Here is a fun and engaging way to share the Growth Mindset message with your students. Who doesn't like Seasame Street?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLeUvZvuvAs

BIPSA

What impact will collaborative teaching and learning that focuses on closing the gap for students with urgent learning needs, have on student engagement and student learning K-12?

AIM

AIM is the document that guides our actions each school year. It aligns with Ministry of Education priorities and connects to the Board Improvement Plan for Student Achievement and also to School Improvement Plans for Student Achievement.

Our 3 goals remain:
Success for each Student
Employee Excellence
Community Connections

This year's plan contains the following 5 priority areas:

Reaching High Levels of Student Achievement
Promoting Well-Being for Students and Employees
Supporting Employee Growth and Learning
Optimizing Organizational Effectiveness
Communicating with Families and Communities

Each priority is integral to the others and has focused, measurable actions and success criteria which will be carried out during this school year. 

Please visit the following link to take a closer look at each component of the AIM.

http://www.hpedsb.on.ca/ec/directorsOffice/documents/2014_2015_priorities.pdf

On Friday, September 26th, I participated in a community Terry Fox Walk with Queen Victoria Public School. Students, Parents and Educators wore school colours and/or red to acknowledge Terry Fox and each person indicated on their sticker who they were dedicating their walk to.

If $2000 is raised, Mr. Harvey has agreed to have his beard shaved and Mrs. Sutton has agreed to shave her head! Go Royals, Go!

It made me so proud as a parent and an educator to see the following:

Minecraft

Minecraft in schools? That is the question! And one that is being explored in a Gr. 6 classroom at Queen Victoria Public School and around the world!

What is the game and the addiction all about? 

Minecraft game that doesn’t rely on earning points or mastering levels, It doesn’t even come with instructions or have any rules at all. And that, right there, could very well be the secret to its appeal. Minecraft has been called the ultimate sandbox game. It allows players to take 1x1 cubes of different materials and build anything they want, from Roman cathedrals, to roller coasters to imaginary jungle worlds, and make the game what they want it to be.

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/minecraft-why-are-kids-and-educators-so-crazy-for-it-1.2006975#ixzz3EL82guvJ

Minecraft - Is it the Ultimate Educational Tool?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI0BN5AWOe8

Is it the ultimate educational tool? YOU decide!

LLI comes alive at Queen Victoria Public School!

Students use whiteboards 

to work with words and 

word patterns through 

intense, small group

 instruction. 

Students use their word charts to select words that represent the word patterns they are learning about. Increased confidence and skill development was evident while sharing the learning with 3 students and their teacher!

Picture Books & Paragraph Writing

What is a paragraph? How many elements are required in order to draft a concise message that communicates one key idea to the reader? This is the focus in Gr. 5/6 and Gr. 6 at Queen Victoria Public School. 

Students engaged in small group conversations to recall what they already know about paragraph writing before sharing their thoughts back with the group. As you can see on the right, 6 important elements of paragraph writing were highlighted and determined the success criteria for paragraph writing. 

As a follow up lesson, I worked with students to continue furthering their understanding about paragraph writing. This time, students entered into a "think, pair, share" to figure out the appropriate order of a mixed up paragraph that I had created about my family summer fun. They also needed to figure out if all elements of a paragraph were identified while reconstructing the paragraph.

Next, I read students the True Story of the Three Little Pigs and through conversation, we created a web on the smart board (see photo up above, left side) to provide examples of the main idea, the topic sentence, the closing sentence as well as the supporting details connected to the story. 

Last but not least, students were asked to use the organizer we had created as well as the class generated success criteria to develop a paragraph about the picture book.