Happy Holidays from Bjorkdale School

Last night was our Christmas Concert, and today is our last day of school before the break. I cannot believe how quickly the first half of the year has gone by. I would like to thank the staff for all of their hard work this year. Your hard work makes sure that our children receive an excellent education. I want to thank the students for all of their hard work. Our students really are the greatest. They are kind, compassionate and generous. They make this building a wonderful place to come each and every day. Finally, I would like to thank the Community for all of their support this year. The community of Bjorkdale is amazing and the amount of support they provide the school is outstanding. We were able to raise $5000 for archery equipment, because of the wonderful generosity of the individuals and the businesses in our area. I cannot say thank you enough to everyone who contributed. This has been an amazing year so far, and I know that 2018 will be even better. The staff of Bjorkdale School would like to wish everyone Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. See you on January 3rd. 

Formative vs. Summative assessment

• Formative and Summative assessment are two of the most popular buzz words in education. So what do they mean? 

I like to compare Formative and Summative assessment to playing a sport. 

Formative assessment is like a practice. 

• It is about building skills, and practicing new concepts. 
• It is where a person can make mistakes and not get penalized for them (learning should be filled with mistakes). 
• You are not being evaluated during this time. It is practice. 
• This will be the time that there will be the most growth. 

Summative assessment is like a game. 

• You are being evaluated on your ability. 
• How well you do will determine the score of the game.  
• All evaluations are final... until the next game. 
• The coach will use this time to decide what was a mistake, and what was an error. 
• Mistakes are easy fixes, the player can correct these on their own. Sometimes mistakes will need to be pointed out, in order for a player to see them. 
• Errors will probably need to be addressed with further practice, new drills etc. An error is not always easily fixed. 

Formative and Summative assessment work like a cycle and will continue all year long. 

The end of Term One

It is hard to believe, but we have already completed Term one, and are now half-way through Semester one. A big thank you needs to go out to all of the staff, students and parents who have allowed us to have a successful start to the year. We are a small school, so it takes a lot of people working together to provide our students with amazing opportunities. On that note, I would like to thank Mrs. Mohr, and Mrs. Kovach for all of their hard work coaching this year. Our Jr. Volleyball team qualified for playoffs and Trace Fredsberg qualified for Provincials in Cross Country. Congratulations to Trace on qualifying for Provincials. This is a major accomplishment, and something to build off of going into next season. Way to go!!!

Some of you might be aware that we are trying some different teaching strategies in our elementary end of the school. I wanted to take this opportunity to explain what we are doing and why we believe it will be beneficial. At the end of last year, we as a staff realized that we had to think differently about the way we deliver education. We decided to embrace our small size and our favorable student to teacher ratio. Our goal is to develop an open learning environment, where students will work according to ability rather than age. We are starting this in the Elementary end, but hope that we will be able to try it up to grade nine in the next few years. Our goal is to be able to provide more teacher support for struggling students, while at the same time pushing our FM or EU students, with self-directed learning. For this year, we are going to focus specifically on reading, but in the future, we hope to open it up in all of ELA, and Math. As of right now we are only trying this for a half-hour every day two, but we hope to expand the process in the next little while. If you have any questions or concerns please contact the school. Thanks. 

I love this video about shifting the way we think about education. This year at the school we are going to try some preliminary work with flexible classrooms. The hope is that we will be able to  provide more support for students who are struggling, while at the same time pushing students who are doing well.

Parent volunteers

Hi, we are looking for parent volunteers to come to the school once or twice a week to read with students. This reading would take place from 9:30 am-10:00 am, usually once or twice a week. During this time period you will be sitting with different students listening to them read.

 I have attached a google document link, where you can sign up. The available dates are located at the top of the sheet, please sign your name under the date. We are looking for one or two parents on any specific date, if more than two people have already signed up, please find another date. You can sign up more than once. We will also being accepting community volunteers, but they need to be known by the school staff, if not we will require a criminal records check.
Thanks.
I think in order to sign up you will need to use a computer or have a google app.
Volunteer sign up sheet

The Importance of reading

This year the staff at Bjorkdale School has set a personal goal of creating a "Culture of Literacy," both within the school and outside of the school. With that in mind I thought I would share with you a chart that explains the importance of having children read not just while they are at school, but when they are at home as well. 

Importance of Reading out loud

Harvest Dinner 2017

Wow! Another amazing harvest dinner has come and gone. Thank you to our amazing SCC for putting on this great event. The idea of opening up this year's dinner to the community was fantastic and I hope we get an even better turn out next year. Thank you to Sherry Fredsberg for all of her hard work putting this event together. There is probably a lot of stress between organizing this and the book fair, but everyone appreciates everything that you do. Thank you to all of the parent volunteers; it is amazing how many people donate their time and their effort in order to make this event a success. I would be remiss if I did not give a special thank you to Michelle Bell for cooking all four turkeys for the meal (good thing the power came back on at your house). Thank you to all of the students who helped with setup and clean up. Events like these are very special because any time you can have staff, students, parents and community members working together to achieve a common goal, it becomes a very powerful experience.