A student approaches a teacher with her concerns about her progress in Math.
In this class, student math work is largely self-paced and students take responsibility for their learning. The teacher was satisfied with the student's progress, so this was not a teacher concern.
As an introduction to the final term, students reflected on their writing so far, set goals, and created a plan.
Students had been working on a writing portfolio throughout the year. After reviewing their portfolios, and reflecting on the writing they had done thus far, students set goals and planned how these might be achieved.
A child shows pride in her artwork—creating a heart to show love.
Children in this classroom have opportunities to choose and work with many different materials. They had had been learning about emotions, and “Heart Mind Well Being.”
A student values his education and makes positive choices in regards to making time for homework, hobbies and his family responsibilities.
Students worked with the Aboriginal Enhancement Worker to create and sew their own button blankets using felt and buttons.
For many of the students making their own button blankets was their first experience sewing and it was a great challenge. This button blanket activity revealed students’ self-determination, their ability to persevere and their ability to be patient.
A student created a whirligig to demonstrate his personal journey.
After studying Paul Fleischman’s novel Whirligig and viewing Pay it Forward, students were asked to make their own personal whirligigs, mobiles or ya-ya boxes that demonstrated their personal journeys.
This project demonstrated that students can be aware of who they are, and students may or may not articulate how they shape themselves or how others shape them.
The teacher provided the following instructions:
A student created a poem to show her growth in personal awareness.
The student participated in a district workshop with professional poets to use poetry as a medium to discover personal awareness. In her poem, she discusses her lifelong challenge of being naturally thin and the trauma she has suffered to her self-image and in her relationships.
A grade 11 student responds to not being hired because she is from an alternate school.
A grade 11 student in an alternate school interviewed for – but did not get--a job with a pizza chain. She had the courage and determination to call the manager and ask what she could do better in future job interviews. The manager told her that she interviewed very well, but they would never hire anyone from the alternate school.
She responded by making a video about her experiences and her teacher forwarded it to school administration.