SD64 Gulf Islands

Southern Gulf Islands Schools

parents

Digital Citizenship

Tagged With: , ,

DPAC – Promoting Digital Citizenship

The Gulf Islands Schools District Parents’ Advisory Committee, or DPAC, recently hosted Jesse Miller from the Cowichan area to lead student and parent workshops about digital literacy. DPAC worked with the Parent Advisory Committees (PAC) at Salt Spring Elementary (SSE) and Middle Schools (SIMS), as well as the Local Action Team which is funded by the Salt Spring Island Foundation.

The presentations focused on how technology and social media can be used as a tool, and on how important it is to be curious about our own use, and our families’ and friends’ use, to ensure that we are engaging with social media in as safe a way as possible. Jesse presented to students in grades 4 and 5 at SSE, and grades 6 and 8 at SIMS.

DPAC used technology to talk about technology. The parent workshop on digital citizenship was made available to PACs in across the Southern Gulf islands using an app called Zoom, thanks to the District tech support. The opportunity was engaging and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. The DPAC and LAT hope to partner again for further education on the topic. Stay tuned!

You can learn more about BC’s Digital Literacy Framework and online safety at these links:

BC’s Digital Literacy Framework
Media Smarts
Online Safety

story: Jenny Redpath

Enhancing Communications with Parents & Students

Tagged With: , , ,

Over the next few weeks, there will be a series of stories about how technology is used to enhance learning in Gulf Islands School District 64. The first of these stories introduces the Family and Student Portals as a way to improve communications and access for Gulf Islands families and students.

At the beginning of November 2018, Gulf Islands Secondary School (GISS) launched the MyEducationBC Family Portal. This online portal promotes a strong home-school connection as parents are able to access the MyEdBC system daily to view attendance records for their student. Student schedules, progress towards graduation, and other demographic information can also be monitored. When report cards are ready for distribution, they will now be published to the portal for online viewing.

In mid-November, the Student Portal of MyEducationBC was launched online at GISS. This secure portal, used in most school districts in BC, is used to manage student data. Privacy and security is guided by BC’s School Act and the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act (FIPPA). The student portal provides access to many of the same services delivered by the Family Portal.

Parent and Child at Family Portal
If you are a parent or student served by GISS, you can go to their website at GISS.sd64bc.wpcdev.ca to learn more about how to access this service.

story: Clare Nuyens

Large ‘Numbers’ Engaged at Math Night

Tagged With: ,

About one hundred people attended Math Night on the evening of Tuesday, April 26th. Mathematicians young and old came together in the multipurpose room at GISS to engage in mathematics, explore puzzles and experience some hands on mathematics. Richard Hoshino, a professor at Quest University in Squamish, was on hand to share stories of how his students are exploring the technique of reformulating hard real-world problems into simpler equivalent math problems. Richard brought this technique to life in the demonstration of the leap frog problem: how to swap girls at one end of a line with the boys at the other end of the line, without having to move anyone backwards. Audience participation helped to solve the problem, and Richard helped us work towards a solution by having us consider simpler stages of the problem. There were lots to do for everyone, and one young attendee had so much fun he was hoping to come back the next night.

Math Night at GISS (John Cameron)

Math Games Night (John Cameron)

IMG_0539(Janet-Hoag)

IMG_1095(Janet-Hoag)

IMG_0571(Janet-Hoag)

Story: Sue Robinson

Photos:
John Cameron (#1-#3)
Janet Hoag (#4-#7)

Communicating Student Learning Forum – May 5

Tagged With: , ,

The SD64 K-12 Innovation Partnership — a Postscript

With just two months remaining in the second year of BC’s K-12 Innovation Partnership project, about 25 educators from Gulf Islands schools gathered for a project review. The May 5th review was about the Communicating Student Learning initiative with our focus on enhancing student ownership of learning by having students self-evaluate and set learning goals. Student-led conferences, student reflection, portfolios, pedagogical narratives, and grade-less reporting are all practices that have been collaboratively refined over the past two years to best engage students and parents in learning.

Thousands of students, teachers and parents have been impacted by the project. For example, “from interviews of primary students completed in early May (2016), the interviewers noted that students involved in the project were more metacognitive (thinking about their own mental processes) in their responses than students not involved. For example, in response to “What helps you learn?” students not involved with the project responded with “listening” or “paying attention” whereas those involved in the project had deeper, more reflective answers such as “setting goals” or “self-assessing my work.” (Learning & Assessment Survey, SD64, 2016). In addition to these hundreds of students, there were students, parents and teachers involved in the project from kindergarten through grade 12.

Participants at our meeting on May 5th believe the assessment types highlighted in the project result in students who are more engaged in their learning. In particular, teachers have observed an increase in student voice and greater authenticity in assessments. Other evidence of increased student engagement includes greater accountability and student ownership for their learning, more focus on the learning, and a greater confidence level for students.

At the May 5th Forum, teachers reported that greater accountability for learning is now provided to parents. Reporting has turned into more of a three-way conversation about a child’s learning and is based on ongoing assessment in which the student has a voice. “Helping parents understand the value of self-reflection and self-leadership” for students is also one of our biggest challenges, wrote one participant. Others expressed similar thoughts and noted the importance of keeping parent involvement high.

Communicating Student Learning Forum

The need for a systemic approach that maintains a record, that is simple, and that focuses on growth has led to the development of a “Snapshot” tool. This tool collects evidence of learning and captures student voice alongside the teacher and parent voice. It also highlights next steps in learning. The ‘Snapshot’ has spawned other new models for capturing the progress of a student’s reading journey, or an exit interview with a student.

