With the 2012-2013 school year starting Sept. 4, students and teachers are meeting each other for the first time and wondering what they’re all going to bring to the table.
In Westlock County, there are five public schools, each of which has its own character that makes learning a unique experience.
Given W.R. Frose School’s location and surroundings, it’s no surprise principal Darcie Eamor said the school plans to bring the outdoors into the classroom.
“This year we’re really excited because we’re going to have a whole school focus on outdoor education,” she said. “We’ve got so many facilities in our backyard that we want to extend our learning beyond the classroom walls.”
The school hopes to incorporate aspects of outdoor education into the regular curriculum by taking advantage of local expertise. Some of those aspects include students in grades 7 and 8 doing the hunter trainer program, and other students will have a chance to try orienteering, snowshoeing, ice fishing and other outdoor activities.
Beyond outdoor learning, Eamor said indoor learning will see an infusion of outside influence with Travis Switzer giving guitar lessons to students in grades 5 through 8.
Previously Switzer has given private guitar lessons, but at the urging of the parent council the school invited him to give the in-school lessons, Eamor explained.
The school needs to provide arts education, “but we’re doing it in a different way so that we’re looking at how can we use the talents of the people that we have in our school or in our area,” she said.
In many small communities the school is the lifeblood, and in Jarvie that is no exception.
So, this year principal Martin Cairns said the school is going to be doing some work to give back to a community that has been supportive over the years.
“We are going to be looking at doing more community stuff, like helping cleaning up the community by painting and just sprucing up the town,” he said.
It’s all part of allowing the students to express how strong their connection is to their community.
“The students live in the community and the community has done very well by Jarvie School and supported it, so it’s just a part of working together and increasing that a little bit,” Cairns said.
On the education front, Cairns said the school is gradually shifting the learning experience into the digital realm with the Grade 8 students being given laptops as part of a pilot project.
“With the technology, you can reach different students’ needs,” he said. “There are more and more programs and applications that will help student learning.”
“Dapp School is going to continue the excellent programming that the school has in the past.”
Those are the words of principal Pat von Loewenstein when discussing what students and parents can expect this year.
The school’s focus for the coming months will include balanced literacy: comprising reading, writing and numeracy.
“It’s a solid education where students learn to read and write, and this school has had a strong history of strong reading programs and strong math programs,” von Loewenstein said.
In addition to working on the basics of education, he said the school is continuing to expand the use of technology in the classroom. This will include mobile laptop banks that can be used for just about every subject taught in the classroom.
“They will be integrated to help the students gain more knowledge and more skills,” von Loewenstein said.
With Dapp being a Pembina Hills school, von Loewenstein said they will also be incorporating the new universal design for learning, which includes inclusive education that tailors teaching and programming to all students individually and not simply teaching to the average.
It’s all about not letting the high standard in place at Dapp decline.
“We want to maintain what’s been developed, not overnight at this school, but over the course of a number of years,” he said.
The family atmosphere found at Busby School is what makes the school so welcoming to students young and old, said principal Nadine Marchand.
At the beginning of the year, students at the school are divided up into family groups consisting of a mix of grades, she said. This really allows all students to feel welcomed and fosters a sense of companionship.
“The older children feel ownership for their younger brothers and sisters of the family group,” Marchand said.
In order to promote those familial bonds, she said the groups gather monthly to participate in activities, such as lunches, doing Christmas crafts or Halloween decorations.
When it comes to what happens in the classroom, Marchand said this year the school is putting a focus on the PHRD’s differentiated instruction and universal design for learning in order to help each and every student succeed.
“We’re doing what we can as educators for every child proactively so that we make sure that we are teaching them the best possible way for them,” she said.
When including the ongoing character education and virtues program, Marchand said there’s a lot of good going on in Busby.
“We’re so proud of our little school and we have so much support from our families and community and they’re happy with what we’re doing,” she said.
Technology is expected to play a big role at Eleanor Hall School this upcoming school year, said principal Don Hinks.
“The more access you can get kids to technology, because that is their world anyway, the better they’ll be as they go through the school system,” he said. “It’s a complete shift from what we’ve been doing in the past with education.”
One way they will be using more and newer technology to enhance the students’ education is through two new portable computer labs that can be wheeled into a classroom at almost a moment’s notice, he said.
The school has also acquired enough new iPads to provide a few to each classroom, with the goal being to “really make that push to see how that’s going to enhance the current education that we’re doing here at the school,” he said.
All these new additions are a result of recent research that indicates having new and emerging technologies in the classroom can have myriad benefits for the students. “We’re excited about it and we certainly think the kids will be too,” Hinks said.
