School Administrator
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by Mrs. Nicole Weber
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!
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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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