"A School of Inquiry, Innovation and Impact"

Tay Shores PS is "a school of inquiry, innovation and impact". This is the statement that will guide our learning and teaching at our school for years to come. I can't take credit for coming up with this slogan. I came across it during my research. It is the slogan for the Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation. I couldn't put what we are trying to accomplish at Tay Shores PS in any simpler language. I hope that they don't mind that we are borrowing it as our slogan?

This is a powerful statement. It encompasses exactly what it means to learn and to teach in the 21st century.

Knowledge acquisition is pretty simple in this day and age. Quite literally, all that mankind has ever learned is available in the palm of our hands. We have instant access to knowledge, data, learning aids and teaching aids. If this is indeed true, why do our children need to attend Tay Shores PS?

Inquiry: With all that is available around us, we need to develop skills in our children to question, investigate, explore, probe and research. These are extremely important skills in this day and age. These inquiries require the development of what we are calling the 6 C's.  The 6 C's are Critical Thinking, Communicating, Creating, Collaborating, Citizenship and Character. These 6 C's have been developed and discussed in multiple dialogues of educational discourse. Most commonly, it can be found in the work of Michael Fullan and his international NPDL Project. Our teachers will be embedded in ongoing professional development at our school, and at the board level, related to how we can implement these skills in our daily work with students. Not only will our students be involved in inquiries, our teachers will be as well.

Innovation: One of the highest forms of learning is the ability to take what we've learned to make changes, remodel, break new ground, be a pioneer. We are focused on providing our students with multiple opportunities to be creative with their learning. Allowing students to demonstrate their understanding of the world in multiple ways/forums will promote innovation and creativity and will allow students to work with their strengths. To help with this, the newly renovated Tay Shores PS will have a state of the art "Maker Space" embedded in its library. This maker space will include a robotics lab, video production space, a green screen for shooting video, wiring for multiple digital technologies, easily re-configurable furniture for multiple purposes, all within a glassed in room. It truly will be one of the most interesting rooms in any public school in Simcoe County. This year, our teachers will be embedded in multiple projects around our school and board in how to promote, engage and implement these innovative programs.

Impact: Not only will our work at Tay Shores PS be innovative and inquiry-based, we will strive to embed citizenship and character into all that we do. One of our main goals is to ensure that our learning and teaching is based on solving real-world problems. When our learning is based on the real-world, it has the potential to have a real impact on our children, our local communities and even globally. Our teachers will be heavily involved in Professional Learning Communities which will study and investigate how we can intentionally plan on having our students solve real-world problems, that will have an impact on themselves and others.

This is very heavy work - but it is necessary. If we are to have our students prepared for the world that they live in now and the one that they will be running in the future, we owe it to them to do this heavy work.

Look for exciting things to happen in your child's classroom this year and in the years to come at Tay Shores PS. We really are "a school of inquiry, innovation and impact".

Our First Get Together

Well, it only took us 3 months, but Tay Shores PS finally had an after-school event that was open to all families.

It was great to see so many families visit our school on Friday night to take part in our 1st ever Vendor Fair. From candles and teas, to crafts and tasty treats, there was something for all Christmas shoppers to see and buy. We even had a silent auction and our amazing new Spirit Wear was available for orders.

A big "thank-you" goes out to our wonderful School Council (especially Mrs. Hunter) for organizing this event. I'd to also thank all of the vendors who came to our school with their assorted goods. Members of our Shore Squad Leadership Team should also be thanked for giving up their Friday night to help out at various tables. It was a fun event and I'm sure it won't be our last one.

Remembrance Day!

It is with much pride that I write this post.

Yesterday, Tay Shores PS hosted its first ever Remembrance Day service. Under normal circumstances, we would love to gather our entire student body in the gym to take part in the ceremony and pay our respects. However, due to our incredibly large student body and our very small gymnasium, we weren't able to do that.

Instead, our students remained in their classrooms to take part in a presentation created by our Librarian, Mrs. Gray. After watching this presentation, the students silently made their way through the light drizzle to our backyard and assembled for the traditional laying of the wreaths, The Last Post, a minute of silence, and Revellee.

Our Titans were amazing. Despite having our public address system fail just prior to the ceremony, our students remained silent and attentive during the entire presentation. Each one of our classroom wreaths were beautiful, handmade, and created with care. Our wreath presenters were amazing and showed so much respect to our veterans.

Finally, we had two speeches delivered by members of our local Legions. These speeches were inspiring and heartfelt. Their message was so powerful and well received by our students. Following the ceremony many of our students came up to speak to the veterans and to shake their hands and say their own 'thank-you's. This display of respect was not planned and it definitely did not go unnoticed. More than one of our guests had tears in their eyes and every one of our veterans commented positively about our amazing students.

Way to go, Titans - I'm extremely proud of you!!!

You've Been "RAK"d!!

        I was so proud of our Titans today. Especially those students who have given up their time to join our Shore Squad "RAK" Team. The RAK Team stands for "Random Acts of Kindness".

        Today, on an abnormally warm November day, these  students came to school armed with rakes, gloves, bags and enthusiasm. A few of our Titans, who know the community really well, scouted the area and found two homes that were occupied by elderly people who may have difficulty raking their lawns. All afternoon, these 16 students raked the lawns for these two elderly members of our community.

        Twenty-two bags and 2 hours later, we arrived back at the school, completely exhausted and thirsty, but filled with amazing community and school spirit.

        Way to go RAK Team - you've helped make our school and community a better place!!

         I can't wait to see you on your next adventure.