Weekly email Oct 17th

October 17, 2014

Dear parents,

Breakfast and PJ Spirit day – Ms. Davis

Students loved breakfast and coming to school in PJs. Thank you to Mr. Coward’s Grade 7-9 homeroom and Ms. Haines Grade 4/5 class for their leadership in putting on this activity for all students. Many thanks to parents who provided breakfast foods for students.

Band Council Bottle Drive - Saturday, October 18, 2014 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

Students and parents will be canvassing the Elboya area.  Drop off contributions in the school parking lot would be most welcome.  Thank you for your support.

Oktoberfest is just one week away! You should have your tickets by now.  Donations have been amazing. Thank you Parents, Staff and Students!

As of Monday Event Brite will be closed and ticket sales confirmed at Heritage Park so they can ensure there is lots of food for all.  If you have not purchased your ticket please do hurry and do it today.

Later in the week we will send an email to ticket holders with the auction items and event details but should you have any questions in the meantime please contact Rhonda Fulton at 403 243-3538 or at Rhonda@mauibeachwalk.com

We will continue to accept donations but would like to sincerely thank those who have contributed generously so far.

See you there!

The 2014 Oktoberfest committee

Rhonda Fulton

1-866-610-6284

www.mauibeachwalk.com

Author Visits – Ms. E. Hansen, Ms. Davis

In celebration of National Library Month, National School Library Day in October and in connection with Calgary's WordFest, Elboya school welcomed four authors to our school to speak to us about their craft and the importance of literacy for all.  

• Canadian author David Bouchard capably held the attention of the English track grades 5 - 9 students as he played his flutes, recited from his books from memory and challenged the students to follow their dreams.  The importance of reading as a foundation for all of life was the theme of his talk.

• French author and artist Fabian Gregoire spoke to our French grades 7-9 students about the process of having a book published - from first sketches to final printing.  He amazed us all as he capably sketched a scene from one of his historical fiction books right before our eyes.  Students had many questions about how he got his ideas and about the writing and illustrating process leading right up to the final printed product.

• Canadian author, former teacher and actor Dan Bar-el was the speaker to Grades 1 - 4.  He held his audience entranced as he acted out several of his picture books and encouraged students to place themselves in the stories and to apply the lessons emphasized in the tales to their own lives.

• Quebec Author Christian Duchesne spoke to our French track grades 5 & 6 students about her experiences as a Canadian author. The students were able to participate by asking lots of questions about her process and experiences.

We have several copies of book by all of our guest authors in Elboya's Library Learning Commons available for sign-out by students.

The opportunity to hear an author speak is unusual even though it is much widely available than in the past. We ask a lot of these creative people when we put them in front of 100 students. By and large their work is solitary. At Elboya we share with students a variety of different opportunities and we expect them to represent themselves and the school very well. And they do. Uniformly people who come to the school or places where Elboya students visit consistently comment on what great students Elboya School has and how well they behave. Very unusually in our of author presentations, some students’ conduct did not meet that standard. We were very disappointed and expect this will not occur again. It’s important to be polite and respectful even if the room is warm, the creative process is not a personal priority and the presentation a bit long. As per normal, we did an analysis of the situation and made some adjustments on the school side too. We want all of our students to participate and enjoy speakers when they come to the school.

Thank you to Elboya Fundraising Society for their support in having authors at the school.

Grade 6 and 9 PAT results

Schools have received the PAT results for Grade 6 and 9 students. Parent copies will be sent home with the Grade 7 students next week. Grade 9 results are sent to the high school that the students are currently attending. Elboya School results will be shared with parents next week.

Assessment and HomeLogic D. Siakaluk

 A Parent’s guide to Assessment and Reporting has recently been published and is found on the Calgary Board of Education’s website at http://www.cbe.ab.ca/Parents/assessment-and-reporting/introduction.asp

 HomeLogic, showing a student’s marks will be available to parents October 20, 2014.Parents are encouraged to login and check their access. If parents are having difficulties with logging in, please call the Main Office at 403 777-7760 ext. 0 and speak with Mrs. Jones. Instructions are found at

http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b627/pdfs/HomeLogic-FAQ-for-Parents.pdf

Lockdown Practice Date moved - Mr. D Siakaluk

Each year at Elboya we participate in lockdown drill practices with the support of the Calgary Police Service. These drills are practiced to ensure students know what to do in case of an emergency. Our first lockdown practice will now be on Monday, October 20 at 11:00 am. . Teachers will work with students to familiarize and practice the drill prior to the 21st. Please contact Mr. Derek Siakaluk through the main office with any questions.

Grade 3 SLA Mr. D. Siakaluk

Grade 3 students began their SLA testing on October 16 and it will continue on the 21 and 23. It is going well so far. Please see your child's teacher if you have any questions.

