"One Book"

Powerful message this evening at the Family Fall Gathering about the importance of "One Book" .Many times that is what it takes for someone to become a reader.Let's make it our collective responsibility to encourage our children to open a book, to switch off the television or the video games. As adults let's use our sphere of influence to provide opportunities for all children to create the love of reading.

Resilience in Our Children

As I get deeper in my professional growth and always surrounded by young people, I am somewhat concerned by the the level of resilience in our children. Seems to me that when faced with a challenge, students have a difficult task grappling to find the strategies to deal with the specific issue. It appears that there is a dependency --- a sense that someone else fixing it, taking care of it. What is it that us, as adults have to reflect upon?
Michael Ungar in his book "Too Safe For Their Own Good" talks about how risks and responsibility help teens thrive. He writes about the "cocooning" of our children and by thus doing, are we doing them a disservice?

Parents as Partners...

As a firm believer in the Power of Three , I continually search for ways of engaging parents in  providing the best opportunities for our children. What other strategies should we use? Parent Forums on topics of interest ?? Guest speakers??

I usually read several different blogs dealing with a variety of topics such as leadership, partnerships and education. Recently, I came across a blog post that dealt with my constant questioning about family involvement in school. I was struck by this excerpt:As a teacher, it is imperative to get parents on your side and help them see how important their job is as their child's educational coach, so to speak. Their attitudes about school filter down and are passed on to their child. If education is viewed as important, the child will naturally be inclined to work harder and do better.

At DMS, we continue to reach out to our parents and families and ask for your support -for your partnership. I am afraid that the gaps will never close completely. But more importantly, the chances of our students becoming productive citizens slightly lessens. Research shows that parent involvement in school, particularly their child's school, causes an increase in school pride, as well as achievement.

There are a variety of ways to be involved ( granted that the kids do not want mom or dad in the building):

-      PAC meetings

-      SPEAC

-      Field Trips ( you’ll be amazed how much you’ll get to know!)

I often read this poem titled Unity:

I dreamed I stood in a studio
And watched two sculptors there,
The clay they used was a young child's mind
And they fashioned it with care.

One was a teacher:
the tools she used were books and music and art;
One was a parent
With a guiding hand and gentle loving heart.

And when at last their work was done,
They were proud of what they had wrought.
For the things they had worked into the child
Could never be sold or bought!

And each agreed she would have
failed if she had worked alone.
For behind the parent stood the school,
and behind the teacher stood the home!

Let's continue striving towards more involvement...

Snapshot

The last few months have just sped by – we welcomed new staff members, new grade six students,new student teachers, new counsellors, new international students as well as some new students in different grade levels. And of course, our new website!

I am very privileged to work with a dedicated and caring staff and our students are indeed fortunate to have nurturing adults in their lives.

A number of our grade 9 students participated in a two night retreat at Camp Imadene. They came back reinvigorated with lots of ideas for the school having had the opportunity to engage in team building and planning.

Our Community Involved Students participated in the Great Canadian Food Fight collecting over 1000 food items and helped out at the Ogden Point Warehouse to sort out donations.

The Volleyball and basketball seasons kicked in -- with much participation from our students.

Our Marine Biology class participated in an Eco field trip – they were able to witness whales, sealions in their natural habitat.

Our Youth Combatting Intolerance group attended the Motivational Day Conference at Mount Doug Secondary.

Poems of our Grade 7 have been submitted to a Poetry Contest. Please check out our website.

An army of excited grade 7 students attended their first school dance which was planned and organized by our Grade 8 Leadership class. Over 400 students attended - much fun was had by one and all.

Our Military History class has been out to visit Royal Road, experiencing a variety of tasks.

Our Athletic Leadership class organized the Remembrance Day Assembly Service, doing a fabulous job showcasing their peers work. We were all very proud to have our very own Cadets do the March of the Flags.

Stay tuned for more events and activities.

Children

Food for thought--- Poem "On Children" by Kahlil Gibran, Lebanese American poet

On Children
 Kahlil Gibran
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Yearend Emotions

This is the bittersweet time when we look at our children with pride -- to see how they have grown, how so responsible they are, how wonderful to see their excitement as they head into another leg of their journey.

Up to date, we have had our Grade 9 Leaving as well as our Athletic Awards Celebration .. what a priviledge and joy to see the Grade 9s all dressed up, absolutely stunning looking. It was a pleasant, enjoyable evening where all had fun.

 At the Athletic Awards night, it was great to see that there were 160 athletes who participated in an event (or several events) throughout the year. They performed well while learning skills attached to the specific sports but most importantly they learned how to be team members, how to be socially responsible, how to learn to lose and how to demonstrate sportsmanship. 

These skills and ways of being take time to be crafted.....kudos go to our staff who care deeply about our children, who give tirelessly and unconditionally.

Sparkle in the Eyes

These past weeks have been punctuated with activities and events... as is common at this time of the year. Festivals, Tournaments, Conferences, Meets  and ..............

~  nothing equals the sparkle in the eyes of the child who found that he had surpassed his peers in high jump
~ nothing equals the squeal of the child when told that she was chosen to write the Math test
~ nothing equals the stunned look of the child when told that he gets to go to the Conference
~ nothing equals the brillant smile that lights the face of the child when told that they are the only grade which got invited to the Festival

That is the beauty of working with children ....

