Meet the Teacher: Tuesday Sept 20th Evening

Welcoming all A.R. Lord Families to attend the Meet the Teacher Event. This is a great chance to meet all the school teachers and principal and hear from the Parent Advisory Council executive. Kids will participate in a fun activity and parents and families will have some social time to enjoy an apple, coffee, tea, or an apple cider to reconnect! 

Tuesday September 20th 6:00pm-7:00pm at A.R. Lord Gymnasium

Volunteer Tea - Thursday June 9th

We hope that you sent in your RSVP last week to the volunteer Appreciation Tea event!

A.R. Lord Staff and Teachers will host this morning event and say thank you to the wonderful parent/caregiver and community volunteers that make our school such a special place.  8:30-9:30am in the library. Supervision of students will be provided in our covered play area at the back of the school. 

Message from Ms. McMaster

Hello Students, Families, Staff, Friends at Dr. A.R. Lord,

I've got some news to share that is both exciting and sad. My family and I are going to be moving to Nelson, BC this summer! We have an opportunity to make a dream of ours come true and live in the Kootenays! We'll be able to give our little boy, Martin, space to run around the yard in a home of our own. Sadly, I can't be in two places at the same time, so I've had to give up my teaching position at Lord.

The short time that I was honoured to spend with you, teach you, talk with you, and have fun in the library will always be some of my happiest school memories! I can only hope that there will be as friendly and welcoming a group of students and families in Nelson schools and that I can somehow find a fit as good as at Lord.

I'll miss you all and hope to stay in touch. Remember to be good to each other and to your books, have fun in the library and let your imaginations soar with the stories you find on the pages and in your awesome brains!

Sincerely,
Miss Macmaster
aka Alison

Come say goodbye to Ms. McMaster Friday May 27th at 11:00pm at the Library Celebration Assembly.

Halloween isn't Just for Kids!

We think that the Teachers, Parents, and Staff had just as much fun this Halloween as all the Students! They donned their best costumes in the spirit of of this spooky and fulfilled day! A.R. Lord Elementary has such a great community where all are engaged, participate and make our school special!

School Library: New Librarian, Hours and Resources

Welcome to the 2015-2016 School Year!

"My name is Kasey McCandless, and I will be Lord’s teacher-librarian and resource teacher until Ms. Macmaster returns. Ms. M’s library is an amazing place filled with wonderful resources for students, staff, and families. I will be doing my best to instill and encourage a love of reading in each and every one of the children who come through the library doors. 

You might have already noticed the gigantic calendar in the hallway outside of the library, as well as the bookshelf. This is something I have compiled from various resources, and my goal is to help our students think about the world around them. They will be exposed to a variety of holidays and special dates that will encourage them to think like global citizens. The bookshelf will contain relevant reading material that will change as the year progresses – please explore these resources and chat with your children about the different things we celebrate all over the world.

Another project I will be pursuing with many classes this year is the Chocolate Lily Book Awards. This program showcases BC authors and illustrators at various reading levels. After the students experience each book in the category they’re in, they get to vote to pick their favourites!

Please come and visit me in the library to discover new books, visit me, and chat about the many ongoing projects I am involving our students in. Also, please consider volunteering to help in the library – I have a team of lovely monitors but they (and I!) can only do so much. Thank you!"

Good things to know about the library!

• We are able to offer some extra library hours outside of the bell:

  Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
  Closed	3:00-3:20pm	3:00-3:20pm	8:30-9:00am	8:40-9:00am

• Books can be borrowed for two weeks at a time (Kindergarten for one), and may be renewed or exchanged whenever the student needs.
• Overdue books must be returned before new books can be checked out.
• You can check your own library account! Here’s how:
• Go to http://webcat.vsb.bc.ca and click on “My Account”
• Enter your student number (they should know, but their librarian and teacher do too)
• Click on “item’s out” or “overdue” (click on titles for more details, including pictures)
• WEBCAT is also a great place to access awesome databases!
• Go to http://webcat.vsb.bc.ca and click on the “databases” tab
• Try them out! For most, the username: 39lo, password: library 

     Try…

• Bookflix: picture books in video format, paired with a non-fiction book with related content
• Starfall: interactive learn to read and reading practice 
• CultureGrams: facts and information about countries and provinces
• Global Issues in Context: current events and world issues
• World Book: online encyclopedia with three levels; kids, student, and advanced
• National Geographic Kids: information and visuals on a variety of subjects
• Novelist K-8 Plus: read book reviews, access recommended reading lists, and ‘read-alikes’

Meet the Teachers Night

Thursday night was a chance for parents and guardians to come and meet all the teaching staff, do a fun passport tour of the school, and get to know other families.  The event was topped off with delicious apples provided by the PAC.

Meet the Teacher Tonight at 6:00pm

An apple a day.... 
Come and share an apple, visit the school and meet the teachers and staff at 6:00pm.  
Thursday Sept 24th.