Photo Retake Day is not far away!  October 23rd. If Retakes are needed:

1.         Please have your child take their proof envelope, from original photo day, to the photographer on retake day.

2.         If you have lost the proof envelope, please send a handwritten note to request a retake including your choice of background color (blue, grey, purple, green or copper).

3.         If your child was absent from school on original photo day or is new to the school please tell your child to have their photograph taken on retake day.

Scholastic Bookfair Ms. D. El-Beheiry

The Scholastic book fair has been scheduled to coincide with Halloween Activities and Junior High School Interviews. Students will have an opportunity to preview the display with their teachers or at lunch in the Library throughout the day on Wednesday, October 29.  Student purchases begin the morning of Thursday, October 30 until a half hour after early dismissal at 2:00 pm.  All students will then have the opportunity to make purchases from 4:00 pm to 7:30 pm during Interviews and again from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm on Friday, October 31.

Parents, we appreciate your cooperation in ensuring that students are accompanied by a parent if at the sale on Thursday evening or during the day on Friday.

We would love to have some parents to volunteer with sales.  Please contact Deborah El-Beheiry at 403-777-7760 ext. 2046. We look forward to seeing you all.

Parent-Teacher Conferences Mr. D. Siakaluk

Parent - Teacher Conferences for students in Grades 7-9 will be on October 30 and 31

Lost and Found Mr. D. Siakaluk

Our Lost and Found is located near the Main Office and is getting quite full. Next time you're in the school, please take a look for any misplaced items. All remaining items will be boxed up and donated on October 31.

Upcoming Events

Monday, October 20^th                Lockdown Practice

Jr. Boys Volleyball at Bishop Pinkham

                                                Sr. Boys Volleyball at Vincent Massey

Tuesday October 21^th             Jr. Girls Volleyball at A.E Cross        

                                                Boys soccer at Bishop Pinkham

                                                Jr. Boys Volleyball at Bishop Pinkham

           

Wednesday October 22^st         

                                                Sr. Boys Volleyball at A. E. Cross     

October 22nd -24th                 EOE 9 Camp trip

Thursday, October 23rd                     Photo Retakes

                                                Sr. Girls Volleyball at Bishop Pinkham

Jr. Girls Volleyball at John Ware

Friday, October 24th              Oktoberfest

                                               Jr. Boys Volleyball Invitation Tournament at FE Osborne 

Practices

Running club Grades 1-5

Monday 12:16-12:35  Grade 3 and 4

Tuesday12:16-12:35  Grade 1 and 2

Wednesday 12:35-1:01Grade 5

  

Have a wonderful weekend.

Rana Jones

Administrative Assistant

Elboya School

403 777 7760 ext. 0

403 777 7769 fax

rmjones@cbe.ab.ca

Weekly Message Oct 6th - 10th

Dear Parents,

I am very pleased to inform parents that Elboya School’s new Virtual Learning Commons will open to parents as of the receipt of this email on  Friday, October 3, 2014.  It is located at: https://sites.google.com/a/educbe.ca/vlc/

At this site, a student or parent can select a grade and view each teacher ‘s blog for that subject as well as the calendar for the grade group. Homework, assignments and tests and test dates will all be on the one calendar. On the home page, parents can also find the weekly email, any news and other general information. This site will not include student names or images. 

This site grew out of requests from parents to have one stop access to assignments, homework and tests. It also shows teachers when other staff are scheduling assignments and tests and will help us to spread work out more effectively.

I would like to thank Ms. Hansen who picked up Mr. Armstrong’s concept and initial work and made it work for the entire school.  We anticipate that there may be some initial teething problems, but also believe that this will be very helpful for students and parents.

Assessment and Reporting

As parents are aware from last year’s weekly emails, the Calgary Board of Education has introduced a new report card for students in Kindergarten through Grade 9 this year. A Parent’s guide to Assessment and Reporting has recently been published and is found on the Calgary Board of Education’s website at http://www.cbe.ab.ca/Parents/assessment-and-reporting/introduction.asp

The guide is immediately under the photograph on the right hand side. Other documents and information and interest to parents are on that page as well.

Information about assessment will be a regular part of our weekly email and on our website as we work through this new reporting system together.

In addition, Elboya School will continue to make HomeLogic, which shows a student’s marks and assessments available to parents. It is for ALL students and will open to parents on October 20,2014 prior to Parent-Teacher Conferences for students in Grades 7-9 on October 30 and 31. Parents are encouraged to login and check their access. Instructions are found at

 http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b627/pdfs/HomeLogic-FAQ-for-Parents.pdf

If parents are having difficulties with logging in, please call the Main Office at 403 777-7760 ext. 0 and speak with Mrs. Jones.

