Google Hangouts - Connecting Students in different cities

Looking to expand discussion outside of your classroom walls?

That's exactly what students from Mrs. DaSilva's Grade 12 religion Class did as they debated if and when dress codes are biased with a Grade 12 Philosophy class from London, Ontario.

Mrs. Sobhi, In-School Support Teacher at Catholic Central High School, describes the lesson as follows:

The students were introduced to the topic “When are dress codes Biased?” The pre Hangout lesson focused on how regulating dress codes can be necessary to promote health and safety, but at other times, dress codes unfairly target the appearance of certain groups of people. The teaching ideas below were designed to help students explore how dress codes can be biased and what dress standards in schools should be.

Students were introduced to the topic and watched the video  Amaiya Zafar from the Secret Lives of Muslims. Then, students read the following excerpt from the Elle article Serena Williams's Tennis Outfits Defy the Sexist, Racist Norms Female Athletes Face

Students answered questions in their groups or independently:

1. Who decides what types of clothing or appearance are appropriate or normal in a society? Who makes those decisions for workplaces, schools, athletic competitions or other environments? How are dominant culture, gender, religion and race reflected in dress standards?
2. How can it impact people’s lives when dress codes are biased? How did dress codes impact Amaiya Zafar and Serena Williams?
3. Why might sports leagues have regulations on the attire worn by athletes? Why might schools? How can sports leagues and schools create dress codes that are fair and fairly enforced?

Students then connected with Catholic Central London via Google Hangout to discuss the questions above and collaborate on the questions and opinions with the use of  Google Docs. The follow-up assignment included a reflection on the questions and collaboration with Catholic Central London.

Connecting with classes outside the city allowed students the opportunity to explore different opinions and standpoints on real-life issues explaining and expanding their learning base through technology.

Teachers involved in the Second Project include :

Ms.Catherine DaSilva - Religious Education Department Head, Catholic Central High School Windsor.

Mr. Marc Gelinas - Religious Education  Department Head, Catholic Catholic High School London.

Ms. Christine Sobhi - In School Support Teacher, Catholic Central High School.

Video Note - Virtual Learning Environment

Using video inside your vLE is an excellent tool to make learning online more personal and it is just a click away!


Consider using it to:
* provide reminders for students
* introduce new content
* provide feedback
* collect quick student responses

Team Drives name change

Google is renaming Team Drives to Shared Drives

Why it’s changing

This change will not impact Team Drives functionality; it is simply a name change. Google's users have told them that they use Team Drives for a lot more than sharing within teams, so “shared drives” makes it easier for users to understand how they could use them.

When it's changing

The rollout will begin on May 31, 2019 and is expected to be complete by June 6, 2019.

Avoid double-booking rooms in Calendar

Rooms will no longer accept two Calendar events that overlap in time.  Previously, if an event was created directly on a room’s calendar by someone with manage permissions for the resource, the room would accept this meeting even if another event had already added this room for that same time period.  Now, if the room has already accepted another meeting, creating a new event at the same time directly on the room’s calendar will result in a room decline of this conflicting meeting.Click for details

Three new features in Sheets

What’s changing 

Three new features that will help you clean up and work with your data in Sheets. These features are: 

• Remove duplicates 
• Trim whitespace 
• Compatible spreadsheet shortcuts 

Click for details

GMAIL: Edit subject line when forwarding and/or replying to an email

Wish you could edit the subject line when forwarding or replying to an email?  



Follow these simple steps to see just how easy it is to do:

1. Open your Gmail
2. Click reply or forward
3. Click the triangle beside the name of the person you are sending the email to 

 4. Click Edit subject from the drop-down menu and the edit window will open up

Holy Cross kicks off Education Week with a Community Lunch & Learn

Holy Cross kicks off Education Week with a technology-focused Lunch & Learn.  After picking up a lunch bag, parents and visitors were invited to spend their lunch hour visiting stations that included Dash Robots, Cue Robots, Makey Makey, Ozobots and Scratch Coding.

Students from JK-Grade 6 invited visitors to try their hand at coding and manipulating the various devices.

Grade 6 students engaged visitors as they shared the culminating activity from their Flight Unit.  

Students explained the properties of air using Apple Clips, Dash, Sperho robotic balls and Makey Makey circuit boards.

Grade 7 students invited guests into a virtual world using Virtual Reality Goggles while Grade 8 students assisted with hosting the school-wide event. They eagerly greeted guests, passed out bagged lunches, escorted visitors to their sessions and invited them to complete follow up surveys as they were leaving.