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The Coyote Howl Elgin Court Public School Newsletter

October 2018

Elgin Court Public School—Thames Valley District School Board

We have so much to celebrate. September has certainly been a month of collaboration. We are very fortunate to have so

many caring and talented individuals working together each day to make great things happen for our learners.

A special thank you goes out to our PTA for organizing our Back to School BBQ. We were so pleased to have so many fami-

lies visit our school and share in the excitement of a new school year. A huge round of applause goes to our teachers, edu-

cational assistants, early childhood educators, custodians, PTA, parent volunteers, community supporters, and Mrs. Johnson

for getting our new year off to a great start.

Our entire staff has been busy getting to know our students. They are reviewing student reports and assessments. DRA as-

sessments are beginning and provide educators with pertinent information to guide students to further develop their read-

ing skills. EQAO results from 2017-2018 have been released from the Ministry. Please refer to the EQAO website

(www.eqao.com) for detailed school results. Individual student reports for last year’s grade 3 and 6 families have already

been sent home.

As you can tell, great things have been happening this past month at Elgin Court!

Sincerely,

Tammy Waller Gordon Kim Campbell

Principal Vice Principal

A Message From the Elgin Court Administrative Team

Principal—Mrs. Tammy Waller Gordon

Vice Principal—Mrs. Kim Campbell

Administrative Assistant—Mrs. Joy Johnson

Superintendent of Student Achievement—Mr. Paul Sydor

254 First Avenue

St. Thomas ON, N5R 4P5

Phone: 519-631-7118 Fax: 519-631-3515

Website: www.tvdsb.ca/ElginCourt.ca

Twitter: @ElginCourtPS

Email: elgincourt@tvdsb.on.ca

Picture Day: Thursday, October 18th

Mark your calendars and practise your

smiles.

Students will have individual photos and

class photos taken that day.

Important Dates and Events

Oct. 12 - Green Spirit Day for Cerebral Palsy

Oct. 15 - Pepperette Fundraiser sheets go home

- Tree Planting with Kettle Creek

Conservation

Oct. 16 - Cross Country Finals at Fanshawe

Conservation Area

Fire Drill with St. Thomas Fire Department and trucks

Oct. 17 - Hot Lunch

Oct. 18 - Picture Day

Oct. 25 - Halloween Dance 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.

Oct. 26 - PD Day (no school for Students)

Oct 29 - Gr. 8 Trip to Jaffa

Oct. 31 - Black and Orange Day

Nov. 5 - PTA Meeting 6:30 in the LLC

Nov. 7 - Hot Lunch

Nov. 9 - Remembrance Day Service at 11:30 a.m.

Nov. 14 - Fundraiser (Pepperette) Pick up

Parent-Teacher Association

The Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) is a group of

parents and guardians that meet monthly with the

Principal and Vice Principal to discuss academics, ac-

tivities, and concerns at the school. The purpose of

the Parent-Teacher Association is to improve student

achievement and to enhance the accountability of the

education system to parents.

In addition to organizing family focused after-school

events, the Parent-Teacher Association organizes

fund-raising ventures, and provides funding for vari-

ous school projects such as field trips, technology,

software, and presentations.

The 2018 - 2019 PTA Elected Committee is:

Chair: Jennifer Cormier

Secretary: Betsy McClure

Treasurer: Michelle Shannon

E-Gaming Representatives:

John Armer and Tracey Oprenchok

All are welcome to attend our meeting. We look for-

ward to meeting you!

To contact the Parent - Teacher Association, please phone the school.

P.T.A. Meeting Dates for 2018-2019

Monday, September 10, 2018 at 6:30 P.M. Monday, October 1, 2018 at 6:30 P.M. Monday, November 5, 2018 at 6:30 P.M. Monday, December 3, 2018 at 6:30 P.M. Monday, January 14, 2019 at 6:30 P.M. Monday, February 4, 2019 at 6:30 P.M. Monday, March 4, 2019 at 6:30 P.M. Monday, April 1, 2019 at 6:30 P.M. Monday, May 6, 2019 at 6:30 P.M. Monday, June 3, 2019 at 6:30 P.M.

Terry Fox Fundraiser and Walk

Our Terry Fox Run was a tremendous success this

year. We met our school goal of $1000 and Mrs.

Waller Gordon found herself in a very sticky situa-

tion. A special thanks to Mrs. Schned and

Mrs. Ostrander for or-

ganizing our assembly

and the school run.

Thank you to our stu-

dents and their families

for donating to this im-

portant cause.

Productive Struggle in Mathematics

We, as parents, want our children to succeed in school. We feel uncomfortable when our chil-dren struggle and often want to make the work easier to help them (and us) escape the discom-fort.

While helping and making challenging material easier for our children may feel like the right thing to do, research shows us how being less helpful is more supportive of learning –permanent change in understanding. Learning is greatest when children are given challenging tasks requiring

thinking and reasoning. This active thinking is where sense-making, deep understanding, and self-confidence grows.

Productive struggle in mathematics is the sweet spot we all experience when we have just enough support and prior knowledge to engage with a challenging problem. There is no learning without struggle. Doing the thinking for a child by explaining what must be done or providing a formula ensures there is zero thinking and, thus, no learning.

There are two important aspects to this idea:

1) Productive: children need support in the form of math tools (like coins or counters) and gentle guidance. E.g., “I wonder if a picture might help you understand this problem?”

2) Struggle: the task can’t be immediately obvious to the child

If a supported child struggles to the point of nearing frustration, it is appropriate to change the task to avoid unneces-sary upset.

Messages our children need to hear: “I would love to help you with your homework. Before I do, I’m really interested in how you thought about this

problem.” “Problem solving is what we do when we don’t know what to do!” “You worked really hard on that problem to find a solution. That is impressive.” “How does it feel to know that you wrestled with that tough problem and figured it out?” “I’m glad you made that mistake. Your brain grew at that moment. When you realized you had made a mistake,

your brain grew even more!” “Doing mathematics is about being challenged. This is hard. This is fun!”

Links to Support You at Home

https://www.youcubed.org/

https://www.mathplayground.com/thinkingblocks.html https://solveme.edc.org/mobiles/ https://mathies.ca/

So, let’s value and celebrate the struggle our children experience and forget the “that was easy” button.