Vimy Ridge, Dieppe, D-Day. These are three of Canada’s most well known battles. Together with the Holocaust, these battles often dominate discussions of the world wars in high school History and Social Studies classrooms. As well, teachers often teach students to rate battle successes and failures based on casualty numbers. Since 2012, when I had the privilege to work at the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial, one of my philosophies when speaking about military conflicts has been that human stories matter more than statistics. I adopted this philosophy after realizing that my tour groups were more engaged in the stories of the men on the three memorial plaques than they were in my interpretation of the battlefield. I also recognized that visitors were highly engaged when I spoke of life on the homefront and the contributions made by the civilians of Newfoundland to the war effort. Nevertheless, it was not until the tour group visited the Beaumont-Hamel memorial park on July 11, 2016 that I considered how the battle at Beaumont-Hamel had affected the civilians of nearby towns such as Mailley-Maillet and Albert
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As an educator I am always interested in how different countries approach teaching and learning. Often teachers will hear about the approach Finland takes with students such as no homework, critical thinking evaluations, project-based learning and the fact that they attend school four days a week - not five. Finland consistently ranks at the top globally when it comes to students being able to solve problems and apply critical thinking skills. Contrast this with other nations that employ more traditional approaches such s multiple choice testing and large amounts of memorization work as the basis for marks. However, there is another way in which nations approach learning and that is through food.
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AuthorParticipating educators and high school students share reflections on their professional and personal experiences during and after the program. Some posts link to the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society's blog, Studeamus bellum causa pacis. Archives |