Wellness on the New Frontier...moving forward with Mr. Coghill

Two years ago our Mr. Coghill took up the challenge of redefining what Physical Education would look like at Woodhaven Middle School.  Mr. Coghill, a triathlete who has competed at Iron Man Canada, is committed to the wellness of both our students and staff.  Three years ago the U of A did a study of our Grade 5 students which painted a picture of students who did not eat well and did not get enough daily activity.  I shared these results with Mr. Coghill and we discussed what we needed to do to change that wellness profile.

From that moment forward Mr. Coghill has worked diligently, and now with Mr. McLachlan, Mr. Chan, Mr. Zalasky and Mrs. Davis is moving our work from being a Physical Education class to a Wellness program.  In fact, PE is not a term  you hear at Woodhaven... now its all Wellness all the time.  We have reoriented the program from a focus on game activity to skill development for life long wellness.  This allows everybody to be a learner regardless of their talent level.

We now have a Student Wellness Action Team SWAT that is in charge of monthly wellness challenges which are tracked by every homeroom.  This month's challenge is drinking 6 glasses of water per day.  These students also involved with health snack options being offered during our morning break.

Mr. Coghill also worked closely with Ms. Neumann to encorporate Wellness and Health Education.  All our Health Days include a wellness component involving either activity or nutrition.  It is through his work that we have set guidelines regarding soft drinks, slushes and energy drinks in our building.  He has also worked with our School Council to encourage their Grab and Go free nutritious breakfast.

His work has extended to the staff who have done much to increase their personal levels of fitness.  In the spring Kids With Cancer fundraiser we were up to 15 staff members who participated in the 5 KM run.  There has been a significant change in the types of snacks available in our staff room and we now have a healthy 'Soup Club'.

Thanks Mr. Coghill...your work has found its way into  everything we do.

Great News For Woodhaven!

Buildings don't make great 'schools', great programming makes a great Middle School.  For the families who have come to Woodhaven over the past five years I have made this point repeatedly as we have toured them through a facility that was constructed in 1973.  I have great respect for our Grade 5 and 6 staff who have worked in our oldest portable classrooms that were placed on the site in 1977.  They know the value of a good sweater in January and how to  MacGyver temporary air conditioning in June.

With great thanks to the hard work of our superintendent Mr. Tim Monds and Board Chair Richard Gilchrist, Woodhaven is getting eight new classrooms to replace our Grade 5/6 rooms.  What a change that will be for our students and staff....for next year.  It is likely that the old portables will be demolished at the end of the year and the new classrooms installed for the start of 2012-13.

Thanks again for all those at Division office to make this happen!

Team 2 ... the times they are a changin'

Hi Folks

Last post was about team.  This one is about the inevitability of change in the team and what a good school, or team has to do to accommodate that change.  It is no secret that the teaching populated by many members of the baby boomer generation.  That includes me.  Many of my contemporaries are choosing to start the next phase of their lives and are retiring.  This past year three of our teachers, Mr. Hoffman, Mrs. Schellenberger and Mr. Smithaniuk retired taking with them almost 100 years of teaching experience.  You don’t replace that knowledge without losing something. 

Replacing departing staff is part of the renewal process.  Strong organizations embrace change and carry on in a positive direction. They maintain their positive inertia through the strength of the group’s culture.  What is culture…it’s a two syllable word for ‘this is how we do things.’  If the culture is strong, new folks are embraced and taught the culture.

I was wondering how we were doing absorbing seven new staff members this year.  I thought and hoped our culture was strong enough to do the job that needed to be done.  At our Meet the Teacher night on Thursday my highest hope was confirmed.  As I stood aside and the staff were introducing each other I was left with overwhelming feeling that we had rallied around our new staff and they were part of the Pack.  They were talked of embracing our mission of learning how to learn and learning how to get along.  They belonged at Woodhaven.  Welcome!

New Grade 9 LA/SS and 7 LA teacher...Mrs. Tomlinson

New Grade 9 Math Science Teacher... Mr. Peet

New Grade 7/Drama Teacher...Mr. Cividino

Team

Hello Folks


Most of my life I have been a 'team' guy.  I started organized hockey in 1958 and still play today.  I played football in high school, Junior in Peterborough Ontario,  university football at St. Mary's in Halifax, recreational flag football in Edmonton for 12 years, and coached the sport starting in 1974 until last year.  I'm a team oriented person.

I am now part of the most important team in the biggest game ever.  We can't afford to lose.  I play for the Woodhaven Wolfpack Teacher Team and the game we play is ensuring that all our students reach High School +.  That is, graduate from High School and go on to further training beyond that.

Our team is like the young Oilers...many new faces working to jell together to achieve our goals.  I am incredibly optimistic about this year.  The optimism comes from the way our team has jumped into collaborating together to co-create learning opportunities that will work for our students. If you were to drop by our school on any day you will find groups of teachers working together to create common understanding of what the critical learning is for students, how we will know in the deepest way that they 'get it', and how we will help them if they need more time to 'get it'.

I like our team....I sound like Tom Renney... they are ready to play the game of their lives.

Coach Foster

Check Out Our New Library

Students who walked into our newly renovated library on the first day of school were amazed with the changes...new carpet, new layout, new technology, new couches....it's NEW.  Our new design was the work of Ms. Neumann and Ms. Bradshaw and the set up was courtesy of Mrs. Collett, the librarian from High Park School.

The library will be totally functional in two weeks.  More than just a place to find a good book, we look forward to it becoming the hub of learning, on line research and creativity at Woodhaven Middle School.

The New Look Woodhaven....continued

Wellness

For the past two years Woodhaven, led by Mr. James Coghill and Mrs. Keri Getz Bradshaw (hereby referred to as Ms. KGB), has been moving towards creating a school which values the health and wellness of each student and staff member.  This initiative was started as a response to a U of A study on student wellness which showed that 29% of Grade 5 students in Alberta are considered obese.  Woodhaven was part of that study.  The life long impact of this statistic is well known.  As a school we decided that we would do our best to halt this epidemic and present students with life style alternatives which could increase activity and change food choices.

This has resulted in a series initiatives.  Last year this included:

1. Grab and Go Breakfast...in conjunction with Parent Counsel, Woodhaven offers a health morning snack to any student who wishes it.  Our parents bake muffins and homemade granola and it is free for the taking along with juice and cheese strings.  Set up in the main hall in the morning, all the children pay is a smile and a thank you.  This year the program is subsidized by levying a surcharge of 5% on all fund raising and putting it towards the program.
2. Reversed Lunch Hour:  Grades 7-9 eat the first half of lunch, with 5 and 6 eating second.  This allows us to maximize the use of all our activity spaces, run intramurals all noon hour, run zumba and yoga classes, and reduce playground congestion.  All of this is done to increase lunch hour activity.
3. Healthy Snacks:Snack attack has changed what they offer for morning break so there are healthy food alternatives.  Smoothies are a hit!
4. Wellness Calendars: In an attempt to make students aware of their activity levels, they are tracking this on calendars daily.
5. Daily Physical Activity: Students have a daily PE program led by experts.  The focus is not on the big games but rather on physical skill development for life long activity.

This year we have tweaked the program slightly.  The major adjustment is in the area of what students can drink at school.  In the past we have not allowed slushes and energy drinks in the school.  The high sugar and caffeine content do not help student learning.  This year we have expanded this to include soft drinks.  The average 700ml drink contains 25g of sugar.  Again, this does not contribute to learning.  We ask your assistance in this matter by leaving these drinks out of your child's lunch.

Next...more new staff

Cheers