Following World War II, the United Nations adopted its first Declaration on the Rights of the Child on November 20, 1959. Included in it were 10 principles that began to outline the basic rights that children were entitled to. Thirty years later, on the same date in 1989, the Conventions on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was adopted by the United Nations, which expanded the 10 principles to 54 declarations that identified not only the basic rights of children, but also protocols for how the rights should be implemented. It is legally binding and states that countries must act in the best interest of the child. To date, 193 countries have signed it and are now bound to it by international law. This is includes all of the members of the United Nations, except two countries – the U.S.A. and Somalia.

Today, which is known in Canada as National Child Day, marks the 20th anniversary of the CRC. To learn more about how the CRC developed and how children are being treated around the world in present times, take a moment to watch the State of the World’s Children’s special edition video – 20 Years of Child Rights. 

In our class, we have been learning about different individuals like Craig Kielburger from Ontario, Canada who at 12 years of age in 1995 laid the groundwork for his international organization Free the Children which inspires children to become agents of change around the world. Another organization, UNICEF, was created in 1946 by the United Nations to provide food, clothing and health care to children who faced famine and disease after the end of World War II.

In the next weeks that follow, we will be continuing to examine the challenges that globally face children and why the declarations within the CRC are needed. One of the questions we hope to investigate is: What can we do to help?

Division 2, carefully watch the video above – more than once if necessary. What do you notice about its two main characters?  What questions, connections or inferences come to mind after watching it?

image: zoriah_photojournalist_war_photographer_kenya_child_children_poverty_poor_20090119_3316 by zoriah

We’re finally all up and rolling! Every student in Division 2 has an individual blog now and they are definitely worth checking out. Some topics may have more than one person covering it, but each student has individualized his/her blog and you’re sure to find a unique perspective on each one. Have fun exploring them using the links to the right. We’re starting to pick up the pace and you’ll be seeing more posts every week.

• Sports - Connor,  Michael, Ryan, Frank, Shania
• Animals - Kaley, Brittany, Logan, Tara
• Games - Gregory, Alex, Greg, Travis, Yana, Daniel
• Food - Myah, Kennedy
• Current Events - Hannan, Jazmin
• Entertainment - Brianna
• Technology - Stephanie
• Holidays - Rachel
• Superheroes - Sierra
• Complete Randomness - Layne, Chanel, Tanner

Image: 123 roll! by Charlotte Speaks under Creative Commons license

By the time the afternoon rolled around, I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I was going to have to blog about our day today. I know. I’m hooked.

Today was a great day. Division 2 was responsible for the school’s Remembrance Day assembly this year, and this morning I could not have been more proud of them. The sincerity and grace with which they carried themselves and fulfilled their roles as presenters was amazing. They set the bar high on assemblies to come.

Knowing we would be planning the day’s assembly, a few weeks ago we set out to learn more about Canada’s role in the World Wars and the Korean War as well as current military operations. It was one of those ideas I had as a teacher that started out small and then grew and grew and grew. I started to wonder why I hadn’t spent more time on these topics before with other classes.

We invited a small number of residents from our community to come into our classroom. Our target being individuals who had served overseas since the end of the Korean War (1953).  In small groups of five, students interviewed each guest who gave us permission to make an audio recording of his/her responses so that we could have them for future use. Now, the information we’ve collected is being compiled into a class project that will be added to throughout the year. To help others connect with the Canadian service men and women currently being deployed on peace missions, we included some of this information in one of our Remembrance Day presentations (see the video below).

My only regret is not including one individual’s information in the video. At the time the video was made, I didn’t have an image of Master Warrant Officer Nigel Pollard to include. After the ceremony, we made sure we snapped a few. While a more detailed account of his service is included in our larger project, his 29 years of service and several tours as a Construction Engineer need to be mentioned here. He’ll be first on the list for who we will personally thank in our assembly next year.

Our goal is to find and document the names, details and photographs of local people who have served in peace operations around the world, and we’ll be continuing with this project after Remembrance Day for some time.  Having the opportunity to connect with people in our community, and the exposure to different cultural elements being discussed has had such a positive impact on the students’ level of engagement. How could we possibly stop now?

Poppy image courtesy of Veterans Affairs Canada

On November 11, Canadians and citizens of other Commonwealth nations honour our military veterans and current individuals serving around the world with Remembrance Day. Specifically, ceremonies are scheduled to commemorate the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month because that was the date and time that WWI formally came to an end in 1918. In the United States, it is called Veteran’s Day and in other parts of the world, it is known as Armistice Day.

“A Pittance of Time” was written by Canadian singer/songwriter Terry Kelly. Please watch the video below to get a sense of what he feels is important to remember on this day.

This video is based on the songwriter’s own experiences. On November 11,  1999, in a drugstore in Nova Scotia,  Terry Kelly surprisingly heard the store manager announce on the PA system that two-minutes of silence would be observed at 11:00 am to respect the sacrifices made by men and women who had served in our military. It was unusual to see this happen in the community outside of formal ceremonies at local cenotaphs or schools.

What are your thoughts on the manager’s decision to do this? What images or words in Terry Kelly’s video stand out the most for you? What message do they leave you with?

This is a common North American expression that transfers the idea of digesting food in the stomach to mulling things over in the brain. It’s when something stimulates us to think and provides us with intellectual nourishment. Every Friday shortly before the class is dismissed for recess, Division 2 enjoys their snack together while I share some “food for thought”. Most times it’s a video. These range from inspirational to thought provoking to educational to just plain fun.

