Passing Notes

Notes from a Parent/Teacher to Parents and Teachers

Mar
30

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Book Giveaway: Easy Art Fun! Do-it-yourself crafts for beginning readers

Category: Uncategorized Tags: , , Leave a Comment

Granted, Easy Art Fun! Do-it-yourself crafts for beginning readers is not the most original title.  But it’s shiny new, free, and fun.  It’s appropriate for ages 3-6 and it has step-by-step instructions and procedural reading experiences for the kiddies on making crafty creations.

Subscribe to this blog and you will be entered  in a  randomly-selected draw to win this book.  To subscribe, just go to the bottom right hand side of this page, click follow and enter your email.  It will ask you for your confirmation to subscribe via a subsequent email.  Easy.  (Oh yeah, you have until Monday, April 1st to enter.)

Why the giveaway?

Because I’m nice that way.

And also to celebrate the inception of this blog a whopping month ago.  Here’s to many more months of Passing Notes!

Cheers,

Daniela

Mar
27

By

Environmental action + family fun = Earth Hour

Category: Curriculum Connections at Home, Teachable Moments @ Home Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

“Mom, where’s the remote control? Whoa! Why’s it so dark?!”

In this day and age when we are all so “plugged into” technology all the time, it is of vital importance that we teach our children to respect the Earth and our natural environment. The Earth’s resources are being depleted through overuse by both industry and individuals. And, as a result, we need to impress upon our children about the marvelous environment they live in and how important it is to preserve it so it is there for many generations to come. Read on to find more suggestions on how we each can do help a little bit to make our world beautiful forevermore.
On Saturday March 31st 2012, there is a well-known event called Earth Hour. Its goal is to recognize the non renewable qualities of our Earth and to help promote awareness that we, as a society, need to take better care of what we do have, while also teaching the next generation that there is fun to be had WITHOUT a lot of technology. Below you’ll find some activities to promote a healthy Earth, healthy child, and healthy society for many future generations.   These are some simple ways for kids to begin to lessen his/her carbon footprint all the way into April! Sunday April 22nd, 2012 is Earth Day, the perfect opportunity to show the Earth how you care about it. Check out these activities and try them out to show Earth why it’s special to you!


My top 5 Activities for Earth Hour:

1.  Park-in-the-dark: A night walk

Take a walk with the family around your neighbourhood, through your local park, or around your favourite part of the city. Explore the city in the dark, take a flashlight with you and pretend it’s an ancient ruin that you’re walking through. This could be especially appropriate if your child (ren) is (are) studying ancient civilizations in the grade 5 curriculum. Pretend you are archaeologists trying to figure out what kind of life the people had when the city was full of life, where they lived, what their occupations were, and what they did in their spare time. How would the future scientists look at our society? What would they see?

2.  Is that the Milky Way??

In our usually light-filled city, Earth Hour provides the perfect time to have a star-gazing contest! Most of the lights in Toronto will be out on March 31st (except for emergency lights) so it’s the perfect time to stop by your local park, look out your balcony or backyard and try to find the North Star/ Polaris?,The Big Dipper, the little dipper, Orion’s belt, or a shooting star. Can you find them? See if you can find those constellations you used to be able to see when you looked up at the sky as a kid? Use this perfect occasion to teach your child some of the exciting things about our sky. This also makes a great connection to the grade 6 Earth Science unit where your child learns about our solar system.
3.  Candlelit Celebrations: Food, Drinks, and Games, Oh My!
This coming Saturday is the perfect time to invite a few friends over and encourage a camp-like potluck dinner. Bring a few dishes that do not require heating (such as salads, pasta salad, or cheese plates) and enjoy some good laughs with friends this Saturday evening! Light some candles, play a few board games or cards, and catch up on old memories while making new ones. If you have children, this celebratory dinner is a great time to talk about healthy food choices and why eating the correct serving sizes, getting enough physical activity, and generally living a healthy lifestyle is important (which connects to the grade four curriculum in Ontario on Healthy Living).
4.  Extra, Extra, Read all about it!
Discuss all the ways you and your family can reduce your carbon footprint on the Earth. If you have a literary-minded child who likes to write, turn it into a great opportunity to do some writing outside of school. In order to facilitate discussing the benefits of Earth Hour and how to help our environment sustain itself in the long run, create a family newsletter that you can distribute to family and friends via email before Earth Hour. Sending it by email will eliminate your need for paper waste, while also allowing you to send it to more people. You can include things like: activities to do during Earth Hour, a list of ways everyone can reduce their individual carbon footprint, ways to stay healthy while helping the environment such as riding your bike instead of driving to work or school. Get as creative as you can and have fun while doing some literacy! This is a great opportunity to work on descriptive or persuasive writing.
You can do some reading of your own. Dr. Seuss’s book “The Lorax” (recently made into a movie) is a great starting point for discussing ways to help the environment with your child and help them learn in a way that they may not even think they are ‘learning’ something! Check out your shelves in the days leading up to Earth Hour and you may just find a book or two that you can read during Earth Hour by candlelight!

