Our classroom door is always open to visitors. We love to share our learning with our families, community members, other teachers, and people from all over the world. Normally, we only have one or two visitors at once, but this time there may have been more adults in our classroom than there were students!
On Friday, The Minister of Education, George Abbott was in our school district to celebrate and sign School District 85’s Aboriginal Enhancement Agreement. After the signing, Minister Abbott was brought to our island to visit our little school.
Minister Abbott was accompanied by a number of people from the government and also by several members of our school district staff and some of our school board trustees as well.
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- Minister of Education, George Abbott
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- A few of our special guests!
Our guests joined us for a Skype call with our blogging buddies in California. It was great to connect with Mrs. Yollis and her students. We got to know them during the Our World, Our Stories project we were a part of earlier in the school year. Look for a separate post all about our Skype call in the next day or so.
After our Skype call, Kennedy and Sophie had a chance to interview Minister Abbott for a, What’s Up at AJ? special report. We hope you will find the interview as interesting as we did!
The pictures for this post were taken by Trista and the video was taken by Ana.
Dear Mrs. Watson’s Grade 2/3 class:
Thank you for being such wonderful hosts for Minister Abbott’s visit on Friday. It was great to see how you use technology to connect with students from around the world and I know the Minister was impressed. I always enjoy visiting your class and I’m glad to see that the Smartboard is working again!
Dear Mr. Benwell,
Thank you so much for leaving us a comment. I am glad the Minister was impressed. That is sweet of to say that you always enjoy visiting your class. We are all extremely happy that our SmartBoard is and running very well.
Hope you visit our class soon,
Kennedy
Now that was an interesting visitor for you guys, I bet the classrooms were extra spick and span. Love the way Kennedy and Sophie grabbed the interview chance. What’s up at AJ is taking off. Are your children 7-9 year olds? I will be sharing this great work with Mrs monaghan http://www.middlehampri2.posterous.com I feel a Skype link coming on, her kids would love to learn from your superstars! now let me go and think about ‘time-zones!’
Mr E
Hawes
Dear Mr. E,
Thanks so much for the comment. Yes the classes were really clean. Kennedy and I did really want to interview the Minister of Education. Yes Mrs Watson does teach 7-9 year olds. Have you ever had a special visitors at your school?
Thanks again 🙂
Sophie
Dear Mrs. Watson’s class,
What an incredible opportunity and honor to host the Minister of Education in your classroom! I think your interview with him was informative and well done.
Did your class work together to develop the questions?
I also like that you showed how technology can flatten classroom walls when you Skyped with Mrs. Yollis’s class! It doesn’t matter that you are in BC, when you can talk with friends in California via Skype!
Well done!
From,
Mrs. Hembree
Dear Mrs. Hembree,
Thank you for leaving a comment. I know how it was such a wonderful honor to host the Minister in our own classroom. Thank you, when Sophie and I did the interview we felt nervous but excited at the same time. No Sophie and Mrs. Watson made the questions and Sophie and I just memorized them. I really like that to. Ya, it doesn’t matter.
Best Wishes
Kennedy
Hi Mrs Watson’s class,
My name is Mrs Stones and I work at Miriam Lord Community Primary School which is in Bradford, U.K. I really enjoyed looking at your blog and found it very interesting to see the photos of a classroom in another country. You certainly have had some important visitors recently. I’m going to show my class your blog and we might be able to get to know each other more.
Dear Mrs. Stones,
Thank you so much for visiting our blog. It is always exciting to get visitors from another country stopping by! What grade are the students in your class? We are in grade 2/3. Do you have a blog that we can visit?
Sincerely,
Mrs. W and the 2/3s
Dear Mrs Watson,
Hello my name is Emily. I am from Mrs Morris’s grade. I
was from 2KJ 2 years ago.
4KM and 4KJ got go on skype with Mrs Yollis as well.
It was very interesting. What was your favourite part?
Bye for now ,
Emily
Dear Emily,
It was great to see a comment from one of our friends in Mrs. Morris’ class! The grade 3s were in our class when we first met 2KJ 2 years ago and they remember our Skype call where we had a Canadian and Australian show and tell. Do you remember that?
Most of us really liked singing our parts of Make New Friends and sharing cool facts. It was a pretty short call because of the special visitors who were in our room that day. What is your favourite part of Skyping?
Your friends,
Mrs. W and the 2/3s
How amazing! What was really cool for me watching this clip was noticing that it is really just a typical snapshot of what I see every time I walk into Mrs. Watson’s room. This was a special day, but then, I think every day is a special day in Mrs. Watson’s 2/3 Class! So who can we invite next? I wonder if the great Canadian actor Christopher Plummer, or maybe Hillary Clinton, or one of my heroes, Michael J. Fox, or Hayley Wickenheiser…? Who’s next! Can’t wait to see!
Dear Mr. Neilson,
Thank you for leaving us a comment. That was sweet of you to say that every day is special in Mrs. Watson’s 2/3 class. Who should we invite next? I don’t think we will be able to get the great Canadian actor Christopher Plummer, most likely not HIllary Clinton either, or Hayley Wickenheiser.
