For our Professional Activity Day yesterday, one of the items on our agenda was Google Apps for Education. The TCDSB became a GAFE board just last fall and so many teachers in my school haven't had the opportunity to explore the benefits of GAFE. As such, I volunteered to put together a little presentation to highlight a few of the key features that teachers and students may find useful as they delve into the world of Google Apps for Education. I struggled with this preso since there is so much I wanted to share but didn't want to overwhelm them with it all. Hence, this is merely a basic intro and by no means is it meant to be exhaustive nor comprehensive.

Contrary to popular belief, we are now in the midst of spring. I know, I know. The weather could have fooled me, too. Regardless of the persistent sub-zero temperatures, my family and I took on our first challenge as part of the Tide Stain Warriors campaign - spring planting in the great outdoors. Since this is definitely not my forte, I decided to leave this task up to my husband and the kids.

As part of the Tide Stain Warriors campaign, we received a set of white cotton t-shirts. Obviously, bright white and soil brown don't mix very well but I watched on as my son wiped his dirty hands on his new shirt and I didn't even cringe. You see, we also received a bottle of Tide Ultra Stain Release to help tackle everyday stains. And since Tide removes over 100 stains in one wash, I knew I had nothing to fear.

Following the instructions for pretreatment, I coached my son on the process by having him remove any excess stain debris and then dilute the soil stain by blotting the fabric with a wet cloth. Next, we pre-treated the stain using Tide Ultra Stain Release and the top of the Zip!Zap cap to spread the detergent and gently rub it into the fabric.

His shirt looks as good as new! We'll see how long it lasts, though, as we have a couple of more challenges to undertake as part of the Tide Stain Warriors campaign. We hope you'll follow along and stay tuned for a special giveaway featuring a P&G Fabric Care Gift Basket!

Did you know that April 20 is the next Talk with Our Kids About Money Day? It's the perfect time to have those important conversations about money with your little ones - Canadian currency, budgeting, visiting a bank, and saving. And now, parents and educators can turn to a children's book series dedicated to financial literacy, a first of its kind here in Canada. Introducing M is for Money, a collection of books designed to help teach the rudimentary facts about money to young children. Not only is this series made in Canada, I am proud to say that it was created by Teresa Cascioli, a Commerce graduate of my alma mater, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. 

An award-winning entrepreneur featured on Profit and Chatelaine Magazine's lists of Canada's most successful women, Teresa has also been named one of the Women's Executive Network Top 100 Canada's Most Powerful Women and has been awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal among other accolades. Her books feature the financial adventures of twins Tess and Benji as they learn about money, from working hard to earn it and the importance of opening up a bank account to save it, plus much more.

The complete series, which is available at misformoney.ca or at Indigo/Chapters across Canada, includes nine different books and is geared to children ages 5-9. My son received copies of the first three books and has enjoyed reading them with me, as well as completing some of the fun games and activities that can be found at the end of each book. My personal favourite are the "Look & Find" games that require the reader to find a certain number of a variety of objects throughout the book. The messaging within the stories is clear and concise, and the illustrations complement the stories well.


The M is for Money book series would make a great addition to a primary classroom or a personal library. There is also a variety of motivational rewards and other M is for Money themed fun stuff that can be ordered through the site, including bookmarks, magnets, birthday cards, stickers and more.

Disclosure: I received product samples and other perks to help facilitate this post. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own.

And now,.. the end is near... and so I face my digital portfolio. I had no idea I would struggle with this as much as I did. It's the problem I face when given too many options to choose from. Sure, I could post the digital artifacts below via Prezi or Google slides or EduBlogs or Weebly. But I wanted to venture out of my comfort zone and publish on a platform that I've been using for over a decade but have reserved more for personal than professional purposes. So I hope my blogging audience will bear with me as I try something different.

Youppi! Madame Mancuso a gagné à la loterie!

Ok. Poisson d'avril!

While I didn't really win the lottery, it does provide a fun premise upon which I based a WebQuest I created as part of the IICT course that comes to an end today. This was my first attempt at creating a WebQuest using zunal.com and, while I was hesitant at first that I wouldn't find it very user-friendly, I actually ended up enjoying it. I am beginning to see the potential of using WebQuests in my classes. I just wish there was more flexibility in the site design and that I wasn't limited to only one WebQuest using the free version. Here is a shortened url to my WebQuest "Faisons du shopping!":

http://bit.ly/ShoppingWQ

Nonetheless, I think I had more fun putting together the models for the each of the task components using Google Apps for Education. (Blame the Google educator in me!) I found an AMAZING template on Slides Carnival thanks to Sylvia Duckworth's presentation on GAFE today at the OMLTA Spring Conference. There is a selection of extra vector illustrations of people that students can choose from to customize their presentation. Adorable! 

Given my tendency towards procrastination unforeseen time constraints, I quickly threw all of this together at the last minute and wish I had more time to tweak everything since it's far from perfect. I am thinking I would post this WebQuest on my Google Classroom and have students create copies of the models, such as the budget below, and submit them via Google Classroom so I can keep track of their progress.

While I may not have won the lottery, it sure feels like I won after having taken this course. I have learned so much from the course instructor as well as the other participants and am able to walk away with fantastic resources and practical ideas.