5. “Oh Earth Ow-Er! Our home is dy-ing!” A modification of our national anthem!
Promote musical awareness and have a song writing contest. Discuss with your child(ren) how music has healing properties such as calming rhythms or strong social justice messages. Take some time to write a song about why you like the Earth, what your favourite outdoor activity is to do, what your favourite memory was as a little kid in the winter, or anything else earth-related. Be sure to practise using as much description as possible to get your message across! This will also provide a perfect opportunity to talk to your child about poetry, and the fact that songs are in fact poems. Shocking I know!

 

Ideas to reduce your energy use and carbon footprint all through the year:

- turn the water off when brushing your teeth
- get a shower head/nozzle where you can turn off the water during your shower when you aren’t using it (such as when you’re shampooing up your hair!)
- turn off your lights, or get timers to set the lights when you want them on
- walk or bike to school or work
- walk to the local grocery or convenience store when you need to pick up just a few items
- go for a walk or take the dog to a dog park
- wash clothes in cold water and hang them out to dry instead of using a dryer

For more ideas, refer to the Living Planet Community at http://www.community.wwf.ca (where much of this information came from). You can also pledge to participate in Earth Hour for more activities, bonus rewards, and ideas!

Do your part to help the Earth live a healthy life and turn out your lights this Saturday!

Ms Whitworth

Mar
20

By

Why it matters that you can eat your science experiment.

Category: Curriculum Connections at Home Tags: , , , , , , 2 Comments

Well, if you can’t eat it, then at least it should matter that you can play with it.  Science is meant to be a journey, an exploration.  It should be creative and interactive.  We need to “play” around with materials in order to hypothesize.  So while, I’m no “Bill Nye the Science Guy”, I do think that Science concepts can be greatly enhanced through other means, such as cooking in this case, or  say Dramatic Arts, visual representations, and so on.

Now this is what I call double duty:  Science and chocolaty goodness all rolled into one.  It happened that my brother hadn’t had a proper birthday celebration and because we’re nice that way we decided to bake him a cake.  Being a teacher,  ”just baking”, means that I’m always looking for connections to learning.  As we mixed, I was talking to my daughter about a cookie recipe that I did with my grade 5 class last year to investigate how chemical changes in matter are irreversible from the Ontario Science curriculum and well, the baking ended up as part lesson too – (don’t worry, it wasn’t boring!).  The Ontario Science strand for this area is called “Understanding Matter & Energy:  Properties and Changes in Matter”.  We also talked about  how matter that changes state is still the same matter.  I explained that even though the egg changed state from liquid to solid, matter, – (which is everywhere, except for energy), was still there.  I didn’t talk about matter ad nauseum, and I only elaborated enough to get her interested and asking more information, because otherwise that’s ruining the fun right?

Not surprisingly, my girl had two “aha!” moments that connected her previous understanding of fractions to new understandings which was good because struggling with fractions is no fun at all!

 

 

Here is the recipe.  I apologize as I’m always irritated when metric is not used because I feel that children need to get a sense of  proper measurement metric terminology such as millilitres and litres, which are underused in so many recipes that cater to Imperial measurement.  It’s only that this is what I’ve got time for at the moment.  And I have a sleeping baby in my arms.

Ingredients

2 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour (I’ve used whole wheat and no one can tell the difference)

3 large ripe bananas, pureed or mashed

1 1/2 cups of sugar (I used a combination of Agave and Sucanat because that’s what I had on hand.  Use whatever sweetener you prefer except for stevia unless you can figure out the equivalent amount needed.)

