Wherever Trev goes, he brings all sorts of positive energy with him. You can’t help but have fun around him. During the last few weeks, he has kept us hopping wanting to go here … do that … learn this … but we really haven’t minded.

He picked a perfect time to be here. It’s the middle of Winter here in Canada right now. Our country is often pictured as having really cold snow-covered winters here, but in the southwest corner of British Columbia that really isn’t the case. We live in a temperate rain forest and it doesn’t stay cold enough for snow to last very long. We usually get a couple weeks in total by the end of the season, but in some cases like last winter, we didn’t get any snow at all!

We’ve had a couple of short snowfalls so far, but the best one happened while Trev has been here and he couldn’t wait to get out in it … well, neither could the Ripplers since we don’t get snow that often. Overall, Trev has tagged along during a number of activities and we thought the best way to show you was to create a movie about it. OK … OK … it was Trev’s idea … but we thought it was a great one and we were able to use some of our tech skills to help him out on that one. Have fun watching!

I just found out we’ve been nominated for Best Class Blog for the 7th annual Eddies! How cool is that?! The Edublog Awards celebrate the influences of social media in several different categories and we’re honoured to have been shortlisted this year.

Our class blog is an integral part of our classroom and has forever changed the landscape of our learning experiences. Our community is stronger because of it and through it we have made connections with classrooms around the world that enrich our learning.

So a big heart-felt thank-you to those who nominated us. It feels great to think that others have been positively impacted by our work as well. If you’d like to vote, please visit the Edublog Awards site. Voting is open until 12:00 pm EST on Tuesday December 14th. Make sure you check out all the nominees. We’re in great company.

The Ripplers are ready to begin the next phase of their blogging adventure. But here’s the question … Is the blogging world ready for us? Well we’re up for the challenge, whatever that may bring.

You’ll notice that most of our new student bloggers have now been added to the blogroll. There are still a few more to come, but by next week every student in the class will be represented by one. They have successfully jumped through all of the “hoops” I have presented them with. Have you ever heard that expression before? It means they have completed everything I have asked them to and have proven to me that they are ready to further develop their online identity by exploring the blogosphere a little more on their own.  Now that they can write on their own blogs, each of their posts becomes a ripple in the making and by the end of the year, we hope to be creating positive waves.

 Be sure to check out those links! We hope you enjoy learning more about us individually and we look forward to the many conversations and connections we will be making with our readers.

Division 2 … how does it feel to have your blog finally on the blogroll and “out there” for everyone to explore?

image: 2009-07-15 045 a yacht racing by mnorri released under a CC Attribution – Noncommercial – Share Alike license

We have a new Rippler among our crew and we’re pretty excited to introduce her. Don’t worry. She doesn’t bite. In fact, she’s not scary at all. She’s fabulous!

This is Ms. Rogerson, our student teacher. We just met her last Monday, but we can already tell she’s a keeper.  With a few tricks up her sleeve, Mrs. Braidwood has been busy scribbling down her great new ideas that she’s been bringing to class, and on Thursday and Friday Ms. Rogerson taught her first two lessons to us.

Stayed tuned to hear more about our upcoming adventures with her!

Thankfully, for now the virus was successfully contained and Bijou is now using his powers of good as our class mascot. We’ve heard rumblings that more gnomes are on their way though … so

2010 is here and this is the first Monday after New Years day, so it marks our return to school!  There are a lot of new adventures on the horizon for us in school, as well as in our country. For starters, Canada is facing off against the United States in the gold medal game of the World Junior Hockey Championships tomorrow. Go Canada! Then, a month from now the 2010 Olympics begin in Vancouver! It looks like it’s going to be a great year with all that excitement to start it off.

image: 2010 Team Canada logo by tyfn