School Administrator
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by Mrs. Nicole Weber
This is the time of year we find that students start getting into the habit of not completing assignments. Parents also get frustrated when they heard their child has several incomplete assignments form school. I have a few suggestions to help parents get their child back into the routine of homework:
1. First have a family discussion on what homework looks like in your family-what are the expectations? 2. Develop a routine- do the children in your home get a break for an hour or must they go directly to complete homework. Also as part of the routine check to ensure the work your child tells you is complete is actually complete! 3. Check Teacher's Blogs and HomeLogic for incomplete assignments 4. Email individual teachers if you have specific questions 5. Develop a logical consequence if your child does not complete their homework. Consequences need to be tailored to each individual child to make sure it has meaning. 6. Drop your child off at school at 7:30 am so they can use the Learning Commons to complete their work 7. Never do their homework for them under ANY circumstances!
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It is two days before we embark on our very first Sailing Trip. The students who have signed up for this trip have been working together this fall in the Outdoor Education option learning such things as team building, sailing techniques, etc. The buzz in the room today was noticeable as all students did a bag check with Mr. Van Kleeck-the teacher-in-charge.
We started this journey a little over two years ago when parents asked that we look at some trips that went outside of Alberta. We spoke as a staff on the opportunities in going such places as Quebec, the Pallisades, Sailing and looked for teacher who was willing to take on the challenge of such a trip. Mr. Van Kleeck has extensive background knowledge and experience in Outdoor Education so he was a natural choice for our school. On Saturday we have 20 Grade 9 students and 3 Grade 8 students going on our first trip. We originally wanted to only open the trip up to Grade 9 students but when 20 expressed interest we quickly opened it up to Grade 8 students so we would not have to eliminate 7 students from participating (each boat hold only 13 students). We look forward to hearing about the student experiences when they return next week! We have had an sudden change of staffing due to Mr. Fettes medical leave. Mr. Burt will cover Mr. Fettes' teaching assignment with 9C Language Arts and Social Studies and TA group. To assist with administrative duties, Mr. Burt will cover some of Mrs. Purslow's and Mrs. Teasdale's teaching so they may be "acting assistant principals" during Mr. Fettes' absence. We request your patience as we re-schedule some of the teacher's timetables to accommodate this situation. At this time, Mr. Fettes has shared he will be absent for at least 30 days.
If parents need direct help with discipline issues do not hesitate to contact Grade Team Leaders for support: Grade 7 Mr. Neustaeter Grade 8 Mrs. Teasdale Grade 9 Mrs. Purslow September frequently brings changes to schools due to an increase or decrease of student population. From two years ago our population has increased from 224 to 263 students. We are extremely happy with this increase in population!
Due to the increase in enrollment we have been able to increase/or add additional staff. As of September 18, Mrs. Deeks will become full time and continue the excellent work she did as our literacy enhancement teacher. She will be working with our most at-risk students in the area of reading comprehension one period a day for the rest of the school year, as well as keep her PE and French assignment. We have also hired a 0.7 FTE teacher-Ms. Chan who will take over Mr. Froehler's teaching assignment so he can spend his time working with our ELL population and enhance their communication and literacy skills. This change will not occur until September 25. There is also a possibility that Ms. Chan could become full time if our Classroom Improvement Funding proposal is approved October 6. We will be focusing our School Development Plan on enhancing literacy skills across the disciplines. Although many students become attached to their Teacher Advisor, we may be adding an additional TA grouping so we can keep our TA numbers at 19-20 students. Students will be told if they will be changing TA's. This change will not happen until October 6. If you have any questions , please feel free to email me at any time! Parents- we are hoping to improve our communication methods this year between home and school. We hope to have our new website up and running by the end of September that will have a new look and easier to navigate. We are doing away with monthly newsletters and choosing to communicate in the following ways:
We would like to welcome all our staff, students and community back to Mount Royal School. The first day for students is September 5. The Grade 7 students attend at 8:30 am and the Grade 8/9 at 10:00 am. The first day of school students will spend the day with their TA (Teacher Advisor) for the day- getting to know our school, the plans for the year, timetables etc.
Parents need only purchase basic supplies for the first week and then each teacher will let the students know if there is anything specific they need for a class or option. It is still wise to purchase runners for PE, a backpack, pencils, pens, pencil crayons , a binder with lined paper. We are slowly moving to "bring your own device" to school so if students who have their own laptops and ipads as welcome to use them in our building. Our adm secretary will start in the office on August 28 with modified hours. As we come to the end of the school year I would like to take this opportunity to inform parents of some staff changes for next year. Ms. O'Rourke will be leaving us to move to Toronto to pursue her education. Mr. McCafferty will be replacing her in the fall. Mr. McCafferty is an experienced teacher with the CBE and will be teaching Grade 7 & 8 Language Arts and Social Studies as well as the Foods option.
Mr. Pocock will be moving to Rideau Park School to pursue his interest in PE and Outdoor Education. Mr. Gall will move into the ACCESS classroom and Mr. Locey will become our new TASC teacher. We wish all the best to the teachers who are leaving us and welcome our new staff member! Our students, like most, struggle between wanting adults to make decisions for them and wanting to wrest control from those in charge so they can be responsible for themselves. We want our students to learn to exercise choice, take responsibility for their learning, and do their best work. At our school we saw an opportunity to help them reach these goals by implementing student-led conferences last year, enabling students to be directly involved in their assessment process. We want our students to feel empowered and have ownership for their learning.
The Benefits of Student-Led Conferences
In a recent New York Times opinion piece, Monica Martinez wrote, “Parent-teacher conferences were a good idea in concept, but they reflect a tradition that is too centered on adults. Flipping these conferences to be student-led empowers the student and facilitates a partnership between the teacher and parents that is focused on supporting what the student identifies as her strengths and challenges in learning, not what the teacher or parent identifies for the student.” Students are responsible and should own their own learning-who better to share this with parents then the learner themselves! We have booked two boats for our Sailing Trip in October of 2017. We have opened up the Sailing Trip to include both Grade 8 and 9 students so we can try out this amazing experience for the first time. Each boat can hold 13 students so we are hoping to have a total of 26 students participating in this Off Site activity. Currently we have 21 students enrolled. We have an opening for 5 students so if parens would still like their child to participate please contact Mrs. Weber. The cost is $2000.00 per student which includes flights to Victoria, sailing for the 5 days, off shore activities such as kayaking and some tours. Mr. Van Kleeck is the teacher-in-chage and Mrs. Teasdale and Mrs. Weber will also be going on the trip.
Some parents have asked if the trips will be a regular part of the Grade 8/9 program and at this time we are not sure. If there is a high interest this could be a regular part of our program. If you have a child in Grade 8 next year please have them go on this trip just in case we do not offer it again in the future or chose to offer it every second year. This is just a reminder that we do Student Led Conferences in April. It is imperative that students attend with their parents as they are the ones that will show their parents their learning goals and the work they have done to achieve those goals. Students are the centre of their own learning and need the opportunity to speak about their learning journey to parents. So we are asking parents not to come without their child to conferences on Thursday, April 27 from 2:00 pm-7:00 pm. Parents will be given a short time to speak to teachers with their child to answer any questions that were not answered during the Student Led process. Please note that these mini-interviews are not very private so if as a parent you need more private time with a teacher you should contact the teacher to book a meeting or a phone call at a mutually agreeable time.
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Welcome to Mount Royal schoolThis blog will be maintained by Mrs. Weber-Principal to enhance communication with parents. If you would like to email us our email addresses are as follows:
September 2017
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