Floor Hockey Finals..here we come!!!

SO tonight was a real eventful night for womens floor hockey playoffs...well for our team anyways. First off we normally play our games every week in the William's Gym, a little run down gym with little action on a normal basis. Tonight however, we were moved to the PAC gym...which was a whole new atmosphere, and a much bigger playing area! At first we felt pretty important with the fact that our floor hockey game was moved to the PAC, then we were told it was only because the Williams Gym is getting some renovations and rewiring done to it...haha. So first off we get there and no one really knows where the gear is, and what we are suppose to be doing, so needless to say we end up starting 25 minutes late. The team we are faced up against plays on the same day as we do, and last game we played we tied. So right from the ghet-go we know it is anyones game. Did I mention this is the semi-finals and the winner gets to play in the finals on wednesday!!! The game finally gets started, our team is right pumped up and ready to run our hearts out...but not too much because we only have one sub. We score the first goal, followed by a quick return goal from the other team. Our second goal is a real sweet one..no just joking but I did score it, then the other team matches that goal as well. Tie game..winner will advance...and then it happens our team gets another goal, the game winning goal!!!
So we are going to the Finals on Wednesday!!! yah yah! But a little sad because this will be my last campus rec game=( Oh well it has provided me with many great times!

Students on the Beamline

oops forgot to post this one it was still in draft mode.

This Saturday I had a wonderful time working with a group of students from Evan Hardy at the Canadian Light Source (CLS). It was a group of 4 students in grades 11 and 12 and thier teacher. This group of students started planning thier project at the beginning of January. The project was to test band-aids that were infused with nanosilver. Nanosilver, which is silver that is broken down to a very small size...nano to be exact (which is 1 billionth the size of a meter). So prior to Saturday the students went over to the Agriculture building on campus and cultured some bacteria in an agar solution. They then put a filter with a layer of nanosilver on the live bacteria cultures. The nanosilver was given some time to kill the bacteria. When the students came on Saturday they were then testing if and how the silver changes shape and composition once it reacts to kill the bacteria. The students used the HXMA beamline, along side one of the regular HXMA beamline scientist. The students got some great data, which they now need to analyzed with the scientist. After they are done their analysis they will present a powerpoint and poster of their experiement and results to the CLS staff.

Another exciting thing for this group of students was the fact that a television was doing a CLS special, and therefore wanted to tape the students experience. The camera crew was there observing for most of the day...and in some cases getting in the way.

The Love of Family

I am always reflecting and thinking about how important family is. This past weekend I was reminded of this, as I experienced a very important weekend, my graduation banquet. Like most weekends spent with my family, this weekend also proved to be a great, fun and memorable one, spent with some of my most important and favorite people in the world!

So from my reflections of this weekend, I really wanted to write a little note on the Importance of Family in my life. Ever since I was born I have been blessed with the most amazing family, I know most people say that, but I really think that mine is the best of the best...and I couldn’t ask for anything more! This wonderful group of people are so special and irreplaceable to me, and I know I will not be able to put into words how important they are to me in a brief blog note.

Right from the get-go my family has been a great foundational base for me, providing me with love and a sense of belonging and value. Although my siblings and I had some fights and arguments throughout the years, like most kids, we always knew that it wouldn’t last long and soon enough we would be out playing together again.
I would like to personally write about each member of my family and how they are so important to me and some of the fondest memories I have with them. So stay tuned to……

Here is a few of my favorite sayings and quotes about family:

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them. ~Desmond Tutu

If the family were a fruit, it would be an orange, a circle of sections, held together but separable - each segment distinct. ~Letty Cottin Pogrebin

e-portfolio

For my final project I am going to do an e-portfolio. I figured this would be a very useful resource for any teacher candidate.  My plan in the next year is to go teach overseas, so I think this will be helpful when I am searching for a job.  I have always wanted to make a website, so I am quite excited to make it happen! Also I hope to one day make a webquest because  I think it will be a very valuable and fun way for students' to learn.

