Schools were going to close Monday if CUPE did not reach a contract agreement. Happy news - negotiations were successful and therefore they will not go on strike. I'd like to pretend that my purple patches have something to do with it. Similar to ETFO's "Red for Ed" initiative to wear red clothing on Fridays, CUPE workers in schools encouraged supporters to wear purple on Wednesdays. Purple isn't the most common colour people have in their closets, so a few teachers at my school discussed creating purple patches to wear in solidarity. Tina Voltsinis designed a great badge to print using t-shirt transfer sheets, but the purple textile I bought for the purpose didn't work, so instead I sewed a simplified version of the image.
I'm glad that all parties reached a satisfactory settlement, although I was looking forward to a day focused just on marking, weeding and display making.
Jen Giffen (@VirtualGiff) made a good tweet about the situation online.
This makes for a good segue into what I was doing on Saturday.
Digital citizenship and media literacy can go hand in hand. It's the start of Media Literacy Week in Canada. The president of the AML, Neil Andersen, and I were at the Malvern branch of the Toronto Public Library with a table of free goodies and information for parents and community members.
Alas, we didn't have many people approach us for information. It's too bad, because we had a lot of great things to offer. Jennifer Casa-Todd already mentioned some of the MediaSmarts resources on her blog post. The Association of Media Literacy is making public a new and improved redesign to their website. On it are some brand-new EULA posters. EULA stands for End User Licensing Agreements - those legal documents that consumers often skip over and blindly press "Agree" to before using a product. These posters turn those EULAs into easily understandable and visually appealing infographics.
Media is everywhere and used frequently in schools. (Media literacy education endeavors to learn through and about media.) I used several different media texts in three different lessons I taught or co-taught for Orange Shirt Day, a day meant to remember the Indigenous children who were sent away to residential schools in Canada and treated shamefully. (This is just a brief overview of the materials I used.)
For the kindergarten students, I used the episode of "Grandpa's Drum" from the great TV show, "Molly of Denali".
For the junior division students, I read the book "The Boy Who Walked Backwards".
For the intermediate division students, I had them look at "Secret Path" by Gord Downie and Jeff Lemire, as well as the impactful video shared via Twitter of the 50 metre long ceremonial cloth unveiled with names of all the children who died in residential schools (that they know of).
Were my lessons perfect? No. I wish I had done more in advance to discuss the great aspects of Wendat culture and the culture of other Indigenous groups before delving into the atrocities committed against them. However, we made connections that I hope to elaborate on in future lessons. Failures are meant as learning experiences (as the final image in this blog post, my first attempt at making fabric badges, shows).
Happy Media Literacy Week!
Reading the replies to the @YRDSB announcement that schools will be open tomorrow because the #CUPEStrike has been averted really reinforces why ALL Ts must explicitly teach #DigitalCitizenship to Ss.— Jen Giffen (@VirtualGiff) October 7, 2019
Digital citizenship and media literacy can go hand in hand. It's the start of Media Literacy Week in Canada. The president of the AML, Neil Andersen, and I were at the Malvern branch of the Toronto Public Library with a table of free goodies and information for parents and community members.
Alas, we didn't have many people approach us for information. It's too bad, because we had a lot of great things to offer. Jennifer Casa-Todd already mentioned some of the MediaSmarts resources on her blog post. The Association of Media Literacy is making public a new and improved redesign to their website. On it are some brand-new EULA posters. EULA stands for End User Licensing Agreements - those legal documents that consumers often skip over and blindly press "Agree" to before using a product. These posters turn those EULAs into easily understandable and visually appealing infographics.
Media is everywhere and used frequently in schools. (Media literacy education endeavors to learn through and about media.) I used several different media texts in three different lessons I taught or co-taught for Orange Shirt Day, a day meant to remember the Indigenous children who were sent away to residential schools in Canada and treated shamefully. (This is just a brief overview of the materials I used.)
For the kindergarten students, I used the episode of "Grandpa's Drum" from the great TV show, "Molly of Denali".
For the junior division students, I read the book "The Boy Who Walked Backwards".
For the intermediate division students, I had them look at "Secret Path" by Gord Downie and Jeff Lemire, as well as the impactful video shared via Twitter of the 50 metre long ceremonial cloth unveiled with names of all the children who died in residential schools (that they know of).
I’m at a ceremony this morning where the names of children who attended & died at Canadian residential schools is being unveiled on a 50-metre long ceremonial cloth. #OrangeShirtDay2019 pic.twitter.com/OpNQs9BxHc— Idil Mussa 🇨🇦 (@idilmussa) September 30, 2019
Were my lessons perfect? No. I wish I had done more in advance to discuss the great aspects of Wendat culture and the culture of other Indigenous groups before delving into the atrocities committed against them. However, we made connections that I hope to elaborate on in future lessons. Failures are meant as learning experiences (as the final image in this blog post, my first attempt at making fabric badges, shows).
Happy Media Literacy Week!
Always so helpful. And as for your "perfect" lessons, there is no such thing and your students are that much more knowledgeable because you took the time to share. Thank you!
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