Recycle for Good Garage Sale: Animal Adoption

As I explained in a previous post, the grade 1s held their Recycle for Good Garage Sale on April 18th & 19th.  Their goal was to raise funds to help people in Africa (through World Vision) and to help animals (through the World Wildlife Fund Symbolic Adoption Program).  The idea came from Lilly, a student who was watching television one night and saw a commercial that showed some people in Africa need help getting clean water and fresh food.  Our class had discussed the idea of a garage sale earlier this school year, when we were brainstorming ways of fundraising for symbolically adopting animals.  We decided that our garage sale could benefit both people and animals!  When the Grade 1s decide to do something, they do it right....they raised $464 to help others! 

 Earlier this week, students suggested animals we may want to help from the WWF's symbolic adoption website.  Then students voted for the animals they would most like to adopt. Today, we were on a Skype video call with our partner class, Mrs. Caldwell's Kindergarten at Oak Lake Community School.  Students were sharing how well the garage sale went and one of the Grade 1s asked the Kindergartens if they would like to vote to help us choose the animals to adopt.  Here's our voting:

After we finished our call with the Kindergartens, we officially adopted 1 meerkat and 1 orangutan.  We can't wait for our adoption kit to arrive!

Teaching Skills that Matter: Microsoft Virtual Univeristy

After an enjoyable evening ride on my Quarter Horse gelding Ripper, I am settled in for tonight's Microsoft Virtual Univeristy session Teaching Skills that Matter with presenter Chris Gerry.  Devon Caldwell and I were thrilled to be selected for the Microsoft Expert Educator program as a result of our success at the 2012 Partners in Learning Global Forum.  Invitations to Virtual University sessions are just one perk of being part of this exciting program! Fellow educators - be sure to join the Partners in Learning Network and check out the application for the Expert Educator Program.  

Tonight's session was all about the importance of non-cognitive skills and the role they play in cognitive/academic success.  Here are my key ideas and reflections from tonight's learning:

• In order to succeed, it is important for students to know that teachers and schools are interested in them as people, not just in their scores and their performance.
• Non-cognitive traits that increase success include "grit", resiliency, perseverance, self-regulation, ability to work with others 
• Educators, parents and community members can help our youth develop these traits of resiliency, self-management and teamwork
• Research shows that it is beneficial to tell learners that they WILL improve by being at school/participating in an activity/completing a task
• Positive relationships, social interaction and reflectiveness are key to developing resiliency

As a follow-up, I did some more reading on Chris Gerry's ideas as presented on the Project Based Learning section of the Partners in Learning Network's Hot Topics Blog.  More key ideas that resonated with me included:

• The need for educators to believe (and act upon) the idea that cognitive and non-cognitive intelligence is changeable
• The importance of a strong school team when trying to change/improve school culture