Last day of January, goodness how time has snuck past....So, I thought it's time to make an entry about the school and the activities we are engrossed in.
Lydia Lois Beardy was a student in Wunnumin who lost her life in a car accident while in Florida. The school was named after her, hence the 'Memorial' after her name as our legal aception. The picture shows the front entrance, not a lot of traffic jams over here. Our schedule is from nine am to noon, and from one to three fourty pm. Extra-curricular activities involve basketball, badminton, chess, crafts, music and we're planning to offer Karate now in February.
Our Kinder 4 and 5's and 1st and 2nd grades are doing an immersion program in Anishiinimowen (Ojee-Cree/blend of Ojibway and Cree). In grade 3 they start with English, and progress increasingly till they get to high school. We offer grades 9 and 10 in a portable behind the main building. Here you see the third graders hard at work! We have slowly been raising the standards and have recently received software for improving math and reading skills, called Autoskills. In December I had mentioned our visit to the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, in Queen's Park, Toronto with a group of six teachers and I. Well, yesterday afternoon we were delighted to get a visit from his honour James Bartleman and the Grand Chief of the First Nations in Ontario, Stan Beardy. They spent all afternoon at the school , and visited the classes talking to the children...His honour has Aboriginal family roots which have prompted him to be involved in improving the conditions, and he has made it possible for the children to have a Summer Reading Camp. Fourty five children between the ages of 5-10 will be able to attend a reading camp run by volunteers from Frontier College here in Wunnumin for three weeks. This has been an incredible accomplishment for a luncheon visit!
We have also created a very inviting library which sits sunk in the center of our main building, and now organized and catalogued has become the 'fun' area where students are borrowing books and reading at home. We are hoping to get volunteers so we can open to the community, as we are it as far as libraries are concerned in this neck of the woods (literally). The stairs lead up go to the computer lab with 14 of them getting ready for the software that has just arrived, to promote math and reading skills.
Another important area we are promoting is the concept of aboriginal models, by way of their teachers and some other posters seen here...