April 1-5

 Hi everyone, just wanted to introduce myself and mention how grateful I am to be teaching your children! My name is Mr. Coco and I have been a teacher for many years. I started out in Edmonton, that's where I'm from, and moved to Calgary four years ago. I have been teaching all this time and I decided these past few years I would try subbing as it has been one thing I haven't done during my career. 

I have taught everything, and I mean everything. I've taught every grade from kindergarten to 12. I was trained as a music teacher and taught band for over ten years, however, I've branched out and primarily been teaching high school English and Social Studies. I finished my Master's in Education (Leadership) two years ago, however, I love being in the classroom and I cannot see me doing anything but work with students for my career as an educator.

I've added some photos of me so you'll know what I look like. I also added a photo of my partner, Chris, and my dog, Taco.

Now onto what the class did this week! We began a unit on Indigenous history and had a general discussion about what we can learn from the many cultures that live in Treaty 7 territory. I had the students look up the traditional names of Calgary, explained to them the reasons why we call this place, "Moh-kins-tsis, Wîchispa Oyade, Otos-kwunee and Guts-ists'i" or some would say, "elbow."

In math, we began our algebra unit, which I have to say I was impressed with how many of our students were able to relate to the material. I liked how we did an activity where we replaced letters for gaming consoles and seeing the students getting into solving advanced equations. Now, it may be a few years before they understand (25+10/x) = 45, but it certainly was fun to see them try and who knows, in a few weeks I'm sure they'll get there 😜 

On Friday, we went outside and started building structures. Again, using the snow to our advantage, we saw some awesome shapes and they helped finish the grade two's initial structures. We didn't get a chance to fully close the structures but we did work on collaboration, getting daily physical activity, and building some fun things with snow! I've attached some photos here for us to all enjoy!

I've also added some musings from the class to this post, please enjoy:

 Today durning music, we shared some music songs and played a music game called bop or flop - Emily

Today during snack, Mr. Coco played Shake it Off on the ukulele and all the girls sang along while the boys hid in the jackets except for three of them - Alex

This week, Mr. Coco join the pack - Victoria

It's a cult, not a family - Maxx (nobody understands this)

We all drank water this week - Joshua

Today, the classroom went to music went crazy and their minds exploded - AG

Nothing - Adrian

While I hiding in the jacket, a certain someone cannonballed and hit my head - Affan

This week we played crazy sports in gym - Hoshang

E - Leo

I agree with that last one - Maxx

In health, we learned more about phishing scams - Joshua

In math, we are learning algebra - Maddex

A Sports - Mithran

You belongs will turn into fish - Affan

Whatever you will turn into a cookie - AG

E from the past Leo, had decided to learn what the E stands for excited to learn and NLS - Leo

So feel free to message me at mdcoco@cbe.ab.ca or mdcoco@educbe.ca, I am more than happy to have a talk and again I am so grateful I get to spend these next three months with this amazing class!!!!

Take care,

Mr. Coco