From miss to mrs and from student to teacher!

You heard me! It was about time the title of this blog changed because I'm no longer known as miss Lauren Carey. Now, my students call me mrs Roels. You heard that right too, my students, I am now a full time teacher. I was blessed to be given the opportunity to teach high school English in the board I graduated from.

My life has been a great adventure thus far, and the journey continues. Now that I'm a real teacher I can't even begin to express my thanks to all the educators who post their resources online. I have survived teaching thus far because of each and every one of you. This being said I wanted to pay-it-forward and put what I have to offer out into the world wide web.

Stay tuned for more updates, anecdotes and lessons that I'll share with you.

Happy Monday everyone!

What Does It Mean To Be...

Good morning period 1 Religion! 

Before we look further into what it means to be a Catholic let's take a minute to look at some other world religions and see how they compare to Catholicism. 

Your task is to choose one of the following religions:

Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Aboriginal Spirituality, or Judaism

When you know which one you'd like I want you to tweet me one fact about this religion. There can be no more than 3 people doing each religion so the first three to tweet me their fact will get to continue working with that religion.

Next you're going to create a storify. What's a storify? It's like an online story that you make from sources on the web. Your storify will revolve around the religion you have chosen.

Your storify should include: - At least 2 scholarly sources explaining the religion you chose
- 3 Youtube videos explaining or demonstrating sacraments/rites of passage/rituals in your religion
- 1 song/hymn/music used in, alongside or about their religious rituals (this may also be a youtube video)
- At least 1 photo of of the place of worship this religion utilizes and 5 photos depicting different aspects of the religion. For each of the above mentioned sources give a 2-3 sentence summary of what the source is.
- 2 positive tweets from reputable sources (a verified account) about the religion
- 2 motivational quotes about the religion and their beliefs

• Make a blog post titled "A Beginner's Guide To (Your chosen religion)"
• Go to www.storify.com and create an account 
• Create a storify about your religion
• Post your storify on your blog

Check out my storify:

Continuing the Faith Journey

Good Morning grade 10s! 

Continue working on your faith map journey, here's what I've been working on to give you an idea of how to use categories and different life events you might want to include: 

http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/271782/My-Faith-Journey/#vars!date=2009-03-22_09:07:10!

Mapping My Faith Journey

Hey Grade 10s, welcome to Day 2 of our online learning! We're going to continue to look at what it means to be a Catholic by looking back on our own lives and the experiences we've been through.

Still haven't finished everything from yesterday? FINISH THAT FIRST.
On your blog you should have:
- a tagxedo
- a text post about God's presence in your life

Once you've completed yesterday's tasks your next task is to create a map of your faith journey.
You'll use the site http://www.tiki-toki.com/, create a free account (there's no course code) and create your timeline! When you're done, post a link to your blog.

My Faith Journey Assignment

• Make a timeline of your life this far including your accomplishments, moments of joy, moments of suffering, and any other significant life events 
• Categorize your timeline into high and low points, sacraments, family moments, accomplishments, etc. 
• Comment on your understanding of God's presence during these moments in your life using symbols and/or text 

How To Use Tiki Toki For This Project 
"Create New Story" will add events to your timeline. These stories will have a title and description of what was going on at this time. You should also be sure to note the presence of God (or feeling the lack of) in your stories.
"Categories" this site allows you to categorize your stories. You can use these to help organize your timeline into high and low points, sacraments, family moments, accomplishments, etc.

Here's a basic tutorial to get you started on how to use tiki-toki: 

Don't forget to post the link to your finished timeline on your blog. Have any questions? Tweet me!

Creating a Character

Hey there Mr. Dunlop's grade 9 drama class! Today we're going to have our class online and we're going to look at how to create characters on the page. We're going to work mentally and digitally at creating a character by filling out facts and giving your character a social media presence.

