Mike Poluk's Page

As part of our Making a Difference program my grade 5 class has decided to become involved in raising money and awareness for the Light Up the World Foundation, an organization dedicated to providing energy efficient lighting to 3rd world countries not connected to the power grid. We are working in conjunction with another class in Ontario, Canada and we have kicked off our efforts by creating… Continue

I have been creating podcasts with my students for almost a year now, and I have witnessed some wonderful content being produced, but I haven't seen anything like what I just witnessed this past week! We have just wrapped up our Making a Difference at Home program, and the students recorded their reflections about how successful they were at implementing their action plans. Most of our podcasts are roughly 6-7 minutes long; however, this time I received so much content from the students that I… Continue

It's quite common to hear people talk about how students benefit from having a genuine audience for the work that they do in the classroom. Personally, I have always agreed with this because it just makes sense. But I am beginning to experience for myself just how much of an impact an audience can have. My latest classroom podcast featured some student samples that were based on the writing trait "Word Choice." Normally this would hardly be a topic… Continue

It's amazing what students are capable of accomplishing when given rich, meaningful tasks to complete. I just finished uploading my latest classroom podcast, and I am still smiling as I listen to the student responses to the following question: "Do you think that it is possible for a young student to make a difference in the world? What could you do in the next few months to make a difference in your home, school, community, and world as a whole?" I… Continue