Who was this man?

This is a statue of a very famous person. He gave his name to a sport trophy and a park. His statue welcomes you to his park.

Find the statue and the name of the famous person. Be sure to take a picture of yourself with the statue! Send a copy of the picture and the name of the famous person to: info@lmacademics.com.

The students with the correct answer and a picture will be entered into a draw for a prize!

“Literacy is about more than reading and writing – it is about how we communicate in society. It is about social practices and relationships, about knowledge, language and culture. Literacy … finds its place in our lives alongside other ways of communicating. Indeed, literacy itself takes many forms: on paper, on the computer screen, on TV, on posters and signs. Those who use literacy take it for granted – but those who cannot use it are excluded from much communication in today’s world. Indeed, it is the excluded who can best appreciate the notion of ‘literacy as freedom’”.

(UNESCO, Statement for the United Nations Literacy Decade, 2003–2012)

In the last stretch of a decade dedicated to literacy, it is important to reflect upon our expectations of the role of literacy. Traditionally, literacy was limited to a focus on reading and writing, but the times they are a-changin’, as are our perceptions of its purpose. Today we recognize that literacy is a tool that enables students to read, write, speak, listen, view, represent and think critically about all subject matters, empowering youth to be active citizens and agents of change.

Little Mountain reflects this progressive notion of literacy within the walls of each classroom, with a goal of fostering confidence, growth and inspiring responsible participation in society.  Critical literacy is crucial for today’s youth, as they are growing up in a world whose politics and daily affairs are dominated by media persuasion. In Media and Current Events class, students have been studying and analyzing both the reliability of media and the power of youth to influence change. When asked if it is important for youth to take action and speak out publicly about problems they see in the world, students offered the following responses:

“Yes, it is important. Young people are the next generation of the world.” – Ivan Song

“Yes, it is the government’s duty to protect it [the world] and they did not do a good job, so we have to fix it. We have to demand the government to take action.” – Jonathan Song

By exposing today’s youth to critical literacy, we can empower students with the skills, knowledge and drive to shape an equitable and just world.

Book Suggestion: Notes from Canada’s Young Activists:  A Generation Stands Up for Change

by Nicole

Education is about exploring and connecting to the world that we live in through a multitude of subjects and new concepts. What better way to explore our world than to look directly at our surrounding environment? The importance of understanding environmental issues as they relate to day-to-day life has become increasingly urgent. With climate change being one of the biggest concerns of our lifetime, it is important to know how we personally impact the planet and what steps we can take to improve.

In presentation class, we took our first steps toward becoming environmental stewards by studying and presenting our thoughts on our personal carbon footprints. A carbon footprint is the total set of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual. Carbon footprints are calculated by analyzing day-to-day activities that result in GHG emissions.  As stated by Leo Ko, “it is important to calculate our carbon footprints so that we can know how much we are destroying our planet.” As a result of their research, Leo Ko, Ivan Song, Jonathan Song and James Tan have the following tips to keep our carbon footprints down:

-Unplug plugs when they are not being used

-Walk rather than driving

-Turn the lights off when you leave the room

-Decrease your shower time

If you’d like to calculate your own carbon footprint, visit: http://calc.zerofootprint.net/youth/

Be sure to let us know what lifestyle changes you will make in order to reduce your carbon footprint!

Cryptology

Cryptology is the skill of making and breaking codes. Cryptology is used to keep important information secret.

What are codes? Codes are a way of changing words into something that only you and your friends can read. In order to make a code and then understand it, you need a cipher. A cipher is the secret system that changes letters into code.

One of the simplest ciphers that you can use to make the Alpha-Numeric Code. All you have to do is change the letters of the alphabet into numbers.

For example: A=1, B=2, C=3, … Z=26

Let’s see if you can solve this (the dashes mean the letters go together):

9  23-1-14-20  20-15  11-14-15-23  13-15-18-5  1-2-15-21-20  3-15-4-5-19

 Try this one:

12-9-20-20-12-5  13-15-21-14-20-1-9-14  9-19  1  19-3-8-15-15-12

 See you next time with another puzzle to solve! Solve both of them and you can enter a draw for 1 of 3 booster juices.

