Ninja Notes

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Classroom Tips

How to Bring Indigenous Culture into Art Lessons

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One way to show appreciation for Indigenous artists is to study their work as you would any great artist. We put together some of the ways we incorporate learning about Indigenous artists and other aspects of culture in Canada in one post. Come read more.

Incorporating the stories and culture of Indigenous people is important to us. It’s woven throughout our subject areas, but we often look for other places to provide opportunities to bring cultures together. We’ve had several students who share their Cree and Dene cultures with us. Other years we’ve had no one in our classroom with a direct connection to our Indigenous People. We want all of our students to feel connected to the history of our country and the people who were here first. One way we do this is by exploring the works of Indigenous artists in Canada.

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You Got Your First Teaching Job…Now What?

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Congratulations! You got your first teaching job and are now an elementary school teacher. All that hard work has paid off and you are gainfully employed in your vocation (or calling or job to pay the bills-your choice). Now the real work begins. But don’t panic. We’ve been there! Read what you need to know to get your new job started off on the right foot.

Congratulations for getting yor first teaching job. Now the hard work begins. But where do you start? Don't worry. We've got a list of things you can do to get your school year started off right (and none of them involve teaching yet). Come have a read and put your mind at ease.
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How to Use Logic Puzzles in the Classroom

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Logic puzzles are good for your brain. They encourage reading for information, tracking and critical thinking. Come learn how we use logic puzzles in our upper elementary classroom.

Logic puzzles are a series of written clues that readers use to fill in a chart. The chart shows which items match each other. These types of puzzles have been a life-long favourite and come in a variety of levels of difficulty. We created puzzles for our students to solve for fun, but have also looked at how solving logic puzzles helps students become better readers. Read on to learn the ways you can use logic puzzles in your classroom to help teach reading.

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7 Fantastic Ways to Create Classroom Community

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Building a caring classroom community doesn't happen by chance. It takes skills to create a classroom community where students take care of each other. Come learn some of the ways to build classroom community in your upper elementary classroom.

Have you ever seen those students that just work together in a classroom like a well-oiled machine? Have you ever dreamt of a classroom community full of harmony where students are on track and work together to learn in the best possible environment? It can happen, but building a caring classroom community doesn’t happen by chance.

We work hard teaching our students how to work together, how to care about each other and how to create a strong community of learners. Come read some of the ways we do this in our classroom.

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Resources to Learn About Indigenous People in Canada

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It can be tricky finding books and resources that are good for students to use for research about Indigenous People in Canada. Come read about some of the Indigenous resources we use.

It can be tricky finding books and resources that are good for students to use for research about Indigenous People in Canada. Most are not at the right reading level. Often, they are either outdated. Old resources are inaccurate. Many depict stereotypes of Indigenous cultures. More resources written by Indigenous authors are starting to become available. Books are thoroughly checked for historical accuracy. New books highlight current events and issues. We have been collecting some of the Indigenous resources we find most helpful. Come read about some of the Indigenous resources we use.

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How to Set the Noise Level in Your Classroom

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Is the noise level in your classroom driving you up the wall? When noise gets out of hand, it's time for a reset. Come learn what we discovered and how you can make it work for you.

Do you ever feel your classroom just keeps getting louder and louder until you want to take your ears off? As your students get more comfortable, the noise level can get out of hand. Of course, the activity going on in your room can often impact the noise, but your body language and your tone of voice play a bigger role than you may realize. This is a real experiment we tried on our students.

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