Keep It Green – Homeroom Challenge

Derek Hatch myp, pyp, social justice , , , ,

save energy

This week, we are inquiring about conserving energy. On Monday, under the direction of some grade 7 students (part of their service project), we turned off the lights in most classrooms and in the main hallways for the afternoon. Thank goodness it was a sunny day!

Now…some grade 6 students are challenging homerooms to come up with a list of things that YOU could do to conserve energy. The winner of the homeroom challenge for this week will be the homeroom who presents the best list.

Please add your list as a comment to this post. You may want to come up with a creative way to present your list.

IB for Me May 2015

Derek Hatch myp, pyp , , ,

thinker

“Let me think about it!”

“I’m still thinking about that.”

“Can I get back to you about that?”

“I need some time to think.”

Our Learner Profile attribute this month is Thinkers:  We use critical and creative thinking skills to analyze and take responsible action on complex problems. We exercise initiative in making reasoned, ethical decisions.

THINKING SKILLS: The search for understanding is central to the IB Programme, however the emphasis on the development of concepts does not preclude the importance of developing skills. Students need to develop a whole range of skills beyond those normally referred to as basic, including skills which transcend the individual subjects.

think

Grade 5 Exhibition Update

The Grade Five students are on the home stretch in their journey through exhibition. Each group has been participating in action projects for exhibition evening.  We are hoping to bring about a deeper understanding of how personal health affects ways of life and course of action.

exhibition

Exhibition evening will be held on May 13th at 6:30 pm at the school.  There will be a formal gathering in the gym for all community members to kick off the evening.   In order to extend the theme of “Who we are”, community members and invited guests will participate in a series of stations that describe the students learning and action process.  We appreciate your continued support in expressing our love of our shared humanity and connection to our catholicity.

The program for the evening can be found on our school website under the Exhibition tab.

Grade 9 Personal Project

The Grade 9 students have now participated in 3 workshops that have aided them in their planning and setting goals for their project.  For more information about the project please visit the personal project tab on our website.

How can parents help to develop students who are THINKERS at home?

  • Encourage your child to try to think of multiple solutions to problems independently.
  • Pose different real-life problems and questions to your child, like, “I’m not sure how to arrange the glasses so they can all fit in the cupboard,” or “I wonder how much the groceries in the cart will cost… how can we make an estimate?” or “We need enough cookies for the 20 people in your class. What kind of change should we make to our recipe?”
  • Ask your children questions when they are working on a problem like, “Do you have any ideas about how we might begin?” or “How can we do this differently?” or ” I had never thought of that. Tell me more about it.” Or “What other ways can we show that?” or “Why do you think that?” or “How did you figure that out?”
  • Help your child to become a better thinker by allowing them to solve problems and make decisions on their own.

Resources that will help promote the attribute of thinkers:

What will I be today

http://storybird.com/books/whatever-will-i-be-today/

The story of Ish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpICaczeQ9o

Creativity

https://vimeo.com/50917257

Contact

As always we welcome questions about the IB programme in our school.  Rosanne Boutin is the co-ordinator for the Middle Years Programme (MYP) and the the Primary Years Programme (PYP). She can be reached at 462-3806.

Get Well Cards for the Stollery #homeroomchallenge

Derek Hatch pyp, social justice ,

get-well-soon001

This week’s homeroom challenge is brought to you by Mrs. Fowler and some of her awesome kids!

One of the Exhibition groups has been in contact with the neurological department of the Stollery and are working on creating Get Well Cards for the children.  The Stollery expressed that they would appreciate as many as we can send, so we are making a homeroom challenge.  The challenge will be for homerooms to create as many cards as they can. This does not have to be a classroom project, but rather the students could make them at home and bring them in.  We will count how many cards each class creates and determine a winner.

Some of the messages that could be included in the card are:

– Inspirational quotes

– Get Well Soon!

– Hope you get better soon!

– God is with you!

– God Bless you!

– Be Brave!

– Be strong!

Thanks for your support and participation!!!

The Exhibition Group: Ava, Gwen, Hunter, Alex & Carlo:)

 This is an awesome student-initiated action project. We hope you will show some support by making a card…it will mean so much.

