April 7th is the World Health Organization’s annual World Health Day. With the increasing industrialized and global nature of our food preparation, it has become immensely important to maintain a high level of food safety. Join the WHO in celebrating and promoting this important day by bringing food safety awareness to your classroom and home with these tips: 1. Know Your Food: The first step in preparing, storing, and serving safe and healthy food is knowing what goes into your food and where it comes from. If you know what the ingredients are and where it was made or grown, you will be better equipped to make the right choices. Take it one step further – familiarize yourself with the dangerous microbiological and chemical agents in your region. 2. Handle Your Food, Safely: The World Health Organization has basic recommendations that can help you handle, store and prepare food safely....
1. Structure The Flipped Classroom pedagogical model takes the traditional structure of teaching and flips it around. Typically you would have an education lecturing to students in the classroom, and an interactive component to be completed at home. In the flipped classroom model the structure is reversed in that students watch video lectures at home while the interactive component is in the classroom – together with their educator and fellow students. 2. Guide by the Side A major factor in Flipped teaching is the role of the educator. In Flipped Classrooms the educator’s role is seen more as a “Guide by the Side” of the students; they are there to ask and answer questions, guiding the students to reach conclusions and grasp knowledge in their own direction. Some say this strategy is not much different from how Socrates used to teach; by asking his students questions until they either reached...
You may recognize Sherrie-Mae as the host of our first ever Twitter Chat from earlier this month. We know her as a tech-savvy educator who’s really maximizing social media when it comes to professional learning practices. Not only is she a well-known blogger and high profile Tweeter, she is a vice-principal with the Ottawa Carleton District School Board. We asked Sherrie-Mae to share a bit more about herself and why she believes in incorporating technology and social media in her daily life as an educator. 1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your background as an educator I have been a teacher for 17 years in several boards across Ontario. I am very proud to call the Ottawa Carleton District School Board my professional home. I recently became a Vice-Principal. 2. In your time as an educator, how have you seen technology become a more integral part of the...
With tax season in full swing we know many Canadians are trying to focus more so on their tax return as opposed to actually filing their taxes. Should you splurge on a long awaited purchase? Book a vacation? Or put money away? And if you do decide to save your tax return, what’s the best option? What are the differences between a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) and a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA)? Here is a simplified comparison to help you decide which plan is smarter to invest in. RRSP 101 Gail Vaz Oxlade, Author of “Debt-Free Forever” and financial planning TV show host, explains RRSPs in the perfectly simplified way. Vaz Oxlade says to place a $20 in a box, and place an umbrella over the box. The box is a savings account; the umbrella is the RRSP plan registration. This visual description helps us understand how the...
