Parents, grandparents  and their 3 year olds explored water and ice with StrongStart facilitator Carol Lundigran, and gathered for songs and a story with Kindergarten teacher Debbie Holliday.  The North Vancouver City Librarian also shared resources and programs to support our young learners.

Water Play was the theme for Ready Set Learn 2012 in North Vancouver

Reading with Grandpa!

Enhanced parent and community partnerships

Innovative and inclusive teaching practices that emphasize key competencies like critical thinking, inquiry, creative problem solving, innovation, cross-cultural understanding, and collaboration

Learning that is empowered by technology (smart use of iPads, laptops) to advance students’ digital literacy and research skills, and their competency in using current and emerging technologies

Learning opportunities that are tailored to the needs and interests of students

Greater flexibility and choice in learning pathways for students (reflected in our Distributed Learning programs)

The Personalized Learning in North Vancouver School District is now posted to our school district website.

Many thanks to the students and staff in the Digital Media Academy for their leadership on this school district project, and to the many students, educators, and community partners who participated in the film.

J Robertson

Pedagogical Documentation or Narration  has been in practice for many years among early learning educators and is a key principle of the Ministry’s Early Learning Framework.  Pedagogical Documentation focuses on the process of children’s learning and growth and can be effectively used in primary classrooms as a vehicle for assessment for/as and of learning.

According to BC’s Full Day Kindergarten Program Guide, Pedagogical Narration involves observing, recording, and reflecting on ordinary moments, sharing observations with others, collectively building new meanings that make children’s learning visible, linking the experience to the Prescribed Learning Outcomes, and incorporating documented learning into planning process. Documenting evidence of learning in these ways serves a variety of purposes, including
- creating a historical record of a child’s learning, for example over the life of a project
- helping children become aware of their own thinking and learning
- allowing teachers to share a child’s learning and show which outcomes have been achieved
- interpreting observations that form the basis for revisiting experiences
- informing parents and making them aware of their children’s learning processes.

Elementary Student Participants

Secondary Student Participants

As I listened to the 14 elementary and 17 secondary participants present their (3-5  minute) speeches, I realized just how many important, 21st century life skills are developed and demonstrated by students who participate in the concours d’art oratoire competition at both the school and district levels.  I was impressed by the topics students had chosen to explore, and by the range of their writing style, from the informative to the persuasive, philosophical, personal, and at times, political.  Equally impressive was the calm and confident manner in which these students delivered their speeches, before a panel of judges, as well as an audience of their parents, teachers, and peers.  And all of this in the French language!

And ‘Les gagnants’ (winners) were…
Elementary: Parsa Riahi (Grade 6 Late Immersion), Parsa Seyed Zehtab (Grade 6 Early Immersion), Sylvi Booth (Grade 7 Late Immersion), Braden Mamen (Grade 7 Early Immersion)

Secondary: Austyn Jasper (Grade 8 Immersion), Mathea Heinrichs (Grade 8 Francophone), Gillian Lonergan (Grade 9 Immersion), Alexandra Kropova (Grade 10 FSL), Harniesh Takhar (Grade 10 Immersion), Irene Carrasco (Grade 11 Immersion), Samantha Buffotot (Grade 11 Francophone), Maya Guttman (Grade 12 Immersion).

Grade 6 and 7 Early and Late French Immersion Category Winners

Secondary French Immersion, FSL and Francophone Category Winners

Winners at the School District Finals will now represent the North Vancouver School District at the Provincial Concours d’art oratoire Finals to be held at SFU Surrey Campus on Saturday, May 5, 2012. We wish them all ‘Bonne chance’!!

Special thanks goes to Sue Saliba and Lisa Cartwright (Canadian Parents for French), Maria Power (Cleveland French Immersion Teacher), Concours judges (Yolande Lissett, Pierette Vézina, Claudine Verdin, Olivette Cyr, Catherine Sanchez),student volunteers (Max Oldendorff, Sean Robertson, Nadia Saliba, Darian Hooshi, Connor Bishop), and the Learning Services office team for their support in organizing and hosting this event!

CPF Chapter President Sue Saliba with Elementary Student Maître de Cérémonie and Chronométreur Volunteers

J. Robertson

Check out this chart, developed by Barbara Bray and KathleenMcClaskey, that illustrates the differences between Personalized, Differentiated, and Individualized Learning.

Over the past four years our school district has committed to bringing together early learning professionals from a variety of settings, including: StrongStart facilitators, ELF (Early Learning Foundations) preschool and childcare providers, community partners, teachers, and school-based administrators.  Through these in-service sessions participants have engaged in dialogue on a variety of topics, deepening their understanding of new concepts and directions in early childhood education, reflecting on their classroom practices, and collaborating with other educators in the field.  In the past two years we have explored the topics of play-based learning and the co-creation of a seamless continuum of early care and learning.  This year’s session, focusing on Pedagogical Documentation was well attended by 60 participants from across the North Shore.  Response to the event has been very positive.  As one preschool provider commented: “It’s great to have the opportunity to engage in dialogue with other people working in early childhood education – it broadens our perspective and deepens our understanding of current topics.”

The event was hosted by Ridgeway Elementary Ridgeway, the first school in North Vancouver to be re-designed with a “neighbourhood of learning” concept in mind, providing dedicated classroom space for a community-based preschool and childcare facility operated by North Shore Neighbourhood House. The redesign of Ridgeway, and the on-going provision of in-service for our early learning partners, are evidence of the North Vancouver School District’s commitment to strengthening the delivery of early care and learning for families in our community.

StrongStart Facilitator Lynn Fitzgerald with Ridgeway Principal Aline Burlone

Many thanks to Lisa Hubbard (Director of North Shore Neighbourhood House), Aline Burlone (Principal of Ridgeway), and Diane Ehling (Vice Principal of Ridgeway) for helping to host this session.

For more information about Pedagogical Documentation (Narration) please refer to the BC Ministry of Education’s Early Learning Framework.

Gifted education is not what people think it is.

Gifted learners are not test scores.
They are not perfect. They are not easier to teach. They are kids.
With different learning needs.
Who will give up if they are not challenged.
Who rarely get a place in educational laws.
Who sometimes give up and drop out of school.
Who are waiting for change.
Who now sit hoping, wishing, to learn.
To grow. To think.
To climb out of the box.
To change the world.To get something different.
Not because they are privileged, elite, or want “better.”
But because they want the one thing that every kid, in every school, in the world deserves.
To learn and grow.

Poem by Krissy Venosdale (Gifted Ed teacher grades 3-6).  For more of Krissy’s poems and inspiration in the area of gifted education, check out her  Inspired Learning website.

In Mrs. Fraenkel’s class students worked on a collaborative writing project called learning about leads.  To see more of their stories and fabulous artwork, check out their Mrs. Fraenkel’s class blog.

The iPADS, which  are becoming part of the daily Kindergarten routine, are helping students to learn keypad manipulation (a technique they have named ‘tickling’), animated sharing and turn taking.

Just a few blocks away, in Mme Lechleiter’s grade one French Immersion classroom, students are also learning how to use iPads.  The children are using the iPad camera and the White Board app to create their own visual reinforcement for learning and practising key phrases and grammatical structures in French.  These students have also created their own French picture books using iBook author.  These original stories are enhanced with beautiful artwork and narrated with the children’s own voices!

To learn more about Mme Lechleiter’s action research using the iPads in her primary French Immersion classroom, check out her Journey with an iPad blog!  The blog also includes some great lists of appropriate iPad apps and ideas for primary literacy instruction powered by technology!