Study
Grade 3 students are caring for their very own meal worms as they study, observe and record behavior and stages of the life cycle. The worms have been named, fed, and housed on the students' desks. This is serious, engaging work. The school is an interesting place, meal worms, painted lady butterfly larvae, red wigglers, all teaching our students the role creatures play on our planet and how to care for them.
Daily journal of observations:
21st Century Competency:
We are c
Grade(s) Involved: Grade 3 (1 class)
Date Submitted: June, 2012
Leaders Involved: 3Q
Autographs of Student Participants (grade 3 FI Mme Q.)
Student Description of the Environmental Action Project:
by Willow-Bethany in 3Q
Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:
by Willow-Bethany in 3Q
Bird Feeders: #164
Bird Feeders
Grade 1 students built bird feeders to care for our feathered friends during the long winter months. The design came from some unexpected collaboration with Mr. H., one of our custodians. Leaders are everywhere at École Edwards and collaborating with experts and working the way one would in "the discipline" is what authentic learning is all about.
21st Century Competency:
We are
Grade(s) Involved:
Date Submitted:
Leaders Involved:
Autographs of Student Participants (grade 1 FI Mme C.)
Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:
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Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:
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Up-cycled Bottles: #162 - 163
Found Art Fish
Grade 4 students repurposed used water bottles as fish to use as decorations for the spring concert. Are these not the sweetest most whimsical fish you have ever seen?!
21st Century Competency:
We are
Grade(s) Involved:
Date Submitted:
Leaders Involved:
Autographs of Student Participants (grade 4 Mr. Mac)
Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:
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Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:
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Up-cycled Cases: #161
Found Art Frames
Grade 2 students create works of art within old CD jewel cases for their Dad's on Father's day.
21st Century Competency:
We are
Grade(s) Involved: Grade 2 (1 class)
Date Submitted: June 2012
Leaders Involved: 2F
Autographs of Student Participants (grade 2 FI Mme F.)
Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:
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Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:
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E-cycle: Project #156 - 160
E-cycle week
During their drive to Change the World in 5 Minutes a Day grade 4 students put out a call to the entire school population to bring in old electronics that could be diverted from the city's landfill and recycled instead. In the actual photo of the Airdrie landfill taken the week of the challenge, can you spot items that could have been re-used or recycled? Maybe Airdrie residents will visit our blog, see how easy it is to be responsible, and make a change.
The Airdrie Landfill - where our electronics were headed:
Where they ended up instead thanks to Grade 4 students:
21st Century Competency:
We are civically engaged.
Grade(s) Involved: Grade 4 (5 classes)
Date Submitted: September 2012
Leaders Involved: 4M&D, 4L, 4Mac, 4H
Autographs of Student Participants (grade 4s)
Student Description of the Environmental Action Project and Why This is an Environmental Project:
English
French
Digital Newsletters: #155
E-cycle week
During their drive to Change the World in 5 Minutes a Day grade 4 students put out a call to the entire school population to bring in old electronics that could be diverted from the city's landfill and recycled instead. In the actual photo of the Airdrie landfill taken the week of the challenge, can you spot items that could have been re-used or recycled? Maybe Airdrie residents will visit our blog, see how easy it is to be responsible, and make a change.
The Airdrie Landfill - where our electronics were headed:
Where they ended up instead thanks to Grade 4 students:
21st Century Competency:
We are civically engaged.
Grade(s) Involved: Grade 4 (5 classes)
Date Submitted: September 2012
Leaders Involved: 4M&D, 4L, 4Mac, 4H
Autographs of Student Participants (grade 4s)
Student Description of the Environmental Action Project and Why This is an Environmental Project:
English
French
Star Logs: #154
Reading Star Logs
Each year the Learning Commons at Edwards hosts a Readers are Leaders reading week. Students log the books they have read and we track our minutes read as an entire school. The event is in it's third year and it runs pretty smoothly.
This year we shifted our thinking a bit. This is another one of those small shift changes. With that shift comes small subtle ways of changing how we do things to be more environmentally aware. Below there are 2 photographs. The first is of the original reading star log posted to the school website (this link will take you to that posting) for students to download, fill out and return to school.
The second photo is the revised version of that star log (our students read A LOT of books!). What do you notice about the 2 different logs?
The best part about our small shift projects is that they often happened after the fact. Someone had a look at how an event was rolling out and said hey, we can do better. Let's make small shift change.
