April 6

It is finally spring weather outside which is always exciting!

We focused on Francophones and First Nations peoples today as we discussed different perspectives on Nationalism in Canada.

Tomorrow we will be attending a presentation by Troy Payne that focuses on building resiliency! It should be exciting. We will resume our class on Wednesday when we focus on Multiculturalism and then move on to contending nationalism. Next week we will be starting talking about World War I and World War II!

March 31

Today we are looking further into Ukrainian internment in Canada during WWI. In order to help you understand this better we will look at primary documents at the http://www.infoukes.com/history/internment/ website. Use this website to find the answers to the internet search!

Once you are finished, you will move on to work on your journals!

Welcome Back!

I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing spring break - hard to believe that a week has gone by already!

Feel free to post any interesting (yet school appropriate!) spring break stories on the blog!

Project - Missing Voices

As you know, we are starting a new project where you are expected to put yourself in the shoes of a Chinese worker during two consecutive days in 1880. You are telling the missing story of Chinese immigrants in Canada. In your writing, you are expected to provide historical detail.

In order to help you with the research, I highly recommend using the following sites:

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/settlement/kids/021013-2031-e.html (don't let this fool you, it might seem elementary, but it is EXTREMELY informative!

http://www.canadianhistory.ca/iv/

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/

March 18

Today we took a look at the missing voices in Canadian history. Not all individuals have been represented equally in Canadian history and therefore, different groups have different visions of Canada.

We will look at these different perspectives and also discuss the challenges this poses to nationalism in Canada today.

Deadline for the project was extended to to lab usage - we will present on FRIDAY!

March 16

Today we moved on to discuss the emergence of nationalism in Canada. We read a few pages from the textbook and then compared symbols of nationalism in France to those of Canada. It is interesting to note that the Canadian symbols brainstormed were very 'superficial' - hockey, beaver, loonie, Rush etc. while those of France were embedded in a deep history (La Marsailles, July 14 Bastille Day (Fete Nationale), Le Tricolor etc).

Based on this I think it is pretty important that we start to look at our history to understand nationalism in Canada. The Red Ensign, the Maple Leaf, O Canada - these national symbols have a history too (just not quite as old!).

March 10 & 11

It has been a tough couple of days in Social, what with the buses not running! We were missing a substantial number of students so we were not able to move on our new projects/lessons. Instead, we watched Marie Antoinette because Andrea purchased it AND brought it in (how convenient Andrea...).

We will be back at it tomorrow as the weather is suppose to clear!