Mitchell Middle School Strong Connections run this Friday, September 16th and Monday, September 19th. Schedules were sent home with your children yesterday (Sept 12, 2016). If you have not yet seen this golden piece of paper, please contact the office to find out what day your child is expected to attend school for Strong Connections.
What is Strong Connections?
Strong Connections is intended to give teachers and students a head start with developing good relationships that will benefit all students both academically and socially. Strong Connections is a program designed to enhance the start-of-year assessment of each child. Strong Connections activities are not tests, but rather they are tasks to help us get to know our students and how they learn in order to know where to begin with instruction.
Rationale for Strong Connections Hanover School Division priorities state the need for meaningful assessment. Strong Connections is a form of authentic assessment done in practical and useful ways. The purpose of Strong Connections is to enhance start of year classroom assessment with all children. This provides an opportunity for teachers to not only assess, but to get to know your child better. It will help teachers plan for instruction that will effectively address unique learning needs early in the year.
What will teachers learn through Strong Connections?
Teachers working individually with their students in an atmosphere of support and encouragement have an opportunity to collect firsthand information about such things as:
- How they learn.
- Their confidence as learners.
- The learning strategies they possess.
- Their reading, writing and mathematical skills.
- Their approach to problem solving.
- Their attitudes towards school and learning.
- Their ability to reflect upon and set goals for their learning.
How will Strong Connections work?
September 16th and 19th are the days designated for students to attend school one day out of the two. With half the students present, homeroom teachers will have the opportunity to meet one on one with each student to participate in assessment activities in Language Arts, Mathematics, and other subjects. This is an opportunity for teachers to gather information about each child’s learning that may not be evidenced during whole class instruction. It is also an opportunity to further develop the teacher-student relationship. Groups of students will be scheduled to be in homerooms for half of the morning and half of the afternoon. The other half morning and afternoon they will be joining larger ‘cross-grade’ groups to participate in special athletic and artistic activities. These activities are intended to be particularly enjoyable while helping develop relationships with students in other grades. On the dates of the program, there will be no regularly scheduled classes. Students will get to and from school in their normal manner (bus or other).
in: General