Today is day 2 of the teacher's strike and I was thinking about how I would tie that into my blog, or even if I should and I decided the best way to do that was to tell about our Pink Day here at Thompson on February 29. Like many schools we take this day quite seriously and both our staff and student council like to get involved and this year was no exception. Our student council made a movie to show why we recognize Pink Day as an anti-bullying day and our staff planned an activity for our family teams to do. What are family teams you ask? Well, they are basically teams of kids from Kindergarten to Grade 7 that meet from time to time throughout the year to do various activities together.
The Grade 6 and 7 students are the captains and co-captains of the teams and it is their responsibility to make sure the activity goes according to plan, that no children are in tears at any point during the activity and that everyone has fun and feels included. Our students always rise to the challenge and do an exceptional job as leaders of their teams. We try to keep students on the same teams throughout their elementary years so that they really get to know one another and form close connections with their teammates.
So, how does this relate to what is happening politically in our province around education? The parallels are endless I think, but a few obvious ones are: the power of strong leadership, the importance of collaboration and teamwork, how important it is that everyone feels they have a voice, how much staff at our school do to make a difference in the lives of the students they work with...
