WHAT’S UP @MCKECHNIE | Issue 5 1

What’s up

@McKechnie

October

18th, 2018

Last year, McKechnie participated

as a Communicating Student

Learning (CSL) pilot school. The BC

Ministry of Education is

conducting a pilot this year that,

like the Vancouver pilot, will

inform the development of a

provincial and district Student

Reporting Policy. While

Vancouver is not one of the

districts participating in the

provincial pilot, the requirements

and elements of the provincial

pilot are very similar to what pilot

schools are doing in Vancouver.

Teachers at McKechnie have

indicated that they would like to

continue participating as a Year

Two pilot school.

What does this mean for my child? Traditionally, communication with parents about a student’s academic, social and emotional development was termed “reporting”. The shift is towards communicating student progress rather than as a report. This will look like increased informal reporting to parents either via conferences, phone calls, emails or digital platforms such as FreshGrade. The emphasis is on student self-assessment of the learning journey or process, rather than only on the end results.

(continued on next page)

Pitching in

Please help us keep our school clean by using the garbage, compost and recycling bins. Every little effort helps our school and the environment.

The students and staff of Dr. R. E. McKechnie Elementary School acknowledge that we work, live and learn on the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and T’sleil Wathuth Coast Salish peoples.

Communicating student learning

WHAT’S UP @MCKECHNIE | Issue 5 2

How many reports are there? There will be:

• 2 written progress reports (January and June) on a competency based scale

• 3 or more ongoing communications of student learning (e-portfolios, parent-teacher meetings, conferences, etc.)

Please note that this is the minimum number of times you will be hearing from your child’s teacher. For many parents and students, this will be sufficient; for others, it will be necessary to communicate more often and in greater detail. Please do not hesitate to contact your classroom teacher.

What does the reporting scale look like? The reporting scale is based on competency descriptors – beginning, developing, applying and extending. Student progress is reported according to the level of competency in each subject area. There are no letter grades or performance scales.

What do those descriptors mean? From the perspective of the student, the descriptors at the different levels mean:

Beginning – “I am just getting started and I learn best with help.”

Developing – “I am getting there and I am beginning to do more and more on my own.”

Applying – “I get it and can do it on my own.”

Extending – “I get it and go beyond what is expected of me.”

Where can I find more information? Please visit the VSB website https://www.vsb.bc.ca/Student_Learning/Curriculum_and_Assessment/Communicating_Student_Learning/Pages/default.aspx

If you have concerns about your child’s progress, please contact the classroom teacher directly. Most teachers will communicate via email or the student agendas. You are also welcome to call the school office.

Please see “Assessment & Reporting” in this newsletter for additional information.

Orange Shirt Day We wore orange shirts on Monday, October 1st to remember residential school survivors and also those who didn’t survive. Residential schools are a part of Canada’s history and the recognition of the conditions and results of these institutions are important as we all continue on the journey towards reconciliation.

Orange Shirt Day started in 2013 after Phyllis Webstad, a St. Joseph Mission residential school survivor, shared her story during an event at the St. Joseph Mission residential school in Williams Lake. When she was 6, time for her to attend this school, her grandmother bought her an orange shirt to wear. When she arrived, she was told to take off all her clothes and was washed. She never saw that new orange shirt again.

Orange shirts are worn on the 30th of September by people across BC to commemorate the residential school experience and to witness and honour the healing journey of the survivors and their families, and to commit to the ongoing process of reconciliation.

At a time when all students are coming back to school, it is appropriate that stories of residential schools are shared and that we recognize “Every Child Matters”.

For more information about Orange Shirt Day, please visit http://www.orangeshirtday.org/ . The video on the website tells Phyllis’ story and McKechnie students watched this at the September assembly.

WHAT’S UP @MCKECHNIE | Issue 5 3

Parent

Teacher

Conferences At McKechnie, the fall set of

parent teacher conferences are

our Goal Setting conferences. It is

a time for students to set some

goals for the school year. Teachers

will be helping all students to

reach their goals and an important

part to meeting goals is to ensure

that they are specific, measurable,

achievable, relevant and timely

or… SMART.

It is important that your child set

their own goals with input from

parents and teachers. For students

to develop their own goals is very

powerful and creates a sense of

ownership. As parents and

teachers, we have goals for our

children and students – the magic

happens when everybody works

towards the same goal and is

motivated to meet that goal.

We look forward to seeing you on

October 23rd and 24th!

Traffic

Concerns Many parents are not adhering to

traffic laws and parking bylaws.

This is unsafe.

U-turns & 3 point turns in the

intersection, in the middle of the

road and alleyway are unsafe. Our

students can’t predict where the

car is going and it impedes traffic

flow.