A brush with fame

Derek Hatch Uncategorized ,

During one of our weekly homeroom challenges, Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey was played over the intercom and homerooms were challenged to have their teacher email the name of the song and the artist. After the challenge, there was obviously some conversations about the song as it is a song which has been covered by many other artists. One of our teachers used this as a “teachable moment” to share the story of Arnel Pineda, who is now the lead singer of Journey. The class learned of Mr. Pineda’s own personal journey (pun intended) and were able to relate because many of the students come from Filipino families.

After this tweet was sent, many people on Twitter reacted to it:

The support and encouragement on Twitter was overwhelming. From the school Twitter account, we posted this:

The grade 3 teacher reacted by posting this:

A day or two later, much to the joy of our kids and teachers, we received this:

Wow…a tweet from Arnel Pineda, mentioning our school and our grade 3 class.

The kids were beyond excited!

This is the story of an awesome thing that happened using social media at our school. We were able to connect with some people who were, in turn, able to connect us with a celebrity. This is something that we will remember and cherish forever. Thanks to everyone, especially @coley716, who made this possible. It made us feel very special!

Where We Are in Place and Time #IBPYP

Derek Hatch myp, pyp, school spirit

Thank you to Mrs. Hemphill for preparing this post:

As part of the action component for our current IB unit, under the transdisciplinary theme of Where We Are in Place and Time, the Grade 4 students were thinking about how they could share about our learning.  Our central idea was “Settlements form around cultural similarities” and we wanted people to know that what we have been inquiring into is worth learning about.  Students brainstormed many different ideas of how we could take action and the one that motivated students was to find ways to share our culture with other people.  The students in Mrs. Mora’s class came up with the idea of challenging St. Clement to share their cultural clothing as a homeroom challenge.  This was the tweet they sent:

This was the response:

And here is some of our students sharing their culture:

Thanks to everyone for their participation!

Today’s Prayer and IB Learner Statement

Derek Hatch myp, Uncategorized

Thank you to Maria (8C) for sharing today’s prayer and this week’s IB Learner Statement.

school photo

Almighty God

We pray for our school.

We pray for all the teachers and the staff who work here,

We pray for all the children who study here.

We pray our school will be a place of great discovery, adventure and creativity.

May it be a place where we love to learn and where we learn to love.

A place where everyone is respected and all are deeply valued.

We ask all this through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

communicator

This month’s IB Learner Profile attribute is Communicator.

We are able to express our knowledge through communicating with one another. We are able to talk about our ideas and emotions in the classroom in ways that people are able to understand.

The way we communicate helps us to build relationships with students, as well as teachers.

With the development of our communication skills, we are able to easily provide others in the classroom and school community with information.

IB News – January 2015

Derek Hatch myp, pyp

This month our school will be focusing on the learner profile attribute of being an inquirer.

INQUIRERS ASK QUESTIONS

Why does it work this way? Why is it like this? How is this changing? How’s this connected to what I already know? How do I know?

What’s my responsibility? What’s it like? How does it work? What if? How come? I wonder if… Will this work? Should I? What are the points of view?

An inquirer shows a natural curiosity and seeks out answers to their questions.

What Forms Does Inquiry Take in Classrooms?

  • Exploring, wondering, and questioning.
  • Experimenting and playing with possibilities.
  • Making connections between previous learning and current learning.
  • Making predictions and acting purposefully to see what happens.
  • Collecting data and reporting findings.
  • Clarifying existing ideas and reappraising perceptions of events.
  • Deepening understanding through application of a concept.
  • Making and testing theories.
  • Researching and seeking information.
  • Taking and defending a position.
  • Solving problems in a variety of ways.

Developing the Learner Profile Attribute – Inquirer

“We nurture our curiosity, developing skills for inquiry and research. We know how to learn independently and with others. We learn with enthusiasm and sustain our love of learning throughout life”

Posted below are some resources that will help promote the attribute of inquirer:

Kindergarten through Grade 5

 Notebook babies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyV2gN0PdMY&index=2&list=PLzraS59lG5_kEoC_dbBBqgj6UV_BariAE

 What do you do with an idea?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSfNv0-SgJM

 Three Questions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pOIYGjjvRc

 Grades 6 – 9

 Born to Learn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=falHoOEUFz0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91roOPTe_wo

 School News

 Grade 5 Exhibition

The Exhibition process is underway in Grade 5. Currently the classes are in the research phase and are finding answers to their questions that are connected to the central idea and lines of inquiry under the theme of “Who we are”. Our central idea is “personal health affects ways of life and course of action”. The students will have an opportunity to learn from Alberta Health nursing students in January around topics of interest. They will be compiling all the information that they have gathered into a report format of their choice.