Elboya School will be continuing our tradition of student awards after the report cards in January and at the end of June.  Information about the nature and number of awards will be announced before the Winter holidays. 

New-Student Leadership Program at Elboya School

This fall brings a new leadership model to Elboya School. We will be offering every student the opportunity to be a leader at the school. This is a new venture and one requested by students and parents who wanted us to broaden leadership opportunities in the school.  In September, administrators sponsored events and offered students leadership and service opportunities to all Grade 9 students.  Students made PA announcements for a week, announced times at Parent Teacher Conferences, appeared as Inferno, gave out Traffic Safety Thank you messages, set up and ran the Kindergarten through Grade 4 Terry Fox, led the singing of “O Canada” at the Terry Fox assembly and helped with food distribution at Terry Fox run. In total 48 students primarily in grade 9 and including some grade 8’s volunteered to help out in September and earned house points too. 

In October, Mr. Coward’s Grade 7-9 homeroom and Ms. Haines’ Grade 4/5 class have planned and are sponsoring the following:  PA Announcements, Inferno appearances, recycling, a PJ/Breakfast Spirit Day on October 17, and Hallowe’en activities during the week of October 27 to 30th. The classes are pursuing a fundraising activity to provide a sock of goodies for children unable to go out Trick or Treating personally. More details will follow in subsequent weekly emails. 

Each class and homeroom will have the opportunity to select and run the activities of the school between now and the end of the year.  Typically there will be a K-4 class, a 5-6 homeroom and a 7-9 homeroom working together to decide on and plan activities. While some activities will occur every month such as PA announcements, others such as the dates and themes of spirit days, other activities and fundraising opportunities will be decided by students in collaboration with their teachers. 

House Leader Elections took place on September 30th.  Interested students made speeches and grade 5-9 students voted in their houses to elect their representatives. We look forward to house leaders taking an active role in student activities this year.  Some of their responsibilities will be tracking house points, chairing assemblies, running house meetings, etc.:

Other current opportunities open to students include the Technology Club for Grades 7-9 (see Ms. Hansen in the Library/Learning Commons) and the Principal’s Advisory Council in three Grade groupings 1-4 and 5-6 and 7-9. These activities will begin in October.  

School Funding and Increased staff

As many parents are aware, schools are funded for the entire year based on enrolment on September 30th.  This is another year of cutbacks to school funding. To give parents an idea of the impact, usually with an increase in enrolment of 40+ students, I would be able to hire 2 additional teachers. This year we have been able to hire 1 additional teacher, Mr. M. Wong. This is very helpful in providing students with Math/Science resource time in Grades 5-9 and in providing more English Language Learning support in grades 1-4 and teaching two other classes currently taught by Mr. Siakaluk and myself. This will allow both of us to focus more completely on our own work. We will be transitioning classes over the next week. Funding is always a very tricky matter and this year has gone better than we anticipated in the spring of 2014 when the initial staffing and budget was done.

Thank you Parents

Thank you to the many parents to have already volunteered with fieldtrips or in the school.  A special thank you to Mrs. Elaine Dube who suggested and ran the initial “Thank you” program for Traffic Safety Week this past week. The Traffic Safety Program is offered by the Calgary Association of Parents and School Councils.

Sincerely,

Linda Davis

Principal

Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest tickets are now selling briskly. Thank you to those who have already donated wine, auction items and stuff for the class baskets. We need more but it’s a great start for being only a few weeks back to school.  The event is on Friday October 24th -just short of a month away, and tickets will be on sale until October 15th.  Please check out the event details on our Facebook page at Elboya Oktoberfest. Details will be posted about the venue, food, auction items, class basket themes and more.  It is going to be a fantastic event! 

Questions?

Rhonda Fulton

1-866-610-6284

www.mauibeachwalk.com

Band Bottle Drive

The Elboya Band Parent Council, along with students, will be having their first bottle drive of the year on October 18 between 9 am and 1 pm.  That gives you two weeks to start saving up your bottles, cans, plastic milk jugs...anything that can be returned for money! 

Please consider helping us out with this worthwhile cause that benefits every student taking band at Elboya!  We will need people to help us hand out flyers in the Elboya and Britannia communities. Bottles can be dropped off at the school or they can be picked up by students on the day of the drive. More information will come out before the event, but if you have any questions, feel free to contact Maxine Leverett (Fundraising) at maxine.edwards@hotmail.com.