Can’t wait to hear from you soon,
Kennedy
Dear Mrs. Watson’s class,
What a fantastic episode of What’s Up at A.J.? It is always so nice to have visitors in your classroom. I like that others can see all of the wonderful things you are learning with your amazing teacher! Minister Abbott inspired a discussion to spring up with the Techie Kids. Everyone began to share ideas of what they would like to be when they grow up. Here are a few:
Matthew would like to join the army.
Bryce wants to be an astronaut.
Shelby wants to work at Pets Mart because she loves animals.
Ryleigh wants to be President of the United States of America and a zoo keeper. (I think she’ll be very busy!)
Malasia, Jaden, Angelica, and Serena want to be a veterinarian.
Jacob wants to play professional football.
Alex wants to play professional hockey.
Aidan and Jacob want to be zookeepers.
Ashlyn wants to be a professional horseback rider and a zookeeper.
Devon wants to play professional baseball.
Jacob wants to be an Inventor.
Sydney wants to be a doctor and a teacher.
Trista wants to be a hair dresser.
Ashlin and Shamiya want to be teachers.
Thanks for sharing so much with us!
From,
The Techie Kids and Mrs. Moore
Dear Techie Kids and Mrs. Moore,
It is always great to read a comment from you! We loved reading all the different jobs that the Techie Kids think they might like to do when they get older. We will have to write down our ideas next week. It is pretty hard to imagine being a grown up with a job when you are only in grade 2 and 3 🙂
Careers to come!
Mrs. W and the 2/3s
Dear Mrs Watson and class
We don’t get many visitors in our classroom but if we do its normally teachers, kids with messages, or the DPs. The teachers normally use the telephone because it’s easier than walking somewhere or sending people there. But if it’s just next door they send people there or they walk there themselves. At the moment we’re getting lots of adults coming in because of parent interviews.
Your kiwi friend
Cody
Room 24, Taradale Intermediate, NZ
http://www.room24tis.blogspot.com
Dear Cody,
Thanks for leaving us such a super comment! We have phones in our classrooms too, but we can’t call other rooms. They are only outside lines. We also don’t have a PA system, so if we want to talk to another class we have to go there.
We don’t have interviews until later in the year, are students a part of your interviews? We do student-led conferences where we get a chance to show our parents what we are learning and talk about our goals.
Your friends,
Mrs. W and the 2/3s
Wow! How cool to interview the Minister! Were you guys super duper nervous? Gosh, we would have been!
Hello Mrs. Watson and class!
I am writing to you from the Seattle area and I enjoyed reading your blog. I also teach a 2/3 split class. I am excited to show my students your blog tomorrow and I want to encourage them to leave your class some comments. We are spending lots of time blogging this year and I am interested in learning how you use blogging with your class. We are just about to start student blogs and they will be writing their own posts. We would love to connect with you this year. Hope to hear back from you,
From,
Mrs. Adair
A.G. Bell Elementary
WA. State
Dear Mrs. Adair,
Thank you so much for visiting our blog and for leaving us a comment. We love blogging too! It is fun to check our blog each day to see if we have had new visitors and to read the comments our friends have left us. We love getting to know other classes from all over the world. Hopefully we can visit your blog this week.
From,
Mrs. W and the 2/3s
Dear 2/3 class
I am Max from 4KM and 4KJ,
We skyped with Mrs Yollis’s class a couple of weaks ago.It is really fun to learn about other countries.
We learnt heaps of facts when we skyped with them.
I will keep visiting your blog.
From Max
Dear Mrs. Watson’s 2/3 Class,
I loved watching your blog. What a great class and what a wonderful connection you have with the world. I enjoyed What’s Up at A.J., the interview with Minister Abbott, your Valentine’s Day, Playground Fun and Surprise Garden – to mention a few items. Of course, for me, the star of the show is Ana – cameraperson, artist, fact person, and my granddaughter. I enjoyed each and every one of you. Keep up the good work!
Best wishes from Mrs. Judy Burgess in Sooke, B.C.
Dear grandma,
Thank you for the comment.
I hoped you would give a comment and I hope you become one of our good bloggers.
Mama was thinking that me and her could come over to Sooke for a visit.
love from you granddater
Ana
P.S.
Me and mama were thinking
of making grandpa a Bday cake.
Good Morning Mrs. Watson’s 2/3 Class,
It was fun to receive a reply from Sointula. Thank you for writing, Ana. Can’t wait to see you!
This morning, the town of Sooke awakened to SNOW. We could hear our next door neighbour – Tommy – he’s in grade three – his school is on Spring Break. Tommy was bouncing on the trampoline and tossing snowballs to his dog, Lola. I’m sure he didn’t expect to celebrate Spring Break like this! The snow is still falling – big fluffy flakes – but I don’t think it will stay. Wonder what it’s like on Mt. Cain – I hear you had a good dump of snow there recently. Do many grade 2’s and 3’s go the mountain?
Best wishes,
Mrs. Judy Burgess
(with hugs to my granddaughter)