How can parents help to develop students who are Inquirers at home?

  • Encourage areas of your child’s interest by visiting the library to borrow books that explore these topics.
  • Develop an understanding of the Internet. Work with your son or daughter when the Internet is being used and try to instill the understanding that some Internet sites are not reputable.
  • Model being an inquirer. Admit when you don’t know the answer to a problem or a question and seek out answers in front of your child.
  • Catch your child being an inquirer. Make sure your child knows he/she has done something good. Expressing your approval is a powerful way to reinforce your child’s learning.

Tech Resources for parents

Top 10 book and bookish apps for young children:

http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/jan/04/top-10-book-and-bookish-apps-for-children-chris-haughton?CMP=share_btn_tw

As always we welcome questions about the IB programme in our school. Rosanne Boutin is the co-ordinator for the Middle Years Programme (MYP) and the the Primary Years Programme (PYP). She can be reached at 462-3806.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Activities

Derek Hatch school spirit, social justice

It is the first school day of Advent, so we thought we would share some of our Christmas activities.

This year, we are having a unique staff gift exchange.

All staff have been sent an invitation to join the gift exchange using Elfster, which is a free online tool which allows participants to join a gift exchange and get the name of the person for whom they will buy a gift. This is the message that was sent out to our staff:

On the afternoon of December 11, we will have a staff gift exchange and luncheon. Each staff member will draw the name of a different staff member (in advance) for which they will buy a gift. Here’s the fun part…you will buy a new toy for the child version of that staff member. You will also include a card which is written to that staff member (the child version of them). The staff member will keep the card and all of the toys will be donated to charity.

We thought this was a great way to spread some Christmas cheer. We will have some laughs as we imagine the child version of each staff member receiving that gift on Christmas morning. I am sure the cards will be hilarious! More importantly, we are going to be able to provide gifts for 50 less fortunate kids in Edmonton.

cartoon-of-excited-kid-receiving-a-gift-isolated-clipart-83383871

On Friday, December 5, we will be holding “break a rule” day. This is a day on which students donate money to break a school rule. Don’t worry…all of the rule breakages have been approved by Ms. Neynens. Students will donate money to wear hats, chew gum, wear pyjamas, etc. During the afternoon, students will be watching a movie. In MYP, students will be making a $5 donation which will allow them to watch a movie instead of going to classes. All of the money will be donated to the Sign of Hope campaign. In PYP, students will bring a loonie to watch a movie with their grade.

On the evening of December 17 (6pm – 8pm), we will be holding our Christmas Family Fun Night. Many fun activities have been planned including horse-drawn sleigh rides, face painting, cookie decorating, carolling, dancing, the list goes on…

  • Tickets will have to be ordered in advance for $5/family. A letter will be sent home to each family along with a form to confirm your payment and attendance.
  • Remember to stay together as a family; all children must be accompanied by an adult.
  • When you arrive at the Fun Night, please use the main entrance of the school where you wil receive your passport for fun.

We will be selling raffle tickets during during Student Led Conferences and Family Fun Night for some great prizes donated by the Mr. Goeretzki at Team Ford. This is authentic Oiler swag which has been autographed by Nail Yakupov, Taylor Hall and David Perron. Proceeds from the raffle will also go to the Sign of Hope campaign.

Oilers Swag

On December 18, we will be auctioning off our grade nine students to the highest bidder.

What

That’s right, some of our grade nine students will be auctioning off their services as “helper for a day”. Staff members and groups of students will donate money to have the services of a grade nine student to read to them, carry their books, push them on the swings, etc. Again, all of the proceeds will go to a great cause…the Sign of Hope.

Aside from these activities, there will also be many Student Council activities and homeroom challenges.

Please join in the fun!