I want you to go to http://www.humansofnewyork.com/ and choose one person to use as the inspiration for your character. These are real people living in New York, each picture comes with a quote that can help guide you in your characterization. 

You have the period to create a social media profile (facebook, twitter, blog, etc.) of a character of your creation inspired by HONY; be creative! Try to include as many details as you can, you can use this sheet as an idea of different elements you should consider. Be sure to write somewhere on your profile that this profile is not a real representation of the person photographed and was completed as part of a drama class project.

Use the following resources to help guide you and give you some further insight into creating a character:
http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/crafttechnique/tp/createcharacter.htm 

Creating a Character 

Acting teacher Howard Fine talks about how actors overcome self-conciousness and create characters. Learn the acting techniques that will help you dig beneath the surface of a script and bring a character to full -blooded life on the stage or the screen. 

Acting 101: Creating a Character 

Building a character not only involves familiarizing yourself with the basic traits, but also analyzing ever aspect of the character's behaviour. Flesh out a character through acting with advice from an experienced stage and screen performer in this free video on acting

Creating a History for Your Character 

 Acting teacher Adam Hill starts each of his NYC acting classes with a lecture on a specific and narrow acting topic. In this video, Adam discusses how creating a relevant back story for your character helps you live spontaneously as your character in performance.

What Does It Mean To Be Catholic?

Welcome Mr. Dunlop's grade 10 Religion courses! As you know, for the next week we'll be in the library where we'll be engaging in some online (as well as active!) learning. So, let's get started.

Create a Blog During the course of this week you'll be given assignments to be completed online and posted to the blog you'll create for this course. You should use this site (blogger.com) and use your board e-mail to create an account. You can name and design your blog however you'd like but please include your name somewhere! I would also love it if you completed the About Me page so I can know a little bit more about you. When you have created an account tweet me a link to your new blog @MsLaurenCarey. Don't have twitter? Make one! If you can't, e-mail me at carey6@uwindsor.ca.

Make a Tagxedo
The first question I want you to think about is what being a catholic means to you. Take a minute and brainstorm a bunch of words and sentences that you relate to Catholicism and being Catholic. I want to know what you think it means to be a Catholic, not what google and the people of the internet think, avoid googling for this one. Go to www.tagxedo.com and create a shaped word cloud using the words you've come up with. Once on tagxedo click Create, then Load and Enter Text, don't forget to change the shape of your word cloud under options! Save your tagxedo as a 500jpg (first row) and the post it on your blog. Change the colours and font, make it look nice and post it to your blog with the title “What I think It Means To Be A Catholic” as your first post!

Make Your First Text Post Once you've finished your wordle, it's time to create your first text post. For this post I want you to think about times in your life you have felt God’s presence. Choose one time that you have strongly felt God’s presence in your life. Choose another time when you felt that God was not present. Once you have chosen these two moments in your life find an image, song, or video that symbolizes how you felt during each of these moments. Include the image/video/song to your post and write a paragraph about why you chose this image/video/song to represent your moment with or without God. Title this post “God’s Presence In My Life”. You don’t have to explain what was going on in the situations if you’re not comfortable, simply relay the feelings and emotions connected the experience and how close you felt to God at the time.

Your post might look something like this:

Post Title: God’s Presence in My Life
A time I felt God’s presence…
IMAGE/VIDEO/SONG
Why I chose this image/video/song blah blah blah, at this time in my life I felt loved and cared for, blah blah blah

A time I felt that God was not present….
IMAGE/VIDEO/SONG
Why I chose this image/video/song blah blah blah, at this time in my life I felt alone and sad, blah blah blah

If you have any questions you can tweet them to me, or simply get my attention (aka raise your hand).

Happy Blogging!
Ms. Carey

------

Your blog posts will be graded for participation and to check-in on your learning process. Don't freak out, each post will only be marked out of 3 and I'll be looking for the following:

Content (1 marks)
Did you post what was asked? Was your content thoughtful and insightful?

