I have always firmly believed in the abilities and potential of children. Too often children are perceived as empty vessels that need to be filled with the knowledge of others. From the time they are infants, children explore and experience their world through play and by the time they arrive for their first day of school, they have already spent several years learning about the world. Every day I learn something new and exciting and those lessons often come from the children I am fortunate enough to have in my life. Everyone in our building is a learner and that learning can often happen between students. Each of them has the ability to teach and lead each other by sharing who they are and what they know. Students come to our school from all over the world, having had experiences in their lives that I cannot even conceive of. Some come from places of great beauty and others from places that have experienced war and great sadness. Each of them brings these experiences with them into our classrooms. This truth is not limited to our students, it is also true of the caring adults that dedicate their lives to being with them and teaching them. Our school is filled with amazing people of all ages. Each of them has the ability to teach me something that I didn't know or hadn't considered. Each day I spend at school is a day that I spend learning as well as teaching. School is not just a place where children learn, it is a place that we all learn together. When we came back from our spring break our admin team hosted an assembly about students as leaders. Since that time we have been recognizing what students do to support our Three Pillars of Care. When a staff member recognizes how a student is caring for themselves, others or our place, they recommend them to be recognized on the announcements in the morning. This has quickly become my favourite part of the day, in part because we are focusing on some extraordinary students who are leading by sharing who they are and what they know. A larger part of my love of this practice is because each of these students comes to the office and we have a few minutes to chat as I engrave a stone with their name to be placed in our Pillars of Care. What has struck me is that while they appreciate being acknowledged, students don't see these things as "a big deal". It is part of what they do every day and how they show others what they believe and care about. This insight into how special our students are is what makes me proud to work alongside them every day. Grade 3/4 Update - The Zones of RegulationWe have been very fortunate to have Donna Pruski, a mental health professional working with our Grade 3/4 classes on the Zones of Regulation. Students are participating in a variety of activities to help them recognize and regulate their own emotions and show empathy towards others. They are learning to use specific strategies to energize their bodies when in the blue zone and calming down strategies when out of control in the red zone. Math Challenge of the WeekScrabble Math - by Ms. Garrah Ms. Garrah buys 500 scrabble tiles for her class to make crafts. There are 5 groups in her class. If the tiles are shared equally among the groups, how many tiles does each group get? Using the scrabble tiles, each student makes one word. Each table group figures out the total value of all their words combined. Which group has the most points? The least? What is the difference? Supports: Points Values
Extensions: Find the probability of picking vowels or certain letters. Change the number of tiles or groups. Assessment: Use reflection time after completing the task (What was the big idea we worked on today? What did I learn? What good ideas did I have? In what situations could I use this knowledge I learned today? What question do I have about todays work?) or students can design their own questions or write an assessment for others. School UpdatesFees for Field Trips and Special Performances At the beginning of the year all parents are charged fees to cover field trips and special performances. These fees are used to pay for out of school experiences for students and the opportunity to bring in authors, buses and activities for students. Charging this fee at the beginning of the school year means that we do not charge for individual field trips and all of these funds are fully used to support your child's learning. If you have not yet paid your child's fees, please contact the office. Swimming
Camp Chief Hector Outdoor School - Grade 5/6 Recently a letter has gone home to all grade 5/6 parents advising them that we have managed to obtain grants and funding from several sources to fund this exciting experience for our students. Parents will pay only the $20.00 Field trip form charged to parents for every student in order to make this funding successful. If you have not paid this fee yet, please contact the office immediately. We are grateful for the support we have received from student fundraising through bottle/can collections, Pizza 73, Strong Kids, Education Matters and the Williams Family. With this generous funding, we have been able to ensure that every student can attend camp without any charge above the annual field trip fee. Weekly UpdatesPE FOCUS - Handball/Tchoukball Grade 1 - 3 students eat at 12:00 and Grade 4 - 6 students eat at 12:28. At recess time the large playground is open to everyone.
Remember to check us out on Twitter for updates and important information. -@DHarknessCBE or search for our hashtags, #DHSCBE, #MathatDHS and #DHSMoves.
Don't forget to check our school website - schools.cbe.ab.ca/b347 We welcome your feedback on this blog. Please let us know how we are doing and what you'd like to see here.
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Remember to check out our school website - http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b347
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