On September 26, 2018 we will celebrate and explore Character. Contact your Sun West school to find out more about the celebrations planned! #CultivateCharacter

Over the next 3 years, Sun West School Division will prepare all students to be successful by providing them with the necessary 21st century skills. This will be achieved by focusing on three key priority areas that are critical to students’ success within – and beyond – the classroom: ACHIEVEMENT, ENGAGEMENT AND WELL-BEING

very learner is unique. Every learner has their own strengths, challenges, learning styles, interests and aptitudes. In keeping with leading educational institutions around the world, Sun West teachers and administrators have embraced personalized learning as a way to ensure that learners have voice and choice in their learning and can capitalize on their unique set of skills and characteristics.
So what does that mean for your children? What should you expect in your classrooms?
Explore this document:

This is the presentation by Shannon McJannet from the May SBA meeting on supporting staff mental health.

"To make a difference in the life of a child ... I made the commitment to tell my personal story," says educator Lisa Godwin. In this moving talk, she shares her experience of overcoming childhood trauma with the quiet, unwavering support of a teacher and school counselor — and shows how educators can help students and families navigate hardships by sharing their own stories.

The Fair Dealing Decision Tool helps teachers decide whether "fair dealing" permits classroom use of print materials, artistic works, or audiovisual materials without first getting copyright permission. The tool helps teachers determine whether a specific intended classroom use is allowed by the Fair Dealing Guidelines.

Teachers! Thinking of using a copyright-protected work? Use this tool to find out if the use is allowed under fair dealing.

"Download our Toolkit for Promoting Empathy in Schools. You can download the toolkit in Spanish, French, and Korean, too.

The Start Empathy Toolkit is the product of interviews with more than 60 educators and leading social entrepreneurs. We asked quite simply, “What works?” We wanted to know what it would take to create a classroom where kids’ social and emotional needs are met and how to cultivate the kinds of skills that are critical for success in today’s (and tomorrow’s) world. The result is not a prescription or a formula, or a silver-bullet fix. Consider this a living set of tools: tools that will grow and evolve over time, as each of us adds our own. We encourage you to think beyond your classroom walls to what it takes to mobilize your entire school community. Together, let’s creatively reimagine what changemaking education can look like.

The toolkit contains the combined wisdom of dozens of teachers, organizations, and people who live this everyday: tips and tools, lesson plans and examples, and, most importantly, insights that can help inform everything from how you design your classroom to your daily interactions with students and colleagues. Some exercises can be done in as little as two minutes, while others can take the form of months-long class projects, applied to a range of subjects. Others simply offer a strategy you can adapt to your existing lesson plans, and tips that are proven to improve teacher and student performance alike. Some you may be familiar with, and others may be new. We invite you to test these in your classroom, and use them to generate ideas of your own."

This resource has the inventory, as well as a description of each type of personality.
Also included:
*Characteristics
*How you see yourself
*How others may see you
*Frustrations
*How to be praised
*How you act on a bad day
*What may stress you out
*Careers

This article looks at a short and sweet way to try PBL/Inquiry/Passion Projects/Genius hour,

You can do this for a day or a week.

The Ministry/Joint Consortiuum for School Health has sent out a Vaping Resource for Schools along with a sample letter that can be customized for your school and sent home to parents - attached. The vaping handout has quite a few resource links.

At Sun West we have access to: Learn 360, Criterion on Demand and ACF.

These resources allow you to stream educational videos and movies (from current to old). Learn 360 goes well beyond this with resources from everything from videos, interactives, science experiments, maps, fact sheets, math activities and an encyclopedia.

"The Visible LearningTM research base is the culmination of his quest over the past 25 years to answer this question and represents more than 1,600 meta-analyses comprising more than 96,000 studies involving more than 300 million students around the world.

Through the Visible LearningTM research, John Hattie has identified more than 250 factors that influence student achievement. He then set about calculating a score or “effect size” for each, according to its bearing on student achievement. The average effect size of these 250 factors was 0.4, a marker that can be shown to represents an (average) year’s growth per year of schooling for a student. Any factor that has an effect size above 0.4 has an even greater positive effect on student learning.

Each of these factors have been categorized into one of nine domains

StudentFactors relating to background, beliefs, and physical influences
Home Factors relating to family resources, structure, and environment
School Factors related to school-type, pre-school, school composition, and leadership
Classroom Factors related to class composition, giftedness, and classroom influences
Teacher Factors relating to teacher attributes, teacher-student interactions, and teacher education
Curricula Factors related to various curricula programs
Student Learning Strategies Factors relating to self-regulation, student perspectives, and learning strategies
Teaching Strategies Factors relating to learning intentions, success criteria, feedback, and teaching strategies
Technology, School, and Out-Of-School StrategiesFactors relating to technology, school-wide methods, and out of school learning"

This one page document provides an excellent explanation in brief of what PeBL is. This is a great place to start when learning about the PeBL philosophy at Sun West.

boclips - the world’s video uniquely curated for education

You can access 60 days for free.

The 2 million short-form videos on boclips include the most highly rated YouTube EDU channels including TED, Crash Course and Sci Show. News stories from 1900 to the present day from trusted international providers like Bloomberg, Associated Press and Reuters. As well as immersive virtual reality experiences from Getty and PBS. We’ve even curated our video platform to your curriculum standards so you can easily find the most engaging videos - whatever topic you’re looking to bring to life.

For learning in class and at home, educators and students can stream bite-sized videos from globally recognized brands on-demand.

Courseware designers can find, license and download relevant videos to incorporate into school and university level digital resources.

It's fast.
It's safe.
It's personal.

You will need to register to use this resource.