Four pictures of spaes that mean something to me, some are new pictures, some are old but they all have a special meaning to me.

1. View: A picture of a different point of view-this picture is from the top of the famous coffee pot that sits at the entrance of Davidson, SK.  A few years ago I joined a community group that was interested in redoing the coffee pot, little did I know I was going to end up in the bucket of a zoom boom at the top of the huge pot!  Not only did I conquer my fear of heights I also realized how everything underneath us looked really, really small.  As an educator this made me think that for little kids or even big kids we look like giants to them and how we can be intimidating to some students.
2. Emotions: This is a picture of our student wall at the school I work at, this wall showcases all students from k-12 as well as all the staff in our building.  Working in a small town school creates a family like community and I am very thankful to be a part of this community.   I am grateful to work alongside these amazing individuals. I am thankful that my children get to attend this school and grow up in a close knit community.
3. Sit & Think Spot: This was tricky for me as I don’t often sit and think unless its in the drivers seat of my car.  I really enjoy getting out on the water on my paddleboard with music playing and floating.  This is one of the only times I let myself be, take a deep breath and enjoy my surroundings.
4. Path: My most travelled path, #11 highway, the road home.  This picture is right outside the town of Davidson, my home.  I spend many hours a week travelling up and down this highway and when I see the top of the elevator (on either side of town) I know I am almost home.  My extended family means a lot to me as well and this same path gets me to them as well.  This highway is the heartline of everything that is important to me.

Sketch notes weren’t a new learning for me.  A grade 8 teacher recently introduced me to sketch notes while listening to a podcast.  I find them a neat alternative to regular note taking-not all kids are into copying or making notes the regular copying way.  This teacher encouraged students to add colour and use things within their notes that would help them to remember what they meant.

I was excited to try sketch notes on my own.  Mine do not have colour as I find this too busy for me, and mine have more words then pictures as I am not the best drawer and I find that I learn better by the use of words.  I used quick jot notes instead of long passages and a few little drawings when I felt like it was important.  I really like this task as I think it would be a great strategy for the classroom as students can have a little bit of choice how they make their notes.

Here is an example of my sketch notes on our Residential School learning