This past Friday, was the day before Halloween and it’s been an exciting week leading up to this event. Although we didn’t have a costume day at school, details were shared about the creatures that our class would soon turn into a little more than 24 hours later. Many of them involved zombie combinations of some sort. So, inspired by the Halloween spirit and my class’ fascination with Michael Jackson’s Thriller, we sat down to watch the full length video, which incidentally was first aired in 1982 when I was only 11 years old and in Grade 6 – probably enough “food for thought” for the day.

Once the video began, a funny thing happened in my class. I wasn’t able to catch everyone with the camera – I had to find it first! – but the excitement of Halloween soon took over.

 Yep … Division 2 has no fun at all.

Image: Halloween Party Details by livinglocurto

We’ve learned a number of things about our fellow bloggers who have posted random facts about themselves. Not only are these enjoying to read, but they offer great opportunities to connect with other people.

But why random? It all centers on learning how to protect our privacy. Identifying and sharing information that is not too personal in nature is an important skill in blogging and one we always have to keep in mind when we are drafting posts.

I’ve included my own set of facts below. Notice how I’m able to share new information with you without giving away too much such as exactly where I live or where and when I participate in activities. I am also careful not to compromise my friend’s or family members’ privacy, too.

1. When I was young, I was part of a children’s circus group - the reason behind my unicycling and juggling skills
2. I strongly dislike almost all red-flavoured food or candy 
3. I was 23 when my youngest sister was born 
4. I am lost without my watch
5. The fastest I’ve ever thrown a softball is 102km/hr
6. I enjoy karaoke even though I didn’t inherit any singing genes
7. The first time I ever camped, I was 18 years old and now I can’t get enough

Your assigned blogging task this week is to create a post that includes your own set of Seven Random Facts. When you create your list, use the numbered bullets found in your editor. Your goal is to share details of your life that can’t be found on your About page. Try to cover a range of topics and consider each fact carefully before you decide to include it. Make sure it’s information that you want the world to know.

After you have published your 7 Random Facts, take time to explore different blogs from our class. Look for new or surprising connections with your classmates and ultimately choose 5 people’s posts to thoughtfully comment on.

Image: Clown Buddies by Thomas Hawk under Creative Commons license

The results are in! Thank you to everyone who participated in our survey of super powers.

Altogether, data was collected from 93 people and in the end shape-shifting has proven to be the most desirable one. It was very interesting to see the results unfold as shape-shifting took a sizeable lead early on, but in the last week, invisibility made a valiant effort towards catching up.

With so many choosing shape-shifting as their super power choice, we’re very curious to find out why it was so popular! Was it because people imagined themselves changing into specific shapes or forms? Or did the appeal come from being able to shift into an infinite number of shapes?

Division 2, take another look at the bar graph above that displays the results of the data we collected. Think about the facts that you can ”see” within it. What can you infer from these results?

Our time spent practicing Internet “savviness” and our unwavering attempts to write thoughtful and meaningful comments on blogs around the world have paid off! Our student blogs are emerging. Just like a pilot makes necessary adjustments while  taxiing towards the beginning of the runway, you are fine tuning and adjusting the look and feel of your newly earned blogs before your first solo flight into the blogosphere.

These past few days you have been focusing on the appearance of your blog and while it is important that this reflects what you are all about, sharing a little bit about who you are goes a long way with readers. It’s an important step towards connecting with others. This is where your “About Page” fits in.

When you create this new PAGE, ask yourself “What would others like to know about me?“

• Who is the owner of this blog?
• Thoughts and opinions that express your personality – What are you like?
• Where in the world are you writing from?
• Interests, hobbies – What do you like to do?

Remember to keep your personal information as well as friends and family members’ personal information private. Make responsible decisions about what you choose to share.

Need a hand getting started? Try visiting Mrs. Wyatt’s Blogging Challenge instructions or looking at the “About” pages of other bloggers on our Blogroll. Some great examples can be found on Daniel’s blog,  or neighbouring  Huzzahnians! Savannah’s and Eric’s . You can explore these to see how some have already been done. How were they able to help us understand who they were without giving away too much?

Image: The Tiger Boys Aeroplane by Never Was an Arrow II under Creative Commons License

Guest post by Hannan and Shania

Inspired by Peter Vegas’  Little Book of Stickmen, our class has been working hard drawing stickmen for art class. Yes, that’s right … stickmen. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

When our teacher, Mrs Braidwood, asked us to look at life from the perspective of a stickman, we thought “What an easy job!” Well, it wasn’t! It was HARD! First, we looked at some of Peter Vegas’s drawings in his book. Next, we started to think of our own ideas, but we had some trouble figuring out what to write as a joke. It took some time and thinking… but we eventually figured something out!

When we were all finished our drawings/comics, they were displayed in class to show our ideas to our classmates and parents. Although the pictures were plain and simple,  the jokes really left you something to think about. We learned that a stickman drawing can be harder then it looks.  

Peter Vegas is an author from New Zealand. In his book he explained how when he was little, he found drawing a challenge, but he was good at stickmen, so he created the Little Book of Stickmen to show you that we can all be successful at art. 

By Hannan

By Logan

Our class is hungry for data! We have been collecting all sorts of it within our class and more recently from other classes within our school. We’ve learned all sorts of things about each other as well as how to infer conclusions from the data set.

Now, we’re interested in collecting data on a much wider scale, which leads us to the survey below. We’d be thrilled if you could take a moment to read through it and submit your choice. If you have a friend nearby, maybe you could ask them to complete it as well! The more the merrier. We’re very curious to see how much data we can collect from our visitors.