Congratulations to Collette Winters who has moved from Director of Planning to Director of Operations.
Rocky View administration has selected a company called Integrity Counts to be the medium by which Rocky View staff can report under the whistleblower legislation. The rollout of this new initiative will occur over the next few months.
The January 7 meeting the Board had the privilege of a presentation given by online French Immersion teacher, Kathleen Marshall. She spoke about the success she has had in the online environment. She spoke to the importance of creating relationships online and the variety of methods that she has used.
With her drama background, Kathleen Marshall has been very creative in the manner in which she engages students. Her live examination of owl pellets is one example.
She believes that learning is a shared experience. Both teacher and students must engage in the learning. It is not just the teacher giving information. She has interesting ways for students to connect with each other by allowing activities where the students learn about each other and their interests and passions so the students can connect offline.
Ms. Marshall believes that teaching will continue to change and improve as a result of COVID-19. Her practice, and reflection of the practice, will pave the way for others to follow suit and improve student learning.
The following link is a free opportunity for students to develop their computer and employability skills. It offered by IBM.
The learning platform is called Open P-TECH and this is the website: www.ptech.org/open-p-tech. It has so much cool content for both students and teachers. Mostly appropriate for Grades 9-12
If someone wants to create an account and is not part of a P-TECH school, you can use this link to register: ptech-reg.eu-de.mybluemix.net.
The following is an excerpt from WebMD:
Government figures show the proportion of children who arrived in emergency departments with mental health issues increased 24% from mid-March through mid-October, compared with the same period in 2019. Among preteens and adolescents, it rose by 31%. Anecdotally, some hospitals said they are seeing more cases of severe depression and suicidal thoughts among children, particularly attempts to overdose.
The increased demand for intensive mental health care that has accompanied the pandemic has worsened issues that have long plagued the system.
Link: tinyurl.com/1wiz44nf
Once again, I would encourage anyone who is dealing with anxiety issues to take a look at YouTube.com for “Therapy in a Nutshell” with Emma McAddams, a licensed psychologist. Her videos are short but very informative and strategies can be used immediately.
For all school related updates, please visit: www.rockyview.ab.ca
www.albertafamilywellness.org/what-we-know/aces. This is a link about Adverse Childhood Experiences and how it plays out in our classrooms and the lives of children. You may have received this as a direct email from the Rocky View administration already.
www.albertafamilywellness.org/resources/video/the-ace-study-building-self-healing-communities
An interesting study from Finland speaks to successful anti-bullying research which focused on the role of the by-stander. It focused on the by-stander taking a more active role. Students were first taught what bullying was: an intent to hurt by mocking, gossip, intimidation or exclusion. Secondly, they taught kids that the behavior was not OK. And thirdly, the program taught the kids how simply by avoiding reinforcing the bullying behavior by laughing or other acknowledgements, the bullying decreases.
There is a new Deputy Minister of Education, Andre Tremblay.
Submitted by Judi Hunter
