Monthly Archives: May 2012

On My Way To Outdoor School

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Our grade 3 students are at the North Vancouver Outdoor School today. I am on my way soon to go visit and teach their evening session after dinner.

(Photo from the North Shore Outlook)

I look forward to hearing the many wonderful stories about their time on the farm, or their walk in the forest, or their study of the pond or stream.

Yesterday Mrs. Orr went up to teach, and she had reported that things were going really well.

The Outdoor School is one of our gems. Students in North Vancouver are so fortunate to be able to spend time there, and to learn in one of the most beautiful settings, Paradise Valley.

See you tomorrow.

Take care.

Cleveland Walks

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I hope everyone is aware of our upcoming Cleveland Walks event on Wednesday, June 6th. It has been in many newsletters, including our May 25th newsletter. For those who have not read it, please do so.

Thanks to the efforts of Sarah Taylor, and the support of a number of other parents, we have had a great number of children participate in walking, scootering or biking to school on our Cleveland Walks days.

The are so many benefits to walking with your children in to your neighbourhood school. Even if you live far away, you can drive part way to school, park, and then walk in the rest of the way.

An interesting article came my way recently via twitter – Kids Who get Driven Everywhere Don’t Know Where They’re Going. This is an interesting read. Some key ideas from the article for me were:

“vehicular traffic …changes the way children see and experience the world by diminishing their connection to community and neighbors.”

“Children who had a “windshield perspective” from being driven everywhere weren’t able to accurately draw how the streets in their community connected, whereas children who walked or biked to get around produced detailed and highly accurate maps of their neighborhood street network.”

There are many initiatives underway to broaden our perspectives on school zones. Active & Safe Routes to School is a web site with some good ideas. With the support of many Cleveland parents, we have been working this year with the District of North Vancouver and our School Board to look at our routes to school. We need your help. Can you do your part to help with the traffic congestion in front of our school? I believe you can.

  • Imaging a school without a traffic jam out front every day.
  • Imagine that as 3:00 pm roles around, we see most parents have parked a few blocks away and walked to school to meet their kids.
  • Imagine everyone driving less than 30 km per hour in the neighbourhood (not just in front of the school) when children are present.
  • Imagine all drivers modeling excellent etiquette around school zones.
  • Imagine no one parking in front of the neighbours drive way.
  • Imagine all children and families using the proper crosswalks.
  • Imagine roads where no one is texting on their phone while driving.
  • Imagine safe routes to school.

Please all commit to making sure our roads are safe for everyone. We need to make our roads safer. This article, and this video (AT&T Don’t Text While Driving Documentary – note: this video may not be suitable for children – watch it first before you share), might help everyone understand why we need to do better.

Take care.

 

 

 

Thank You PAC

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Do parents of Cleveland students know how lucky they are? Do they understand the amount of work that some parent volunteers put into helping this school be a safe and caring place for all community members?

I’m not sure they are aware of all that CPAC (Cleveland PAC) does. I’m aware, and I think we need to once again remind our community of some of the PAC role in our schools.

But first – THANKS!!!

Thanks to the 2011/2012 CPAC executive team who held their last meeting last night. There were a lot of thank yous given out to individual parents and the teams who have done excellent work in a variety of areas, and thank you to all the leaders in the parent community who have contributed their time and energy to Cleveland.

Thank you those people who’s contributions and leadership may be lessening next year. Some people are stepping down, and we are looking for new people to volunteer for leadership (i.e. Safety Patrol). We appreciate the efforts given.

Thanks to the new PAC exec for 2012/2013. I look forward to working with you, and supporting the relationship the PAC has with our teachers and other staff. I will let the PAC make the announcement about who are the members on the new PAC exec.

At last night’s final PAC meeting of the year, a quick review of the many programs that parents support included: event coordinating, fund raising, Bike Week, Cleveland Walks, Free The Trees, Fun At Lunch, earthquake preparedness, Father/Daughter dance, Pancake Breakfast, PAC directory, food programs, grade 7 parent team, Canadian Parents for French, District PAC liaison, School Planning Council, guest speakers, communications coordinator, Student Safety Patrol, Class Representatives,… I am sure there was more, and if I missed anything I am sorry. Trust that I appreciate all the efforts that are made to support us.

There are so many ways that parents volunteer at school and support our work. If you are a parent who does not volunteer, that’s fine, but please take the time to thank all the volunteers when you see them. They deserve it.

Thank once again PAC.

Take care.

Reading – Regular or Electronic

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A recent post from Mind Shift can start the discussion about regular books vs electronic. Which is better?

Good question.

The article discusses results of a survey of a very small sample group who were asked about electronic readers (basic or enhanced) and print books. Which type of book better engages a child in reading? Which promotes greater reading comprehension? Which do kids enjoy more?

For answers to the above questions, read the article: For Young Readers: Print of Digital Books?

Engaging children in reading is very important. This is often a discussion on professional days or among teachers. It can also be an excellent conversation between teachers and parents, and children and their parents.

What type of books interest your children?

Are they fans of fiction or non-fiction?

Do they like books with lots of colourful pictures, or are they more interested in chapter books with few illustrations?

Does your child know what you like to read?

Keep talking to children about their reading. Keep talking about their learning. Keep talking.

Take care.

 

 

Free The Trees & Outdoor Classrooms

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Last week, thanks to the efforts of a number of parent volunteers, our students had a chance to help with the Free the Trees project. This is the fourth year for Free The Trees, and classes had the opportunity to sign up for pulling out a lot invasive plants and weeds, and the students all did an excellent job. There were several piles of dirt to add to our forest, to help ensure the many new plants have a healthy start.

One of the latest additions to our forest areas are two outdoor classrooms. These areas can be used by classes. Teachers and students can come down, sit on a boulder, and work on learn something about nature, or perhaps sharing a good book. Some good forest books could be; Joyful Noise by Paul Fleischman, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, or The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. Perhaps students can get their teachers to take them down to these classes on days that are a bit drier than today.

The Free The Trees program has pulled out thousands of invasive plants and weeds, and over 3000 new plants have found homes here in our forest, including wild ginger, wild roses, dogwoods, Saskatoon berry and Oregon grape.

An important part of any child’s education should be a connection to the natural world. We should help children stay connected with the natural world, and encourage them to experience all the joys and wonder that can be found in the forest.

“Each generation takes the earth as trustees.  We ought to bequeath to posterity as many forests and orchards as we have exhausted and consumed.” ~  J. Sterling Morton  

Thanks to the efforts of the Free the Trees volunteers (led by Lea Carpenter, Jim Hunt, Patrick Mooney and their team), and thanks to the teachers and staff and students, we are doing our part to ensure a healthy local forest.

Take care.