A proud moment in our history

Whether you're a fan of the Olympic Games or not, you have to admit that was some special time.  There were so many hi-lites it's hard to know where to begin.  For me, the greatest thing is the outpouring of Canadian pride and unified feeling that we are a special and unique place to live in this world.  At the start of the games there were many who were quick to jump on the "I told you so" bandwagon about the negative aspects of the Games, and yet, as the emotion surged and the athletes competed, something miraculous happened.  The negative voices were drowned out in a sea of appreciation.

There are times in our small school community when the "nay-sayers" threaten to drown out the positives that we have worked so hard to build.  And yet, there is this constant and consistent murmur that continues to overwhelm the negativity and continues to carry us to greater successes for our students and our children.  We continue to work towards every success and advantage for our students and while there will be some things that don't go quite right there are certainly more that do.

With the completion of our second term, we hit the home stretch for this school year.  This does not mean that we can sit back and relax, it is a time to continue to push and grow as much as we can as a community of learners in support of our children.  I encourage, parents, staff, students and other school community members to help us strengthen the great aspects of our school.  We have something great here, let's keep building it.

Developing Social Responsibility

On Sunday, my family and I braved the Olympic crowds in Vancouver to get a first hand look at some of the images we have been seeing on TV.  One of the things that struck me as we wandered through the mass of humanity was how responsible everyone was.  It is said that patience is a virtue and it was certainly shown during our time in Vancouver and in particular with the more than 1000 walk-on passengers at the ferry.

This got me thinking about the monthly virtue focus we have here at David Cameron.  There has been much research about the ineffectiveness of specific, focused, anti-bullying and character education programs.  I tend to agree with the research to the extent that teaching a particular program is not very effective.  I do think however, that raising the awareness and providing a focus for how we want to live together in our social context is important.  These ideas and values are translated into action everyday on our school playground (and in the streets of Vancouver).  At David Cameron it is more than learning about the virtues it is an expectation from everyone; students, parents, and staff, that this is how we behave together.

The other day we were having a conversation with our staff about respect at our school.  We were talking about the many examples of it that we see on a daily basis, but the most compelling evidence was that we can have over 340 students go out to play at recess and lunch and behave respectfully and responsibly towards each other.  This is our focus in action and is demonstrated not in completing worksheets from a program binder, but in our daily interactions and use of our many virtues.

The Planning Process

Sorry to the few of you that follow my blog for missing last week, however, the ski hill called and I answered.

"Appreciative Inquiry" is a process of looking at things from a positive mindset, that is, what's going right and how do we get more of it.  This is in contrast to the traditional planning model that comes at things from a deficit perspective, ie what are we not doing well and therefore what do we need to do to improve.  While it is important to know where deficiencies exist, it is more important to know what is going well within those areas and amplify them.  It has been said that "we show value by what we pay attention to".  As a school we need to pay attention to the great things that are happening in our work so that this attitude becomes pervasive in our school and we focus on the good, not the negative.

Appreciative Inquiry is not a sort of Pollyanna process where we only look at good things.  It allows us to tease out of issues the parts that are going right and then focus on getting more of it.  Even in areas of weakness there are examples of positives, these are the ideas that we seize on and use as the foundation to continue to build excellence for our school.

As we head into our annual planning cycle and begin to examine goal areas for the 2010/2011 school year, we will look at what's right with our school and how to continue on that path, rather than focusing on what's wrong and the downward spiral that brings.

Excellence

"It's a funny thing about life:  if you refuse to accept anything but the very best you will very often get it."
- W. Somerset Maugham

At David Cameron we have very high expectations for ourselves, our students and for our larger community.  We think that we can contribute to excellence by setting the bar high and helping our students reach for it.  The idea of excellence is one, that for many students, is not in their vocabulary, however, it is very much within their reach if they choose it to be.  The month of February has us focusing on excellence in our school.  While excellence is a core area of our work throughout the year, it is important to pause and reflect on the importance of excellence in our lives at this time so that we can re-focus our efforts.

