Thank McLachlan and Chan!

This past weekend our school along with Greystone and Broxton hosted the Power of Three Senior Basketball tournament.  Its a big undertaking with 32 teams in the draw, using four gyms over three days.  Two members of our staff took on the majority of the organization and our school is indebted to them.  Mr. McLachlan and Mr Chan ran a tournament that went off without a hitch.  It is a testament to them that the last thing a team's coach says leaving the gym is, "See you next year."

We have gained a reputation as a must attend tournament.  Our School Counsel run a GREAT concession at Woodhaven, our sponsors provide great food for the coaches room (thanks Pizza 73), our basketball parents also provide food for our coaches room (the chilli was great) and our half time trivia contests are a big hit with everyone.  Mr. Luck and Mr. Chan stole the show on Thursday night when they started a game of 'Stump the Ref' and had the crowd enthralled.

Who won....everyone.  Our teams won some games, lost some games and generally played hard.  The Power of Three tournament is what youth sport is supposed to be all about; young people learning life lessons like commitment, hard work and cooperation through competition.  Thanks Mr. McLachlan and Mr. Chan for making it happen.

School Counsel: Doing Great Things For Our Kids' Health

Our Woodhaven School Counsel is amazing.  For the past four years our counsel under the direction of Mrs. Terry Mesher worked so hard to make our $250 000 playground a reality.  When it opened last September it marked the final step in Woodhaven maturing into a true Middle School.  It has changed our play and activity environments.  A recent survey of our Grade 5 students done by the University of Alberta proved this point.  The year before the playground was built 24% of our Grade 5 students felt they were active at school.  The survey was done again this year and 93% of our Grade 5's see themselves as active during their school day.

Under the leadership of Mrs. Connie Hendry our current counsel is now embarking into new areas now the playground is in place.  Connie and the rest of the counsel executive are most interested in supporting our school's Wellness Program.  They invited teachers James Coghill (Leader of the Wellness Project) and Treena Neumann (our Health Day coordinator) to their last meeting to discuss how counsel can support their work with students.  Many great ideas were kicked around and parents decided to financially support bringing in guest speakers for Health Days.

In a bold move, the parents also decided to support Healthy Living by providing our students with a nutritious 'Grab and Go' breakfast so students have the fuel in their bodies to learn in the morning.  They also decided to do so at no cost to the kids.  We tried this for the first time on Tuesday morning.  Mrs. Karen Hudson, our Volunteer Coordinator reported that she served approximately 50 students home made granola bars, muffins and apples.  Most importantly, she was impressed by the gratitude expressed by all those who picked up something to eat.

If I haven't been clear about this in the past, let me be so now.  Our parents ROCK!  Thank you so much.

Core Support:Extra TIme and Escorted Intervention

Extra Time Group

Some of our students do their best to keep up with the day to day demands of school but find doing so very stressful.  To assist them we have created a support that provides them with a block every other day where they can work with a staff member to keep up with their assignments.  The group size is small and does not exceed five students.  The adult presence with the group is very important to provide the students with feedback as they as completing assignments.  This removes anxiety for them and allows them to feel prepared for upcoming classes.

Escorted Intervention

As much as it pains me to say this, some of our students choose not to hand in major summative assignments.  By not handing work in students are opting out of learning.  The school cannot allow this to happen.  In the past the classroom teacher would hunt the student down and try to get the work from them.  If they didn't see the student the period before lunch the student could get out of the building before they were found.

To ensure assignment completion we are piloting a program called Escorted Intervention with our Grade 9's.  Teachers refer students to the administration who have not handed in summative assignments.  Those students are picked up from the classrooms by myself or an Assistant Principal and taken to the Den where the students remain for the entire lunch hour while they complete the work.  It is up to the student to have a lunch which they can eat while they work.  I check to see that the work the student has done is worth of being graded and the students then submit the work to their teacher.  The teacher then removes the student from the Intervention list.

Our twoEscorted Intervention sessions were a rousing success with eight missing assignments being handed in for assessment and another seven close to completion.  Intervention is a beautiful thing.