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21st Century Competency:
We are communicators. In this case the Readers are Leaders Week had already begun, the star logs were already posted to the school website, and some students had already submitted completed stars to their teachers. Did that stop Madame B.? No way! She heard the suggestion, posted a link to the environmentally friendly star logs, and carried on.
Grade(s) Involved: All
Date Submitted: April 2012
Leaders Involved: Madame B., Madame W.
Autographs of Student Participants
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Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:
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Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:
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Clean-Up Follow-Up: #153
Clean Sweep follow-up
Our clean sweep was followed up by a project by Mr. Mac's grade 4 students who plotted the types of litter they found and how it was distributed across the playground. The waste poster below was created so that as students found waste on the schoolyard, they plotted it with coloured pins to create awareness of where litter was of the greatest concern and where each piece of waste should have ended up. It also allowed the students to discuss wind and other factors that move waste in our community.
This legend suggests where the waste should have been placed or recylced by students:
21st Century Competency:
We are critical thinkers. It seems inevitable that some trash will end up in the schoolyard. For Mr. Mac's class they not only picked up the trash but analysed where trash was the biggest problem and where it should have been placed. Most of the items found were 100% recyclable. By moving beyond trash collection to data analysis these students have the information they need to find real solutions to the problem of trash in the school yard.
Grade(s) Involved: Grade 4 (1 class)
Date Submitted: April, 2012
Leaders Involved: 4Mac
Autographs of Student Participants
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Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:
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Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:
begin typing here
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Up-cycled Scraps: #152
Learning Commons building challenge
To celebrate our Scholastic Book Fair theme students were invited to create robots from found materials only.
21st Century Competency:
We are
Grade(s) Involved: Grade 3 & 4 English (5 classes)
Date Submitted: October 2011
Leaders Involved: 3/4G, 3D&K, 3L, 4Mac, 4H
Autographs of Student Participants
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Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:
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Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:
begin typing here
Up-cycled Lids: #147 - 151
Plastic lids as frames for art work
These stunning self-portraits are contained in a recycled frame. If this collection of projects is to demonstrate environmental awareness it must also be mentioned that Edwards students are creators of beautiful works of art. Bravo to the teachers who inspire them.
21st Century Competency:
We are
Grade(s) Involved: Grade 3 & 4 English (5 classes)
Date Submitted: October 2011
Leaders Involved: 3/4G, 3D&K, 3L, 4Mac, 4H
Autographs of Student Participants
add photo here
Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:
begin typing here
Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:
begin typing here
Up-cycled Rolls: #145 - 146
Penguin Projects out of toilet rolls
Grade 1 students found a use for toilet paper rolls - they made penguins!
21st Century Competency:
We are
Grade(s) Involved: Grade 1 (2 classes)
Date Submitted: June 2012
Leaders Involved: 1W, 1K
Autographs of Student Participants
add photo here
Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:
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Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:
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Used Book Sale: #144
The Spring Fling Book Thing
Students at École Edwards donated used books for a huge school wide book sale. Proceeds from the sale were divided evenly between new books for the school library and a local charity the students chose.
21st Century Competency:
We are
Grade(s) Involved: All
Date Submitted: May 2012
Leaders Involved: Madame Brownell (librarian)
Autographs of Student Participants
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Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:
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Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:
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Digital Projects: #143
This virtual collection
Last year our GREEN Projects were well catalogued in an organized binder like this:
It included pages, and pages (lots of paper pages) of our projects, signatures, and photos. It wasn't the physical binder that was the problem. It wasn't even the issue of paper conservation, I mean come on, it's ok to put stuff on paper. The real problem was that our students' environmental stewardship didn't have an authentic audience. The binder was on a shelf. This fabulous work cannot sit on a shelf! It should be shouted out to Airdrie, to Alberta, to other schools wondering how they can make a difference.
And now, here on this blog, in the universe of the internet, our students' work will have the audience it deserves. We hope for comments, feedback, support, encouragement. We hope to inspire other schools to LEARN from our projects, to SUCCEED at implementing their own, and to LEAD others to environmental awareness and action.
21st Century Competency:
We are
Grade(s) Involved: Grade 2 English and French
Date Submitted: June 2012
Leaders Involved: 2F, 2J, 2L, 2K, 2L, 2S,
Autographs of Student Participants
add photo here
Student Written Description of the Environmental Action Project:
begin typing here
Describe Why This is an Environmental Project:
begin typing here
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