School Administrator
Blog
by Mrs. Nicole Weber
We would like to welcome everyone back from a cold winter break in Calgary! I am sure we are all crossing our fingers for a chinook!
A few updates for this month: 1. Student cell phone use- as a staff we are struggling with the use of cell phones during class time. Although we have worked diligently to reinforce the purpose of cell phones in an educational setting, we are constantly having to deal with issues such as: texting during learning time, videoing teachers or other students without their consent, online gaming and social media bullying. Due to the inordinate amount of time being spent on dealing with these issues we have made the decision that students must leave their cell phones in their lockers during class time. They still can have access before, after and during the lunch time as long as they are following our school protocols on cell phone use. We hope to have parental support with this issue. 2. Parent opinion of electronic devices-we have notice a disturbing reality in our building in the lack of student interaction because of electronic devices. For example: it is not unusual to walk through our building to see most students engrossed in their device and not talking face to face with each other. Whatever happened to the days of running around outside for exercise or just looking each other in the eye and having a conversation? This brings me to ask parents what your thoughts are on this issue? Should cell phones be banned during free time to teach our students there are more things to life than their devices? If you would like to share your opinion, please comment in the section below. 3. Sailing Trip- we are currently looking at ways to bring a Sailing Trip to our school for the 2017-2018 school year. This would be an exciting opportunity for our students yet a costly one. Most sailing trips range from $1250-$2000 per student. Stay tuned for more details. We are in the process of planning a Health and Wellness Day for our students on April 20, 2017. We are looking for parents who have expertise in an area that would fit under Body, Mind, Soul-for example: yoga instructors, Health Body Image for Teens, Drug Awareness etc. If you are able to offer one or more sessions please contact Mr. Fettes or Mr. Van Kleeck as they are in-charge of the sessions.
We are also looking for a well known Calgarian to be the keynote speaker at this event to speak on the topic of Youth Leadership and Empowerment. If you have a contact pleas email Mrs. Weber. This will be a great opportunity for our students and we hope to involve parents in a variety of ways. Please attend our January School Council meeting if you would like to help out with this event. We would like to take this opportunity to welcome Jennifer Mahal to our school. Ms. Mahal will be taking over for Mrs. Booth during her maternity leave. Mrs. Beaver's has also confirmed that she will be returning to school on November 21.
Prime Minister's Awards for Excellence in Education-The Prime Minister, as part of a statement in honour of World Teacher’s Day, has just personally announced the launch of the 2016-17 Prime Minister’s Awards.
The Prime Minister's Awards for Teaching Excellence have honoured exceptional elementary and secondary school teachers in all disciplines since 1993, with over 1,500 teachers honoured to date. Recipients are honoured for their remarkable achievements in education and for their commitment to preparing their students for a digital and innovation-based economy. Parents might be interested in reading more about the dangers of fentanyl (Fentanyl information for Teachers and Parents). Drug Awareness is part of our Health Program and this will be addressed in health class by TA teachers. We encourage all parents to have this discussion with their children to reinforce the dangers of this drug.
Staffing Update: We have increased Mrs. Deeks time at our school to work in the area of literacy support to help students who are struggling in the area of reading comprehension. She will begin this work on Nov. 14, 2016. Ms. Mahal will take over Mrs. Booth's maternity leave at the beginning of December. School Council: We are currently looking for parents from our Grade 7 population to join our School Council this year as most of our parents come from our grade 9 population. If you are able to attend the next meeting is Nov. 28 at 6:00 pm in the library. We would like to update parents on some changes to our staff. Ms. Hamm has extended her medical leave until December 12 and Ms. Grey will continue in her position. Mrs. Beavers (in ACCESS class) has also extended her leave for another 5 weeks.
The school has received their Resource Allocation for this school year. We are fortunate enough to increase Mrs. Stark's time in the library to 20 hours per week starting next week. We also are looking at hiring a 0.5 FTE literacy teacher to help increase reading comprehension rates in our student population. The ACCESS class is looking for exercise bike donations for their classroom. Please contact Mr. Pocock if you have a bike you would like to donate. A big thank you to our School Council for decorating our staffroom today to celebrate World Teacher Day! We are thankful that parents recognize the work of our staff and all they do for the students of Mount Royal!
Just a reminder about some important dates in October:
1. Oct. 7 Professional Day-no school for students. Teachers will continue their work around analyzing data and developing strategies to improve teaching practices for our School Development Plan. 2. Oct 10 Thanksgiving- no school for students 3. Oct 25 Photo Re-take Day 4. Oct 31 Halloween- students are allowed to wear costumes to school but we request that no weapons come to school if it is part of their outfit Follow the school on: Twitter @MtRSchool Facebook www.facebook.com/mountroyalschool Just a reminder to parents to attend our first School Council Meeting of the year tonight at 6:00 pm. We are holding our General Elections and all parents can put their names forward for an executive position. Meeting will be held in our Learning Commons-no experience necessary!
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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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