Gratitude on Halloween

I feel very fortunate to have a job in which I can work with amazing students, parents and staff.

District Alternate 42 Secondary has had some additional staff come on board this year and this has complimented our existing staff nicely - the result has been some very unique learning opportunities for our students.  Through some very generous support from our District's Senior Team, School Board and the Community we have been able to put in place some state of the art shop equipment to enable students to participate in metal working, auto mechanics, and carpentry.  We would like to mention the Ed Coates Foundation that has generously donated to not just our school, but to automotive programs in different high schools throughout the district.   In addition, we have added a Make Up artist who works with students on a weekly basis and we have received a grant from Artists in the Classroom for an artist to come in and work with students on textile design.

I have included a few photos (below) to update you all on what we have been doing.

For more updates check us out on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DistrictAlt42

Celebrating Life and Thanksgiving

Hello All - Just wanted to reflect on Thanksgiving.  This is the one day a year I eat turkey and stuffing, it's a great day to spend with family and friends, for me it symbolizes the true end of summer - it's rain straight through until May now (hopefully not straight through).  However, the true reason for Thanksgiving - is just that - giving thanks for all of the people we have had the pleasure to know over the past year.  It's a time to reflect on how fortunate we are. 

This Thanksgiving it was hard to feel fortunate or thankful as we had one of our students, Tiffany Williams, taken from us in a tragic accident the week before.  On Saturday I attended Tiffany's Celebration of Life along with her Culinary teacher, Chef Karen Gin and many of Tiffany's fellow culinary students, three of whom spoke about their fond memories of Tiffany in the program, and prior to the program, as they had known her for a number of years.  The students of the culinary program all signed Tiffany's Chef's Jacket and prepared food for Tiffany's family last week.  As I listened to the heartfelt stories from family members and friends about Tiffany growing up, camping and fishing I felt truly thankful to have known her, at least a little while.

Earlier in the year I was inquiring about Tiffany's progress in the culinary program to Chef Karen.  Chef's response to me was that Tiffany was one of the best students in her program and then went on to say that she never had to ask Tiffany to do anything because Tiffany had already anticipated what Chef would ask and had done it already - I can think of no higher praise from a Chef than that!

I know Tiffany is in a better place now, however I will always feel sad that Tiffany never got the chance to fulfill her desire to be a Chef.  She would have continued to make amazing contributions to the culinary program and to the restaurant team she would have ended up being a part of. 

Tiffany, I will miss you and will look upon the patches that the culinary students have decided to sew onto their Chef's jackets in honour of your memory with fondness.  

Reflections on My Role as an Educational Leader in SD 42

Reflections on My Role as an Educational Leader in SD 42

Over the past few weeks I have been reflecting on my role as an educational leader and would like to share those thoughts with you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNE7fmstvcI

DSAC Student Miranda Tymoschuk From Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Addresses WE Day

WE Day 2013

I had the amazing opportunity to travel to WE Day (Friday October 18th, 2013) with 15 students from secondary schools across our district.  These amazing students are currently serving on the DSAC (District Student Advisory Council) Executive Council and will be involved in leadership activities around our district over the 2013 - 2014 school year.  They will be teaching leadership skills to elementary students and raising awareness about issues in our community through the COR (Celebration of Respect) Project in May 2014.

Here is the clip of Miranda speaking at WE Day.  I filmed this from my seat, which was quite far from the stage so it is difficult to see her in this video.  Please listen to the audio and hear the poise with which she speaks to the 20, 000 plus people in Rogers Arena.  Way to go Miranda!


To learn more about WE Day please click on this link: WE Day Vancouver Oct 18, 2013

Welcome Back to MRSS Students and Staff

Hello All - just wanted to put out a quick post to welcome everyone back to MRSS for the 2013 - 2014 year.  Very excited to be a part of the MRSS team.  This will be the start of my second year at MRSS and, as always, there are so many great things going on.  Here are just a few I thought I would mention:

Keith Hawkins, an amazing motivational speaker, will be coming at the end of the month (Sept 26th) to speak to our students.  Please see his website at http://www.keithhawkins.com/ to learn more about Keith and his amazing message. 

On the sports front, we have a new Field Lacrosse Team starting up.   Ms. Urdahl-Serr, one of our MRSS teachers, will be heading that up.  See her for details. 

With regard to professional development the district has invited Mr. Alfie Kohn to speak to educators on the September 23rd Pro D Day.  Mr. Kohn will be speaking on assessment and motivation.  Please see his website for more information:  http://www.alfiekohn.org 

Speaking of new things happening this year we have two new administrators - Mr. Trevor Connor (Principal) and Ms. Tricia McCuaig (Vice Principal) - I've known both Mr. Connor and Ms. McCuaig for many years and I believe that both of them will be amazing assets for MRSS .  Looking forward to an amazing year.  As always I feel privileged and honoured to be part of the MRSS team.  Have a great 2013 - 2014 school year everyone!

Some Reflections on the Summer 2012

Look at the Beach, Not the Water, Brah!

Aloha - This summer I did two things I always wanted to do - I went to Hawai'i and I surfed!  Surfing was an amazing experience.  Like most great experiences there is a life lesson you can take away from it - for me it was the advice that Kevin, my surf instructor, gave me - he said look at the beach, brah, not the water!

What I took away from that comment was focus on where you want to go (aka the beach) and you'll go there - conversely focus on where you don't want to go (the water - aka wipeout) and you'll end up there

Another cool thing I did this summer was attend a conference in Whistler where I had an opportunity to listen to Will Richardson speak about the internet and education - check out his site: http://willrichardson.com/

Just a few sites he mentioned that I thought were great:

Edmodo - http://www.edmodo.com/  provides teachers and students a secure place to connect and collaborate, share content and educational applications, and access homework, grades, class discussions and notifications. Its goal is to help educators harness the power of social media to customize the classroom for each and every learner.  Here's a youtube video to help you get started:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tTU1iUfExk

Khan Academy -http://www.khanacademy.org/

Is a  free site that has literally millions of tutorials on a plethora of subjects.  To understand the site better see a TED talk by it's founder - Salman Kahn -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM95HHI4gLk

Twitter - most people are now familiar with twitter - check out this edublog - it explains the how and why of twitter for educators - http://markmarshall.edublogs.org/2009/03/09/twitter-what-is-it-and-why-would-i-use-it/

100 best sites for educators - http://edudemic.com/2012/08/best-video-sites-for-teachers/

Looking forward to a great year at MRSS and wishing everyone the best for the academic year of 2012 - 2013 - Mahalo Nui Loa

 

The Summer of Wiebe

Hello All - this is my very first post on my first and only blog (so far).  I thought I'd share my summer activities for my first post.  The summer of 2010 has been great.  I've had the opportunity to visit Mexico, play golf and read.  I am now looking forward to going back to school to begin preparing for the 2010/ 2011 school year.

I have read three books so far this summer - all by Malcolm Gladwell - The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers.  All three books are amazing.  I encourage all who read this blog to read these three books because the author will challenge you to view the world from a different perspective.

In his book, Outliers, Mr. Gladwell argues that success doesn't have to do so much with talent, but hard work and the culture in which one lives.  

I've included a link (top right corner) to a CNN interview of Malcolm Gladwell conducted by Fareed Zakaria. 

Please watch the interview and let me know what you think.