Other challenges that need to be addressed include finding time for professional conversations, and prioritizing practices to keep assessment and learning manageable and focused on the student learning. Grade level groups met during the last half of the forum to design next steps as we consolidate and extend our work in ways that keep student engagement at the heart of our work.

For a brief overview of the K-12 Innovation Partnership for Gulf Islands Schools, click here.

Educators will be interested in notes from May 5th’s “Communicating Student Learning Forum” found here.

  1. Where are we at?
  2. The Biggest Challenge
  3. Summary of Grade Group discussions: Challenges & Next Steps

Doug Livingston
Director of Instruction — Learning Services

photos: John Cameron

Rammed Earth Garden Project

Tagged With: , ,

How did the Rammed Earth project at SSE come about?

 
The Hillside Garden project at Salt Spring Elementary School is coordinated by the SSE PAC Garden Committee, a group led by about eight parents with five teachers involved. The group is focused on helping expand outdoor gardening opportunities at SSE. Transformation of the hillside between the Elementary and Middle Schools has been a long-term vision, stretching back nearly 20 years. About six years ago, a group of parents and teachers were able to do some terracing and install a sturdy deer fence around the space. This year, the newly-formed Garden Committee decided to contribute to this vision. We started with a draft design and gathered feedback from the teachers. Providing better access to the garden and safer terracing was a top priority. 

Our first project was to clear years of blackberry and gorse from the space. We planted daffodil bulbs with several classes in October. Then, we opened a new gateway into the garden from near the gym entrance and build a small staircase up to it. Since the ELF StrongStart classroom is right next to the garden, we created a sandbox for them within sight of their class windows. 

When researching garden terracing, we talked with local rammed-earth expert, Joss Krayenhoff, with Sirewall/Terra Firma, and he offered to lead a volunteer-based effort to help get this started. He actually went to SSE as a child, and felt this was exactly the way he wanted to give back to the community. We just needed to come up with funding for materials and recruit volunteers.  

re-at-sse4

Why a Rammed Earth approach?

Our committee got excited about rammed-earth, not only because Joss offered to help, but also because it uses local materials and is simple enough to be constructed by volunteers. It also provides room for creativity. We were able to incorporate shells, rose quartz, glass art, and other interesting rocks along with color stripes into the walls. Luckily, one of the parents on the Committee, Charlie Gosset, owns an excavating company and offered to do the earth-moving work pro-bono. Others in the community also got involved.

We couldn’t have done this without generous help and donations from Sirewall/Terra Firma Construction and Charlie’s Excavating, as well as from Akerman’s Pit, Windsor Plywood, Gulf Coast Materials, and Dave’s Blasting.

Individual community donors included Celia & Karl Meade, the SSI Garden Club, the SSI Firefighters’ Association, Country Grocer, and Island Savings. This includes cedar 4×4’s for more upcoming terraced beds.

Jana’s Bakeshop, Natureworks, and Barb’s Buns provided snacks for the volunteers. This is truly a community project.

What can you tell me about the Earth Day project?

Over the Earth Day weekend, 24 grown-ups and a number of kids helped build the two terraced garden beds and a 30-foot-long retaining wall. The team included Joss, Charlie, Dan, Stephane, Anna, Myna, Lena, Toby, Brenda, Meghan, Roger, Brian, Jeff, Evan, Nicole, JZ, Doug, Shelly, Leigh, Sylvia, Jerry, Michelle, Sean, Denys and Robin. It was a lot of fun. 

And, it was really physical work, but most of it was pretty straight forward, so we got a good rhythm going. We were extremely lucky, too, that in addition to Joss, two dads with serious construction skills, Dan and Stephane, stayed for the whole weekend to help. 

re-at-sse2

re-at-sse5

re-at-sse3

re-at-sse1

What kind of a timeline before it looks like a flourishing garden? What’s next?

We pulled the forms to expose the new walls the following week! 

rammed earth walls at SSE

rammed earth walls at SSE

rammed earth walls at SSE

rammed earth walls at SSE

rammed earth walls at SSE

Next, we’ll finish constructing the wooden terraced beds above the new rammed-earth retaining wall. We’ll also develop an updated plan for the rest of the garden — probably focused on building an outdoor gathering space. Then, we’ll need to raise some funding for good growing soil. 

In all likelihood, it will take several years until the Hillside Garden is really “dialed-in.” Once we’ve got soil in the beds, Salt Spring Seeds and Bullock Lake Farm have offered seeds and starts, so you may see some growth this summer. 

Long-term, there are plans for rainwater catchment and perhaps a small greenhouse. Interestingly, studies on successful, sustained school gardens have shown that the first criteria for success is having a strong Garden Committee, followed by teacher training in gardening skills and related curricula. See this article. We’d like to organize something for the teachers who might not have grown up gardening themselves.

Anything else you’d like readers to know?

In the spirit of community, while now physically sore and tired, being a part of this Earth Day project was deeply satisfying and creatively collaborative–it was a job well done and a new skill learned. 

If anyone would like to join the Garden Committee, please feel welcome and get in touch (riverjenkinson@gmail.com). We usually meet the first Tuesday after school, with a Sunday work party each month. You don’t need to have a child at the school to be involved with helping kids learn one of the most important skills out there: how to grow their own food. 

Kudos to Robin Jenkinson for a fun and well organized volunteer weekend!
And thanks to Robin Jenkinson for telling and writing this story.
—Doug Livingston

Photos:
Top photo and bottom close-ups: John Cameron
Bobcat Driver and the large block under “…Earth Day project”: Toby Carson and Robin Jenkinson