Saturday 20 July 2019

I forgot to tell you!

The blog got migrated to https://andreaharrison.ca/blog/ 
I can actually see taking this one here (which I have completely and absolutely loved) and using it for more personal record keeping say like if a new dog ever comes  ... the andrea harrison site brings a whole lot of different things together and making the "main"  page do everything is the logical, if sad, thing to do.

come on over there if you want to catch up ... all the old blogs are there too - though I miss being able to look at the dates as easily as here. Life has been so busy of late - I miss reading all my old friends, hope to catch up properly soon!


Thursday 12 January 2012

wordle.net

Being evaluated next week
Really doesn't matter how well I have done in the past
Hate it

Wanted to demonstrate my use of technology in my portfolio

Asked current and former students to submit one word about me as teacher

this is what has come in so far..

1. 1. Hands-on
2. Firm
3. Compassionate
4. Committed
5. Fun
6. Honest
7. Real
8. Extended
9. Dedicated
10. Dedicated
11. Honest
12. Clever
13. Fierce
14. Fierce
15. Fair
16. Fierce
17. Helpful
18. Compassionate
19. Interactive
20. Fun
21. Clever
22. Hungry
23. Dedicated
24. Respected
25. Unrestricted
26. Trustworthy
27. Practical
28. Caring
29. Unorthodox
30. Professional
31. Inspiring
32. Enthusiastic
33. Fair
34. Passionate
35. A friend
36. Unusual
37. Encouraging
38. Firm
39. Different
40. Effective
41. Approchable
42. Honest
43. Tough
44. Genuine
45. straight-up
46. hilarious
47. engaged
48. Involved
49. Guileless
50. Industrious
51. Earnest
52. Affectionate
53. Resourceful
54. Amazing
55. Eye opening

Going to create a wordle with the list

Pleased I thought of this as they are the most important critics I have ... I can hold this list close for the next week

Thursday 22 September 2011

and so another year of awesome starts!



What an amazing group of students this semester. Funny, entertaining, smart, kind ...

it sounds like I must be exaggerating eh? What high school teacher in the 21st century can say these things without a BUT of some sort?
I can. This group starts work in just 2 days and I have complete confidence that it will be an amazing experience for all of us.
Retail stores, offices, huge computer companies, police, vets, restaurants, hospitals, a local TV station and schools will all benefit from this group of hard working young adults. I am looking forward to watching them grow and learn.

What a lucky lucky person I am. I am them working on a journal topic right now about attitdude. I have really come to accept lately that the only thing I have direct control over is myself - this quotation reinforces that view quite beautifully.

Some other attitude quotes I like:

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. ~Anthony J. D'Angelo

If you don't think every day is a good day, just try missing one. ~Cavett Robert

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. ~Winston Churchill

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Getting Ready for OCEA



OCEA is an annual conference for coop teachers. For the fourth year I'm doing a presentation - this year with my fabulous colleague Ms. Singh. Our topic is "Practical Uses of Differentiated Instruction in the Pre-Placement Phase of Coop". A big title for what we do regularly, and successfully.



This blog was originally set up to allow a student who wanted to do things her way to see what a blog was so she could blog her journals instead of typing weekly entries. D. did a great job on her blog-journal which encouraged me to allow more freedom in what the product for journals looked like. Most students use the traditional format still but after teaching coop for 13 years or so it's quite interesting to see a little variety in format. Journals are a great example of something that


(The Body Shop is one of our employers this semester - they have worked with many of our students over the years - and have done a great job differentiating for our students.)

Wednesday 30 March 2011

Web 2.0 Tools ...

Interesting professional development this morning on Web 2.0 tools. I can see using Moodle, Google Docs, Glogster (http://edu.glogster.com), Wordle (http://www.wordle.net), Symbaloo, Xtranormal, Wallwisher, Prezi, and Survey Monkey in the coop classroom. I'd love it if students started using some of these tools too. It's a great way for me to learn more about then.

Thursday 24 February 2011

Does it work?


Know Safety, No Injury

No Safety, Know Injury


Our class did a quick assignment yesterday to help them review for their MAJOR safety test. Our students aren't allowed to start at work until they have mastered the key safety concepts (usually demonstrated by achieving a 80% or higher on the unit test, or retest, or retest, or retest). One pair of lovely quiet young ladies walked us through the bolded quotation above. I was so impressed. The play on words was terrific and the fact these young ladies both have English as a third language made their choice of activity even more meaningful.


I was quite impressed with all the students choice of focus. Many reviewed the key concepts of Right to Refuse Unsafe Work; Right to Participate and the Right to Know. They brought these concepts alive in unique and amusing ways. Others chose to focus on specific aspects of safety. Some reviewed the types of hazards for example and provoked some interesting discussions. I'm optimistic that students will recall what a biological hazard is after my quite graphic definition.
We have some nice flash cards, posters and other written material to share in the future as well.
We are quite obsessed with safety in our program. We devote more than the required time to it as the statistics about youth safety at the workplace are really quite frightening. The videos we show and the discussions we have are often quite enlightening for students but it's hard not to worry that they will still make poor choices around personal safety at work. Adolescents often have a sense of immortality that makes them feel safe in any circumstance. Experience can be a very hard teacher of this lesson.

This was the first time we tried letting students review for the test in this way so I'm curious to see if it worked to help them retain central ideas or if we will be moving back to the silent study, teacher lecture model that bores me nearly senseless.