Each day at school I am fortunate to see examples of excellence all around me.  It may be in the student who stops me to let me hear the song they have learned on the recorder and how they have added to it to make it their own, it might be in the teacher who comes to tell me about the unbelievable math lesson that they just had and how the kids were completely engaged, or it might be in the Family Olympic Night that our PAC hosted last Friday that saw a great turnout of our school family.  Excellence is all around us, everyday, and in every way.

Excellence becomes a frame of mind, a way of seeing the world.  If we can instill the notion in our students that they are capable of excellence, there is no knowing what they can accomplish in their lives.  So, it is for these reasons (and many others), that we turn our attention to excellence in this, the month of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, the final month of term two academics, and our mid-point in the school year.  Keep working with us to help our students believe in themselves and to not settle for something short of excellence.  We all have the capacity to do so much, so well.

Technology and our Future

There are a few new term out there that refer to "Digital Natives" and "Digital Immigrants".  Digital Natives are those that have grown up with technology as an integral part of their lives, whereas, Digital Immigrants come to technology later in the game, are a little unsure, and are more reluctant to embrace the opportunities.  Our children are so accustomed to technology that it seems strange when it is not a part of what they are doing, in fact, our current students have not known a world without the internet.

The challenge for our school is not, how do we keep up to the pace of change, instead it is how do we ensure that students understand how technology can be used to stimulate creativity and innovation, communication and collaboration, and the ethical use of technology.We are currently working with a committee of staff members to examine a variety of directions that we are interested in exploring.  These directions include, wireless access, laptops to have computers as part of the classroom, handheld devices such as iPods to enhance learning.  Then we have the instructional side that includes document cameras, SMART boards, and digital projectors.

We are excited to be moving forward with some technology directions in our school to ensure that our students have the opportunity to embrace technology as part of their learning.  Over the coming months we are hopeful to have some instructional technologies added to our classrooms as well as developing a plan to have more seamless integration within the classroom for student use.  Stay tuned for some exciting developments over the next while.

Unity

This month, our virtue focus is on Unity.   Unity is what allows us to be together, work together, and be better together.  It is how we interact as a "school family" and how we invite others into our world.

At the beginning of January we had the great opportunity to welcome ten international students to our school.  These students are from Korea and are here for only a few months to gain some understanding of our culture and to practice their language skills.  Here we are two weeks later and these students have made friends and are completely immersed in school life.  These opportunities to meet and befriend others from around the world help to show that the differences we have are not that great and they serve to unite rather than divide.

Unity also means that we are able to work and play together respectfully and responsibly.  Our students continue to show this on a daily basis at David Cameron.  Last week on one of the many rainy days we have been having lately we had  the students inside during lunch and had the chance to use our new "Rainy Day" plan.  Students were able to select from a variety of games and activities that were dispersed throughout the hallways around the library.  Students played with friends, little buddies, and siblings and without a single problem.  At the end of the lunch period, everyone cleaned up what they were doing and returned to their classrooms to eat.  What a great show of unity.  If we didn't have everyone working together to make this a success it could have easily been a disaster with over 300 students in a fairly small area.

It is examples like these that make our school such an incredible place to be.  It also shows that learning takes place not just in our classrooms but in the everyday interactions between people.  Way to go David Cameron!

Student Leadership

As educators, our real role is to make ourselves redundant.  We teach students to think for themselves, and how to find information that they need in order to solve problems in their everyday lives.  Part of this learning, includes taking on leadership roles and being able to direct, organize, and follow through on tasks.  The ability of our David Cameron students to do just this never ceases to amaze me.  We have such an incredible amount of talent and positive peer role models in our school that it's a wonder teachers get to organize anything.

Leadership comes from being thrust into positions, taking control of situations, or being invited in to power.  With the Olympics on people's minds, hockey is something that seems to be a focus for leadership opportunities in our school these days.  We have the organized and formal approach where some students in grade 4 and 6 are taking control by organizing an intramural hockey league. They are setting dates, rules, and teams.  On the other hand, we have our regular recess/lunch hockey going on in the turn-around, where older students are including younger ones and teaching them how to play.  These older students recognizing that in order for everyone to have fun, someone needs to take charge, have done an admirable job of ensuring a great outside activity.

These are two small examples of the myriad leadership initiatives being undertaken in our school.  Who knows, maybe one day we'll have some of our student leaders writing this blog instead of me.