Core Skills Support

Students come to our classes with a range of skill sets.  Unfortunately, for those whose skills lag behind in language or math, keeping up with the pace of instruction in the core classroom can be a daunting task. Woodhaven Middle School has set up a program to assist students close the skill gap.  In groups of five or less, the students meet with a teacher or EA who is providing them with assistance in Language or Math.  Each grade level has a slightly different focus.

• Grade 5/6:  the assistance is classroom based with time being allocated to reteaching and guiding students on classroom assignments
• Grade 7: math assistance has been built into their daily schedule, so the Core Support Program focuses on language arts.  In their small groups students are working on building their reading strategies.  The students had their first meeting yesterday and they were very engaged and willing participants.  We are very encouraged.
• Grade 8: Has both Math and Language support groups.  In math the students are receiving reteaching where necessary and guided practice with a staff member.  The language group is working on writing skills as all group members are good readers but struggle with written output.
• Grade 9: similar to Grade 7, all supports are in Language Arts and Social Studies.  In their skills groups students are assisted with assignments currently being done in class.

The program has gotten off to a great start and I look forward to reporting back to you in the near future.

New: Core Learning Support Program Starts at Woodhaven On Tuesday, January 11

Woodhaven Middle School is committed to helping our kids achieve high school completion and more training or education beyond that.  That goal has been coined 'High School +' by Mike Mattos, the author of the book shown above.  For the past five years I have been asking the teachers to take sole responsibility for the learning of their students.  I am proud of our staff.  They have done everything in their power to help our students get over the bar.  In fact, we are recognized in Provincial Accountability Documents as a high functioning school who does extremely well academically as measured by Provincial Achievement Tests.

Despite this we know that 15% of our kids don't pass those tests.  Our staff agrees that level of failure is unacceptable and does not meet the mission of the school.  We were determined to do something about it.  Over the next three days I will be outlining three strategies we will be employing to assist our kids/your kids.

Why three strategies... well there are multiple reasons students are not successful.  We are attempting to address three primary reasons students cannot meet expectations.  The strategies I will discuss are:
               1.  Core Skill Support
               2.  Supported Extra Time, and
               3.  Escorted Intervention.

If you have any questions about our Core Support Program please contact either myself or Mrs. Gericke at the school.
              

Health Days

Today we are having a Health Day.  For those of you who do not know what a Health Day is, our school schedule is altered for the day and all students from Grades 5 to 9 are working on a particular health theme.  The advantage of this approach is being able to bring in guest speakers, resources or send students on field trips and not impact other core classes.  By doing this we are able to present information and involve students in activities that are at their level.

Today's Health Day topic is substance abuse.  This topic is one of vital interest to every student in our school. Whether it be smoking, alcohol, or other controlled substances, every student in our building will be faced with critical choices during their teen years.  Our job is to provide them with information and answer their questions so when the time comes they will do the 'right thing' for them.

Ms. Treena Neuman has coordinated our Health Days for the past three years and done a phenomenal job offering great experiences for our students.  She has been joined this year by Mr. Coghill and Ms. Getz-Bradshaw (yes she got married over the Christmas break) and they now form our Health and Wellness team.  The work they do for our students is critical and I think Health Days are the most important days of our year.  Parents, if you have a chance to drop by....check it out.

Goodbye Mrs. Plourde

We welcomed everyone back to the new year but something was different... Mrs. Plourde was not manning her customary post in the office.  After 30 years as a secretary Mrs. Plourde decided that now was the time to move on to the next phase of her life, a life beyond the school.  Mrs. Plourde has long been the face of our school, greeting visitors at the office, her friendly voice responding to the many inquiries we get in a day, and helping anyone with all manner of concerns.  No request was too small.  We will be honouring Mrs. Plourde later this month.  Please keep your eye on this space for more information on this event.

Pam Plourde loves kids.  She would do anything to make a child's day go better.  For this she will be missed by me, the staff but most importantly the kids.

Thanks Mrs. Plourde!