At Elwick School we talk daily, weekly and monthly about our school beliefs. These beliefs were created by the staff and students of Elwick School around 5 years ago and continue to be the underlying values that guide our daily teaching. It is important to note that each quadrant could not exist in isolation, each belief is reflective of the other three quadrants.
As a classroom teacher I feel that it is my responsibility to constantly bring our learning, and our daily classroom life back to these beliefs. Making them become not just something we talk about in isolation at the beginning of the year, but really making these beliefs a strong foundation in how each students and member of the school acts daily. Always understanding that taking care of ourselves, allows us to take care of each other, and when we are taking care of each other we can take care of this place together, and when we take care of this place we are learning ways to take care of our world.
This year our holiday gift home was reflective of each quadrant of our Elwick belief statement. Here are a few examples of students work and ideas that reflected these beliefs.
The first was a gift to ourselves. A published story of our favourite holiday memory. Students wrote each story in their writers notebook, created the detailed illustration, then typed their story and created the full published piece that they could take home share with their families and be proud of. Thus taking care of themselves as an individual learner!
The second gift was to each other (our families). As a class we have been talking ALOT about how we speak to each other. The tone we use, and our word choice and how this effects others. We have done several activities with Ms. Toni (School Learning Support Teacher) and within the room all reflective of the kind words we can say to and about each other. So I decided to use this understanding and encourage the class to create a gift of kind words for their families. Choosing their words carefully they wrote kind and loving things about various members of their families. Then we laminated their work so that it would last forever, just like how kind words can last a life time.
The third gift was a gift to our place (our home). We made a snowman tree ornament with each students face as the snowman's face. As an adult I still have ornaments on my tree that I made in school and we decided that making a tree ornament would be a great gift for our place! Almost all of my students expressed that they had a tree to decorate in their homes, however for the students that do not celebrate Christmas and do not put up a tree we talked about how this gift could be hung anywhere in their homes, on a door or window or fridge.
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The fourth and final gift was a gift of promise to our world. As a class we brainstormed how we could take care of our world in various ways. Each student came up with such amazing and thoughtful ways to take care of our planet. This gift was more of a promise to act instead of something tangible. Each student selected one or two of the ideas and promised to act on these ideas with their families. Here were their great ideas...
All in all it was an amazing and thoughtful way to spend the last few weeks at school working on these various gifts. And at the same time being constantly reminded how our Elwick School beliefs can be visible everywhere!
Happy Holidays!
Nicole and Room 6
