Just an update for all upcoming HS activities. The Energy Centre will be closed until further notice starting tomorrow, so HS skating and rock wall activities are postponed until further notice. The JJ Parr is closed til further notice and so there will be no further swim lessons for this school year. The ski hill has closed early for the season, so no more ski days. The only activity that could possibly still happen is curling, but as of right now all curling club activities have been suspended, so it’s not looking good for that activity either! I will keep you posted. If you have any questions about any other activities that I may have forgotten to mention, please let me know! Thank you!

Prayers for all of those who are sick (with any illness) and for the uncertainty of the upcoming weeks. May God grant us patience, peace and perseverance at this time.

Block funding for Alberta Distance Learning to be phased out over next two years

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/adlc-funding-1.5483262

Alberta Distance Learning Centre (ADLC) will be defunded and phased out by the provincial government over the next two years.

Former students and education advocates fear the end of ADLC in its current form may cause serious inequities in education for rural and vulnerable students. On the weekend, the school board responsible for the program, which caters to thousands of students, announced it had been told by the province that its service agreement would not be renewed beyond the 2021-22 school year

Funding will go from more than $18 million this school year to $14 million next  year, and then halved in its final year to $7 million. "ADLC and division leadership does not have any further information at this time. We hope to meet with representatives from Alberta Education in the very near future," wrote David Garbutt, superintendent of Pembina Hills School Division. "In the meantime, we will continue our commitment of providing instruction to your students. Your teachers can also continue to use ADLC resources through teacher support."

Aitchison, spokesman for Alberta Education, said the changes that were introduced in Budget 2020 will provide equitable funding to all distance learning providers in Alberta. "The government will work with Pembina Hills School Division over a two-year transition period, and we are confident that these changes will not prevent current ADLC students from completing their high school diploma," he said.

Kathy, whom CBC has agreed to identify only by her first name in order to protect her job, said that without ADLC and the flexibility it offers, she would not have completed high school. "I found myself pregnant and and knew I had to go to school, but there's no way I wanted to face the shame and stigma at the school," she said. "So I signed up for distance learning, and it was ideal because I was working and supporting myself." But Kathy said she fears other vulnerable youth are now losing that opportunity. "I think they're going to be pushed even further out of the education system," she said.

Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers' Association, said the impacts of ending ADLC will be big. "About 80 teachers work in ADLC. And so there's a big question of uncertainty there about what will happen to these 80 teachers and their employment," he said. "There's also an impact on delivery of education to students. A lot of students rely on a ADLC and the materials that it provides and the service it provided to a lot of rural school districts." Schilling said a lot of rural districts in Alberta rely on the program to offer their students courses the schools aren't able to.

Education advocacy group, Support Our Students Alberta, said it's disappointed, but not surprised by this. "It is just another strategy in the undermining of access to quality public education that's going to be a real hurdle for rural folks and for adults who are looking to upgrade to get to post-secondary," said Barbara Silva, the communications director for SOS. "More than anything, it is market creation. It really is opening the door for privatization to come into public education."

The Alberta Distance Learning Centre started nearly a century ago as a provincial correspondence school, using the postal system to reach rural and remote areas. It adopted its current name in 1991, and five years later joined forces with the Pembina Hills school board, which was operating a virtual school. Aitchison said it was the only distance education provider in the province at that time. "Today, 32 school authorities are offering [their own] distance education to students across the province," he said. "ADLC was the only distance education provider to receive dedicated block funding. These changes now put all distance learning providers on an equal footing, funding them all on an equitable, per credit basis."

Silva said while this move may look like it's offering school boards further autonomy, SOS believes that is misleading. "It means school boards who are tight for funding already will find it more efficient economically to outsource this, and outsourcing is what results in privatization and for-profit online learning," she said.

The Calgary Board of Education said none of its schools operate primarily through ADLC, and said the CBE is one of the 32 boards offering their own distance learning. "CBE students are fortunate to have access to our own comprehensive distance learning course offerings through CBe-learn. Currently, we offer distance learning opportunities for CBE students in Grades 6-12 using online technologies," the board said in a written statement.

The CBE said its students on occasion access ADLC course offerings in areas where the board has not developed resources — for example, courses for students in Grades 1-5. "With a phased-out approach to ADLC funding, we may see an increase in demand for our own distance learning course offerings as a result," reads the statement. "We are currently examining how we might expand our online and blended learning opportunities."

Aitchison said it's too early to comment on the next steps for ADLC. Pembina Hills School Division board chair Jennifer Tuininga said the board will continue to advocate for the services that ADLC provides, and the students who are served. "We are working with Alberta Education and minister [Adriana] LaGrange around this matter," she said.

