Last week, I took the unusual step of announcing exactly what next week's topic would be for this blog. I knew that I wanted and needed to reflect on the TDSB Heritage Fair in depth.
In December and January, I worked with the Grade 6s on their social studies inquiry projects. The Grade 7s had an intense but productive and informative history blitz in April. The Grade 8s worked on their history tasks at the same time, although I acted more as a consultant than as a direct teacher. (There's only so much collaborative teaching time in my day!)
I've noticed I've used the word "thrill" several times when describing these collaborations. It's because it's genuinely exciting, as a teacher-librarian, to be involved with inquiry projects from start to finish. Often, school library professionals are asked to intervene during the research portion of the process, to help students find sources and cite appropriately. Thanks to the generosity of spirit of the homeroom teachers, I had the opportunity to help students shape their inquiry questions and shepherd them to the end. The way the questions evolved as they thought and wrestled with concepts were wonderful to witness. To be honest, I probably should have dedicated more time to the research stage. It was just so glorious to get to see the start and the finale, with all the hills and valleys associated with a big project like this.
8 schools made the trek to George Brown College's Waterfront Campus (where my son attends) for the TDSB Heritage Fair. In the past, there was an East Region and West Region fair. Looking back on my blog and photo albums, I see we participated in the Heritage Fair in 2005 (where a student was recognized for his fictional journal of William Baffin with a special award) and 2010 and missed the 2012 Fair because I confused the dates. In 2014, our school took part and we sent a delegate in 2014 to the next level. We had another student who had a project good enough to move onto the Provincial Heritage Fair in 2016 and I got to be the teacher supervisor for the TDSB delegation on the trip.
Our students were fantastic. Their projects were amazing. Considering the short time they had to work, they did so well. They fielded questions from judges and curious onlookers. Take a look at some of the projects. (Our school entered 13 projects with 18 student participants, although only 16 could attend because 2 were on their overnight outdoor education trip.)
Heritage Fair tries to de-emphasize the competitive aspect of the fair, but evaluation and awards can be highly motivating factors. Our students couldn't help but compare their projects to the ones brought by other schools. They were worried that other tri-fold boards were larger than theirs, but confident when examining the depth of the inquiry questions. Many - not all - enjoyed the challenge of answering questions. Some demonstrated the ability to think on their feet. Others got a chance to show how articulate they could be. Compliments flew like the granola bars I brought as snacks, and for the most part, students beamed when they heard the accolades.
Some students. I wish I could communicate to some of our more timid students how incredible their work was and "inject" them with pride. One frustrating moment for me was when a student, who had created a project that generated a lot of buzz among the fellow participants, and not just from our school, kept hiding. She was even reluctant to put her board on display, but the moment she did, almost everyone passing by would stop to gasp, read, and admire it.
In addition to the presentations/judging, there were two workshops that the students attended. The morning session was about drumming. Our instructor had high standards and words of wisdom, like "Education is the sacrifice you make today for the future." He taught terms, concepts, and musical patterns at a rapid-fire pace but our students responded to the demands.
The afternoon session was hosted by the Archives of Ontario. There were several stations the students rotated through and they saw that careers in history aren't limited to "historian" or "history teacher". They really liked the painting activity they did in small groups.
Hopefully, this coming week we will hear if any of our school's projects have been selected to move onto the Provincial level. Our fingers are crossed. That wasn't our sole reason for participating, but having a goal like this to aim towards benefited many. All of the projects will have other opportunities to be seen, both at a school tour of the Grade 7-8 projects this coming Thursday and a community tour during our School Open House / Expo / Exhibition later this month.
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