Speeding in a school zone is

unsafe (and carries a $200 fine).

Our students are walking to and

from school.

Parking and Stopping in the “No

Stopping” zones is unsafe. Our

students’ visibility is

compromised. Hazard lights don’t

help – unless you have really

broken down there.

Our School Liaison Officer,

Constable Wong-Moon

commented that he has seen

unsafe behaviour. Our teacher

sponsor of the School Safety

Patrol monitors, Mr. Smitna,

commented his patrol monitors

are reporting unsafe behaviour.

These are being reported to the

police. I have seen u-turns,

speeding and stopping where it is

not permitted.

Please follow traffic laws and

bylaws. It keeps your children

safe.

Professional Development Day – October 19th Teachers and Support Staff across the province will have the opportunity to attend conferences and workshops on October 19th. Many of these conferences will be organized by BCTF Provincial Specialists’ Associations, comprised of teacher volunteers. The VSB has organized workshops that will be hosted around the district for both teachers and support staff. It is a great opportunity for teachers, educational assistants, other professionals and paraprofessionals to work and learn with and from each other.

WHAT’S UP @MCKECHNIE | Issue 5 4

WHAT’S UP @MCKECHNIE | Issue 5 5

Terry Fox Run

What Makes a Hero

by Jackson Lambton (Div 5) A hero is a person that never gives up. Not like people with laser vision or super strength. Like Terry Fox for instance. Terry Fox had bone cancer in his leg at 18 years old! He wanted to start a marathon of hope to raise 1 million dollars to find a cure for cancer research. Another excellent example of strength and showing courage, is the Indigenous little hummingbird. Him and his Indigenous animal friends were in the forest when a fire came into the forest and they were forced to evacuate. The little hummingbird wasn’t going to let the forest burn down so he said “No.” So he flew to the river and he picked up a drop one at a time until the fire stopped, and he never gave up.

WE EXCEEDED LAST YEAR’S DONATION BY OVER $50!

Watch the animated video or listen and watch kidsREAD read the book

Whooo’s visited McKechnie? Divisions 7 & 8 had special visitors from the OWL Orphaned Wildlife. Students learned about how owls can be so quiet when flying and how eagles’ feathers can make them so powerful. The students also inspected owl pellets to learn what they ate! What brave young scientists!

WHAT’S UP @MCKECHNIE | Issue 5 6

Hallowe’en is a time to have fun and be creative. Everybody has their own ideas of what is fun and creative. We are all looking forward to seeing each other’s costumes!

Here are a few guidelines to make sure that everybody feels comfortable and safe on Hallow’s Eve at McKechnie.

• Costumes should be comfortable enough to wear during class. If your costume will be too uncomfortable, bring a change of clothes as a back-up.

• Face paint and make-up are safer than masks. Our school has stairs and ramps so visibility is important!

• Make sure your costume allows you to walk safely. Costumes that are too long may cause tripping and many loose pieces may snag on fences and playground equipment.

Remember that:

• There are no weapons at school. This includes replicas and masks with weapons embedded in them. If it resembles a weapon, please leave it at home. If your costume is incomplete without it, please consider a different costume for school.

• Be culturally sensitive. Costumes based on ethnicity or different cultures may be offensive to others. Please be aware that some symbols or objects have cultural or religious significance and should only be used in their appropriate context.

• Costumes depicting, or glorifying drug or gang culture and war criminals are inappropriate.

• Hallowe’en should be fun for everybody!

Hallowe’en Costume Guidelines

Safety Patrol Thank you again to our Grade 6 & 7 students who have volunteered for the School Safety Patrol. These student volunteers are trained by the Vancouver Police Department.

You will see them out at the corner of Maple Street and 60th Avenue. Please respect their stop signs. They have instructions to put out their stop signs whenever there are students crossing the street, regardless of whether there is a car coming or not. They also have instructions to wait until the pedestrians are safely on the other side of the street. Please respect their judgement and training.

Our School Safety Patrol monitors report infractions to the office and they are reported to the police.

If you have any questions or concerns about our School Safety Patrol monitors, please contact Mr. Smitna, our teacher sponsor.

Walk ‘n Wheel Wednesdays Walk ‘n Wheel Wednesdays kicked off during Walk to School Week on Oct 1 – 5th. Thank you to the McKechnie PAC for sponsoring Walk ‘n Wheel Wednesdays in the month of October.

Every Wednesday, a pair of Grade 7 students wait for walkers and wheelers to go by at the four corners of the school to hand them a tasty treat. Anybody walking and wheeling to school and arrives by the first bell gets a treat!

