Vernon River Consolidated Virtual Library 

Ms. Clarke (Core-French and Fun-dations)  - goes the extra mile to get students engaged in French through creative and fun activities such as Mania Musicale during March Madness (a huge hit with the students!) Currently, students are working hard to create visual representations of their identity, which they will present orally in French and publicly display in the hallways, making this activity meaningful and one that students are taking pride in. Ms. Clarke is also supporting diverse needs, modes of representation, and digital literacy skills by giving students the option to create a video recording to present instead of doing it in person. 

Ms. Michelle, Ms. Jackie, Ms. Abbie, Ms. Pam, Ms. Nancy (not pictured), and Ms. Monique (EAs) - VRCS is lucky to have some of the hardest-working, passionate, and caring EAs on staff that anyone could ask for. They work hard every single day to provide individualized literacy and numeracy support to our students in fun and engaging ways, from games to coffee carts and bulletin board displays. The excellent rapport and respectful relationships they have with the students allow them to reach those reluctant or struggling readers, and  I am constantly inspired by their creativity. 

Ms. Targett (VP & PBIS Lead) - has gone above and beyond this year to educate both staff and students in PBIS literacy (what it means and what it looks like in practice). She has gotten buy-in from students through creative ideas and rewards such as "glimmers", Friday shout-outs, and "PBIS Olympics". She has supported teachers by providing students with resets outside the classroom and behaviour management strategies for teachers; all of which have greatly diminished the amount of time teachers are spending on classroom management, so that teachers can spend more time focused on teaching the curriculum. 

Ms. MacAulay (Grade 3) - some fantastic ways Ms. MacAulay is helping to support literacy and reading engagement in her classroom include:

using read-alouds to help students with social-emotional learning, 

discussing and displaying students' favourite books prominently on the wall, 

engaging students in small group book clubs, 

and helping students learn about a variety of writing styles through the use of mentor texts. 

Ms. Paquet (aka. AP) (Grade 5) is reigniting the joy of reading by allowing her students to choose what they read for school, and not limiting them to a specific genre, type, or reading level, but instead encouraging them to find books that will interest them and that they can read with a peer. Instead of large book clubs this year, students have formed small groups of 2-3 students, which has given them greater access to a wider selection of reading materials to choose from in the school library. It was so much fun working with students to help them find the right fit for their group! 

Ms. Baldwin (Gr. 1) has been working hard to help her students learn to read with comprehension and fluency, with lots of small-group focused reading in class. She has also been helping them to develop their writing skills, and explore different styles and genres of story. This month, they have been reading and learning about fairy tales, which many in the class were unfamiliar with, so she has enjoyed getting to introduce her students to many of the classics!  Thanks for all the hard work you do to set these students up for success in life. Reading and writing are such fundamental skills!   

Ms. Cann (Grade 6) goes above and beyond to reignite the joy of reading in her students. She understands the value of allowing students to choose their own reading material, and giving them time to read for pleasure, without any assessment attached. She even allows students to read with a friend to help reignite the joy. She has brought in and lent out personal books from home that she knows might interest her students. Recently her students have just finished writing their own collaborative children's books in class, which will get printed and shared through our school library! 

Ms. Ling (Music) deserves a huge round of applause for the incredible work she did leading up to Christmas to get the VRCS students ready for the Christmas concert! Not only did she engage in teaching music literacy, she also taught stage and performance literacy when she decided to take on the ambitious project of a musical! Somehow she manages to seamlessly transition between and plan for early music literacy for our younger grades and band literacy with the higher grades, and has even added on choir this year! She does it all with passion, energy and a smile, and we admire her so much! She also catches all my spelling and grammar mistakes, and keeps me on track in the library which I am eternally grateful for! 

Ms. Visser (Resource) - Did you know we have an author in the house?! A big congratulations to Ms. Visser on the official launch of her new book Ringette Girl (now available through all major book outlets). She saw a need for books about ringette when her daughter was looking for one, so she took it upon herself to write it! We are looking forward to reading this with classes in the library in connection with the ringette unit in phys. ed. in late Novemeber.

Ms. Adams (Phys. Ed.) - a rockstar of physical literacy and even signed up for a collaboration with the library this past month to help better instill the concepts of pathways and movement vocabulary using the book Tap, Tap, Tap, Dance, Dance, Dance! by Henre Tullet. Students were engaged with visualizing movement through illustrations, practicing those movements in their own bodies, and then creating their own illustrations and pathways of movement! 

Ms. VanDyke (Grade 4) - spent countless hours this summer organizing her classroom library into genre specific baskets to make it easier for her students to find books that interest them! Furthermore, she lead the charge on "Dot Day" to create a gorgeous collaborative mural at the end of our main hallway, encourage all to "make their mark!" 

Mrs. Cheverie (Grade 7) - hosted a "book tasting" in her class complete with chocolate chip muffins! Students learned about various genres of books and were asked to quickly skim through 5-6 books and jot down notes about genre, plot, and a rating of whether they want to read it this year.