April 30, 2024
Mi'kmaw Language and Culture
Treaty Education
Over the past year, We'koqma'q school has been working with Jeff Orr and Joanne Tompkins on developing some goals for their school. One of their big goals is to include Treaty Education and Mi'kmaq ways of knowing and being into all classes across all grade levels. On April 29th, they held a Professional Development day with their Senior High teachers. Jacqueline Prosper and Basil Johnson attended the session to review the resources that have been developed for Treaty Education.
Sports and Rec
MASH is back in full force this year. Students from across the province get to come together to play sports such as soccer, dodgeball, volleyball, hockey and basketball on teams with students from other schools. This month the students got to take part in some Basketball in Membertou.
Post Secondary
Principals and Community Education Directors requested to visit a school where they offered Trades classes so this month, we arranged a tour of the Trades Classroom at the East Antigonish Education Centre. We only had a small turnout but it was very informative and gave those who attended some ideas on how to bring something similar to their schools.
Our PSE team coordinated a drum making workshop facilitated by Michael R Denny and Fred Knockwood for Grade 11 and 12 students in Wagmatcook. The drums turned out fantastic!
Elementary Mathematics
April has been busy with Aliet math assessments at a few schools. Students are having fun engaging in some spacial reasoning tasks with pattern blocks. They also get to explore multiple representations of number. If any teachers need some training for Aliet assessments please reach out to Kyla Bernard at kyla@kinu.ca.
Kyla would also like to share that math IXL is actively being used and those who are using the platform are enjoying it. As of today over 90,000 questions have been answered in the platform.
Student Services
Schools across the province celebrated Autism Awareness Month. Our student services team provided tips and ideas such as social stories, books, links and videos to help introduce different neurotypes to students while also encouraging acceptance and inclusion.
Student Services delivered 20hrs of synchronous and asynchronous professional learning through 6 virtual modules for Educational Assistants who serve the MK family of schools. The modules covered topics that were evidence based, trauma informed and culturally relevant and specific to supporting diverse learners. We congratulate 76 EA's who completed 6 modules from September to February, and we commend them for devoting their personal time to professional learning. Thank you to Kim MacKinnon and James Young from the Tech team for their support in the planning process, the development of modules and for the delivery of one of the modules.
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