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ROCKY MOUNTAIN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

School District 5 Southeast Kootenay Action Plan for Enhancing Student Learning 2017-18

School Context

Rocky Mountain Elementary School is a rural, kindergarten to Grade 6 elementary school, and was established in 1982. The school has an instruction staff of approximately 10 full time teachers, a student services teacher as well as a part-time fine arts teacher, and a librarian-technology teacher serving 250 students. The school is on the edge of the small mountain community of Elkford with a population of approximately 3 000, and serves all of the elementary aged students of the community. RMES is the sole feeder school for Elkford Secondary. Elkford is a resource-based community, and many of the community members work at one of the coal mines.

Introduction / RationaleOur staff began in 2016 engaging with the New BC Curriculum and our understanding of inquiry and project based learning strategies. We had discussions around a number of areas that could be a focus for our school goal including social responsibility, bullying, numeracy, community connectedness, and inquiry.

“As teachers, we wonder what happens to that natural curiosity, which seems to be extinguished over time. We hope to reignite that early passion for learning.” Watt and Colyer

Inquiry Questions

1. Will student awareness of emotional-regulation and social/emotional competence enhance student learning and hopefulness in the classroom and bullying behaviour be reduced?

2. Will the challenge of personal and authentic learning tasks utilizing the process of inquiry improve student engagement and skills and increase student responsibility for learning?

“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking-learning naturally results” John Dewey

Our goal at RMES is to increase student engagement, understanding, and learning by using the process of inquiry as a learning, teaching and problem solving strategy. We will implement this approach as we design our lessons and support the learning of every child in our classrooms by creating learning environments that cultivate curiosity and grow young people as confident, capable and creative inquirers. Through the use of an inquiry approach we intend to improve the engagement and interest of students in their learning, allow for personal, relevant and deep connections, and understanding to occur, and

ROCKY MOUNTAIN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

2500A Balmer Drive, Box 460Elkford, BC V0B 1H0

250-865-4625

increase the academic, social and communication skills and overall life chances for every learner.

Scanning

Successes:Our staff is excited for inquiry in their classroomsOur Professional Development is on the renewed curriculum and inquiry.Our staff is continuing with the social/emotional teaching in the classroom.Our YCW, AESW and our Counsellor are working with staff on the emotional/social well-being of our students.

Challenges:Many students are continuing to learn to regulate their emotions.They are working on taking responsibility for their learning and being independent workers. Some students struggle with keeping a positive attitude toward learning and their listening skills.Building resilience for many students is an on-going goal.Students are still learning to feel empowered in the larger community.Growing anxiety is seen among some studentsChallenges still exist connecting and supporting students between home and school.Changing and adapting to new expectations, curriculum and transitions can be a challenge for some students.Basic math skills and understanding are a challenge for some.Remembering what they have learned in math and connecting their math learning to the real world is a consideration for many students.Bullying behaviours still exist – in our school and on our playground.

Focusing (Identify the most important work you can do to improve the success of your students. On which key areas of learning will you focus?) As teachers scanned and discussed the variety of strengths and challenges of our students, we recognized that their needs are diverse. A focus on them becoming more engaged in and taking more responsibility for their learning through the use of inquiry design and individualized projects will enable our students to ‘go deeper’ and relate their learning to the real world.

Teachers have committed to learning about the inquiry process through professional development activities in order to better engage students in their learning, help them to take more responsibility for their learning, and to increase their learning.

EvidenceTeachers at RMES are curious about the impact of planning lessons utilizing an inquiry design and process that will enable students to learn more deeply in a personalized manner and will encourage them to take more responsibility for their learning.

Evidence of student engagement and learning will be gathered from teacher assessment, observation, student, and parent feedback.

Data from teachers, report cards, and FSA results is also available to track improvement of student cohorts year to year.

Here is what we have been using to help support our goal on student awareness of emotional-regulation and social/emotional competence enhance student learning and hopefulness in the classroom and bullying behavior.