1 cup of canola oil, Earth’s Best spread, or butter

2/3 cup baking cocoa

1 1/4 cups of water

1 1/4 tsp. of baking soda

1 tsp. of salt

1/4 tsp. baking powder

2 large eggs

What to do

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Celsius.
  2. Grease two round pans with coconut oil or oil, and lightly dust with flour.
  3. Beat all ingredients with electric mixer on low for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly.
  4. Beat on high for three minutes, scraping occasionally.
  5. Pour into pans, bake for 30-35 minutes (check by inserting a skewer or similar tool into center – if it comes out clean, it’s ready).
  6. Cool for ten minutes, remove from pans.
  7. Cool on baking rack completely.
For the icing, we were not very ahem, mathematical.  We threw together about 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, 3 tbsp. of coconut oil in lieu of butter, 1 tsp. of vanilla, 2 or 3 tbsp. of baking cocoa and about 3-4 tbsp. of milk.
To make frosting:
  1. Mix sugar and coconut oil at low speed.
  2.  Stir in vanilla and cocoa.
  3. Gradually beat in just enough milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable.
  4. Add drops of milk if frosting is too thick; beat in sugar if it’s too thin.

 

 The finished product , – (cut into quarters, then twelfths!), has crushed walnuts, which you’ll avoid if you’re anaphylactic, right?

Thanks to an old friend Kathleen for the original recipe and apologies to her for changing it so much.  But it doesn’t matter, as long as the results melt in your mouth.  Mmmnnn, Science!

 

Daniela

Mar
17

By

When is a leaf, Art? When it’s Goldsworthy-inspired!

Category: Teachable Moments @ Home Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

 

Well, we all know that a leaf in and of itself is not art.

A leaf can be transformed when we’re talking about environmental outdoor art.  No, not the 3Rs kind.  The Andy Goldsworthy kind.  Now we’re talking.  He’s famous for an art medium that’s just about as close as you get to being in touch with nature as possible.  It’s three dimensional, interactive, usually temporary and involves how you interact with what is around you:  flora, fauna, climate, –  in a mish mash of beauty.  You’ll want to check out his work here for inspiration!  His philosophy and works are listed and are worth more than a quick glance.

Children of all ages can experiment with different textures (bark, leaves, needles, rocks, and so on).  They can go at it alone, with you, siblings or friends.  They can explore the harmony created by repeating shapes, colours or textures.  You can encourage them to use the sunlight to their advantage:  at a given time, shadows will be cast on their objects and children can try to create a specific shadow by moving around some of their pieces.

Here’s a video of a group-made piece, done right in a playground.

 

Some suggestions for doing this type of art with toddlers, teens and everyone in between:

  • Enjoy being at one with the world around you. Before starting your work, use all your senses to set a mood.  Is it windy? Humid?  How will you interpret what you sense?
  • Work with nature, not against it.  If you have a pre-conceived notion that you’ll find say, feathers on a beach and then don’t, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.  Instead, bring an open-mind to the art space.  That way you’ll be able to “see” more opportunities in everyday found things.
  • Though a beach, rocky land or forest certainly make it more interesting, your destination needn’t be “exotic”.  A play ground or backyard will do.
  • Respect the environment.  You leave with what you came, including the chocolate bar wrapper and please, oh please, make sure your children know that they cannot disturb nature, so while it’s okay to pick up a fallen branch it’s not okay to break one off a living tree.
  • Pack a camera. Goldsworthy documents all of his work through photography. Remember your art stays where you made it.  It is temporary.  Someone may come across it and add to it.
If you have any photos of your outdoor art, send it in so I can upload it onto my blog for all to admire.