There are two more Walk ‘n Wednesdays left in October. The Grade 7s have handed out an incredible amount of treats already in 3 days! 5 boxes of granola bars, 4 boxes of fruit to go ~ remember to walk to school on Hallowe’en. Can you guess what kind of treats will be handed out on Hallowe’en?

WHAT’S UP @MCKECHNIE | Issue 5 7

Assessment Assessing student progress and understanding is an integral part of the instructional cycle.

Teachers use the results from assessments to guide their teaching. Not all results from all assessments are reported to parents. Some are used by the teacher(s) for planning instruction.

British Columbia’s students also participate in larger Provincial assessments as well as National and International assessments on a regular basis.

Classroom Assessments Classroom assessments remain the primary tools in which student performance is assessed and evaluated.

The Performance Standards continue to be used in classrooms both by teachers and students for assessment. Some articles of student work may have been sent home during the year with a copy of the “quick scale” – a summary scale of the full Performance Standards. The Numeracy, Reading and Writing performance standards will be revised to reflect the redesigned curriculum by the Ministry of Education. The one exception to these revisions is the Performance Standards for Social Responsibility – these have been incorporated into the Core Competencies.

Reporting Provincial reporting guidelines are undergoing changes to reflect evolving practice and the redesigned curriculum. Parents engaged in a public consultation process between Oct 2016 – Feb 2017 to provide feedback regarding reporting on their child’s progress. The full report can be found here.

The key themes found in this engagement process were:

1. Use of letter grades and percentages

2. Need for more personalization 3. Need for more clarity regarding

performance standards 4. Frequency and Timelines of

communicating student learning 5. Use of technology in

communicating student learning 6. Curriculum and Content 7. Reporting on social and

emotional development 8. Reporting on work ethic and

effort 9. Parent-Teacher conferences 10. Student-initiated assessments 11. Support at home 12. Special needs

Due to the findings of this engagement process with parents, the Ministry issued interim student reporting guidelines. The VSB’s pilot schools for Communicating Student Learning is using these interim guidelines to: a) address the concerns of parents around timely & responsive reporting and b) provide more personalized ongoing reporting for each student.

Ongoing Communication At McKechnie, most teachers use FreshGrade to document and communicate student learning on an ongoing basis. More information on this process will come from your child’s classroom teacher.

Written Progress Reports Two written progress reports will include descriptive comments and a summary of student progress in relation to the learning standards of the BC redesigned curriculum.

The descriptive written comments include three categories: Student’s Learning Strengths, Areas of Growth and Ways to Support Learning. Student progress will also be indicated on a competency scale. The student competency scale is a continuum starting at Beginning and moving through Developing, Applying and Extending. A “sliding bar” will indicate the student’s level of competence in the subject area overall, rather than reporting on a selection of learning outcomes.

Students receiving additional support as English Language Learners and students with identified diverse learning needs will continue to receive supporting documents from the Resource Teachers.

If you have any questions, please contact your child’s teacher. If you require further information about the Ministry of Education’s changes to reporting, please consult the BC Ministry of Education website.

Assessment & Reporting and the Redesigned Curriculum

This article is a reprint from the November 2017 McKechnie Newsletter.

WHAT’S UP @MCKECHNIE | Issue 5 8

Green

Initiatives At McKechnie, we care deeply about

our environment. We have changed

some of our past practices to be

friendlier to the environment.

Litter less Lunches As parents are aware, this Fall,

lunches at McKechnie have gone litter

less. All students are asked to pack

everything they brought their lunches

in, back into their lunch bags to take

home for reusing or recycling.

The types of materials that can be

recycled at home exceed what the

school is able to recycle at this time.

Soft plastics, plastic and Styrofoam

can be recycled at home but not at

school. Return-ables can be returned

for a refund at home but not at

school.

Thank you for your patience while we

work out the challenges of achieving a

litter less hot lunch. We will get there!

Forgot your Utensils? Up until this year, when students forgot their utensils, our supervision aides handed out plastic utensils. Thank you to Ms. Morgan-Chan for getting spoons and forks especially for students to borrow. If your child comes home with one of these purple notices, keep it around as a handy reminder to pack a reusable utensil!

Recycling old pens, markers, mechanical pencils, highlighters Thank you again to Ms. Morgan-Chan

for taking on this initiative. If you

have any writing implements that no

longer write, please deposit them into

the boxes that have been place across

from the office and by the library

door. They will be sorted and taken to

Staples for recycling.

Reusable cloths in classrooms We use cloths at home, why not use a

cloth at school? In every classroom,

there are bins with small cloths that

can be used for wiping up small spills,

cleaning counters or desks or even for

drying hands. Ms. Morgan-Chan and a

student volunteer will be collecting

these cloths and replacing them with

clean ones every week.

