Bansho Year 1 and 2

 We are at Gosberton School (Park's partner school) for the first time. Today is our first day preparing for and supporting Bansho in a grade 1/2 classroom. The teachers prepared the question and braved the experience with 12 observers. The students responded well to the problem solving and came up with some good math thinking. Today showed us the importance of teaching children how to communicate and work with a partner.

Gosberton teachers begin their first Bansho lesson

Year 2 student working on a solution

We took over the consolidation of the lesson

After the lesson we were swooped away to the year 6 classroom where the students had baked scones and made tea for us. We had english cream and jam on the scones -- a very traditional tea time!

Day 3 - Bansho (Year 3/4) and Lincoln

Today we worked closely with the Year 3/4 teachers to develop a lesson for the classroom that would effectively demonstrate a full Bansho lesson.  Toni led the class and the whole lesson panned out exactly as we hoped it would.  Everyone is blown away at how much they understand the students' thinking just by listening to them communicate with their partner.  Everyone is seeing how Bansho can help a teacher lead their students' to a deeper understanding of math concepts.



Park Elementary School

After school we were off to the town of Lincoln.  It's quite big, but is very old.  We climbed up to the Lincoln Castle and were amazed at the views.  The castle itself in not completely intact but there was still a lot to see.  We saw the original copy of the Magna Carta which was amazing.  It was written with a pigeon feather quill, the script itself is extremely small (there are 3500 words on the parchment), and there are not ink blots.  I can tell that the scribe had a very good penmanship teacher!!! (pictures to come)

Ancient roads of Lincoln

The interior of the Lincoln Cathedral

Julie about to walk the castle walls at Lincoln Castle

Jenny was too chicken to walk through the haunted archway...it was a part of our ghost walk. (Julie didn't go through it either, she just took a picture!)

Day 2 - Bansho and Boston



Today we worked with year-specific teachers to further develop their understanding of Bansho.  As a team of 6 teachers, we developed a lesson for the class, went into the classroom to work with students and then came back together to discuss what our next steps could be. We forgot to take pictures (!!!) but will get some in-class shots tomorrow.

After school, David and his wife Julie, took us in to experience Boston. You'll see the Boston Stump which is the church that David and Julie were married in.  It's called the Boston Stump because they were to build the steeple to be higher than it is, but stopped construction early (ran out of money??) and left it short -- forever leaving it with the nickname, the Boston Stump.



Boston has a very high population of Polish people. The streets are narrow and the buildings are very historic. Beside the church was a building for sale that had thick mortar and wood walls that looked like you could tip it over. We ended the evening by having dinner at the "Bombay Brasserie" which was the most amazing Indian restaurant ever!  The employees of the restaurant wanted to take a picture of the nice Canadians who came to visit their restaurant --- we're going to be on his blog somewhere in cyber space :)

David, Julie, Julie and Jenny at the Bombay Brasserie



The Boston Stump

Skegness -- Entertainment day 1

The garden of the "Jolly Sailor" in the Skeg

Immediately after school we were swept away to see some sights of the area.  We drove through Boston and saw the mill and travelled along the countryside to the ocean-side town of Skegness (effectionately called "the Skeg").  It was more of a joke because Carol will be mortified to find out that we went there!  Bridget and Jo were a ball to be with! "The Skeg" isn't the most beautiful place in the world, but it has small town charm.  We toured arcades (you have to play a round of Bingo when in the Skeg, aparently), ate English toffee, put our feet in the brown ocean water (we think we'll grow webbed feet from it...?), bought Skegness Rock (which is candy), ate freshly made donuts, and had dinner in a little Italian restaurant.  Jo and Bridget were a blast.  We got back at 11pm and snuck into the house like teenagers as not to wake up Greg and Carol.  What a day!

The Boston Windmill

Eating fresh donuts at the pier

Day 1 - Bansho Training Session

Our training sessions took place in both the morning and afternoon at Gosberton school in Boston.  Overall, just over 50 teachers joined us for our presentation on Bansho.  We had a great time bringing the ideas of problem solving to the teachers and they are very excited to try it.

Welcome BBQ

We arrived at Heathrow on time and met up with Carol and Greg.  We took the 2 1/2 hour drive up to Lincolnshire (Boston) and Jenny talked the whole way to keep herself awake. The countryside is extremely flat but very lush. Most of the homes along the way are brick and very old. They have a beautiful historic look to them which makes the drive really interesting.  We arrived at the Clare residence to discover that they have a palace.  It's a 5 bedroom, 4 bath home on the river with a pool.  The photo here shows the back yard where we had our welcome bbq.  The senior staff of the Pheonix Federation schools welcomed us with a beautiful spread (sausage, chicken, salmon, salads, breads, carrot cake and black forest cake).  What a way to start our journey!

BBQ spread

The sunglasses hide tired eyes!

The Clare's Palace

We're Off!!

Welcome to our journey to the UK!  We're bringing Bansho to Lincolnshire and want to chronicle our adventures.  We're on important business but will be having a little fun along the way!

Julie and Jenny on the plane -- Ottawa time....5:30am -- total sleep time.....1 hour

England from the sky