Spirit, Leadership, and Community

“What is school spirit?” I asked a few of our student leaders in Grade 4 and 5 this question. And they had some really great answers: coming together as a school, motivation, support, having fun, meeting new people, cheering, getting hyped up, and of course, parties. When I asked them if they thought school spirit … Continue reading “Let’s Do This!”

It’s time to start thinking about my action plan! It has been an emotional journey that has led me to this question: How might we allow students to experience more unstructured creative time? I say it’s been emotional because I so desperately want my creative and passionate students to be able to explore all of their great ideas. … Continue reading “It’s About Time”

Yesterday, I asked a group of students, “why is Art Club important?” I really wanted to ask them “why is having a Makerspace important?” but I thought, what is the use of having a Makerspace if students don’t have the time to use it? So I thought I would focus more on the time they … Continue reading “Why is Art Club Important?”

Last week I decided to ask our lunchtime Art Clubs what materials they would like to see in our ‘Makerspace’ (more about our Art Club below). The overwhelming answer was, you guessed it, SLIME. Nope! Not happening. On the other hand, there were some really great suggestions. Some students wanted knitting materials, stickers, buttons, and … Continue reading “Give the People What They Want…Or Not”

A big thank you to our awesome junior school librarian for coming to ME with books on my Cohort 21 topic! How nice is that?! I can’t wait to dig into these books to see how they can help me to create the most amazing Makerspace in the art room.  

This is my ‘Makerspace’ at the end of a long day. After many art classes and an awesome lunchtime art club. I put ‘Makerspace’ in quotation marks because perhaps thats not the most appropriate word to use. We could call it the materials shelf, the supplies area, unorganized, a disaster…definitely a disaster. My goal this … Continue reading “Let’s Be Real”

Welcome to Cohort 21. This is the first post on your new blog. This journal is an integral part of your Cohort 21 experience. Here you will reflect, share and collaborate as you move through the C21 learning cycle towards your action plan. Cohort 21 is a unique professional development opportunity open to CIS Ontario … Continue reading “Welcome to Cohort 21”