Organization (1 mark) Is your post easily legible? Does everything appear as it should (pictures, videos, etc.)?

Connections to Curriculum (1 mark) Are you making connections to previous learning? Do you mention what learning came from the post/activity?

What would you tell your 19-year-old self?

As an educator I'm often a listening ear for students seeking advice or counsel and I sometimes struggle to put things into perspective. It's hard to tell a student who feels like their world just fell apart that in the long run they're going to look back on those moments and realize that it was just a blip on the screen. 

Reading these quotes from people of all ages made me smile and made me think, so what really matters right now? 

21 People on What They Would Tell Their 19-Year-Old Self 

Jonathan, 55: There is no such thing as “the only one”. You will meet lots of “the ones”. Only commit when the timing is right for the both of you – that can take years for some, and that’s okay.

Miranda, 24: Drop pre-med.

Isaac, 48: Deodorant does not count as a shower, and that haircut only looked good on Bon Jovi.

Anya, 42: Make the conscious decision to be happy, and then stick with it. Society will do everything in its power to convince you that your personal happiness is dependent on something external – beauty, success, wealth, etc. – it isn’t.

Parker, 55: 60% of the things you think are important now won’t matter a whit to you by the time you reach 50. The trick is to figure out the important 40% and work it.

Megan, 34: He doesn’t love you, and you will be okay.

Peter, 58: Don’t let anything stand in your way of taking part (or all) of your junior year abroad. You’ll never again have quite the same opportunity to experience a foreign land, for an extended period of time, in your youth. It is destined to be one of the most memorable aspects of your life.

Eleanor, 67: Talk less. Listen more.

Donald, 27: There’s a huge difference between who you want to be and who everyone around you wants you to be. Figure out which is which.

Camille, 56: Always remember: when falling off a horse, pull your tongue in.

Jackson, 57: No one knows anything for sure. They’re all just doing the best they can with what they have, just like you.

Vicki, 47: You’ll never have all the answers, so make every question count.

Donald, 38: You don’t have to grow up to be the dad you never had.

Katelyn, 30: Make the most out of college. You will never again be at a place where your only goal is to learn. Learn a lot, learn often, and learn with reckless abandon.

Joshua, 55: Women love to laugh.

Annabelle, 38: Drugs are not beautiful, glamorous or opulent. They are not a remedy, a solution, a cure-all, or a cure-anything.

Colin, 50: You miss so much life when you sleep until 3 PM. Wake up to see sunrises; they are the most stunning of nature’s masterpieces.

Eleanor, 26: Eating two pints of ice cream won’t make you happy. Neither will sprinting 10 miles. Be nice to yourself.

Aaron, 52: Don’t forget to ask that girl in the Oberlin library what kind of perfume she’s wearing. You’ll buy it for her in 20 years.

Scarlett, 54: Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Those that get you will love you, those that don’t, well, their loss. Just remember: Wherever you are, it’s a party.

Zack, 9: I hope you’re awesome. And be nice to girls.

As for me? At the current age of 22 I'm not so far removed from the age of 19. I'd like to tell myself something that I'm working on now and that's to do it anyway. 

 Source: http://bon-aventure.tumblr.com/post/79863178694/21-people-on-what-they-would-tell-their-19-year-old 

Why should I join the Ursuline Nuns or the Jesuits in New France?

Hey grade 7s, your task today is to take on the role of either the Ursuline Nuns or the Jesuits and write and present a pitch as to why someone in New France should join you/your religion.

When you're writing your pitch remember to start by identifying your audience, who are you trying to persuade to join you (Hurons, boys in New France, girls in New France, or someone else)?
Remember the time period, what kind of things would be valued during the 1600s in New France?
Be simple and precise, you don't want to lose the attention of your audience so be sure to mention the most important and enticing things first.
Your pitch should be 1-2 minutes long and all group members should be involved in some way.