On June 3rd, members of Little Mountain’s staff will be participating in the 2012 ChildRun for BC Children’s Hospital. This 5 km run or 1 km walk raises money for childhood cancer research and facilities at BC Children’s Hospital. Cancer touches the lives of so many around us, and it is particularly a challenge when a child is involved. As educators, children are close to our hearts, and we are putting on our running shoes to make a difference! If you would like to make a donation to our team, Little Mountain Learning Academy, follow this link, https://secure.bcchf.ca/SuperheroPages/team.cfm?Event=Childrun&Team=5145, and select “Donate Now.” You and your child can also join our team! For more information, visit https://secure.bcchf.ca/register/register.cfm?Event=Childrun&TeamID=5145.

 Reminders:

• Parent-Teacher Conferences, Tuesday, April 3rd, 6:00-9:00pm
• Little Mountain will be closed on Monday, April 9th, for Easter Monday
  

Do you like jelly beans?  Jelly beans seem tiny but imagine having seven billion of them!  Seven billion is now a really familiar number because it is the number of people on the Earth.  Since the beginning of the world, the population of the world has increased and on October 31^st, 2011, the world ‘s population became seven billion.  Due to the huge population, there are many problems.  Not only global warming but limited space is now a massive issue.  The population has grown but space and resources have not increased but decreased.  As space has decreased, my project looks at small living spaces.  Many cities are becoming over populated and many buildings have gone high but that is not enough.  There is limited space and the population is increasing.  Now, it is time to make things smaller and more effective.  How does one make  a smaller living space comfortable and use space effectively?  I decided to answer this question by making a model of a comfortable living space that will help the world’s overpopulation problem.

There are already many people in large cities who live in small and tight spaces.  For example, in one of the videos I watched, a woman lived in a ninety square foot apartment in New York.  She organized things by putting things up high and by getting rid of the things she didn’t really need.  Although this worked, my model will be better and more useful for real life as you do not have to put things up higher and throw things away.  A great example is the apartment in Hong Kong and other tiny apartments that used used unique ideas to organize things.  Using unique ideas from the video research and my model, we would not have to consider many complicated things but live happily.  Homes should be comfortable and beautiful.  Some interior tips will help others with organizing their own homes.  Seven billion is not a small number but we will be able to go over that huge number and still have a happy and comfortable living space to call home.

First, I did not start with something big.  I just started by brainstorming my ideas as to organize them.  I had so many ideas but I found something that was interesting.  I decided to create  a model for a small living space.  When my ideas were well organized and I chose my topic, I wrote proposals and considered a solution to a problem.  I also created a guiding question which is “How can I make a comfortable and useful small living space?”  I decided to make a model because I wanted to show what my plan was going to look like in real life or three dimensions rather than just a floor plan and drawings.  I developed a floor plan by adding good ideas from my research.  The materials I needed to build the model was cardboard boxes, different types of tape, some paper, scissors, and some popsicle sticks.  I started my project with research and by collecting good ideas.  Then, I collected the materials I needed.  I put them together in a model but I did not do everything all by myself as sometimes I needed help finding materials and at times, I needed help with my design and drawings and also with my writing.  As I had help, I made a successful model for this project.

As for using time effectively, I think I used my class time really effectively by focusing on my work and by following the instructions but I think I used my time less effectively when I was working at home because most of the time I was distracted and worked less.  My favourite part of the project was building the model because I like to make and draw things and it was good to be able to do this as a project.  I think the research and the writing worked well because I wasn’t having big problems with doing those things and it worked as I wanted.  However, I think the model and journal writing did not work as well as I expected because making a model was harder than I thought.  Journal writing didn’t work well because I was not really focusing on this part.  I think the strongest part of my project is my research and my model and writing because I did lots of research about the topic and I also worked hard on the model and writing component.  I think the weakest part of the project was my journal because I was not focusing on my journal.  I kept forgetting to make entries and I was not really interested in journal writing.  The chosen materials worked as I planned.  However, even though I planned my model just as I wanted, actually building the model was harder than I thought.  I think my project was a success because I followed my process as I planned, built a model for a small living space that is useful.  Even though the model is not really big or professional, because I did as I planned, I think it is a success.

