"One Thing/Fun Thing" for Fri. Feb. 28

It's the end of February. Wow. That was fast.

Here's a pretty amazing video (not all shot in one take) of a boy who has clearly put in his 10 000 hours to become an expert in his field (as per Malcolm Gladwell) of trick bike riding. The fact that he even looks at the possibilities of doing the things he does on a bike is amazing.

And a late addition. A couple of our students were on the CTV news last night for their involvement in RYBL basketball here in Richmond.
Sorry, I was unable to embed this one. It's part of Perry's Prospects.
So CLICK HERE to see a couple of our students

Have a great weekend everyone.

"One Thing" for Thurs. Feb. 27

Last night, Dr. Brandy Wiebe, representing Saleema Noon's organization came to Diefenbaker to speak to our students about sexual health for adolescents.

Today she came to speak with our students in three multi-aged groupings. I attended two of these sessions and found them to be informative. I also was impressed by how much the students already know about what Dr. Wiebe likes to call "Body Science". She included some funny facts and the students giggled a little bit, but overall approached the topic with a level of maturity. Many students also asked thoughtful questions and this led to good discussion about what it is like being an adolescent in the year 2014. Some of them were sent with a bit of "homework" to go home and ask a trusted adult the questions that they may have had lingering after the session today, so we encourage parents to have a conversation with their son or daughter about what they talked about today.

If you are looking for more infomation on this topic, you can go to Saleema Noon's webiste: http://www.saleemanoon.com/

"One Thing" for Wed. Feb. 26

Today was Pink Shirt Day and we had a lot of pink around here:

Pretty in Pink:

Division 2:

Ms. Mathis and Mr. Rollins (turn down that pink!)

This afternoon, we got into our multi-aged Bulldog teams to do some "work" on Standing up for things that we believe in. We wanted to frame things in a positive light and make a statement that we believed there are actions we can take to help "Erase" Bullying, rather than simply talk about an "Anti-Bullying" message.

  "Acceptance"

Two members of a team share a seat

After getting together in our classrooms, the teams then designed and coloured shoes that represented what we "Stood For". 

Here are a few of the examples:

Creativity

Enthusiasm

Empathy

Uniqueness

Happiness

Respect

Thanks to the teachers who helped put this together (Ms. Hinks, Ms. Park and Ms. Matheson). Altogether, we had 32 different words and each group completed one of these posters. Come by the school and check them out. Hopefully our message, and the work we've been doing as a part of "Friendly February" will continue long past today. 

"One Thing" for Tues. Feb. 25

It was Science Jam over at the Aberdeen Centre today and several Richmond schools were involved. I have never been at a school that has participated in the Science Jam but have been to the mall a couple of times to see the experiments on display. 

Janice Novakowski was there today and put together this cool video display using "Animoto" of many of the projects, participants and even the School Trustees who were there. 

http://animoto.com/play/aL3OWESGPI0tvKPYokGkEQ

It looks like there were a lot more inquiry type of projects than there used to be in the past where students would just "reuse" someone else's science experiment "in a can" from years before. Students actually coming up with ideas, hypotheses and then creating an experiment themselves. Good to see. 

"One Thing" for Mon. Feb. 24

This September a new student named Beres joined us at Diefenbaker. He is in grade 7. You don't often get new students for the last year of elementary school, but Beres was moving here from Gibsons (where the family still lives) during the week so that he could attend figure skating practices more easily. Beres had been competing at a pretty high level in BC and the travel over from Gibsons was proving burdensome. He is not in my class, but I got to know him a bit at Outdoor Education Camp, located in (ironically), Gibsons.

This past weekend, Beres was competing at the BC Winter Games in Mission (and some surrounding areas) in the juvenile boys figure skating category. The BC Winter (and Summer) Games happen every couple of years and pit regions against each other. I attended a Summer Games in Prince George myself many years ago and have fond memories of making friends and participating in the sporting competition.

Beres took home the Gold medal!

Congratulations, Beres for all the hard work that got you to this point and good luck as you pursue your future goals in sport and life. We are proud of you, but not as proud I'm sure as your family is. Way to go!

  Beres in his Green Richmond/Delta/Zone 5 team jacket

Results: HERE

"One Thing/Fun Thing" for Fri. Feb 21

What a great day. Let's reflect on the legacy that the Olympics in Vancouver (2010) left on us. Canada won 26 medals here in Vancouver (a huge success by all standards, in my opinion) and we've got a guaranteed 25 this time in Sochi.

And yes, after Crosby's "Golden Goal" in 2010 and our Women's team comeback against the USA in hockey yesterday, "I Believe" anything can happen...

"One Thing" for Thurs. Feb. 20

I didn't have much of a chance to see anything happening at school today (or the fantastically exciting hockey game either) as I was in meetings for a good junk of it. However, I did get out and was able to enjoy the (February??) sunshine with some of the girls and boys in the gardening club. We are erecting a "recycled" fence made from old hockey sticks (Go Canada, Go!) in the hope that people will stay out of the garden beds once we have planted some of our seeds (which just arrived today). Hooray. We will plant them as soon as it says we are able to.