Daniela

Photo Credits:

http://www.morning-earth.org/artistnaturalists/an_goldsworthy.html

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6u4_6DVnEUs/TnV3x6f-HrI/AAAAAAAAANQ/G_QKPMxnZkY/s1600/DSC09573.JPG

http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2010/06/06/andy-goldsworthy-inspired-elementary/

Mar
12

By

More Free March Break activities for Toronto kids

Category: Curriculum Connections at Home Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

Spending time with your children shouldn’t cost a fortune. Though there is a plethora of activities to fill many March Breaks, such as the regular go-to places like the ROM or Ontario Science Centre, cash-strapped parents might want to look at activities that are slightly off the beaten path.  Consider:

  •  If being outdoors with this lovely weather we’re having, is what you’re craving, try Cedarvale Park for a cycle, a run or a walk.  It has brand new public tennis courts, a space for bird and animal watching, and off-leash dog zones.  If you follow the Cedarvale ravine trail, you will end up at Winston Churchill Park on St. Clair Ave. West. While it’s definitely more exciting to go in the warmer weather, it still makes for a leisurely stroll.  Oh yeah, don’t forget to climb the stairs at the mouth of the ravine; it leads to a bridge with a spectacular view.  If there’s a change in weather (which we KNOW will happen.  We live in T.O., right?)  There’s supposed to be great cross-country skiing throughout the park, but BYOS – there aren’t rentals.  See  http://www.cedarvalepark.com/ for any events.
  • No respectable March Break Freebie activity suggestion would be complete without a mention of High Park.  I know, there’s so much to do there on a summer day, but there are equally good reasons to go right now.  The zoo is home to llamas, mountain goats and peacocks and it makes for a short stroll for kiddies.  High Park boasts a great playground, cycling paths and the large Grenadier Pond. Don’t forget to hike the trails with older kids and the dog, if you’ve got one (if you don’t, please borrow mine, she really needs a walk).  There are even old signposts with exercises and physical activity suggestions along some trails.  Look here more information about High Park.
  • Art Appreciation or Gallery Walks on Queen Street.  Yes, there is the AGO which is by all accounts fabulous.  But there’s also Queen Street West between Dufferin Street and going as far east as you want, and a stretch of Ossington Avenue between Dundas Street and Queen Street, where one could spend a fair bit of time perusing through art galleries.  Yes, you can buy the art too, if you have the cash, and beware, – there are many amazing local artists in T.O., – but its also great for browsing and involving kids in appreciating the diversity of art. PLEASE:  This is for parents whose kiddies are composed enough to have a look without causing damage (only you know which type of kid you have). There’s also street art, plenty of it, no thanks to Mr. Ford, ahem, but almost anywhere downtown, you can catch a glimpse of graffitti art, not the tagging kind, but the kind that makes you want to grab a can and go to town.  There you go, art appreciation at its finest and you got a nice walk too.
  •  At Allan Gardens, on 19 Horticultural Avenue you’ll find a set of greenhouses just south-east of Jarvis and Carlton Streets.  The greenhouses hold enough plant life to make your little horticulturalist drool.  Not only will you find tropical plants among the vast array of plant life, which relates to the Ontario Curriculum’s Grade 3 Plants unit of study, Grade 6′s can also think about Classification Systems by looking at the different characteristics of plant kingdoms (from the Ontario Curriculum).  Young artists can also bring a sketchpad or camera to enrich their artistic side. Dress in layers because it tends to get humid.  There’s a bit more info at:  Allan Gardens.  Edwards Gardens on Leslie and Lawrence Avenue is another botanical garden to visit where the same activities as above can be enjoyed.
  • A trip to The Guild Sculpture Gardens is worth the trip to Scaborough and would result in some amazing art from kids if they enjoy photography or sketching.  They can get much practice shading and cross-hatching as The Guild has some incredible architectural elements to admire.  It’s definitely a beautiful place to visit and let your mind wander.  A walking guide and brochure of the architectural objects and pieces is also available.  Location information and the history of this unique place can be found here.
  • Riverdale Farm to see the purdy animals (goats, sheep, cows, horses, ponies, pigs, rabbits, foal).  Note the signs above the animals’ living quarters which gives you the male, female and newborn term for each animal.  At Riverdale Farm you have curriculum connections to grade 3 Science (Plants).   Don’t forget to visit the wetland areas with plaques to help you locate local plant and animal life (grade 4, Animal and Plant Habitats).  Check details @ Riverdale Farm .
  • …and the Necropolis Cemetery across the street from Riverdale Farm.  Okay, so a cemetery might be a strange place for a field trip, but this place is quite calm and peaceful, and full of Victorian era elements.  It was built around 1825 and housed the remains of many pioneers of what was then “Muddy York”, which later became Toronto.  I understand that a couple, Lucy and Blackburn Thornton, who first developed the idea of carriage-run taxis in Toronto and ran a lucrative business doing this, are buried there (though I have yet to find their tombstones).  They are also among the many Black settlers to arrive here as fugitive slaves from the U.S., and they were avid supporters of the Underground Railroad and active freedom-fighters. The Blackburns also lived on the grounds of a current public school (Inglenook C.S.), where an archaeological dig confirmed that their home was part of the Underground Railroad.  (For those who thought that only Europeans settled here, many of the settlers who came to “Upper Canada” where from the U.S. and came to escape slavery or as United Empire Loyalists.)  Also check out Toronto History.
 
