Canada – april 2011- Reisverslag

16 april – 17 april – 18 april – 19 april – 20 april – 21 april – 22 april

 

Saturday April 16th 2011

Sustaining Learning – Interactive White Boards – day 1 – On our way to Canada!
At half past three we (the Dutch participants) met at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.
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A lot of new faces but on the flight towards Toronto we got to know eachother.
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After 8 hours and a lot of movies and nice meals later, we arrived in Toronto.
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At the airport we received a very nice welcome from a delegation of the Canadian learning partners.
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Time for toast with our hosts on a good week ahead, cheers!!
We saw for the first time the beautiful skyline, with the CN Tower as the highlight, as we drove towards Toronto.  After that, there was time for a drink and a laugh in the Delta Chelsea hotelpub with the Canadian partners before we finally went to bed at midnight. After all, it was six o’clock in the morning (AM) in Holland and the program on Sunday was starting at nine o’clock.  A good and promising first day and we’re anxious to meet the other partners and take a look in the schools.
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00:30.. nightly Toronto from hotel room; time to call it a day.

Sunday April 17th 2011

Sustaining Learning – Interactive White Boards – day 2 –
Weather, water and wine. That more or less sums up Sunday’s experiences. After yesterday’s time-lapse breakfast felt way too early (or too late, depending how you look at it). On our way to Niagara Falls we had a preview of the changing weather conditions. Bright spells were quickly followed by rain, sleet, hail and regular snow.
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But Niagara was dry. We wondered at the forces of nature, were sprayed by the water and took lots of pictures. The tunnels behind the falls were a bit of a damper (also in a literal sense) but it was an enjoyable start of today’s activities.
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Our next stop was at Peller Estate Wineries. We got a tour which started outside but was quickly continued in the wine cellar because of the hefty wind. We received lots of information about the history of the estate, about the favourable conditions of the region for wine-making, about the different types of wines that are produced by the company and about the conditions under which the grapes for the ice wine are harvested.
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After all this information a certain alcohol induced light-headedness was called for. We were invited to taste wines, and this invitation was accepted with pleasure and anticipation. We were instructed on how to properly taste the wine and were given our first few sips of a white wine. After that we tasted a red wine and to round things of a special red ice wine.
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The tasting concluded our tour and we were let loose in the shop. Some purchases were made and then we went off to our next destination, Niagara on the lake. Some went off shopping (Christmas ornaments) and some immediately went for lunch, which turned out to be a good idea since the weather, which had been remarkably dry up till then, suddenly showed the fickleness again that had started the day. Heavy rain was quickly followed by hail and strong gusts of wind while most sat inside happily munching their burgers and fries. And then it was time to head back to Toronto where we arrived around six. Our first real day in Canada was a pleasurable experience.

Monday April 18th 2011

Sustaining Learning – Interactive White Boards – day 3 –
At 9 am we arrived at St. Augustine Catholic school in Markham. This was the first time most of the  Canadian and Dutch partners met each other.
When we entered the school our attention was pulled by many artistic products, that were exposed there like pictures and paintings.
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The principal gave a short introduction of the 10-year old e-learnschool. About 40% of the students are in laptop-classes and there are many classrooms with SMARTboards. Difficulty was to change the way of education: how to use technology in your classroom in an authentic way.
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When 4 teachers joined the TLLP (= Teacher Learning and Leadership Program) they brought back some very good ideas about how to increase and optimize the use of ICT in school.
One of them is Shauna Young, a teacher-librarian. She gives us an enthosiastic impression of  the ‘show and tell’ they organized for the teachers of St. Augustine: show something you learned and  you are enthousiastic about: it could be just a simple  achievement.
She also told us about the Camp teachnology the ‘Denver-group’ organized for their colleagues: a 1 to 1 (1 teacher-1 computer/SMARTboard) voluntary way to learn how to use and integrate ICT in your curriculum. Keywords of these teachnologies are play and touch, play and touch. Teachers find out themselves how they can use the ideas in their class. 3 times 1 hour, after schooltime for one subject. Parallel to this, there are
Department meetings: TPACK-activity, (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, This course is done during the day.
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Two other presentations about integrating computer technology in education were done bij Karen Brooks-Nelson and by a French teacher.
During the day  we visited several classes: iaptop-groups as well as iregular’ classes.
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It was a very inspiring day with new ideas about the way to energize  teachers to integrate ICT in their education.
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Tuesday April 19th 2011

Sustaining Learning – Interactive White Boards – day 4 –
The Canadian way to start the day :-)
Marie-Louise Reimerink at W.H. Day school, host Katie Keimp
Katie’s students have enjoyed a Dutch candy treat this morning, thanks to Marie-Louise. We used Google Maps to find Marie-Louise’s house and school and we’ve asked all sorts of questions about Holland and what school is like there. This afternoon, we are doing an open-ended algebra activity using laptops, Notebook 10 software and a document camera. The students are excited to show off their technology skills!
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Change cars… Ella to Collingwood Collegiate Institute and Bob to Simcoe Board Office
In the afternoon Bob visited Redstone Public School in Richmond Hill
Redstone is participating in the “Eco Friendly Schools” Project.
Thanks Stephanie Ratti and Linda Binicki for amazing project work!
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Taiwan and Lebanon on Google Maps on the IWB :-)
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Wednesday April 20th 2011

Sustaining Learning – Interactive White Boards – day 5 –
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Meeting York University classroom – Georgian College with Mrs. Diana Vetter
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Mnjkaning Kendaaswin elementary school; first nations culture and traditions.
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Thursday April 21th 2011

Sustaining Learning – Interactive White Boards – day 6 –
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Friday April 22th 2011

Sustaining Learning – Interactive White Boards – day 7 –
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