The main intended audience for my e-portfolio is mainly to provide a portable and appealing portfolio for future employers. Also the e-portfolio is for my own personal purposes in order to see my growth, development and achievement towards becoming a teacher. I think that a portfolio will be a unique and convenient way to remind myself about the good things in my life that I have accomplished and experienced. So on a day when things are going the way that I hope when I am teaching I can quickly look at the e-portfolio and remind me that there is always better days to come.

On my home page I will put a graduation picture, and also a little bit about me and my teaching philosophy and welcoming statment for those that check the site out. Also my home page will have links to a variety of different pages. Some of the other main components I hope to include in my e-portfolio include both a personal and a professional page. The personal page will have links to volunteer things that I have done (shown through pictures, and certifacates), also it will contain information about myself (hobbies, interests, past work, travels etc...).
The professional page will include information from my student teach and internship (including pictures, professional growth guide, student teach form, unit plans, lesson plan, a few forms of assessment that I used, products from students' work, and also I will incoroporate a variety of pictures). My professional page will also include my resume, reference letters and professional development related to education, and also my teaching philosophy will be included. Also I think I will try to add some educational quotes or saying that I find inspiring. My homepage will also have a link to my contact information, making it easily accessable to employers.

My main concern with making an e-portfolio is the actual website building process, which I know nothing about. I have heard some horror stories about others who have made websites. Many people have told me about the time website creating can take...and it is a long time! Many of these people however, have done website building in the old fashion why using the special script. In order to overcome this problem I will be using Dreamweaver which will hopefully cut back on a lot of headaches. Also I know that it will take a long time, but I will keep reminding myself that it is a new process that I have never done before, and new things often take time to learn. I think once I get a handle on the main things such as table building, links, spacing, it will all become a lot easier as the process continues. Also I think collegility, and asking my class peers for help will also help to rid myself of some worries. Another thing that sort of worries me is the fact that I will have search through all my boxes at home to find all the information and such that I want to include in the e-portfolio. Searching for this stuff will actually be benefical to me and I will finally get to sort through some of my boxes that have anxiously been awaiting me since I moved a few months ago.

Excitment about up and coming Volunteer Experiences!!!

So March is going to be a fun and interesting month for volunteering for me!

One of the opportunities that I have been doing is Students on the Beamline. An outreach program for high school age students at the Canadian Light Source (CLS). School groups, from across Canada, propose a plan of action with help from CLS staff, on how they can actively conduct research on one of the several beamlines at the CLS.

In January I got to work with a group of students from College Bouret from Montreal Quebec. It proved to be a fun and exciting experience, where the students used the SGM beamline to discover the minerals in a sample collected from a Meteor Impact site, the Manicouagan Crater Basin. What I thought was so great was the enthusiasm that the students had to learn and conduct their own research.

March is going to be a busy month for Students on the beamline. Some of the other school groups that will be coming in March include:
- Effects of UV Light on Plant Cells - Avonlea School-Avonlea, SK
- Headspace of Different Types of Yeast- Victoria Park Collegiate Institute- Toronto
- Vitamins in Juices and Powdered Vitamin Supplements
- Interaction of Bacteria with Nanosilver Particles in Band-Aids

I am going to be helping with a few of these.... so keep posted for some highlights!

Also if you want more information check out this website:
http://www.lightsource.ca/education/students.php

Also in March is Brain Day Week!
Brain Day is a national prevention awareness initiative put on by ThinkFirst Canada. Through this program I, as well as many other volunteers, will get the chance to go into elementary classrooms and educate the students about the human brain and nervous system. The program trains us and provides us with plenty of material and activities to inform the students about how important our brain is and why we should protect it by wearing helmets and such. On March 3 I will attend the training session and then from March 16-20 I will be out in the schools. I am really excited to use hands on activities and experiments to help engage the students and help them understand how the brain works, and the affects that brain injuries can have on people.