Category Archives: Uncategorized

Transitioning to a New Position

Hi! It has been several months since I’ve updated WilsonTeacher.ca. It’s been a very busy semester, but also a very rewarding one. I’ve had the opportunity to work with two awesome Grade 12 University-preparation English classes , (one in my home school, and the other as an eLearning class with students from across northern Ontario) and help build excitement about computer science with a grade 10 class. At home, my wife and I have watched our daughter grow (too quickly)  into a toddler. Yes, it’s been busy.

In May, I was offered an opportunity to take on a temporary one-year Vice-Principal position at B.A. Parker Public School in Geraldton. After some thinking and talking, I accepted the job. I’m excited about the year ahead, including all of the work and all of the challenges that it will undoubtedly include, and the chance to work with a great staff and great students. Busy will get busier, but I’m up for it!

Since this opportunity is new, I thought I would try to collect my thinking here. Do people still blog? Is that still a thing? Regardless, that’s my goal, and I hope that people offer their perspectives and responses to my posts.

Though I know my daily schedule will be full, I hope to post regularly here because I also shelled out $80 for this website so I should put it to good use! Thanks for joining me on what will be an incredibly awesome journey.

Updates!?

Hi, WilsonTeacher.ca reader!

It’s been a very long time since I updated the site. Normally, WilsonTeacher.ca gets updated at least once  a week. Normally there would be a plethora of resources linked to each course.

Right now, the site is on a bit of hiatus. Why? The courses I’m currently teaching are not conducive to website postings. Also, I’ve moved some content to our board’s internal website.

In the coming days/weeks/months I hope to revitalize this site, update the content, and prepare it for Semester Two. Stay tuned, and thanks for your patience!

What’s Happening? #ALC1O #ENG2D #AVI3O

It’s Mid-October already! The first progress report was provided to students last week. The intention is to have students bring these home to discuss progress in each class. The reports vary from teacher-to-teacher but most emphasize work habits, (e.g. use of time, participation, and any missing work) over marks – as it’s still a bit early in the semester to provide accurate marks.

Students should be scheduling Parent-Teacher interviews this week. The interviews will take place on October 24 from 6:30pm-8:30pm. Meanwhile, here’s an update on what’s going on in class:

ALC1O – Grade 9 Art: Students have been very busy working on explorations with line and colour. We then transitioned to studying two-point perspective. Students are now creating drawings that show their knowledge and thinking about perspective. Students are choosing to create an original design that allows them to express their own ideas and interests. Many are doing city blocks, (which is awesome) while others are doing some more abstract creations. I’ll share some pictures!

ENG2D – Grade 10 English: We are in the midst of our To Kill a Mockingbird unit. Our timing works well as the novel has been in the news recently, the subject of book bans, censorship, and the importance of learning about racial inequality and social injustice. My goal is to move these students toward guiding their own learning. I’m working on helping them develop their own questions, organized in a Google Sheet:

I would like to see more participation from students when we talk about the questions – and their thoughts/responses to the questions – as some students are starting to fall behind.

We’ve also been spending time developing/refreshing/improving grammar skills using the excellent iXL platform, a tool that focuses on writing and math. It’s something these students used last year and it’s been working well. I encourage students to practice at home, too.

I will be calling parents/guardians this week to discuss work habit issues as a few students have not been keeping up with academic-level expectations. This includes not doing the assigned work and not participating in class. It is vitally important that these areas get addressed well before the midterm report card.

AVI3O – Grade 11 Art: It’s been a really, really awesome week in Grade 11 art. I was thinking about a way to explore colour, the Creative Process, and acrylic painting so I found an assignment I created a few years back:

This assignment has students take a photograph, transform it using graphic arts software, create a line drawing of the photograph, and then paint it on a surface of their choosing. Students have really been getting into this assignment and I’m so pumped with the work that’s being done. Here are a few examples:

Looking forward to being able to share some final products. Students will follow up this assignment with artistic statements and reflections on their work. We’ll also have some discussion about what worked/didn’t work with this assignment. That’ll lead us into the next project, which will be something the students are in charge of creating!

Have a great week, everyone!