Ottawa is bigger than I thought...
After facilitating a workshop for teachers in one part of the suburbs, I found myself with a few hours the next day before I had to fly back to Toronto, and so I decided to visit a colleague whom I had met online a few years ago, while working on a math and technology project. His school was located in a completely different suburb!
Interestingly, the student population is in some ways quite similar to those I have taught in my own board, and it was fun to spend some time in a neighbouring board and see how much we have in common with other schools across the province.
One thing I really like about visiting other classrooms is picking up a few tips and tricks by "walking the walls". In Wendler's classroom, I picked up an idea about using Plasticine to create models in Science and was reminded of the effectiveness of using scaffolds and sentence stems, even with classroom management procedures like having students write letters to explain behaviour. I also noticed that Wendler had a list posted of several math partners -- some with similar ability groupings, some with more heterogeneous groupings, so that depending on the task, he could say "Okay, today you are going to work with your 'S1' partner", for example. (Today's task dealt with probability, so he used a random partner generator on the Smart Board while I drooled over his overhead mount projector that stayed put while he and the students moved around it, and cast far less shadow on the screen than the ones Trinder and I had had to contend with last year!)
After facilitating a workshop for teachers in one part of the suburbs, I found myself with a few hours the next day before I had to fly back to Toronto, and so I decided to visit a colleague whom I had met online a few years ago, while working on a math and technology project. His school was located in a completely different suburb!
Interestingly, the student population is in some ways quite similar to those I have taught in my own board, and it was fun to spend some time in a neighbouring board and see how much we have in common with other schools across the province.
One thing I really like about visiting other classrooms is picking up a few tips and tricks by "walking the walls". In Wendler's classroom, I picked up an idea about using Plasticine to create models in Science and was reminded of the effectiveness of using scaffolds and sentence stems, even with classroom management procedures like having students write letters to explain behaviour. I also noticed that Wendler had a list posted of several math partners -- some with similar ability groupings, some with more heterogeneous groupings, so that depending on the task, he could say "Okay, today you are going to work with your 'S1' partner", for example. (Today's task dealt with probability, so he used a random partner generator on the Smart Board while I drooled over his overhead mount projector that stayed put while he and the students moved around it, and cast far less shadow on the screen than the ones Trinder and I had had to contend with last year!)
After hanging out with my colleague's Grade 4 and 5 math classes for a few hours, I took the public bus downtown. This was made possible in part by the school secretary, who told me where to go to catch said bus, and then by a nice lady who was waiting at the stop, and who gave me some bus tickets, since I had neither tickets nor cash on me!
Riding the bus afforded me the opportunity to enjoy Ottawa's treasure of greenery along the river outside the city. I had not realized how lush the greater-Ottawa-area was.
Eventually, I arrived on Sparks Street, where I enjoyed a late lunch before visiting some of my favourite sites in our nation's capital:
Riding the bus afforded me the opportunity to enjoy Ottawa's treasure of greenery along the river outside the city. I had not realized how lush the greater-Ottawa-area was.
Eventually, I arrived on Sparks Street, where I enjoyed a late lunch before visiting some of my favourite sites in our nation's capital:
Several veterans and First Nation people had gathered near the eternal flame, and I was able to catch the tail end of a ceremony, which included some drumming and throat singing.
Almost as impressive as the parliament buildings themselves is the large Chateau Laurier next door, which forms part of the historic Fairmont (formerly CP) hotel chain, and which overlooks the Rideau Canal.
Almost as impressive as the parliament buildings themselves is the large Chateau Laurier next door, which forms part of the historic Fairmont (formerly CP) hotel chain, and which overlooks the Rideau Canal.
I'd originally planned to walk over to the National Gallery (you can see the glass structure in the background of the first photo above) to view Voice of Fire, and my favourite painting, a Jacob Jordaens (which really needs to be seen live and in person to be appreciated fully), there, as well as snap a few pics of the big Spider sculpture outside for Alex and Simon (Ottawa was their first airplane destination, when they were three years old!)
But I suddenly felt very tired and run down. So, I headed back to my hotel room -- this time by taxi -- ate some dinner, and found a photo of the National Gallery online in the commons instead! :)
But I suddenly felt very tired and run down. So, I headed back to my hotel room -- this time by taxi -- ate some dinner, and found a photo of the National Gallery online in the commons instead! :)
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