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News & Announcements
The FNMI (First Nations, Metis and Inuit) program at the high school provides academic support specifically for our FNMI stu-dents in addition to supporting the entire school in various ways including providing emergency food supplies on an as-needed basis. If you believe that your child would benefit from develop-ing an academic plan for success for one or more classes, please contact Ms. Crumpton. You can call the school at 780-624-4221 in order to leave a message for her to call you back or you can email her at crumptoh@prsd.ab.ca. Students are also welcome to approach Ms. Crumpton if they would like her to initiate a plan to help them succeed. As the FNMI liaison for the school, Ms. Crumpton will work with the student, the teacher, and the family in developing a plan that would ensure success. As well, Ms. Crumpton will follow-up with all people involved, including the family, to evaluate how well the plan is being implemented. Let’s make sure that we are off to a strong start this semester!
Smart Responders—What Are They?
The students feel like they are playing a game show when we have the "Clickers". They are a tool to use with the interactivce whiteboard, they allow students to enter responses and they also provide immediate feedback to both students and teachers that can be displayed on the smartboard.
You can easily ask questions, instantly see visual results, and continue to explore topics until there is a satisfactory level of understanding. This powerful assessment software allows us to create tests, manage and track student performance, and organize and evaluate results.
January has brought with it cold weather, exam stress and time to celebrate the end of our first semester! Can you believe it?? We are half way thru the school year already! But there is still so much more to come!
The Healthy Lifestyles Program is almost finished their course work for the year – and the girls will soon be travelling to Athabasca for a dual Cheerleading competition. On Feb 3rd and 4th, the squad will be performing at Cheerfest (with an anticipated 1000-1200 people), and also competing in the Provincial Zones competition. Twice the pressure – but also twice the chance to bring home trophies! It’s been nice to see the girls cheering at some of our local events – thanks to the basketball teams (from Peace River and many other communities) who have encouraged the squad to cheer at the games halftime moments!! Stay tuned for more fundraising efforts from the Peace River Cheer Squad (they are being rented out for kids birthday parties now - contact the school
if you know anyone interested!) and the annual Cheer Day Camp Event that they will be hosting (for grades 1 – 8) in March.
The RCMP Grudge Matches continued with the Dodgeball Tournament in December – it’s always great to see the RCMP come out to have some cut throat fun with everyone! We have two different Matches planned for semester two – and we need students willing to come out and help make the competition fun!!
The Peer Mentorship Program is again quite busy with referrals, now that students are joining Peace High for second semester!
These extremely dedicated and caring youth have committed to another day of their own time for the ongoing Training they do through this Program – they will be working hard on January 30th, in their last course.
Our Mental Health Capacity Building Theme Day Lessons continue – as a school, we focused on “Stress and Self Care” in December – and we will be addressing how to “Take Pride in Individuality” as part of the national anti-bullying theme for that month. We are very proud to have our own Peace High student (Josh Johnson) travel to various schools to facilitate a presentation he helped create through the Alberta Anti-Bullying Youth Committee that he sits on, in Edmonton. These youth gather from all around Alberta and work on strategies to address Bullying issues at a student level. So far, Josh has over 17 workshops (and about 500 kids)
who will get to hear his workshop!
Project PEACE offers students (and their families too) one-to-one supports in a variety of ways as well – listening, encouraging and offering connections to community services. If you or someone you know wants to be connected to Project PEACE, just give us a call and let us know! All referrals are kept confidential. We are here to help! And to make the school year as successful as possible, for everyone!
Student marks on Peace High’s Web Site
Contact the school office to obtain a password that you can then use to access your student’s marks on Peace High’s web site. Marks are updated regularly by teachers.
Grounded in extensive research in youth development, resiliency, and prevention, the 40 Developmental Assets represent the relationships, opportunities, and personal qualities that young people need to avoid risks and to thrive. Studies have shown consistently that the more assets young people have, the less likely they are to engage in a wide range of high-risk behaviors and the more likely they are to thrive. Assets have power for all young people, regardless of their gender, economic status, family, or race/ethnicity.