Teenage Brains

Over the Easter weekend, I have had the luxury of time to reread Barbara Strauch book, "The Primal Teen- What the new discoveries about the about the teenage brain tell us about our kids ".Many parts of the book resonated with me as we live with similar behaviours everyday and hear from parents about the challenges of raising teens. A few quotes from the book, without comment:
 
- At a certain point around puberty, the brain undergoes a growth spurt, especially in the area that makes us humans, the frontal lobes.

- Adolescents, some neuroscientists now warn, may be one of the worst times to expose a brain to drugs and alcohol or even to a steady dose of violent video games.If "that teenage brain is still changing so much, we have to think about what kinds of experiences we want that growing brain to have."

- Dr Harry Chugani says, " the teenage years rival the terrible twos as a time of general brain discombobulation".

-  A teenager's sleep need, in fact far exceeds that of an adult.

- Most teenagers - 80% - traverse the teenage years with aplomb. But these teenagers' successes, Blum says, isn't on immutable attributes such as wealth or race, but on more mundane things like having at least one adult who cares about them and being connected to their school - this is the ordinary magic.

March

How time flies .. this is the common refrain that I have heard from almost every person that I have chatted with - be it student, parent,staff or community member. It certainly feels so as we are already in March and looking forward to a well deserved break!

We have had many parents attend the Parent/Teacher conferences and I firmly believe that with communication -- access to technology to verify what is for homework, how your child is doing -- we are in a better position to provide the best opportunities for our kids. There should be nothing getting in the way of finding out how your child is doing. However, we still have some students who have a number of Incompletes from last term. Teachers have contacted parents and we are doing our best to help the students convert these "I" into letter grades.

Our Concert Choir was up in Parksville last Tuesday and did very well. Track and Field under the direction of Ms. Haddon and Mr. Mussell has taken off and we had 65 students show up for the first meeting! This should be a great season.

During our Principal and Vice Principal professional development session, I was struck by the connections that are inherent in our School District. Schools continually work together  -- all with the objective of providing the best options for all students. For example, our TAG Leadership class will be visiting Wishart for an assembly on Anti- Bullying and our students attended Cabaret at Belmont last Friday. They were treated to an amazing concert and had the opportunity to see their peers perform.

As we embark upon the last week before the Spring Break, please take the opportunity to drop in and say hello. Have a splendid break.

No two days in a Principal's life is ever the same, much less two weeks! Last week, during our Performing Arts concert , we were entertained by our Band and Dance Academy and I was encouraged at the progress of the students- I find it difficult to believe that they are our Beginning Band students and have been playing only since September. As well, our Dance Academy students danced so beautifully. Every year we work at finetuning our Transition activities and events so that the Grade 6s have a smooth entry into this other stage of their learning journey.

This week has also been punctuated with preparing for meetings, dealing with day to day activities and dealing with issues on mental health. As society becomes more and more complex, we see a rise in anxiety among young people as some of them find it hard to navigate in a world full of transitions, demands and pressure. The key is to keep the line of communication open and to keep talking to our kids even though we get grunts and groans at times.

We also celebrated Anti Bullying Day and our Athletic Leadership class organised and presented a whole school assembly, which was run by students. It was very powerful as we had students telling their stories and sending the message that certain words, certain ways of behaviour are simply not acceptable. The challenge now is that ALL of us have a stake in this....we must all stand up and say no -- that takes courage but one at a time, we can do this. We are well on our way as on Friday, school was a sea of pink.

I was fortunate last Thursday to listen to a presentation by John Abbott who has written extensively on education. One of the points that I came away with is that the old adage "It takes a community to raise a child" is still, if not more vital. Children, especially teens need to have "assets" in their life - they need to have role models and people that they can talk to, not necessarily thier peers. So I invite you to be more active in your school --- let's continue to make our work a true partnership.

Reflection

As I reflect on the past week, I cannot but count myself to be so fortunate to work with amazing people. Recently, we have had cause to celebrate two achievements among our staff - Mrs Rasmussen, amazing Art teacher has been named National Art Teacher of the Year and will be receiving her award in Seattle in March. Ms. Furdal, science teacher extraordinaire will be competimg in the World Indoor  Rowing Championships in Boston later this month. This is indeed modelling life long learning!

School has been abuzz with new/not so new knowledge on Internet Safety as we had an informative and captivating presentation. According to recent statistics, 93% of teens aged 12 - 17 are now on the Internet, 89% of them go online from home. We have all been presented with strategies and tools that will keep us safe while we navigate in cyber space.The key is to use this effective tool critically, to stay informed and put these strategies in use. Please take a moment to visit The Door That's Not Locked where you will find several resources (www.thedoorthatsnotlocked.ca) 

We are in the midst of Transition activities for our Grade 9s and Grade 6s. We were very pleased to receive positive feedback about our students' visit to Belmont last Thursday; they were able to view and explore booths about the various programs and opportunities available to them. This week we will host the Grade 6s from our feeder schools to a Performing Arts Concert.

Friday, February 18th, being a Professional day, all staff will be engaged in continuing on the professional journey. It is amazing how renewed we feel when there has been opportunity to engage in new learnings and relationships.