Tag: Positive Personal and Cultural Identity

Thinking about Thinking

Students practiced some metacognition today. We discussed the various core competencies that we use at school every day: communication, thinking (creative and critical), personal and social responsibility.

From the Ministry of Education website:

The Core Competencies are sets of intellectual, personal, and social and emotional proficiencies that all students need in order to engage in deep, lifelong learning.

Students worked in groups, studying photos taken since September. In making our learning visible, we realized just how much we do at school!

La paix c’est…

Last week, students were asked  to reflect on what gives them peace.

Here are their answers:

Une visite d’artiste!

Kwakwaka’wakw artist Simon James returned to École Westridge this month to touch up his tableau at our front entrance. Students learned about the carving’s history and significance.

They learned that it was carved from ancient cedar over 1000 years old! They also learned of the 10 animals on artwork and what they each represent. Each animal represents a school value.

Mr. James also spoke of the importance of knowing one’s culture and celebrating it. Students were encouraged to think of their own culture(s). Where do their elders come from?

As a thank you gesture, Division 10 students drew pictures of an animal or plant discussed during his artist talk. One student drew a detail shared about Mr. James education as a carver in his Indigenous community. Finally, when expressing gratitude, could they say ‘thank you’ in their elders’ language(s)?

We recognized that we all share English and French culture via the languages we’re learning every day. However, our classroom is wonderfully diverse with roots spanning not only across the country, but the world.

Les cèdres

We’re learning that cedar was and continues to be an important tree for local Indigenous peoples.

We noticed there are many cedar trees near our school. On this nature walk, we focused on the branches, noting its flat needles and drooping shape.

When students rubbed its needles, they noted how good cedar smelled!

Some students found a branch from a neighbouring evergreen tree. We observed that the needles were different. They seemed sharper and bushier but were also flat. Its colour was a lighter green.

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