GRAND CONVERSATIONS FAYE BROWNLIE

GRAND CONVERSATIONS
CULMINATING ACTIVITIES
CHAPTER 7:
STUDENTS CREATE POSTERS TO
ADVERTISE THEIR BOOKS TO OTHER POTENTIAL
READERS.
INVITE ANOTHER CLASS IN TO TALK ABOUT
THEIR BOOKS.
STUDENTS REFLECT ON THE QUESTION:
WHAT HAS THIS BOOK TAUGHT
YOU ABOUT LIFE AND LIVING?
STUDENTS WRITE A LETTER TO
THEIR TEACHER, REFLECTING ON
THEIR EXPERIENCE WITH
LITERATURE CIRCLES AND GIVING
ADVICE FOR NEXT TIME
CHAPTER 5:
TALK SHOW HOT SEAT
MAKING CONTAINERS FOR CHARACTERS
BUILDING A READERS' THEATER
FAYE BROWNLIE
WHAT CAN I DO IN MY CLASSROOM
TO CELBRATE THE READING THAT
STUDENTS HAVE DONE DURING
LITERATURE CIRCLES?
Chris Tovani's "Do I Really have to Teach Reading?" contains many practical ideas for teaching
older students to apply comprehension strategies in any subject. My new thinking is to incorporate these
strategies within a Literature Circle format, and to offer a variety of culminating activities which encourage
students to demonstrate their learning through the use of oral language. I am currently reading "Ban the Book
Report" by Graham Foster, which is a treasure box of oral and visual activities.
The Well
Balanced
Teacher
Teacher
Leadership
Framework
working
group as
sample
As leaders, we
need to model
AFL practices;
walk the talk
Other
Connections
DOE sharing
goals and
strategies
How are we
communicating
the learning
that teachers
are doing?
Chapters
1-4
Everytime I use samples with
students or teachers, quality rises;
samples provide an expectation and
allow for self- and peer-assessment
Leading the Way to Assessment
for Learning: A Practical Guide
Star
Chapters
10-11
Creating a
learning circle:
start small, get
organized
together, share
responsibility
The ISWG isStar
delving into
curriculum to
find eduring
understandings
Chapters
5-9
learning
intentions
are like the
"velcro" to
stick ideas
Having a learning goal triggers
motivation ... also connects to
PURPOSE as a motivation for
quality work
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The Well Balanced Teacher Author: Mike Anderson Prepared b y Pat Bort, April 2013 Pictures of Me in 2000 and in 2013
After talking about the literature circle and one of the literature circle selections, “The Well-Balanced
Teacher: How Too Work Smarter and Stay Sane Inside the Classroom and Out” by Mike Anderson on a
work trip up to Mayo with Stace Burnard and Meggan Cooper, Meggan recommended that I read “The
Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent A Year Trying to Sing in he Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right,
Read Aristote, and Generally Have More Fun” by Gretchen Rubin. If you enjoyed reading or hearing about
“The Well Balanced Teacher” then I think that you will immediately hook into the light-hearted, Happiness
Project too!
The author wants to change her life without really changing her llfe. She wanted to appreciate the life that
she had more and tweek it so that she could be better prepared for anything that life decided to bring her
way. In each month for one year Gretchen has a new set of goals with an underlying happiness theme
that parallel and overlap the categories in “The Well-Balanced Teacher.” For example, for the month of
January Gretchen aimed to boost energy and vitality. Her goals were to go to sleep earlier, exercise
better, toss, restore, organize, tackle a nagging task, and to act more energetic, all parts of Meeting our
Most Basic Needs in “The Well-Balanced Teacher.”
Gretchen’s informal, theologian, writer, philosopher and research-referenced, funny, insightful, and
attainable style coupled with countless strategies for helping to increase happiness and attain balance will
have you highlighting so much that you will have to go to Staples for a second pack of markers.
To help give you more of a feel for my connections, thoughts, feelings etc. with the book, here are just
some of my favourite ideas:
 Make time for a passion and treat it as a real priority (rock) instead of an “extra” (sand) to be fit in
at a free moment.
 People think they like variety more than they do. Further to that, eliminating clutter would cut down
the amount of housework in the average home by 40%.
 The best way to lift your mood is to engineer an easy success.
 Suggest tasks without talking or use one-word reminders.
 We unconsciously overestimate our contributions or skills relative to other people.
 We are happy when we are growing.
 To eke out the most happiness from an experience, we must anticipate it, savour it as it unfolds,
express happiness, and recall a happy memory.
 From 15 to 18 is an age at which one if very sensitive to the sins of others.
 The more often you see a person, the more intelligent and attractive you’ll find that person.
 Studies show that people unintentionally transfer to me the traits I ascribe to other people.
 If you can’t get out of it, get into it.
 Life is too short to save your good china or you good lingerie or your good anything for later.
 Mindfulness helps you break bad habits. For example, being conscious of eating makes people eat
more healthfully, and one way to encourage yourself to eat more mindfully, experts agree, is to
keep a food diary. Further to that, buy anything that you want at the grocery store; cooking is
always cheaper than eating out.
 Exercise better.
My Fitness Pal + Hay Day + DigiFit + Home Gym = Healthier + Happier
Healthier + Happier = Better Colleague