My Life's Work

Writing a teacher memoire became my life’s work after I retired. At first, I imagined a book in print, but realized as time slipped by and technology improved, I decided that it would be better to create digital e-books that could be easily downloaded.

Wonder! Teaching and learning with wonder!

Following are books and stories about projects co-created with me as teacher, and my classes of students. These projects are packed full of children's wonder, innovation, discovery, creativity, inspiration and in-depth learning.

Introduction and Background

This booklet describes my own teaching journey; the influences; the impact; and the reasons for these stories and learning adventures. From traditional pedagogy to inspired co-created inquiry-based project learning.

Introduction

I believe it is important for those interested to know what they might be getting if ordering one of the e-books for sale. Here are a couple of stories to read at no charge. 

• A Book is a Book This is a 5-page booklet documenting the dialogue as children develop new theories as to what exactly defines a book.
   
• The Traffic Accident This emergent project and documentation took the place of regular learning for one morning.
   
• Haunted Houses - A 17-page document with photos showing the process of creating haunted houses from cardboard boxes and paper-maché.
   
• Author in Residence - A 29-page document with rich ideas for writers from gr 3 and up. Students brainstormed for characters, settings and problems to create a huge resource for combining variations to create stories.
   
• Speed Stacking - A 21-page document that illustrates how critical it is to select the right media to show evidence of all the learning.
• Pumpkin Projects -  A 24-page collection of Pumpkin Projects​
  • Pumpkin Painting
  • Pumpkin Carving
  • Cooking with Pumpkins
  • Classroom Environment
  • Pre-K Literacy
  • Pumpkin House
  • Scientific Drawings
  • Rotting Pumpkins Documentation

• Dinosaur Projects - 115 pages of Dinosaur Inquiries from eight different classes. ​

  • Research
  • Fossils
  • Digestion
  • Coprolite
  • Constructions
  • Time Periods
  • Movies
  • Songs
  • Literacy 
     
• Africa Projects - This is a 60 page e-book containing the most excellent adventures. ​
  • Building projects - African elephant, village
  • Information Book
  • Drumming
  • Lions
  • Gorillas
  • Technology integration
  • Dancing
  • Mapping
  • Displays 
  • Classroom Environment
  • Literacy Connections
     
• Franklin Projects - Franklin is a story character created by Paulette Bourgeois and illustrated by Brenda Clark. This 38-page book contains the stories of projects completed by my kindergarten and Grade 1 classes.