Give it to me short, sweet and classroom ready!

Friday of the Benchmarks week was mainly filled with working on our final projects. Or goal was to choose a lesson that we had worked on during the week, expand it  or develop a new lesson that would capture some of the important concepts we had learnt in our five days at the Archives. It was a good thing that we were working in groups so we could fuel each other after a busy week of intensive study. 

The big treat for the evening was a group dinner at the Empire to socialize and eat wonderful food. We were also treated to a sneak peak of a new film about our first Prime Minister, John A. The 10 min."trailer" was not enough for a bunch of history buffs! We wanted more. 

Today, the "show" started, and we all sat back to watch the 7 groups present their history lesson. With the expert help we received all week from Peter Seixas, the presentations were remarkable. There are many times when I have been presented with classroom material, however, it is often too long, complicated or something that would never work in my class. But today we received lesson after lesson of polished and appropriate concepts that I am excited to use. From the "Richard Riot " and the quiet revolution to the forgotten heroes of World War I and the building of the railway, all of the groups did an outstanding job of applying the Historical Thinking Concepts. We also are a "sharing" group so we will receive each others hard work. Hopefully we will be able to up the lessons on the site for anyone who is interested. 

It has been a great week. Luckily modern communication will allow us all to keep in touch, so we can continue to share and learn, and enjoy history.