EXTERNAL ASSETSSupport
1. Family: Family life provides high levels of love and support
2. Positive family communication: Young person and her or his parents communicate positively, and young person is willing to seek advice and counsel from parents.
3. Other adult relationships: Young person receives support from 3 or more nonparent adults.
4. Caring neighbourhood: Young person experiences caring neighbors.
5. Caring school climate: School provides a caring, encouraging environment.
6. Parent involvement in schooling: Parent(s) are actively involved in helping young person succeed in school.Empowerment
7. Community values youth: Young person perceives that adults in the community value youth.
8. Youth as resources: Young people are given useful roles in the community.
9. Service to others: Young person serves in the community one hour or more per week.
10. Safety: Young person feels safe at home, school and in the neighborhood.Boundaries and Expectations
11. Family Boundaries: Family has clear rules and consequence and monitors the young person’s whereabouts.
12. School Boundaries: School provides clear rules and consequences.
13. Neighbourhood boundaries: Neighbors take responsibility for monitoring young people’s behaviours.
14. Adult role models: Parent(s) and other adults model positive, responsible behaviour.
15. Positive peer influence: young person’s best friends model responsible behaviour.
16. High expectations: Both parent(s) and teachers encourage the young person to do well.Constructive Use of Time
17. Creative activities: Young person spends three or more hours per week in lessons or practice in music, theatre, or other arts.
18. Youth programs: Young person spends three or more hours per week I sports, clubs, or organizations at school and/or in the community.
19. Religious community: Young person spends one or more hours per week in activities in a religious institute.
Nominate an Outstanding Teacher or Principal Today!
Nominations are now open for the 2012 Alberta Excellence in Teaching Awards Program Are you a student that would like to formally recognize a teacher that is making a difference in your life or are you a parent whose son or daughter has excelled under the guidance of an outstanding teacher? Are you a staff member that is being guided by the exceptional leadership of your principal or are you inspired by the passion and dedication of a fellow colleague? Peace River School Division is filled with outstanding, passionate and committed teachers and principals, let's celebrate their valuable contributions to student learning and success. Nominate one today!
Students, parents, staff and community members are invited to show their ap-preciation by nominating an outstanding teacher or principal for an Excellence in Teaching Award. The deadline for nominations is February 2012 and nomination forms can be found on the Alberta Education website. The Excellence in Teaching Awards Program recognizes the innovative and out-standing teaching that takes place everyday in classrooms across Alberta. This program provides Albertans with a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the many contributions teachers and principals make to student learning.
Cell Phone Policy of Peace River School Division (PRSD)
PRSD’s cell phone policy specifies that students are not to have cell phones in class and not to have other electronics in class unless specifically approved by the teacher. Cell phones are to be handed to staff that request them. Staff will take them to the office. The cell phone is returned to the student at 3:30 pm on the day of the first offense and the student is asked about the cell phone policy. If there is a second offense, the cell phone is kept in the office until a parent or guardian can come and take the phone. If there is a third offense, then the cell phone is to remain in the office until the end of June. This policy applies to all students in class and in any “prep” (spares) that they have from the 8:50 am bell until 3:30 pm bell. This includes hallways and Student Gathering Area (SGA).
Students have been reminded that if there parent needs to contact them during the school day, then the parent can phone the office and either leave a message or in an emergency have the office call the student to the office to take the parent’s phone call. We ask that parents and guardians do not expect text replies from students during class time.
Peace High Newsletters to go on the Web
After this newsletter, Peace High is piloting paperless newsletters. We are doing this by putting Peace High?s newsletters on our school website which can be reached at http://www.prsd.ab.ca/schools/ph/index.html . If you have a comment on this pilot project, please do contact the principal either by phone 780 624 4221 or by email manzere@prsd.ab.ca.
However, if you do wish to receive a paper copy of the newsletter, please phone the school office to make arrangements. Future newsletters are expected late in the months of October, November, January, February, March, May and June. Do expect that the school will continue to send other mail to your home several times during the year.