Leadership Program School Clubs (Choir, Uke Club, Running Club, Newspaper Club, Leadership Club) School Jobs Buddies Counselling time Buddy Bench Kids Count Too MindUp Curriculum YCW support AESW support Counselling support Lunch Bunch Stars

Key Learnings

Discipline based inquiry is a focus for deep understanding. It is a systematic investigation into a problem, issue, topic or idea. “Inquiry-based learning is a process used to solve problems, create new knowledge, resolve doubts, and find the truth. Inquiry involves working with others and respecting a diversity of voices while seeking the best possible solution to the problem or answer to the question” Wyatt and Colyer

Developing a HunchRMES staff would like to see if the use of engaging and authentic learning tasks that connect our students to the real world through the process of inquiry, and that provide opportunities for them to make a difference in our community and school, will assist our students in taking more responsibility for their learning and will encourage them to be more interested and engaged participant

New Professional Learning

What we did last year:

Professional – Development Curriculum Day with Leyton Schnellert and Inquiry planning

Collaborative planning and support for using inquiry strategies in class

Book Club: purchased IQ A Practical Guide to Inquiry-Based Learning by Jennifer Watt and Jill Colyer

PLC Projects for teachers using inquiry strategies

Staff Meeting and Pro-D days to allow time for sharing and discussions of our successes and challenges

K-2 Incredible Flexible You, Social Thinking Curriculum with your classes. Each lesson will be approximately 40 minutes long and will include a story followed by an activity. I would like teachers to be present for the lesson so you too can become familiar with the language. The curriculum has been updated to include 10 sessions this year. Continue with cohort each year, and build. (Counsellor, YCW, SLP)

FRIENDS Program

Grade 5/6 GirlPower & GoodGuys teaches not just self-awareness, but social-awareness too, so that your students are more focused and better equipped to handle the day-to-day Friendship Fires that occur. Students with healthy friendships have higher self-esteem, a more positive body image, they get involved in more leadership roles, maker wiser decisions in future relationships, and perform better academically. THIS is the foundation. (Nov. 4)

Implementing Outdoor Connections: Adventure Therapy Program. During each outdoor session the variety of activities are complimented with meaningful discussions and opportunities for reflection to enhance the quality of this program. This program is delivered in collaboration with Dayna Haig, school counsellor, which provides the opportunity for on-going support, transference and continued mentorship through the school year.

Taking Action

What is new this year…

Genius Hour: Genius hour is a movement that allows students to explore their own passions and encourages creativity in the classroom. It provides students a choice in what they learn during

a set period of time during school. WE Day: Our Leadership Group earned tickets to WE Day. WE

Schools is our educational program that challenges young people to lead with the conviction that together, we can transform lives locally and globally. The program helps young people understand how to step up and make a difference in their neighborhood and world at large, and provides them with the tools to take action and connect with other like-minded change-makers. WE Schools combines unique curriculum, educational resources and action campaigns, and inspires students to identify the issues that spark their passion and create the change they want to see in the world. By taking action on one local and one global issue, students develop leadership skills needed to succeed academically, in the workplace and as active citizens

Our Greenhouse is complete and will allow many opportunities for inquiry learning.

Maker Day: We will participate in our first ever district wide maker day. A maker day is based off the idea of the makerspace movement. A makerspace design challenge encourages students to “think outside of the box” in order to create a product, device, or experience using high or low tech tools.

Communication Strategies

Staff - focus on our school goal during staff meetings, teacher release time and collaboration opportunities, at School Based Team meetings and during Pro-D opportunities.

Collaborative and professional conversations that occur daily in our staffroom and among staff and during staff initiated planning meetings also provide invaluable communication and sharing opportunities.

Students – explain, teach, and discuss the inquiry process, learning intentions and student role in the inquiry design.

Parents – School goal will be shared and explained with the RMES PAC. School newsletters, website, twitter, and Facebook will be used to

share our plans and information.

Parental/Community Involvement

Parents and experts from the community will be invited to work with students and inform them and engage with them in their learning.

Parents will be invited to attend presentations and unveilings of student work, and performances.

Projects will directly connect students with our school, community and world.

Placed based, outdoor learning projects will use local resources-Greenhouse

Connection to the District Goals

To enable all students to graduate with purpose, options and hope by developing a sense of belonging in all students and enhancing the engagement in learning To develop literacy performance by purposefully engaging diverse learners in the process of reading to understand across all subject areas AND to improve the knowledge, skills and attitudes in numeracy

The purpose and intent of our school goal is to support each child in their social and emotional growth, and encourage and develop their individual skills through a teaching and instructional design that will build their academic skills, their personal motivation, and their own responsibility for their learning.