Creativity

Mrs. Fitchell's Division 3 students displayed their beautiful artwork when I stopped by this afternoon.

I will post a few more pictures from my classroom visits later, as we have a staff meeting shortly.

Mr. H

Mrs. Knecht's Class in PE

Mrs. Knecht's class was playing "Benches" when I stopped by the gym today. This dodgeball-type game is good fun and all the students seem to enjoy it. The level of activity is great.

I just wanted to remind friends and parents of our students that Elphinstone Secondary School will be hosting their Annual Fall Fun Fest, in memory of Trina Borley and Hana Anderson, today from 5-7 pm. All proceeds from this event go towards a scholarship in their name. It is a great activity to take the family to, while supporting a very worthwhile cause.

You are also welcome to attend our first PAC Meeting of the year at GES at 7:00 pm. We will be meeting in the library.

Until later.

Mr. H

Busy Tuesday

Greetings:

It was a very busy day today. I taught Mrs. Sullivan's kindergarten class PE before lunch. It was good fun-- they have a lot of energy and some aren't use to the structure of school yet, but they are getting the hang of it. They loved moving around the gym as different animals and later enjoyed some ball activities.

I engaged in a soccer keep-away game with some intermediate boys at lunch time. It was enjoyable playing with the boys and getting to know them a little better.

I spent some of my day working on paperwork and in meetings. I really do enjoy getting into the classes and getting to know the students. What a glorious day-- I look forward to getting out of the office shortly so I can enjoy a bit of sunshine.

Tomorrow will be a longer day, with our PAC Meeting tomorrow at 7:00 pm. I auto-dialed a message to all students homes today as reminder.

I look forward to seeing many of you tomorrow evening.

Until tomorrow.

Mr. H

Hill Soccer

Our primary students enjoy playing hill soccer at recess and lunch. I joined in the game today. We ran out of time and the bell rang. I am sure that the game will continue over lunch hour.

Students are settling in nicely to their classes. By the end of the week most of the anxiety should subside. If there are ongoing issues please bring them to my attention.

Until later.

Mr. H

Class Placements

Students were placed in their classes today. Not all students have been placed in the classes that they had hoped, but we just ask that they be patient. Sometimes going into a new environment is stressful and we realize this. We have tried to minimize this angst by trying to ensure that students have been placed with at least one friend.

I have fielded several calls today about class placements and I want to let you know that we have tried our best to set up our classes to ensure that students needs are met. We also need to follow the Ministry of Education guidelines for class size and composition, which sometimes can be a bit of a challenge.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to give me a call or stop by so we can have a chat.

I trust that you will get a chance to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Until tomorrow.

Mr. H

Have a Great Weekend

Thanks to our staff who worked really hard to help organize our classes for next week. It is a tough job and I am impressed with the time and energy that our staff put in to ensure that optimal learning situations are set up. If your child is not thrilled with their class placement, please ask them to put forth a good effort and see what happens. Generally the situations work themselves out.

Have a great weekend everyone.

See you Monday.

Mr. H

Amos the Sweater

I had a nice time meeting all of the Kindergarten students this morning-- they will begin full time on Monday.

I later stopped by in Mrs. Klan's class and they were writing stories about Amos the Sweater. The picture is of two girls sharing their stories and pictures with me.

Until later.

Mr. H

Creative Students

Our students have been displaying great creativity. The pictures show some of the work done in Ms. Moul's Grade 1 room and Ms. Taylor's grade 2 room.

The students and teachers are getting to know each other and school start-up has been going well so far.

Our teachers will be working with me today to try to get our classes set for sometime Friday.

We are working hard to ensure that parent requests are honoured, as well as ensuring that we meet the Ministry of Education Bill 33 guidelines. We will do our best facilitate the best classes placements possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through this.

I will post some additional photos from today on the Flickr Photostream.

Have a great afternoon & evening.

Mr. H

Day Two

Day two is upon us and it is pretty busy. We have all of our Kindergarten students here this morning (and the rest of the week), as our K teachers will continue to have afternoon meetings with parents and students the rest of the week.

I have included some pictures from this morning's classes.

Until later,

Mr. H

First Day

Well, our first day is in the books and the day went rather smoothly. Thank you to everyone for your patience. We will continue with the team teaching , probably until the end of the week. I have a meeting at the end of the day tomorrow to discuss cross-boundary transfers. We hope to have this issue resolved by the end of the day tomorrow.

I want to thank Starbucks for providing coffee for our meeting-- gratis. Thank you also to the parents that provided snacks to start the day. Our Administrative Assistant, Jackie Phelan, also did an awesome job-- many thanks!

Tomorrow it will be back to our regular schedule, except for our kindergarten students; they will go from 9:00 am - 12:10 pm the rest of the week.

It's great to be back and I look forward to an exciting year working with our students!

Have a great evening.

Mr. H