Nov 28, 1812 – The Battle of Frenchman’s Creek during the War of 1812. American forces under General Alexander Smyth cross the Niagara River with aims of seizing the British battery and destroying a bridge that connected Fort Erie to Chippawa. Although the attack on the battery was initially successful, British, Canadian and Aboriginal forces […]
Archive | November, 2011
Commemoration, Narratives and Critical Thinking in the History Classroom
As many of you will know, this past weekend I was at The Great War: From Memory to History. There are a number of fantastic subjects that we explored – I was live-tweeting the sessions so feel free to scroll back and explore @lsfraser. We had a great debate on the complicated relationship between commemoration, […]
The Great War: From Memory to History
For the next 3 days I’ll be in London, Ontario, attending The Great War: From Memory to History. Last year saw the death of John Babcock (the last known surviving Canadian veteran of the First World War), and within a few years, we will lose even those who were children during the Great War. This […]
TED Talk: Personalized Learning
In honour of Toronto’s The York School’s upcoming TEDxIB@York (which alas, I am not attending. I’ll be at OHASSTA instead), I’m sharing with you one of my favourite TED talks. Click below to listen to Sir Ken Robinson talking about disenthralling our ideas about education, particularly innovation in providing personalized, not standardized learning, where kids’ […]
This Week in Canadian History (Nov 7-13)
Nov 7, 1885 – The last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway is driven in by Donald Smith (later Lord Strathcona) at Craigellachie, British Columbia at the Rogers Pass, now a National Historic Site. -1900, Hampden Cockburn, Edward Holland and Richard Turner of the Royal Canadian Dragoons each earn a Victoria Cross for their part […]
Book Launch: Peter Vronsky’s Ridgeway (Toronto)
I heard from the lovely people at Penguin yesterday and they’re having a Toronto-area book launch for Peter Vronsky’s book about Ridegway – the same book that was featured at Parler Fort and what I wrote my blog post on! Click the image above to view the invite larger. Anyone in the Toronto area who […]
Response: Ottawa School Cancels Remembrance Day Symposium
The National Post reported today that Notre Dame School in Ottawa has cancelled their yearly Remembrance Day Symposium. The Symposium, usually held on November 10, hosted veterans to tell their stories, historians and a variety of hands-on materials, including uniforms, disabled firearms and military replicas. Students were able to move from classroom to classroom and […]
Leaves, Trees, Forest: Lessons in Education from Dan Mangan
I was at Canadian singer/songwriter Dan Mangan’s concert recently (thanks Dad!) and he played this great song called “Leaves, Trees, Forest.” He told us it was a song about perspective. When we look at a single leaf, we look at the intricate patterns that play out on it – we think about the beautiful colours. […]
