Hello to all grade 8 families! You will be receiving the following invitation shortly via Canada Post (it went out in today’s mail). We hope to see you all at our Leaving Ceremony. The date is Thursday, June 30th at 12 noon at Earl of March H.S. Auditorium. Students should be dressed to arrive at 11:30am to meet their class in the foyer. We look forward to this celebration!
Congratulations to Nancy Cooke & her music program on receiving a 300$ grant from the Cathy Nevins Memorial Fund and the Education Foundation of Ottawa. Cathy Nevins was a Superintendent with the OCDSB who passed away unexpectedly. Cathy adored music & she would be thrilled to see this grant helping young musicians across our District. See the full letter here. educationfoundmusic
Today, we were able to get a couple of events in before the rain started. We won’t be rescheduling for tomorrow ( Friday, May 27th) because the weather is likely to still be wet & rainy.
However, the intermediate students will have the opportunity next week to run some time trials for their events during the nutrition breaks. Hopefully, Mother Nature cooperates!
Ms. Shirley
Good morning!
Intermediate students should come prepared both for track and field and for regular classes today. We will proceed with track and field events as long as the thunderstorms hold off and as long as our fields are not swamped. Please come prepared to be out in the drizzle – bring rain gear and a change of socks is a good idea too. Let’s hope we can get many of the events completed today! If the rain becomes heavy, we will switch to a regular day with classes proceeding as usual.
Please note that this event is a joint celebration of staff contributions & parent contributions from this past school year. Come enjoy coffee & brekky with us! We hope to see you.
Ms. Shirley
Wed May 25th is the scheduled date for Junior Track & Field at WEJ. Let’s hope the weather cooperates. Please see the attached schedule below. (The schedule is created according to the students’ ages & not their grade level.)Parents are most welcome to come cheer on their youngsters.
If you would like to have an OC Transpo photo identification card, please bring $6.50 in exact change and your smile on Wednesday, May 18th. Photos will be done in the morning.
Mrs. Smith
Last Friday, our grade 4 to 8 students had the pleasure of hearing a great guest speaker.
Katy Weatherston (www.katieweatherston.com) spent an hour with this group of students talking about goal setting & motivation. Katy was a member of the Women’s Hockey Team where Team Canada won a gold medal at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy. She was also a member of Team Canada’s gold medal winning roster at the 2007 World Hockey Championships. Quite an impressive resume!
In 2007, Katie graduated from Dartmouth College, an Ivy League Institution in Hanover, N.H. In her four years at Dartmouth, Katie earned a B.A. in Psychology and is a certified elementary teacher. Katie is also the owner and head instructor of the Superior Edge Hockey School, an all-girls hockey school which she founded in 2005. She is also the assistant coach of an intermediate AA girl’s hockey team in Ottawa.
At the end of the presentation, students had the opportunity to have a close-up look at her gold medals & view the Olympic torch – which she also carried in her hometown of Thunder Bay, ON. Thanks to Katy for fitting us in – the kids really enjoyed it!
Ms. Shirley
School Calendar 2011-2012 FYI and planning.
Ms. Shirley
Below, you will find an excellent example of a math problem solving question for Grade 6 students. You will see how carefully the question has been crafted by the classroom teacher. This example is real world, multi-step & forces students to reason & think critically about how to answer. This type of application question is ideal because it illustrates the concept of “fewer questions, but higher quality questions”. Gone are the days of drill & kill where students must perform simple, repeat, rote calculations. This type of complex question is also exemplary because there is more than one pathway to finding the solution. The real beauty is in having the students explain their solution & present their own findings to their peers.
How did you arrive at your solution?
Thanks to Mr. Osborne who agreed to share this example.
Ms. Shirley
If you would like to download a PDF copy of this problem, please click here.