Start by looking in your History textbook, pages 10-12. After you've done that, here are some online resources you can use to help you create your pitch.


Uruline Nuns 
http://www.canadiana.ca/citm/themes/pioneers/pioneers3_e.html
http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/encyclopedia/Ursulines-QuebecHistory.htm 
http://www.ursulines-uc.com/eng/history.php

Jesuits
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/jesuits/
http://www.cbc.ca/history/EPCONTENTSE1EP2CH5PA3LE.html 
http://public.gettysburg.edu/~tshannon/hist106web/Canada/_private/jesuit_missionaries_in_new_franc.htm

Ste-Marie Among the Hurons
http://www.ameriquefrancaise.org/en/article-702/Sainte-Marie-among-the-Hurons:_a_little-known_gem_of_%E2%80%9COntario%E2%80%99s_New_France%E2%80%9D.html 
http://www.saintemarieamongthehurons.on.ca/sm/en/Home/index.htm
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/ste-marie-among-the-hurons/

Don't feel limited to the sources I've given you here, use the power of the internet search engine and find some for yourself!

image source: http://www.historiann.com/2009/01/18/le-18-janvier-1709/ 
image source: http://canadian-writers.athabascau.ca/english/writers/jrelations/martyrs.php 
image source: http://www.sirifunnyquestions.net/wish-me-good-luck/ 

My Favourite Attention Grabbers

Every time I watch this movie I think every teacher in the world must wish they could quiet a room like Dumbledore. 

Yelling isn't really my style. That's why I wanted to share with you some of my favourite and most useful attention grabbers to get students to quiet down and pay attention. 

If you can hear me... 

This ones simple, you say "if you can hear me ___________" and the students who can hear you respond to whatever action you've requested. Simply continue giving the "If you can hear me _________" command until all the students are following your lead. 

Teacher: "If you can hear me clap once" 

Students: *some clap*

Teacher: "If you hear me clap twice" 

Students: *most clapping* 

I think you get it. Another option that I use is touching parts of the body (great for younger grades after they've learned them!) or in a drama class if we're sitting in a circle I'll end with "touch your knees" and then get students to check their knees to make sure we have a perfect circle. 

Andy's Coming! 

If you've ever watched Toy Story you've seen the toys scramble, and usually fall "dead" when Andy's about to enter the room. This one is fun to do when students are out of their desks, and does require a little bit of yelling. Just yell "ANDY'S COMING" and your students should respond by falling to the ground. 

Like this.... 

Marco Polo 

As a kid this game was a swimming pool staple. One person closes their eyes and yells Marco, while everyone else yells Polo. It's as simple as that! The teacher yells "Marco!" and the students respond with a booming "Polo!" 

We Will Rock You 

Remember that Queen classic with the great beat? It's great to listen to at the gym and it's great to use in your classroom. The underlying beat to the song is often accompanied by  a *STOMP, STOMP, CLAP* rhythm. When you first introduce this attention grabber you could even play the song for a little brain break!

Play me a tune 

I find this one works best when I'm using centers or stations and students need to rotate. I love to use my iPhone in the classroom to play music through an app called Songza. They offer premade playlists and they have clean versions of popular songs. Simply explain to the students that when you hear music it's time to move and soon enough it becomes second nature. So plug in your music device of choice and get the students moving! 

Now, keep in mind not everything will work with every students. I recently tried the "If you can hear me clap once" with one of my grade 12 classes and a student quickly told me that they weren't babies and she didn't like it when teachers used that to get her attention. We eventually decided that Marco Polo was an acceptable way to call the grade 12 students to order. This being said, I've used it in other grade 12 classes without any problems. 

So next time you're lost for words and your students won't stop chatting try one of these attention grabbers and let me know how it goes! 

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Thanks for visiting my teaching blog!! 

Much like my teaching skills, this blog is still a work in progress. Please stay tuned for some great posts ahead, and if there's anything you'd like to see from me please let me know.