Nov 9.

Today, we (STs from UBC and SFU) had a meeting with the president and vice-president of Windermere. The purpose of meeting was to get more information about the school’s rules and regulations and to get familiar with each other.

Nov 10.

I’ve decided to do some inquiry about garden based learning in Windermere as I’ve heard from my FA that Windermere has a big garden. I toured around the garden. The garden includes a student-built 16' by 20' greenhouse, thirteen beds and a composting system. They have also sowed over-winter ‘cover crops’, which restore fertility and humus, and enrich the soil for planting next spring. The garden provides vegetables for school cafeteria.

Although this provides a great hands-on learning opportunity for students, unfortunately the leadership program is the only one that uses the garden.

Nov 12.

Today, I attended a food and nutrition class that had planed to cook Clam Chowder soup. Teacher distributed the recipe, explained each of the ingredients and explained how to find or select them. She also shared some tips and techniques regarding food and kitchen safety and hygiene. Students first were asked to observe how their teacher cooks to get ready to cook their own soup. It was a hands-on experience that helps students participate actively in cooking process. Each group used tools with different colors so that the teacher could recognize how each group did their job.

Nov 13.

Today, I attended a presentation on working with students with learning disabilities presented by the Special Education Department Head. A student who graduated from special education program at Windermere was asked to share her life experience with us. She is attending college and living her life independently, just with a small help from her family. That was an interesting presentation that showed us how students with different learning abilities should be taught.