Happy New Year -- Tuning in to 2017

By Anonymous -


Happy New Year,  

I'm so excited to be back and so are you,  based on today's amazing thinking and enthusiasm.  I can just tell that you are ready to continue on this beautiful learning journey. Here is a quote that represents what we value in our class and it's a great thought to consider as we weave our way through this new year:  
  • “Something is going to come out of this. Something new. This can end you up in a whole new place—a better place, a much more open place”. – Pema Chodron, author
This quote speaks to the flexible thinking, creativity and being the change -- all of the things that we as global citizens live everyday!  It makes me think of the global goals.  

We started our day off with a bang by looking at a video about  Ojibwa Legend that explains the creation of Turtle Island.  Here is a link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX4GJTtSigY

A legend is a story created by a group of people to explain events in nature, it usually has animal characters, there is a hero and a life lesson in the story and is based in some historical truth.  We discussed the fact that legends are deeply connected to the belief systems that particular groups have and because of this they represent a groups identity.  It is interesting to read or hear legends because they give us a different perspective or point of view.  
Through our conversations in this video we connected back to values and identity.  We decided that the turtle demonstrated the following values through his actions: 
 - Responsibility

- Empathy
- Confidence
- Kindness
- Helpfulness
- Wisdom

The muskrat demonstrated these values:  persistence and selflessness.  We wondered what other animals could have transported the other continents and this set our inferencing skills in motion.  

We also began the day discussing resolutions since it is a new year.  We deconstructed the meaning into it's morphographs:  re = do over again,  solute = solution  and ion = process or action.  So a resolution is about solving a problem in your life by setting a personal goal to achieve.  We brainstormed together and came up with the following things we can do more and less of in 2017.   



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