  • St. Lawrence Market is one of my favourites, though it’s not for every child.  If you have a budding history buff, you can browse through tables upon tables of vintage and antique finds.  You have no choice but to learn about history here and the vendors are very knowledgeable.  There are many old strange-looking tools and objects that kids will have questions about and as well as prints of the “olden days”.  There are many links to the Ontario Social Studies curriculum.  It’s open on Sundays between 5 a.m. – 5 p.m.  See St. Lawrence Antiques_Market for more on location.
  •  Don’t forget your local fire fighter’s station, which links with the Grade 1 Community Unit, but is just loads of fun for the younger set if they get to sit in the front seat of the fire trucks and have their questions answered.  Be mindful that if fire fighters get a call, they will no longer be able to entertain the little ones.

Let me know how your free March Break panned out!

Daniela

Mar
12

By

The Way Back Home

Category: Must Reads Tags: , , , , , 4 Comments

 

A knot in my throat.  That’s how I feel at the end of this picture book, each time I read it. The Way Back Home offers insights into friendship, the fear of loneliness, and the value of helping a fellow martian.  Or human.  Its author, the very talented Oliver Jeffers delivers the story beautifully in words and captures our hearts with his brilliant illustrations.

 

Want to make like a teacher and take the story further?

The story lends itself to using our “schematic knowledge” which is fancy for making connections.  Try sharing some connections you’ve made, – if any, – with your child and ask them to share any they may have.  Not everyone can connect with an event in every book they read, but who hasn’t dealt with friendship before?  Exactly, so there’ll be lots to talk about.

For children who have a hard time comprehending what they read, give them more support with the way they “make meaning” when they read.  So what you can do to help your child if understanding what they read is not their strength, is have them notice the many words in the book which are not part of the Canadian lexicon.  Because the author is Irish, you’ll find words like, torch which may have different meanings to Canadians.  So a good strategy here (or anytime they come across an unknown word) is to ask your child what they think a particular unknown word to them means by having them re-read and look around the page for clues (such as the pictures and the context of the story).  They might be able to make  a reasonable guess, if they don’t it’s helpful for you to talk about its possible meanings and check in that s/he gets it.  That way they wont “lose meaning” or understanding.

Whether, you need to use those strategies or just relax with the book in a comfy chair, I hope you enjoy the read!

Daniela

 

 

Mar
9

By

What your child’s teacher needs to know about your life

Category: Tackling Tough Issues Tags: , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

No, not the sordid details of an affair or your caloric intake for dinner.

What your child’s teacher needs to know about your home life pertains to any changes that you or your family have encountered that may affect, – positively or negatively, – your child.

Recently, a friend of mine confided in me that he was at a loss.  How was he to understand the attempts of his son’s teacher to develop behavioural strategies for his JK-aged boy?  Imagine my confusion upon hearing about this very sweet, empathetic and gentle child being labeled as “behavioural”.  One shouldn’t go around slinging labels around without any thought.  The parent was beside himself wondering if he needed to get his son tested for some difficulty.  I inquired as to whether as a parent, he observed similar problems at home and at daycare, during play dates and with other family members.  You can predict that the answer here was a resounding, “no”.  So it seems that this new Junior Kindergarten student was showing huge “behavioural concerns” by not “following instructions, not playing like other children his age, and trying to be independent”.   My mind raced to figure out what changes in his life had occurred recently.  He had lost a soon-to-be sibling in the months prior to starting school and this was his first foray into school.  Those are HUGE life changes from an adult point of view, let alone a child’s perspective.  Imagine this scenario:  An adult who has a close family member who has inexplicably passed away and this person has also started a new job with new responsibilities, in a new environment and new co-workers.  Might this person have some difficulty adjusting? You betcha.  I’d say at the very least, many people, – children included, – react by trying to gain some kind of control over their lives, sensing that they have lost much.  Granted, not every child goes through such a life-altering experience such as loss at a young age, but there are some changes that your child’s teacher should be aware of if you want her to be on the look-out for any small or large changes in your child’s emotional, academic or social well-being.  This is especially true if the child has just started in that class and the teacher had very little contact with the child before the changes occurred.  In my friend’s case, it’s important to note that the father had already spoken to the teacher about it previously, but since the teacher didn’t know the child from Jack, she made the assumption that this child had always had some concerns.  Your child’s teachers need to be able to use various strategies to accommodate for children going through difficult times, and understanding the problem is half the battle.  Luckily, this dad is a great parent and understood the importance of creating a positive partnership with the teacher to get his son through the rough bumps.