Thursday Sept 24th 6:00pm Meet the Teacher Night

Update on A.R. Lord Literacy - By Ms. Burke

"The Staff at Dr. A. R. Lord have been working hard on our school goal of improving literacy for our students. Over the past three years we have committed to becoming an Early Intervention school with the Reading Recovery program as part of that commitment. With a supportive administrator to facilitate times for us to meet, the EI team has been having regular  "power hour" meetings for the past two years. At these meetings we:

• watched each other teach in the classroom and discussed what we saw
• we talked about the progress of individual students and how we could best support them
• we participated in a professional book club lead by the Peer-to-Peer mentor, Mary, (Catching Readers Before They Fall)
• we looked at school-wide Early Intervention data and its implications for our teaching
• we looked at the Observation Survey and learned about the types of information that it can give us about our students

This year we applied for and got collaborative funds to further our inquiry. The intermediate teachers joined our literacy team and our staff is closer and more dedicated  than ever. Our collaborative inquiry was able to:

• release teachers to visit and observe teachers in other schools
• send two teachers to the Literacy Summit in Seattle to hear world renowned educators
• meet as a school staff to share our learning with each other
• spend time exploring the new LLI and BAS kits our school has purchased/received
• discuss best practice strategies for classroom teaching as well as how best to support our struggling students

We have seen our staff developing a shared vision and growing in our expertise by having the opportunities to participate in this kind of professional development. We feel it has been extremely valuable and look forward to further opportunities to learn from both experts and each other to keep improving our professional practice."

I am a Dr. A.R. Lord TEACHER! What's your Superpower?

Goodbye Teacher Librarian -Ms. Mcmaster

As mother's day approaches, we wish our lovely teacher librarian all the best with her new exciting adventure....Motherhood.  It has been a pleasure having you join our little school and we will miss your warm smile, thoughtful words and caring demeanour.  You are a wonderful teacher and you will be a wonderful new mother!

Good Bye and Thank You to Kevin!

We are sad to see Kevin finish his temporary job assignment supporting Ms. Young's K and Gr 1 class, but ever so glad to have had him in our school.   The kids all said good bye to him on his last day and gave him artwork pictures as a gift.  

THANK YOU KEVIN FROM ALL OF US AT DR. A.R. LORD! 

Greetings from the New Teacher-Librarian

Miss M (Alison Macmaster)

Welcome to Dr. A.R. Lord's library! 

I am excited about this school year and am committed to making the library one of your child's favourite places at school. I will be getting the very best of children's literature into the hands of our students and teachers and doing my utmost to instill a love of reading in each one of them. Students will have opportunities to learn in the library through collaborative units planned with their classroom teachers that will utilize the many (and growing!) resources we have in the library. I look forward to providing you with updates on activites and events in the library through newsletters and this blog.

The library will be open for some before and after school hours:

Tuesday:     3:00-3:30

Wednesday: 3:00- 3:30

Thursday :   8:30-bell

Friday:         8:30-bell

I welcome visitors and volunteers whenever I am here!

What to expect for School ahead at Dr. A.R. Lord

We all continue to be hopeful that our children will be back in school next week.    Though a deal has not been ratified,  here are some reminders of what is to come at our lovely school once a resolution is in place.

Ms. Susie Car, school principal provided an update at the end of June with the following details:

We expect 6 divisions and some new staff will be joining the roster as well as some changes in teaching assignments.
Ms. Mitchell will be a new teaching partner shared by both Ms. Bains and Ms. Watson classes
Ms. Phong Manny will move to a full time role
Ms. MacMaster will be the new Teacher librarian and Resource Teacher
New teacher Ms. Wise will join Ms. O'neill as intermediate teachers

We hope to welcome all teachers back next week.  Stay tuned for any updates on school start and schedules.

2011-2012 Teachers & Divisions Draft

Division 1 ~ Mrs. Lau, Ms Haraga (Mon.)
Division 2 ~ Mrs. O’Neill
Division 3 ~ Mrs. Burke (Mon.-Thurs.) & Mrs. Gray (Fri.)
Division 4 ~ Ms Watson & Ms Young-Eng (Wed.)
Division 5 ~ Mrs. Bains (Mon.- Wed.) & Ms Ewing (Thurs., Fri.)
Division 6 ~ Ms Andersen
Division 7 ~ Ms Young
Resource ~ Ms Haraga, Ms Poletti, Mrs. Gray
Library ~ Ms Haraga
Prep ~ Ms Young-Eng & Ms Ewing

It is a pleasure to have Mrs. O’Neill working full time next year. We are also looking forward to a few new job share partnerships (as noted above) that will provide a new, dynamic energy in the classrooms. Please keep in mind that this is our draft – changes can happen over the summer and into the fall. When classes and staffing is confirmed, students will move into their new classrooms – we are aiming for Friday of the first week.