September - What a Great Month!

Welcome to Our Journey

It has truly been an exciting month for both my students and for me!  My class had been having fun while working towards finding out just who our mentor was and then we had the privilege of watching Jesse introduce himself to our class.  All of my students cheered when he said a shout out to our grade 7/8 classroom located here in Thorold, Ontario.  They truly could not believe their great fortune of being recognized by Jesse in his video!  This was a highlight of the month of September for my kids. In the school hallways I would frequently hear my students recounting to other classes how Jesse had mentioned us by name.

A picture of Jesse visiting one of his schools.

This is the video that had my class standing and clapping when Jesse mentioned us by name.

To help my students discover our mentor I found a picture of Jesse that had his name attached and then utilized a web site called Jigsaw Planet to turn it into a puzzle.   My class had a tremendous amount of fun putting the pieces together to finally solve our "Mentor Mystery"!    

Here is the link our "Mentor Mystery" puzzle.Jigsaw Planet

We also created a bulletin board that included all of the monthly themes for the year so that we can see what important topics we will be learning with Jesse throughout this year.  Of course Jesse's picture is front and center!

This is our current Classroom Champions bulletin board

I had a great deal of fun filming my video about Westmount Public School.  It was interesting to try to see my school as a newcomer might view it.  Westmount was built as a neighbourhood school in the 1950s and has about 190 students attending this year.  We are located in a lower income area and most of our students utilize our breakfast club and also  have access to classroom snack bins that are full of  nutritious snacks, as well as sandwiches for lunches.  We provide winter jackets, hats, mitts, and boots for any students who need them.  Hugs are always available!

Welcome to Westmount School, Thorold, Ontario

Goal Setting

Jesse, you set us on the path towards creating our goals for the month of September and throughout this school year.  Your video inspired my class and also gave them the tools to set in motion the actions required to work towards, and eventually reach their desired goals.  We have  had several class discussions and working sessions that is helping us to develop our planning on how to reach the top of our own goal mountains.  

Jesse's Goal Mountain video

I created a google slide presentation of my students working upon their Goal Mountains.  We worked through several lessons before they began to actually create their own mountain.  My class reflected upon smart goals and how important it is to embed smaller goals along the way up the mountain so that we can indeed climb steadily towards our end goal.  Adversity and setbacks were also part of our discussions as life is never a steady climb in a straight line.

The building of our Goal Mountains

At the end of every month Westmount School celebrates the accomplishes of our students in an assembly.  This is an opportunity for students from all grades to have a chance to shine in front of the whole school.  On Friday, September 30th we will be presenting to our school body what we have learned about setting goals.  My class decided that we should share our good fortune of being a Classroom Champion classroom with our school community each month at these Celebration Assemblies.  My students will share their journey so far, and will also teach the other classes the secret called Goal Mountain.  They believe that this information is meant to be shared!  My students also created inspirational goal videos for this assembly that I will share with you below.  They searched for quotes about goals, wrote their interpretation of the quotes, and then we held class discussions.  Please look for the music link that is embedded into each slide show as they took the time to choose just the right piece of music to help get their message across to the audience.  Enjoy!

First Group Slide Show


Second Group Slide Show


Third Group Slide Show


Fourth Group Slide Show

Even though September is drawing to a close it is definitely not the end of setting goals and Goal Mountain.  My class will continue to pursue their goals and dreams throughout this year, and hopefully, their lifetimes.  Thank you Jesse for taking the time to inspire this younger generation to not give up, to work towards their hopes and dreams, their goals.  Thank you for making these children know that they matter.