Month: January 2022

Hi friends!

We are nearing the end of Term 1 and this week students will be posting their best work in writing. Students have chosen their three best blogs and will be posting them to their blogfolios . Please take the time to look at and read their work. Students have been working hard to improve their writing, sharing ideas with details, examples and evidence from text to back up their thinking. They’ve been working on including interesting introductions and summative conclusions.  Take a look! What do you think? I’m sure they’d love your feedback!

If you are unsure how to get into their blogs, please email me; I can help. Your username is usually the first part of your email address with a password that you would have set up at the beginning of the year. If you can’t remember your password, there is a feature to change it.

Happy blogging!

Hi friends!

We are collecting thin cardboard for our latest art project – papier mache masks! To get us started, we will be using a  paper template to cut and paste onto thin cardboard. This will help form the structure of the mask. The required cardboard is the thickness of card stock or a cereal box. We will need a LOT of this, so I’m asking for you to search your home, paper recycling, ask around, and collect as much of it as you can! I will be asking the Maywood community for their contributions as well. If we pool our findings, we should have enough for everyone!

For a further look at the art project, view this YouTube video. I’m very excited! This one will take time, patience and perseverance – skills we’ve been working on this year. I am hopeful! 🙂

This week, the grade 5/6’s in Divisions 3, 4, and 5 will receive the workshop, “Safer Space: Staying Safe Online” – a presentation given by experienced and knowledgeable presenters from Plea, Children of the Street. They will focus on the following topics:

• healthy vs unhealthy relationships
• digital citizenship
• online exploitation
• catfishing
• consent
• scenarios that could be dangerous online
• apps and video game safety

This week, parents were invited to Maywood PIE night and more info regarding this program was discussed. If you missed PIE night, but would like to learn more about this program or organization, please visit their website. For more program-specific information, visit here. This workshop is designed to be age-appropriate and gaged for the Gr. 4/5 audience. (Next month, Grade 7’s will receive the Gr. 6/7 program).

To download the Safer Space Resource, click the link. You will find all sorts of useful information designed to keep our children safer online.

Today, at Maywood, we celebrate Black Excellence Day.

Join us today (and tomorrow, Jan 15 – a newly proclaimed day of Black Excellency in BC) to celebrate and “acknowledge the strength and resiliency of Black communities in British Columbia to overcome hardships and fight for justice and equality for all“.

Black Excellence Day is an initiative created by the Ninandotoo Society that came out of last year’s successful first Black Shirt Day. This year’s event was created after consulting with various community members, including the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, and the BC Human Rights Commission, and is a joint anti-racism initiative. Burnaby School District is one of many districts who have committed to celebrating and learning about Black contributions and achievements in Canada. As a school community, we will be looking at ways to acknowledge and celebrate the awesome diversity we have in our school, community and country.

Today we are reminded about the importance of uplifting diverse voices and the importance of sharing the stories of racialized groups to provide a more inclusive view of history and society.

With Black History Month (February) just around the corner,  Maywood classes will be learning more about Black history and celebrating the excellence of many Black Canadians. This week and next, the Grade 5/6’s will be focusing on the inspiring story of Eugenia Duodu, a Canadian chemist and the CEO of Visions of Science Network for Learning – an organization supporting STEM in racialized and low-income communities. We will be listening to her inspiring story here – TEDxYouth The Unlikely Scientist.

Stay tuned to view our class pop-art project!

And don’t forget to wear a black shirt today (and tomorrow!)

In solidarity!

To read more about this, visit the CBC news story: Black Excellence Day aims to boost education, create unity in fight against racism

Learn more about BC’s proclamation of Emancipation Day 

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.