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Frequently Asked Questions

 

What are SLCs?
 

Student led conferences (SLCs) are our alternative to traditional parent-teacher conferences. SLCs are an opportunity for students to share their academic and social progress with their families.

 

If you are not familiar with the student-centered approach, here are our reasons and goals for using this approach:

 

● To teach students the process of reflection and self-evaluation

● To increase parent-child communication and encourage honest conversation among teachers, the student, and the parents

● To allow students to take ownership of their academic performance and to do their own goal setting

 

Here is what to expect at the Student-Led Conference:

 

● Your child will do most of the talking

● Your child will discuss his/her progress

● Your child will discuss his/her goals

● Parents will be able to ask further questions of the student and teacher

 

 
Purpose of Home Visits

 

Home visits provide an opportunity for one-to-one interaction with the family, at a time that suits that family. They should enable an exchange of information between parents, school staff and children, and may also provide a starting point for practitioners to understand family background, including the cultural background.

 

For children, a visit carried out by ‘their’ teacher shows that they are important, and means that some faces will be familiar when they start school.

 

For parents, a home visit provides an opportunity to talk about their child and the school, to voice concerns, to clear up misunderstandings, and to lessen worries and fears.

• Give families a chance to welcome you, in their space

• Establish early, positive contact

• See children in their own familiar settings

• Meet other family members, people and pets who are important to the children

• Understand the problems that children might encounter at school, and also to appreciate the wealth of learning that goes on in the home.

 

This all helps to get a fuller picture of the children.

 

During a visit, teachers can discover what learning activities are already taking place in the home – whether the child has favourite books, likes particular videos, goes out on visits, cooks regularly. And information may be gathered on who else might be able to support home learning – fathers, grandparents, older siblings, other relatives.

Why home visits?
What is your vacation policy?

 

The curriculum of HTeNC is different than many schools. As a project-based learning school, students are usually unable to makeup teamwork. We kindly ask families to plan their vacations and appointments during school holidays or early release days. Any missed class will be marked as an unexcused absence.  

 

What should parents do if their child will miss a whole week of school?

 

If an unavoidable absence is required, we ask that families notify the school as soon as possible. Any absences longer than a week, require a work contract. This work should be done over the student’s absence in replacement of the school work they are missing. Please also notify our site manager so she can support you in collecting contract work/assignments.

Why critique?
 
Critique is an essential part of our curriculum. Students utilize kind, specific and helpful critiques to improve their work and the work of their peers. Revision and multiple drafts are important componets of our process. 
 
 
Learn more about critique:
Ron Berger Critique Video: Part 1 (1 of 2)
Ron Berger Critique Video: Part 2 (2 of 2)

 

What is PBL in the Elementary School?
 

We welcome parent volunteers and visitors. However, we ask that parents notify us before coming to visit classrooms. This is to preserve the class environment (for example, classes may have a guest speaker or be conducting presentations that would be better uninterrupted).

 

Parent volunteers and visitors must have the following turned in at the front desk.

 

  • Tuberculosis (TB) skin test results

  • copy of a current ID

  • signed copy of the HTeNC Volunteer Guidelines (attached below)

  • screening by Megan’s Law (the office will do this for you)

 

 

For parent drivers, we also need insurance liability coverage including bodily injury limits. Please stop by the front desk if you have any questions.

What is our policy on parent visitors? Can they stop in and observe?
 

We welcome parent volunteers and visitors. However, we ask that parents notify us before coming to visit classrooms. This is to preserve the class environment (for example, classes may have a guest speaker or be conducting presentations that would be better uninterrupted).

 

Parent volunteers and visitors must have the following turned in at the front desk.

 

  • Tuberculosis (TB) skin test results

  • copy of a current ID

  • signed copy of the HTeNC Volunteer Guidelines (attached below)

  • screening by Megan’s Law (the office will do this for you)

 

 

For parent drivers, we also need insurance liability coverage including bodily injury limits. Please stop by the front desk if you have any questions.

What types of resources can support kids at home?
Why ST Math?

Why ST Math?

 

Often, math is taught as a series of procedures.  A student can still score fairly well using rote memorization up until around 3rd grade.  At that point, the math becomes more complex.  By the time students get to high school, there are 197 procedures that students are expected to memorize.  This quickly becomes too much for students to keep straight using brute memorization.  A deeper understanding is required.  

 

 

If students are able to visualize problems and solutions, they will have a deeper understanding of the concept.  In ST Math, students practice problem solving visually before they learn the mathematical language.  That way, when they learn the language, they have a solid basis from which to build their understanding of the language.

 

The “ST” in ST Math stands for “spatial temporal.”  Spatial temporal reasoning is a fancy phrase for “thinking in pictures,” or thinking through space and time. This means you can form an image in your mind and manipulate it in your mind.  Spatial temporal reasoning is required for all levels of mathematics.

 

 

It used to be believed that spatial temporal reasoning ability is fixed.  However, recent research has indicated that with practice, spatial temporal reasoning ability can improve!  By regularly playing these games, kids are developing the part of the brain they need for spatial temporal reasoning.

 

ST Math allows students to implement their own strategies to solve problems that help Jiji the Penguin get across the screen.  Concepts are introduced in the first module using multiple visual representations.  The next module will have the same games with mathematical language integrated.

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