Outdoor Dance Party!

Since we have come back to school in January, there has been a sense of ‘ugh’ as I move through the hallways. With COVID-19 protocols in full swing, staff and students needed a change to their routine. I spoke with our music teacher and we decided we needed to plan something fun.

I came up with the idea of having a school-wide outdoor dance party! With very cold weather coming, we needed to act on our plan quickly and within just a couple of days, we organized and pulled together a dance party for the entire school! I had the Parent Council provide a huge amount of small prizes, and the music teacher put together a great set list!

We set out cones in the field to create effective physical distancing between classes, and then we cranked the tunes. I was anxious for how this event would go, but it turned out incredibly well! Staff and students got into it and everyone was smiling and dancing as they left for the day after the event was over! I’ve already had requests to do this again. Sometimes it doesn’t take much, but a fun half hour event can have a massive impact on morale and energy levels in the school.

Great success! Check out our Facebook Live video below:

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Education Plan & Community Engagement

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This year I have been working on engaging with members of the school community to build a shared understanding of the school’s educational priorities. This has been an ongoing process through this school year with multiple strategies being implemented as to interact with the largest and most diverse group possible.

As I prepared for this work, I developed the following strategies to accomplish the overall goal:

  • Have school community members complete an online survey (called Touchpoint on Student Learning) with a target response rate of 50% of possible responders
  • Engage with the school community as to maintain attendance at the parent council meetings of at least 10 people (excluding myself and the trustee)
  • Host monthly ‘celebration’ assemblies for students and school community members with at least 40 school community members in attendance.

In order to obtain the best possible results, I knew I required substance to what I was offering to school community members. For the survey, I worked with the chair of my Parent Council to develop the questions. This provided a well-rounded perspective to the questions. The survey was open for approximately a month and we received 71 responses! I was very pleased with this result. My next step is to break down the survey results and determine what aspects of it I need to act on as well as what results are relevant for our parent council. This will help guide my work for the remainder of the school year and into future years.

To support the work done with my parent council and community members, I am intending to share with them a presentation I gave to the Board of Trustees about the school’s Education Plan. I want to ensure that the school community is very aware of our successes, our growth areas, and our path for moving forward. This will also be shared, and discussed, with my staff and used to guide our work for the rest of the year. You can see the presentation below.

 

 

One of my goals this year has been a challenge to tackle is the continued work surrounding parental involvement within the school. As it has for everyone, COVID-19 has had a serious impact on the running of my school – specifically, the ability to have parents and other family members into the school. We have attempted to get creative and some of the classes have done a variety of things, such as Google Meets with family members, or recorded videos that can be sent home. As well, we made sure to have a Christmas Concert this year, but via YouTube. This was a huge success and we are already planning other virtual events to have families feel ‘attached’ to the school.

We are only half way through the school year, but I am looking forward to the work that I will be able to continue to accomplish with the entire school community. The survey results will provide some wonderful insight into the thoughts and feelings from the community and I’m sure it will lead to further conversations with multiple people. As well, I am excited for some of the conversations that I will be able to have with those who attend parent council and who reach out and speak with me about the path forward for the school.

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Christmas Concert 2020

On December 16, we held our annual Christmas concert. With COVID-19 dictating what could and could not be done in schools, this was a significant challenge to overcome. Staff were tired, our music teacher was away from work due to being a close contact to someone with COVID-19. I spent a great deal of time determining if the effort would be worth it considering how my staff was feeling and how many students we were having attend everyday.

In the end, I decided that the energy and time required to pull off a virtual Christmas Concert was worth it. I had to invest a great deal of time to organize, “rally the troops”, do the recording of all the presentations, and do the video editing. But in the end, we had a wonderful final product which was immensely appreciated by the staff, the students, and our school families. I received feedback that family across the country was able to watch their grandchildren, nieces, and nephews for the first time ever as they performed in the Christmas Concert.

I believe that a number of my staff could not visualize what the final product would look like, which then caused them to express anxiousness about spending time and energy on this project. There was a feeling that learning was already behind this year, and “another thing on the plate” was going to cause further interruptions to student learning. I had to spend a great deal of time encouraging and outlining all aspects of the concert to continue to develop buy-in. But once the final product was presented, all nervousness about the concert was removed and feelings of joy and success came from all staff.

I have frequently expressed to my staff this year that as often as I can, I want us to provide as much ‘normalcy’ to our students as possible. Preparing and performing a Christmas Concert is a tradition in our school and we needed to make it happen this year. Even though students were at home watching the concert with their families, we had a live chat and people were able to engage with each other and express how much they enjoyed the concert and how it helped enhance the Christmas season. I would count that as a big win for everyone.

If you need a little ‘Christmas spirit’ in your life right now, take some time and watch the concert below!

 

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