Environment Champion Thank you, Ms. Morgan-Chan for being an inspirational Environment Champion role model.

Spirit Wear Last day for Spirit Wear is TODAY, October 18th! If you have not yet ordered your McKechnie T-Shirt, please submit your form to the office by the end of the day. Forms will be collected on Friday, October 19th by the parent coordinator and the order place early next week. If you have last minute changes, please make sure you place a note in the Spirit Wear box!

WHAT’S UP @MCKECHNIE | Issue 5 9

In addition to Hot Lunch on Wednesday, there is also Pizza Lunch on Thursday ! While they may appear to be the same, the proceeds every other week go towards different purposes.

One lunch is served by Grade 7 students and those proceeds go towards the Grade 7 Camp experience at Strathcona Park Lodge.

On the alternate weeks, the pizza lunch is hosted by the PAC and the proceeds go towards supporting school programs.

So, in addition to saving some time in lunch prep, the proceeds are going towards students at McKechnie ! Please place your orders at Munch-a-Lunch.

www.munchalunch.com/schools/mckechnie

Direct Drive Thank you to all the families who have contributed to the Direct Drive campaign so far. The Direct Drive is the single major fundraising event at our school, so that as busy parents we do not have to take our children door-to-door selling chocolate, magazines, frozen meat, wrapping paper, etc. We all know that it can be challenging to commit that time to fundraising, especially when only a portion of the funds collected goes towards the school. With the Direct Drive, 100% of the funds donated go directly towards our school now!

How are the funds spent? In past years the Direct Drive has raised funds for our new playground, the smart boards we have in every classroom, library support, music support and extra classroom support, and much more! Whether your child is in Kindergarten or Grade 7, all of our students benefit from Direct Drive initiatives, past and present, and it is vital we continue this legacy.

Our goal for the Direct Drive is to achieve a donation total of $25,000 AND participation from 100% of McKechnie families. Achieving this goal together is what contributes to building the community spirit we are so fortunate to enjoy at our school. With only about 250 children in the school, we are seeking to achieve a donation level of $100.00 or more per child attending McKechnie. In the past, the Direct Drive has been successful because many families have donated more than the average with the knowledge that other families may not be able to do the same. We appreciate that it may be a financial challenge for some McKechnie families to comfortably participate in the Direct Drive, and we thank these families for any level of support they can give.

How do we contribute? Please make your donation via cheque, by completing the donation form and dropping it off at the main office in the Direct Drive Box. All donations over $20 will receive a charitable donation tax receipt. Please make your cheques payable to McKechnie PAC.

This year’s campaign runs from October 15th to 26th.

Pizza Lunches by PAC & Grade 7 Leaving Class

WHAT’S UP @MCKECHNIE | Issue 5 10

WHAT’S UP @MCKECHNIE | Issue 5 11

WHAT’S UP @MCKECHNIE | Issue 5 12

Important Dates

What’s Up @McKechnie

mckechnie.vsb.bc.ca

7455 Maple Street Vancouver, BC V6P 5P8

Principal: Ankie Carswell 604-713-4952

Administrative Assistant: Anna Maria Ferraro (Mon – Wed)

Leona Partington (Thurs – Fri)

Director of Instruction: Richard Zerbe 604-713-4594

VSB Trustee Liaison: Janet Fraser

Safe Arrival @McKechnie *NEW* 604-713-5159 Ext 54 Please call before 9 am

Vancouver School Board 604-713-5000

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

October 22 23 October Assembly

9:10 am Photo Retakes 1 pm

Goal Setting Conferences Early

Dismissal 2pm

Hot Lunch 24 Goal Setting

Conferences Early Dismissal 2 pm

Pizza Lunch 25 Jr. Girls’ Soccer

playoffs 1 pm

26 We Scare Hunger

campaign ends

Divisions 9 – 12 Pumpkin Patch

11 am – 2 pm

27

28 29

30 Hot Lunch 31 Hallowe’en

November 1 Family Photo Night

4 – 8 pm

2 Family Photo Night

4 – 8 pm

3

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Nov 4 5 6 Hot Lunch 7

Pizza Lunch 8 Remembrance Day

Assembly 11 am

9 Curriculum

Implementation Day (no school for

students)

10

11 12 Day in Lieu of

Remembrance Day (no school for

students)

13 Hot Lunch 14

Pizza Lunch 15

16 Divisions 1- 6

Symphony Field Trip 9 1m – 11:30 am

17

18 19 20 PAC meeting in

Library 7 pm

Hot Lunch 21

Pizza Lunch 22

23

24

25 26 27 Hot Lunch 28

Pizza Lunch 29

30