Hanging out in Padua ... Aidan Chambers' Groupies!

There was nothing "off the wall" about Padua.
Not sure who was hanging out here, though ....

Frances and Mary with Ray Doiron
at the IASL Conference in Abano Terme:
Canadians were everywhere.

Share Great Resources with Teacher-colleagues:

YouTube - BCPCCommission. This is a great collection of short videos on B.C. history: from Val H, always watching for us.

The Great Canadian Geography Challenge. Canada’s largest student geography competition. Enter today. This year Canada won gold at the international competition: from Greg Smith's monthly Top Ten web finds for October.

The Canadian Aboriginal Writing Contest. Students of Aboriginal ancestry are invited to choose a moment in Aboriginal history and explore it through a piece of creative writing. Great prizes! from Greg's September list.

Greg's Top Ten Lists of Links and more for SS. Lots here to consider on the BCSSTA webpage for inquiry with all levels of social studies.

CBC Ideas: a disturbing but very interesting documentary on teens, hyper sexualization and New Media. From Linda Hof at SFU's Webbits, as recommended to her by now-Faculty Associate Katharine Shipley, no doubt recognized as formerly TL (Churchill).

Shrockguide Sites of the Day: as recommended by Hof. Have you subscribed to this weekly e-newsletter with wonderful sites relevant to all aspects of K-12 education?

Boolify Project: John Goldsmith at the Fraser Valley Distance Education Centre writes, Google does many things really well ... [they have created] their own new and innovative search input pages or results page ..... [adding] true Boolian search capability to Google ... in very visual and interactive way. Goldsmith suggests you see also Twurdy (as in Too Wordy) to determine the readability of search results generated by Google. They are colour coded; the darker the colour, the more difficult the reading level.

THEN/HiER Website Launch: This Canadian group of historians, researchers, and educators explores ways to improve and promote the teaching of history, K-12 and beyond. Check the resources for instruction and assessment online. See also the collection of databases of primary source documents for use with teaching Canadian history, in English and in French.

TL Studio 1: Season Launch with Michele at the Helm

We had a great gathering this last week of about 15, mostly TLs. We put an agenda together for the next few sessions and talked about technology challenges in school library programs. We worked with Debut Video Capture (freely downloaded version) software to make short videos explaining an online fun science activities program called Wonderville. I made a very clever instructional video about using the online newspapers ... until new TL Karen (Laurier Annex) pointed out my 10 minutes had been done without using the Record button. I am still trying to perfect this tool but agree with Michele, it is fantastic. My plan is to share how to access and read the digital newspapers with the Ed Centre. I am on trial #10!

Look for next sessions to include working with OpenOffice, wikis, and more. It's not too late to join us.

Reminders: This week is

• Accounting for TLs 101, especially useful for newest TLs and a refresher course for those more seasoned, on Wednesday at the VSB.

• Secondary "department heads" meeting at Hamber on Monday.

The Grand Excursionay!

TLs were partying in Padua this summer.
Next week we'll share aspects of how serious we were
about the business of TL-ship en route!

Have a great weekend!

TLs will go to the extra mile for great professional development, even if it means weeks of travel! Arriving from a pilgrimage that did indeed include hunting for books are Jan and Frances, and isn't that Scaredy Squirrel?