Monthly Archives: December 2013

Snow @ClevelandEcole

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There was a winter wonderland at school today. There were many snow people built, a few giant snowballs (“No. You can’t roll that down the stairs!”)  and a few snow forts.

“Why can’t we throw snow?” ask the grade 7’s.

“Because people get hurt,” replies the Principal.

“We’ll sign a waiver,” reply the grade 7’s.

“Sorry,” answers the Principal.

We managed to make it through the recess and lunch break successfully, and now students are inside getting warm and hopefully learning a little bit.

Have a wonderful winter break. School will be closed from December 20th (at around 4:00 pm) to January 6, 2014.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Take care

 

Opportunities

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Some elementary students are often given opportunities beyond their classroom to lead and to help the school. Recently, we have seen a number of students take advantage of the opportunities to help out. They have helped at Christmas Concerts, on the playgrounds, cleaning up, bringing hurt younger students to the office, being lunch monitors, helping with recycling, etc.

This week alone, I have witnessed the following students making an extra effort to help: Sophie, Ben, Alyssa, Alex, Amalie, Makena, Thomas, Noah, Cam, Jan, Lauren, Genevieve, Kiya, Aspen, Mone, Mina, Makena, Sylvie, Veronica, Avin, Tiana, Tara, Hannah, Catherine, Grace, Sera, Sarah, Sydney, Maddy, Sophia, Cassandra, Katrina, Victoria, Georgia, Cole, Lucas, Audrey, Naomi, Julia, Emma, Matthew, Cole, Sydney, Cameron, Sebastian, Addy, Alayna, Emma, Ainslie, Nisa, Meghan, Michelle, Annika, Kalea, Edward, Linda, Kenny, Megan, Diba, Eric, Ashton, Hirad, Oliver, Krista, Kobi, Josh, AJ, Iiona, Mireille, Aria, Kristen, Bren, Liam, Scott, Jacob, Emma…

The list could go on. I know I have missed a few. Sorry.

Thank you to all our students who are helping to make this a wonderful school. I am so proud to be your principal.

Take care

Lights! Camera! Christmas!

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We have now finished our first performance, and it was an excellent show. Thank you to all the parents and family members who were able to join us this afternoon. We expect a full house this evening. If you have not already seen the show, you are in for a treat.

Tomorrow morning, we will invite all the classes to the gym and perform our show once again. Little brothers and sisters will get the chance to see their siblings perform.

A special thanks to all the students who have worked as sound, lights and stage crew. We also had a number of students help with programs and tickets. Thanks to everyone.

Also, thank you to all the teachers who have helped students with their performances, and help get the gym set up for each show.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Take care

Trying Instagram

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Last week, Jesse Miller (@MediatedReality) shared with us his knowledge, insights and opinions about social media. There were a number of interesting take aways for me (see previous post).

After the last session with students, I chatted with him a bit about Instagram. I had never used it, but was aware that a large number of Cleveland Elementary students use the app (minimum age for use is 13 – mmm).

There is a blog I follow called the Connected Principal, and I like to think of myself as being a connected principal, so I decided to try Instagram and connect in a new way.

With the help of Cassandra, Katrina and Sophia, I set up an account (@dwbeveridge – same as my twitter handle). They helped me create the profile, and gave lessons on how to use it.

They also showed me how to set the account’s privacy settings. We discuss a lot with students about keeping things private. We encourage them to set the privacy settings on their accounts. Privacy is good, but I like Jesee’s focus on thinking before you post. What if, everything you post, everything you write, everything you create, would be suitable for everyone to see or read or enjoy.

I have turned off my privacy settings, and will practice safe and respectful posting.

Take care.

Catching Up

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I promised myself that I would write more blogs this month, but life and work don’t always cooperate. I have a lot of ideas, but they never made it to print. Rather than wait until I have a lot of time, I will write short little bits of information throughout the day.

Thanks to everyone who organized the pancake breakfast, or who volunteered at the event. All the little elves and reindeer were as happy as the ones in the picture above.

The grade 7 Craft Fair was a tremendous success last week. There was a  slight bit of Christmas shopping madness at the start, but things slowed down a bit later on. Great job 7’s (and their parents too).

It is wonderful to see former students visit us. Many of them came during the craft fair (and bought up a lot of food). Nice to see you again. One former student (and her Mom) helped out by face painting anyone who asked. Thanks.

Thank you Mrs. McGuire. I have been feeling under the weather this week, and she has taken up a lot of slack for me. Sorry I missed the band concert, but I was home in bed.

I was asked to deliver letters to Santa Claus yesterday by some grade 1 students. Done 🙂

I have decided that this year, my favourite Christmas song is “‘Zat you Santa Claus?” by Louis Armstrong, followed closely by “Frosty the Snowman” by The Ronnettes (honourable mention to the Ramones for “Merry Christmas”).

My favourite album of Christmas music is still Merry Jazzmas. Do we still call them albums?

The stage has been set up for the Christmas concert. I am looking forward to the dress rehearsals and performances.

Our Kindergarten students are having their dental health checked this morning. In November, Vancouver Coastal Health came by to check their hearing and vision.

The grade 4’s, 5’s, 6’s and 7’s heard Jesse Miller speak about social media yesterday. I am always amazed at the number of children who report receiving text messages after 10:00 pm. Most grade 6 & 7 students. Many of the students in grade 4 & 5 also report receiving text messages after bed time. Let’s get those smartphones (and other devices) out of the bedroom. Now.

More from Jesse Miller:

  • Would you check your phone for a text message during a soccer game? No. Why would sports be more important than homework or sleep.
  • Sometimes, step away from your device and enjoy the moment. If your first thought when going on vacation is to wonder about the wifi in the hotel, maybe you should rethink your relationship with your device.
  • “Be the ones who start thinking about other people’s feelings.”
  • “We want you guys to be the generation who starts changing things.”
  • Approximately 80% of young drivers reported on the North shore that they have checked theie phone while driving 🙁

I find it amusing how some children seem so surprised that they are not allowed to throw snowballs at one another at school. The grade 7 students who say “I didn’t know.” always makes me smile a little bit (though I show them my stern Principal face). As an aside, I once had an angry parent complain that his son was hurt after being hit by a snowball thrown by another student after school. He was not amused when I pointed out that I witnessed him being the person who started the snowball fight on the playground that day.

There are only 6 school days left before the winter break. 🙂 Happy thoughts.

My student bloggers are so busy volunteering with things this year, we are having trouble with finding time to blog. I will have to look for a new plan in the new year. The plan will include them, but maybe expand to include other grades. We shall see.

Our charity train continues to fill up and we have two new conductors driving the train. Thanks for the donations. There are many families who benefit from our contributions to the Christmas Bureau and the Harvest Project. When considering what to donate during toy drives or charity drives, please think about those families who have teenagers. We often see gifts for young children, and we don’t want to leave the teens out in the cold.

I understand from my sister that some people have read my blog at my old school – John Abbott College. Bonjour Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue,

Sometimes gym class sounds like it is the most fun place to be in the world.

Getting ready for a Christmas Concert takes a lot of work. I mean a lot. It also takes patience. A lot of patience. Some days that is in short supply, but we are working on helping people find their Christmas patience.

I have recently shared a couple of articles with staff about students and stress. Some things to talk about:

There is a string’s concert tonight at Canyon Heights. I will be there at 7:00 pm. Looking forward to it.

It’s lunchtime now, and I am off to a meeting.

Take care