 Author Visits

Age Range/Language	Author	Date and Time
Grades 1 - 4   Engl	Dan Bar-el http://wordfest.com/artists/dan-bar-el?cid=7 (118)	Wed Oct 15 1:10 - 2:10 pm
Grades 5 & 6 French	Christiane Duchesne http://wordfest.com/artists/christiane-duchesne?cid=7 (92 kids)	Thurs, Oct 16  9 - 10 am
Grades 7 - 9 French	Fabian Gregoire http://wordfest.com/artists/fabian-gregoire?cid=7 (105 kids)	Wed, Oct 15 9:10 - 10:10 am
Grades 5 - 9 English	David Bouchard (180 kids)	Wed Oct 8 10:45-12:15pm

Grade 3 SLAs - Mr. D Siakaluk

Grade 3 Provincial Achievement Exams have been replaced with a more interactive Student Learning Assessment. This year, schools are piloting the process and a note went home to Grade 3 students last week. The dates of the tests have been moved to October 16, 17, 21 and 23. The tests take place during class. Please ensure your child has had a good night’s rest and a sufficient breakfast. Please refer to the letter sent home last week for more information, or speak with your child's teacher.

Gr 9 Meeting for Transition to High School, Grade 9 Celebration and Quebec Field Trip on October 16, 2014– Mr. D Siakaluk and Ms. Davis

On October 16, 2014, we scheduled a meeting in the Main Gym about the Grade 9 field trip to Quebec planned for April 6-11, 2015. An information letter was sent home last Monday with each grade 9 student. We have decided to incorporate information about the Grade 9 transition to high school and the Grade 9 Celebration at the beginning of the meeting.  This will take a maximum of 30 minutes and by so doing, we will maximize parent and student time. The Quebec field trip part of the meeting will occur directly after the initial information and opportunity for feedback about a Grade 9 celebration. 

Families interested in the Quebec field trip are asked to bring the first payment of $500.00 that evening to confirm participation. The cheque will not be immediately cashed, but will reserve a spot and is necessary for planning purposes.

Lockdown Practice - Mr. D Siakaluk

Each year at Elboya we participate in lockdown drill practices with the support of the Calgary Police Service. These drills are practiced to ensure students know what to do in case of an emergency. Our first lockdown practice will be on Tuesday, October 21 at 10:00 am. Teachers will work with students to familiarize and practice the drill prior to the 21st. Please contact Mr. Derek Siakaluk through the main office with any questions.

Attendance  and Lates– Mr. D. Siakaluk

Just a reminder to parents that the warning bell for school rings at 8:45 am. Students should arrive at school for that time. This gives students 5 minutes to get ready for their homeroom class, which begins at 8:50. Students who arrive at 8:50 or after are late and must check into the office. We emphasize the importance of being prompt and having your children to the school by 8:45 as this maximizes their learning time and minimizes disruption to all students’ Learning Environment.

Appointments – Ms. Davis

Parents we need your help. If your child is leaving school early, please send the child to school with a NOTE that they can show their teacher, leave class and be waiting in the Main Office for you.  Secretarial staff are finding it difficult to complete their work due to a very high volume of requests to call a student to the office. In addition, every call disrupts students’ learning opportunity.  It is crucial that your child knows they have an appointment and are ready to leave.  Thank you for your cooperation and support.

For Your Information—Volunteers    

In order to act as a volunteer, you must have completed:

•              Annual Volunteer form

•              Police Clearance

•              Driver’s Authorization (If you drive someone else’s child)

Upcoming Events & Dates

Monday, October 6^th         EOE Grade 8 Mountain Biking @ COP

                                                Girls Soccer Game at  A.E. Cross School                  

                                                JR Boys Volleyball Game, John Ware School    

Tuesday October 7^th          Boys Soccer Game  at A.E. Cross School

                                                Sr Girls Volleyball at A.E. Cross School

Jr Girls Volleyball at Vincent Massey School

Wednesday October 8^th    Girls Soccer Game at Bishop Pinkham School

                                                SR Boys Volleyball at John Ware School

Thursday October 9^th        Cross Country Meet at North Glenmore Park

Friday, October 10^th           Grade 7-9 Pizza

Monday, October 13th – NO SCHOOL Thanksgiving Day  

October 16^th                        Alternate  Cross Country Meet North Glenmore Park October 23rd

October 17^th                        PJ’s & Breakfast

October 18^th                        Elboya Band Council Bottle Drive

October 23^rd                        Photo Retakes

 October 24^th                       Oktoberfest

Practices

Running club Grades 1-5

Monday 12:16-12:35  Grade 3 and 4

Tuesday12:16-12:35  Grade 1 and 2

Wednesday 12:35-1:01Grade 5

Cross country: Grades 6-9

 Begins: Monday September 15 2014

Ends: Thursday October 9 unless we need the alternate meet which will be on Thursday October 16

Practice:  Mondays after school 3:30pm – 4:15pm

Cheryl Carbol
Administrative Secretary
Elboya School