AHEA Convention 2020

The AHEA Convention in Red Deer is coming up March 26 to 28! Register here https://www.aheaonline.com/

AHEA Graduation Ceremony

If you have a 2020 graduate, please consider commemorating this milestone by participating in the 2020 AHEA Graduation ceremony! Registration closes February 23, 2020. For more information or to register please go to https://www.aheaonline.com/convention/events/graduation-ceremony If you have any questions, please email Nicole at graduation@aheaonline.com *** Please note: AHEA Membership OR Convention registration is required for participation in the Grad ceremony.

Fiddle Lessons

Advice for Homeschool Newbies

(https://www.facebook.com/nche1984)

What curriculum is out there for Canadian history?

The question of "What curriculum is out there for Canadian history?" has been popping up in the Facebook groups lately, so I thought I'd share the answer I've been giving, in case it's helpful for anyone :)

So let's talk about options: :)

• Donna Ward (Northwoods Press) is one of the most popular ones. She offers history / geography / social studies for kids from like Gr 2 - 8, depending on the program that you use. Her programs are available in print or digital download. Her history program, Courage & Conquest, (for example) uses the video series Canada a People's History, along with both historical fiction and non-fiction resources, mapping activities, timeline, and worksheets (that you can photocopy out of the book), etc. It's divided up into 30 lessons. Price wise, her books are ~$30 and require you to get the additional books / videos she recommends however works for you.

• The Great Canadian Adventure company is pretty new to the scene but have put together a program for history that's very hands-on and interactive. There are 3 kit options (geography, history, and general Canadiana for littles) You get a kit in the mail each month for ~$20 that includes a huge pile of paperwork and activities. As you work through the resource, you create what's known as a "smashbook" - kind of like a scrapbook of what you've learned along the way.

• The Canadian Homeschooler (which *full disclosure* is me...) offers a geography and history program. These are both completely online programs, meaning that you have to log into the website to access them. The history program is called My Canadian Time Capsule and each month you do a unit study of one moment in Canadian history. It includes activities like recipes, role-playing, art, music, writing, reading, web research projects, videos, etc. (it varies per topic). You either do the activities online or print them out. It costs ~$10/month.

• CreekEdge Press offers Canadian history task cards. You print out the cards and work on one at a time. There are 30 cards in the set and each one has ~6-10 tasks. These are things like mapping, timeline, reading, activities, etc. Your child picks (or you assign) what you'd like them to accomplish for that lesson. It costs about ~$25.

• Headphone History is a little different. It's an audio history (so you listen to a digital download or CD) There is only Vol 1 right now, but it covers pre-history through to New France. There are 4 CDs in the volume. You can also get printable worksheets to go along with the audio recording - these are things like questions and answers, wordsearches, colouring pages, etc. It's ~$52 for both the CDs and the worksheets.

• ACE Canada - Admittedly, I am not very familiar with this program, but I believe they have Canadian social studies for some of the older elementary grades, using their PACE workbooks.

I am sure there are more, but there are some options for you - particularly about history!

Reposted from The Canadian Homeschooler: https://www.facebook.com/thecanadianhomeschooler/posts/2427055010673696

Great Websites to Help Your Children Learn

Does ‘discovery learning’ prepare Alberta students for the 21st century or will it toss out a top tier education system?

Over the next two years, Alberta is preparing what may well be the most dramatic overhaul of Canadian school curricula in modern times.

Alberta students may rank among Canada’s top tier for performance, but by 2016, officials have nevertheless vowed that the “traditional” teaching methods of textbooks-and-chalkboards will be dead, replaced instead by a unstructured system design to craft “engaged thinkers,” “ethical citizens” and “entrepreneurial spirits.”

“We’re changing everything,” says a perky voice in a two-minute Government of Alberta video outlining the new program.

“We’re preparing [students] for a future we can’t imagine, and giving them the tools to succeed in work that doesn’t yet exist.”

While Alberta is the most prominent example, it is only one of many recent converts to the concept of “discovery learning,” a system in which students would be left to learn on their own, with minimal teacher guidance. But as planners enthusiastically advocated to take the fire-axe to more than a century of classroom norms, a cadre of opponents are warning that, without sufficient evidence, these schools may be making a terrible mistake.

Read more:
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/02/28/does-discovery-learning-prepare-alberta-students-for-the-21st-century-or-will-it-toss-out-a-top-tier-education-system/

Gold medalist Jamie Anderson's mom: I didn't push my kids 'to read and write'

What does it take to raise an Olympian? In the case of Jamie Anderson, 23, the first woman to win gold in slopestyle snowboarding, her mom took an unconventional approach: there was no TV, no traditional schooling, and a focus on outdoor activities and following one’s spirit.

“I wanted them to be like children, playing outside, running and jumping and not sitting inside at a desk,” said Lauren Anderson, who raised the kids in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. “They got to be free, building their bodies, protecting their spirits and minds, and not being pushed or pressured.”

