Ms. Neumeyer Interviews Mrs. Yollis

 Ms. Neumeyer is our online student teacher from Saskatchewan, Canada! (She is a preservice teacher in Dean Shareski's class) 

Ms. Neumeyer has made many contributions to our class. For example, she has reviewed several useful iPad apps for the class. 

  

Check out her iPad reviews!

Virtual Manipulatives 

Toontastic

Hopscotch 

Bill Nye the Science Guy

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One of her college assignments was to interview her mentor. I am her mentor.

men·tor (men-tôr)

noun   An experienced and trusted adviser

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Below is the interview Ms. Neumeyer conducted.

Notice she used open questions. Open questions are questions that cannot be answered YES or NO. Closed questions can be answered with a yes or no. 

Here are some examples: 

Closed question - "Do you like teaching?" The answer is yes or no.
Open question - "When did you first begin to use technology in the classroom?" The question requires a full answer.

Ms. Neumeyer is the interviewer; she asks the questions. 

I am the interviewee; I answer the questions.  

Have you ever been been part of an interview? 

Were you the interviewer or the interviewee?

Do you have any additional questions?

Mr. Toft's One Minute Challenge

We were given a challenge by Mr. Toft and his class in Ottawa, Canada. These Canadians challenged us to pass the ball in an over/under fashion for one minute. The ball could not touch the ground or we had to start all over.

After much practice, here is our video!


One Minute Challenge from yourwonderfulteacher on Vimeo.

The challenge provided us with an opportunity to get to know our neighbors to the north! Here are some facts we learned about Canada from our World Book Online Encyclopedia. Some students search using the keyword CANADA.

 Others use the COMPARE COUNTRIES feature on World Book Online.

1. Canada is the second largest country in the world. Only Russia is larger.
2. There are approximately 35 million Canadians and there are about 321 million Americans.
3. The lowest elevation in Canada is sea level. America's lowest elevation is Death Valley in California. Death Valley is the lowest place in North America. (282 feet / 86 meters below sea level)
4. Canada's national capital is Ottawa, where Mr. Toft and his students live. America's national capital is Washington, D.C. 
5. Canada is made up of TEN provinces and THREE territories. America is made up of FIFTY states.

What are some fun facts that you discovered about our Canadian friends and their beautiful country?

What did you like about the challenge? 

Skyping With Canadians!

Today, we Skyped with Mrs. Watson's class in British Columbia! They are our blogging buddies in Canada. We first met each other when we were members of the Our World, Our Stories global project last October.

Geographers, Kelly and Sarah, locate and point to Solintula, British Columbia.

 Canada's Minister of Education was a guest in Mrs. Watson's room, and we thought he must work in the national capital of Canada which is Ottawa.

We opened the call with our American greeters. 

Our Canadian greeters were so professional!

For fun, we each sang our verse from the Our World, Our Stories culminating song. Here is the original sing along!

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Even thought we had some technical problems with Skype, the two classes persevered and were able to learn a lot about our two countries. 

~AREA~

Mia shared that America has 3,794,101 square miles, while Sophie informed us that Canada measures 3, 855,100 square miles. 

Very close, but how much larger is Canada's area? Is Canada the largest country in the world?

~POPULATION~

There are a lot of Americans! Trey stated that there are approximately 313,000,000 people in the U.S. According to Karin, there are 34,108,752 Canadians!

Not very close! How many more Americans are there than Canadians? 

 ~NATIONAL BORDERS~

Parsa informed our Canadian friends that America is divided up into 50 states.  

Quang shared that Canada is divided up too, but their divisions are not called states. Canada has TEN provinces and THREE territories.

~FLAGS~

Leila drew the flag and discussed what the symbols on the American flag stand for.

Ana shared that Canada's colors/colours are red and white and the national emblem is the maple leaf. 

~NATIONAL ANIMALS~

 The bald eagle is America's national bird. The female is larger and the wingspan is enormous! Madison used two yard sticks (similar to two meter sticks) to demonstrate the wingspan!

Canada's national animals are the industrious beaver and the Canadian horse. Kennedy said that the horse was just added in 2002. 

~FUN FACTS~

It is interesting that the highest and lowest points in North America are in the United States. Matthew and Aidan put these facts together.

Although Death Valley doesn't sound inviting, it is quite beautiful!

Canadian fun fact:  Canadians eat more Mac and Cheese than any other country on Earth! 

We loved this fact! However, considering America's enormous population and love of Mac and Cheese, we find this fact hard to believe!

Thank you, Royce, for being our class photographer!

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What did you think of the Skype call?

Do you have any questions for the Canadians?

Please share your opinion with the Minister of Education, Mr. Abbott. Why you think blogging is important?