Monthly Archives: January 2012

Stand By Me Program is coming back…

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Last year, the staff and PAC brought in a program that focused on social responsibility, respectful conflict resolution, making amends, and understanding how our choices affect others. The program is called Stand By Me, and it was presented to Kindergarten to grade 7 students last year.

I was not at Cleveland last year, but I have heard good things about the program. Students this year have told me that they remember the meetings, and that they learned some strategies fro getting along.

This year, we will be doing some follow up sessions with a Stand Be Me facilitator.

Our PAC will be advertising a parent night soon (keep February 20th clear). Look for more information in upcoming newsletters and/or on the Cleveland PAC web site.

More information about Stand By Me (including a schedule of class sessions) will be coming home soon.

If you have any questions about the Stand By Me program at Cleveland, please contact your child’s teacher, or come to tonight’s PAC meeting (7:00 pm in Cleveland’s library)

Social responsibility is quite a big topic, and cannot be covered in just a short session. It is something we need to teach and and reteach. We make use of the BC Performance Standards to help develop lessons and activities to promote positive behaviours. The Cleveland staff has a PBIS (Positive Behaviours Interventions and Support) committee to support students and help us all understand clear expectations for behaviours. The committee is also in charge of our Giving Tree, which lives in our front hallway and is becoming filled with leaves.

In order to support positive behaviours, we ask all members of the Cleveland Elementary School community to practice our Code of Conduct:

  • Care for Self
  • Care for Others
  • Care for the Environment

By showing care, kindness, patience and respect, we can all make this a better school.

Take care.

Lately on Twitter…

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There are often a number of great and interesting articles that come my way via Twitter. I would like to share a few.

On Spending Time with Children – Face to Face Talks – “Too much screen time can be detrimental to girls 8 to 12 years old, but there is a surprisingly straightforward alternative for greater social wellness.”

On Social Media – Trust Building Exercises for Parents and Their Connected Kids – When Jesse Miller was here with Mediated Reality, he spoke to parents about password behaviour and talking to kids about their online behaviour. This is an interesting infographic.

On Cell Phone Issues – Cell Phone Tips for children and parents. This is a good place to learn some good practices prior to giving your child a cell phone or to review good ideas if your child already has one.

On Assessment Practices – 6 Big Assessment (AFL) Practices – Chris Wejr is one of the people I follow on Twitter. He seems to come across many good ideas. Assessment practices are changing, and it is important to help students learn how to assess themselves.

On Showing Appreciation – Why Appreciation Matters – Sometimes applying information from the business world works well in education. “Whatever else each of us derives from our work, there may be nothing more precious than the feeling that we truly matter…” I think this even more important for children. We need to show appreciation for who they are and how they add to our lives.

On Asking Some Questions – If I could ask students anything about schools… – an interesting request from a Principal. He has created an online document where people can share questions that they would like to ask students. Some interesting questions so far.

On Something Way Out There – Rare Pictures From The Dawn of NASA Spaceflight – I was hoping these pictures were older than I am, but alas, I arrived in Pointe Claire, Quebec just a few short months prior to these photos being taken.

Take care.

Math Manipulatives

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Today I had the opportunity to visit many classes who were making use of math manipulatives.  We use math manipulatives to help students better understand math concepts and to explore mathematical ideas.

Some of the math manipulatives we use at Cleveland include base-ten blocks, 3D shapes, pattern blocks, tangram puzzles, dominoes, pentominoes, geoboard dot paper, interlocking cubes, tiles and number lines.

If you want to learn more about the world of math manipulatives, I recommend going online and searching. I like the following sites:

I am sure that there are many more excellent sites out there. These are good places to start.

Have some fun exploring math with your children. Go online, play math games, or use an iPad (I don’t have one, but I hear they’re fun).

Take care.

Gung Hay Fat Choy

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Today many students and classes celebrated Chinese New Year. We have many wonderful dragons and lanterns in our front hallway, as well as other work from students displayed throughout the school.

We look forward to what the Year of the Dragon will bring.

My blog has been a bit quiet lately. Things have been rather busy here at school. I will try in this new year to get to my blog more regularly.

Gung Hay Fat Choy.

Take care.

 

Snow falls at Cleveland

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This week at school, we have had a bit of snow. You may have noticed. Not too much, but just enough to have a bit of fun. Our student bloggers liked it so much that they wanted to go play outside rather than write a blog. Students had fun and were smiling throughout the lunch period.

On these snowy days, Ms. Orr and myself spend the mornings making sure the stairs are clear and salt is spread out so children don’t slip and get hurt. Some still find icy patches that we missed.

We encourage children to have fun, play safe, and be good on these days. Throwing snow is not allowed, as there often ice and rocks picked up with the snow.

Some children built snowmen, some wrote in the snow. We had soccer games, tag games, basketball, hanging out on the swings and tether ball. Some children discovered animal tracks in the snow and tried to identify the bird or mammal.

A forest can be quite magical after an evening’s snowfall. Ours was no exception.

Looking forward to more fun days outside. I have not checked the weather forecast, but I am ready if more snow comes.

Take care.