Lauren home-schooled her eight kids while running a lawn-mowing business on the side. But the emphasis wasn’t on academics.

“They went on the mountain and skied and snowboarded and they took the bus, and then they came home and did schoolwork — just to make it official,” she told TODAY.com during an interview at the P&G Family Home in the Olympic Park. “There wasn’t a big push for them to read and write and do arithmetic. I wanted them to learn how to get along and let life be the teacher. Character-building was more important than academics.”

While Lauren's approach was criticized by family members who worried that her six daughters and two sons weren’t intellectually stimulated (the grandparents would ask the kids to read out loud to confirm they were literate), she now counts among her kids an Olympic gold medalist and X-Games champions — even though she didn’t exactly want her kids to become athletes.

“I wanted them to be the singing Anderson sisters,” she laughed.

Read more:
http://www.today.com/sochi/gold-medalist-jamie-andersons-mom-i-didnt-pressure-my-kids-2D12092209

Falling Into Fall: making a leaf journal with kids

   

I love this time of year. Fall is such a great season to set the books aside and go exploring the natural world around us that is awash with brilliant color. Last week I took a nature walk with my boys through one of our favorite local parks. Leaves crunching beneath our feet, we were able to collect a few to bring home and assemble into our own collage.

Here’s how we took what we found in nature to assemble our own leaf journal and some of the great free resources we used to do it.

Read the rest...
http://kirstenjoyawake.com/falling-into-fall-making-a-leaf-journal-with-kids/

Math Resources We Recommend

http://www.mathsisfun.com

We offer mathematics in an enjoyable and easy-to-learn manner, because we believe that mathematics is fun.

The site aims to cover the full Kindergarten to Year 12 curriculum.

http://www.lifeoffredmath.com/

Never again hear the question which many math students have:
"When are we ever gonna use this stuff?" or "Math is boring!"

http://www.teachingtextbooks.com/

Teach yourself math in three easy steps.

How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

José Urbina López Primary School sits next to a dump just across the US border in Mexico. The school serves residents of Matamoros, a dusty, sunbaked city of 489,000 that is a flash point in the war on drugs. There are regular shoot-outs, and it’s not uncommon for locals to find bodies scattered in the street in the morning. To get to the school, students walk along a white dirt road that parallels a fetid canal. On a recent morning there was a 1940s-era tractor, a decaying boat in a ditch, and a herd of goats nibbling gray strands of grass. A cinder-block barrier separates the school from a wasteland—the far end of which is a mound of trash that grew so big, it was finally closed down. On most days, a rotten smell drifts through the cement-walled classrooms. Some people here call the school un lugar de castigo—“a place of punishment.”

For 12-year-old Paloma Noyola Bueno, it was a bright spot. More than 25 years ago, her family moved to the border from central Mexico in search of a better life. Instead, they got stuck living beside the dump. Her father spent all day scavenging for scrap, digging for pieces of aluminum, glass, and plastic in the muck. Recently, he had developed nosebleeds, but he didn’t want Paloma to worry. She was his little angel—the youngest of eight children.

After school, Paloma would come home and sit with her father in the main room of their cement-and-wood home. Her father was a weather-beaten, gaunt man who always wore a cowboy hat. Paloma would recite the day’s lessons for him in her crisp uniform—gray polo, blue-and-white skirt—and try to cheer him up. She had long black hair, a high forehead, and a thoughtful, measured way of talking. School had never been challenging for her. She sat in rows with the other students while teachers told the kids what they needed to know. It wasn’t hard to repeat it back, and she got good grades without thinking too much. As she headed into fifth grade, she assumed she was in for more of the same—lectures, memorization, and busy work.

Sergio Juárez Correa was used to teaching that kind of class. For five years, he had stood in front of students and worked his way through the government-mandated curriculum. It was mind-numbingly boring for him and the students, and he’d come to the conclusion that it was a waste of time. Test scores were poor, and even the students who did well weren’t truly engaged. Something had to change.

He too had grown up beside a garbage dump in Matamoros, and he had become a teacher to help kids learn enough to make something more of their lives. So in 2011—when Paloma entered his class—Juárez Correa decided to start experimenting. He began reading books and searching for ideas online. Soon he stumbled on a video describing the work of Sugata Mitra, a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University in the UK. In the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, Mitra conducted experiments in which he gave children in India access to computers. Without any instruction, they were able to teach themselves a surprising variety of things, from DNA replication to English.

Read the rest...
http://www.wired.com/business/2013/10/free-thinkers/all/

Free Homeschool "Welcome Baskets"

If you are a homeschooling family or are interested in homeschooling, The Old Schoolhouse Magazine & Schoolhouse Connect would like to offer you one of two FREE Homeschool Welcome Baskets™.