Here are other changes to consider sharing. Whether they are difficult for YOU to discuss almost doesn’t matter; you can be general in your description, but believe me, your child’s needs you to speak about it’s potential impact.

  • The hardest, and likely one of the most common changes, is separation or divorce, and these come in as many varieties as shoes do, so this is a difficult one to tackle both as a parent and as an educator.  Family changes will affect the communication that your teacher has with both parents.  If the teacher is aware of these family changes, something as simple as sending out two copies of Report Cards or newsletters may help to create a sense of balance in a relationship possibly wrought with personal power issues.  It may help the child feel some relief to know that both parents are still considered to be important in their education.
  • Re-marriage and the merging of two families into one is another biggie, more because of changes in the family dynamic that affect all of the children and adults involved.  You remember:  every little action, has a reaction…
  • Financial changes can be embarrassing for some (unless it’s the 649 that you won), but there are children who won’t bring back field trip forms because they don’t want to cause undue burden on their financially-struggling parents.  Knowing that times are tough can help the teacher identify if the child can receive funds from the school, (which is confidential and always do-able).
  • Social changes that your child has gone through (like losing a best friend to an argument or having a friend move to another city).  As small as these changes seem, they are a great segway to generate discussion about your child’s emotional and social well being.  Teachers are keenly aware of their students’ social realm and can incorporate many activities and opportunities into regular classroom learning experiences that give chances for students who are struggling socially, to gain some social capital.
  • Discussing your personal health with a teacher may seem very scary and even inappropriate, but imagine the outcome of not letting your child’s teacher know that you are having health issues.  Sharing might help to explain the nuances of a child who seems withdrawn or even an escalation in student abseenteeism.  Yes, there are parents who cannot physically take their kids to school somedays, and some children who “parent” their own mums and dads when they’re very ill.
  • Frequent, recent or upcoming moves to new homes can be devastating for many kids and some children learn to avoid “attaching” themselves to friends thinking that they may soon be leaving them.

Finally, change is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, change is necessary for growth, however, if parents can confide in a trusted teacher in their child’s life, that educator will have more tools and strategies for your individual child.  Keep in mind that teachers have home lives and experiences as children that may actually help a child.

So there you have it, Tackling Tough Issues…all in a day’s work.  Oh yeah, and making for happier kids too.

Peace,

Daniela

Mar
2

By

Things that make you go…hmmmnn (is that reference dating me?)

Category: Question Parents Ask Tags:

What would you like to see on this blog?  Send me a message with what you are curious about and we’ll go from there.

I make no claims to answer all questions, nor do I want to be the “constructor” of all “answers”.  Together with other parents and

educators, we may just be able to create a place to engage ourselves in educational discourse that matters.

Some of the most recent questions I’ve been asked are:

-Why does my kid’s math look SO different than when I was a child?

-I don’t know how to approach my teacher about (blank) issue.

-What is Media Literacy?

-Help! My daughter got a low grade in (insert subject).  How can I help her at home with this subject?

-My son is having “behaviour” problems at school, but he’s never displayed those concerns at home or at daycare.  What can I do?

Oh, and because we live in such a litigious society, the fine print is as follows:  I only represent my own views, (which obviously piggy-back on the great ideas of other educators at large), not necessarily those of your child’s teacher, any District School Board, and that you should always talk to them about any concerns or questions you may have.

Cheers,

Daniela