The Bright Ideas Gallery (B.I.G.) is curated by Greg Miyanaga at Birchland Elementary and the post  below outlining this month’s BIG ideas is also his work.  This month’s BIG Ideas Gallery:

Bring Your Own Technology Classroom
Sean Robinson

Sean describes the strategies, challenges and successes of running a Bring Your Own Technology classroom.

Boat Designs

Bob Ennenberg

As part of his Science class, Bob teaches his students about boat design. He takes his class from foundational discussions and experiments about what floats to creating working designs that students can actually ride across a pool.
Smart Fashion Merchandising
Denise Nembhard

Denise teaches Fashion Merchandising within her Textiles course at Charles Best. She wants her students to think about the repercussions of how and why clothes are made.

Pay Rent on Your Desk
Nichole Van Sickle

Paying rent on your desk? Becoming an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, or a homeless person? Balancing your budget and managing your credit cards? This sounds more like real life than a middle school class, but these are just some of the things that students learn in Nichole Van Sickle’s grade 6/7 class. Nichole explains how she teaches economics using this intriguing simulation of an economic ecosystem.

Liquid Networks
Elspeth Anjos

What happens when you combine the format of Speed Dating with the context of educational professional development? Liquid Networks!
Elspeth has developed a unique format for collaboration, professional development, and deep learning conversations. The Liquid Network is a structure to support starting, protecting, and spreading innovation.

Giving our youngest learners a Strong Start
Susan Donald

Susan is one of the Early Childhood Educators at two of the 13 Strong Start centres in SD43. I had the opportunity to spend some time at the centre at Nestor Elementary. Susan is also the Strong Start Facilitator at Coquitlam River Elementary.

Layers of Learning in the “Living Classroom”
Nora Boekhout

Nora has found a way to incorporate her love of nature with on-going learning experiences for her students. She takes something as basic as monitor jobs and turns them into meaningful, authentic learning by layering in rich complexity.

PWIM
Wendy Young and Lisa Salloum

Wendy and Lisa at Bramblewood Elementary explain how they use the Picture Word Induction Model (PWIM) to improve students’ literacy. They use large photographs and engage students in inclusive literacy instruction.