As I write this, we still have a few of our moms setting up the last items for tomorrow's big event. Thank you to everyone who helped organize Springfest. It seems like it is going to be amazing!
Thank you so much for all the wonderful accolades regarding Wizard of Oz. All the staff and students appreciate your support and appreciation. The students should be so proud of themselves.
Over the last week, I've attended a couple of conferences that were truly inspiring. The first was around a new way of creating grade 9 classes. Many American schools are starting to rearrange their grade 9 students into "homerooms" with less rotary and a strong team of teachers supporting them throughout the first year. These new models are being looked at seriously as a result of the decreasing and quite frankly, startling, decline in graduation rates. The unfortunate thing is that we are seeing similar data across TDSB. The conference also gave us some new "transition" strategies to look at with our feeder high schools.
The second conference was called "Boys Adrift" which focused on the growing issue of unmotivated and underachieving boys. Again, the high school and university graduation data of boys are following a disturbing pattern. According to Stats Canada, 68% of the university graduates in 1971 were boys, compared to 40% in 2006. The rest of the conference focused on the factors the speaker, Leonard Sax, says are the contributing factors; namely changes in education, video games, medications, endocrine disruptors and "revenge of the forsaken gods" or the collapse of our social constructions of masculinity. For obvious reasons, these issues are very real to many of you and us as educators. If you want to read more on the topic, we did buy a copy of Sax's book, Boys Adrift. If you want to borrow it, please come and see me.
Finally, if you have any pictures for this year's LINK yearbook, the deadline for submissions is May 8th. Send them to 'kb_laco@sympatico.ca'
Just a few dates to remember:
May
2nd-Springfest
4th-Ms. Malobabic's class to Sprockets
5th-Grade 5 Greek Olympics
7th-Intermediates (some) and Dr. D go to Power Fluid Challenge
8th-Pizza Lunch; Frisbee Tourney;
11th-14th-Grade 4-8 Track and Field Try Outs -ECI-follow Mr. Bracht's schedule
13th-Red Maple Trip to Harbourfront-Mrs. McGee and select Grade 7 & 8 students
14th-Grade 4/5 Students attend World Energy Festival; Sr Boys' Soccer Tourney; Sean Cassidy-Author visit for Kindies
15th-Forest of Reading Lunch-Grade 3-8 in the Library; Lockdown Practise @ 9:0018th-Victory Day!
22nd-Sharing Assemblies
25th-West Track and Field Meet @York University-Grade 2-8
26th-Grade 3 & 6 EQAO
29th-Pizza Day
June
2nd-Dental Screening
3rd-Free the Children Assembly
4th-Grade 4-8 York University Conference Finals; Grade 1 Classes to the Zoo!
5th-Grade 6 Cosmic Connections; Grade 2 Classes to Harbourfront
8th-12th-Grade 8 Quebec Trip
8th-Parent Council
10th-Grade 4-8 City Track Finals-U of T
23rd-Grade 8 Graduation
25th-Last Day for Students
