At School with Caitlin

Today was nice warm dry day the highlight of today for me was attending the “Celebration of Learning” with Caitlin and Michelle at Onoway Elementary School. I am always impressed with the effort that this school makes to recognize and reward students for their work, not just in the academic fields but also in the areas of respect, helpfulness, organization skills and many other skills that are necessary to be a good citizen of the world. Today the students became the teachers, the students being their invited guests, whether it was parents, grandparents, or other adult. The classroom was set up with each table being a different subject that the child would be involved in during the year at school, e.g., Math, Technology, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, the tables were decked out with all the tools required to complete the project the child/teacher had to explain the project, how to accomplish the goal and help the parent/student complete the project, there was a time limit involved also. When time limit was up, we switched to next work space and started the next project. The whole exercise gave the parents/grandparents, etc. a bit of a glimpse of what the students were learning at school and one of the processes used to teach. Teaching the adults was no easy task for the students and maybe gave them an insight on what teaching was about, a good exercise all the way around I think. It was fun but also a little nerve wracking, it has been a long time since I was in school and the old mind does work as quickly as the kids minds do, Caitlin had her work cut out for her, teaching this old Grandma! After class time was complete all assembled in the Gym for beverages, snacks and the awards ceremony. I totally enjoyed the afternoon, thanks Caitlin for inviting me and thanks to the teachers, students and the school for organizing “Celebration of Learning”! I think if school would have been this interesting when I was a kid I might have enjoyed school a whole lot more. I love the hands on approach to learning way more fun that sitting at a desk all the time, taking notes and listening to the teacher talk, or copy things off a blackboard. I know they still have to do that some of the time but they also have the opportunity to do the hands on “stuff”!



The classroom set up, Caitlin's teacher explaining why, how and what was going to be happening during the afternoon.

Michelle and Caitlin at the Technology table. It was so cool we got to use Ipods to look up star constellations and moon phases, etc.

Grandma Pat with her Grandson, she runs the Laundromat and a Luncheonette where we do laundry in Onoway.

This is serious business, Caitlin explaining the project we needed to complete. We were drawing a floor plan using math, never my best subject!

Just caught Caitlin as she headed back to her seat with her Certificate, there were many students receiving awards and everything moved very quickly.

After the ceremony was complete I captured this picture, a very proud girl and rightfully so! This was only one award, she recieved others earlier this month.