While I was doing this project, I had many changes.  At the very beginning, I changed my topic many times until I chose to make a model for a small living space.  After, when I had already decided upon my topic, and had begun to work on it, I still  had to change many things.  I had to change errors in my writing to help the reader understand.  I Also changed some of my ideas to improve and make my model even better.  Even though I worked so hard, I made many mistakes and errors but Jacqui helped me by going through them and making corrections.  I think this project can be grown even farther by making things more specific.  For example, perhaps I could make a blueprint for the apartment.  Maybe someday my design or blueprint can be used in real life and become on of the solutions to the problem of overpopulation.

I learned many things from the Integrated Independent Project.  I learned how serious the overpopulation problem really is.  Before I did this project, I did not even know how many people populated this world.  I never thought that seven billion would be such a familiar number.  I also learned how to find good information and how to select quality resources from the many available.  In this project, I learned how to make a process plan and then follow it.  This taught me how to be less confused and more organized.  This project will help me in future projects either by myself or in a group.  I think it was a worthwhile experience because I usually do projects with a group rather than as an individual and it made me think about how how easy it is to work with others because you can divide the work.  I feel that when I do another project, either by myself or in a group, I will do a better job.  The skills I developed while I was doing this project are researching skills, writing skills, and how to make a process or steps and follow them.  I think this can be used in real life by helping me when I have to do another project, writing report, process plan and more.  I think I have grown as a person by becoming part of the world because I now know how serious the overpopulation problem really is.  Also, I gained interest in a new topic and learned how to work hard when I needed to.  During my I.I.P class, I learned many things and have also grown as a person.

Jessica Zhu: How did you get the idea for the IIP course?

Jacqueline Stewart: I think IIP is the result of close to ten years of teaching high school and learning what truly engages students. IIP is the way I believe education should be. It creates life-long learners.

Jessica: And Clare, how did you get your idea for your IIP project?

Clare Suh: At first, I couldn’t choose a topic, then Jacqui showed me a few videos that started giving me more ideas. I finally picked a topic that interested me and Jacqui said yes.

Jessica: What do you do in IIP class?

Clare: We basically create projects. There’s lots of writing and I get to learn new skills. There’s a process plan that we follow so every week there is a new part of the project that we need to do.

Jacqui: The classes are set up so that we can work through every element of the project part by part. It’s important to focus on the skills that we need for each different part.

Jessica: What kind of students do you think would be interested in taking IIP?

Clare: I think students who want to explore new things! You can do a lot of cool stuff in this class.

Jacqui: I think students who like to work individually would really enjoy this class. Students who are organised and self-motivated would do very well in IIP.

Clare: Also students who like challenges! IIP is harder than other classes I’ve taken.

Jessica: Jacqui, are you going to be one of the teachers in IIP?

Jacqui: Yes! Of course! I love teaching IIP, especially because I created it. I think it’s going to be more and more popular and more teachers will start teaching it. IIP really showcases all that students learn at Little Mountain.

Jessica: Thanks, guys!

We are looking for qualified instructors in the new year. For more information about our courses, go to our Programs page.

On-line applications are preferred however you may also submit your resume and a cover letter to the appropriate office via mail or email at info@lmacademics.com. Be sure to specify which course you are interested in and for which you are applying.

Submit your resume and a cover letter to:
Little Mountain Learning Academy
(located at UBC Campus)
Suite 213 – 2150 Western Parkway
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada V6T1T5
Tel 604 221 2363 Fax 604 221 2369
info@lmacademics.com
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