Saying Goodbye is hard ...

How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.

- Winnie The Pooh

+Arianne Jones came to visit our class on May 24th.  It was amazing!  She showed the students her racing equipment, answered questions, handed out certificates and gave hugs all around.  The students loved the day!  They knew they had been treated to a one of a kind experience.  It was a great way to celebrate our classroom adventures with Arianne.

The next day, special hats arrived at our classroom, courtesy of Arianne Jones.  What a wonderful surprise. The students immediately put them on and happily wore them all day.  It was a bittersweet reminder that Arianne shared her experiences and mentored us to become better people.  But it also reminded us that our year with Classroom Champions was drawing to a close.

The hats arrived as we wrote thank you letters to Encana. Encana transported Arianne to Grande Prairie and made sure she could visit Harry Balfour, Riverstone Public School and to Hythe Elementary School.  We wanted Encana to know how much we appreciated their generosity and support. Special thanks to Fiona Liebelt, who drove Arianne to the different venues.

Arianne Jones has been a wonderful role model for our class.  She is fearless. We shudder, as she giggles and tells us, that she rockets down the luge tube at speeds faster than one hundred kilometres. We are reminded to face the new experiences with enthusiasm and positive energy.

Her friendly smile and open demeanour are mesmerizing.  She is a great ambassador for sport and knows how to connect with individuals.  We certainly felt enamoured! We are reminded to greet others with an open friendly attitude and respect individual differences.

Arianne has shared her knowledge and experiences with our class.  Her mentorship has taught us valuable life lessons.  Goal setting, perseverance and healthy living gave us direction for success and we are reminded that “giving back” rewards those who give. We are lucky to have a mentor who makes saying goodbye so hard.

For myself, the farewell celebration drew interesting parallels to my teaching career.  I will retire this June, after teaching young students for thirty seven years. It has been a happy career!  I have been especially happy to spend my last three years with Classroom Champions.  Thank you for welcoming me into this wonderful community. I am lucky to love Classroom Champions so much that it is difficult to say goodbye.  

Now it is time to say farewell.  We love Arianne and appreciate her guidance and kindness.  The students love Classroom Champions and understand they have experienced a unique opportunity.  Thank you Arianne Jones, for a wonderful year.  Thank you Classroom Champions for letting us experience this fabulous year!

Piglet noticed that even though he had a very small heart, it could hold a rather large amount of gratitude.  - A. A. Milne

Healthy Living Month in Akulivik

I can not believe April is over! It was such a short month for us. We had barely finished Leadership when our Spring Break started, and I was gone for two weeks (one for break and one to attend the CC conference!). Getting out of Akulivik takes so much work and planning, and there were some weather troubles, so we started Healthy living month last Wednesday! Now all the kids are gone for Culture Week, so our Healthy Living and We are Champions months will be very combined. We have only 4 weeks left of class!!!!!

Following up on Leadership month we finally completed our challenge! The kids worked hard to think of things they could improve to be better leaders. They also drew themselves as the type of leader they want to be (many want to be team captains!), and Malisa wants to help feed people so that they won't be hungry. I'm honoured to share my time with such great thinkers and leaders, and I love it when they surprise me like that!

Then we started healthy living month. We watched our new video with two amazing mentors and started a conversation about healthy living. I was so proud when the kids made connections to something we did months ago, but stays on our wall!

We explored some games from Ask.Listen.Learn. and started our first lesson from the site! The kids learned about the brain, and how alcohol affects both adults and kids brains.

Next up I am sending home the challenge that our mentors gave us. Parents will receive a letter explaining the challenge and asking them to send in photos of them and their kids accomplishing it! The challenge was for the students to find a healthy recipe and cook it with their family, or to get outside and get active with their family. I cannot wait to see them accomplish this challenge and get their family involved!

We will also be tracking our healthy activities for a whole week. 

I am excited to finish off the year with a bang, and am looking forward to our next video chat!

All the best from Akulivik!

Leadership - You can learn to be a leader!

Watching Arianne’s video helped students bridge their learning about Classroom Champions topics.  Arianne summarized how Goal Setting, Fair Play, Community, Perseverance and Friendship contributed to making students leaders.  Here is our summary of her video:

Arianne believes anyone can become a good leader. She thinks leadership takes practice. She thinks the following traits encourage good leadership.
1.	Respect others	Build others up. Showing others respect will give you respect in return.
2.	Good Moral compass	Know the difference between right and wrong. Have the courage to stand up for what is right even when it is really hard. Courage can inspire others and have a positive effect on a community.
3.	Lead by Example	Don’t just “talk the talk” also “walk the walk”. When you follow your own advice people know you mean what you say.
4.	Goal setting	Plan ahead and set goals
5.	Communicate	Make sure you listen to others and make yourself understood.
6.	Perseverance	Show passion for your long term and short term goals
7.	Be Authentic	Be true to yourself
Challenges: Write down a list of traits that make you a good leader.  How can you use these traits to be a good buddy reader?

"The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly." - Jim Rohn

We charted our thoughts about “What Good Leaders DO” verses “What Good Leaders DO NOT do.”

We had been studying leadership in Social Studies so Arianne’s challenge worked perfectly with our topic of study.  We talked about elected leaders at the federal level, the provincial level and the municipal level in Canada, Alberta and the county of Grande Prairie.  We talked about leadership at the school level and we talked about how volunteers can be leaders.

Our school will be split next year.

Volunteers are working to provide playground equipment for the new school.  The parents of the students in our room set a good example to explain how volunteers can improve the quality of life for a community.  

We also talked about +Arianne Jones and how she sets a good example, as a volunteer, to make our Classroom Champions community better. She showed us how giving back to the community builds leadership. (We also loved learning about her sled and how important the sled shop is).

Next we talked about how grade three students could be good leaders for their Kindergarten reading buddies. Most students agreed that being good role models was the most important way they could influence their buddies learning.  

Learning about leadership has helped students understand they can learn skills that will help them throughout their lifetime.  They know that they can empower themselves towards success and contribute positively to their communities and cultures. That's why I love Classroom Champions.  It brings hope and a skill set to make dreams a reality.

Curriculum Objectives:

Social Studies

3.2.1 - appreciate elements of global citizenship:  

• recognize how their actions might affect people elsewhere in the world and how the actions of others might affect them 

3.2.2 - explore the concept of global citizenship by reflecting upon the following questions for inquiry:

• In what ways can individuals and groups contribute to positive change in the world?

Health

Volunteerism

Students will:
L-3.7 assess how individual contributions can have a positive influence upon the family, school and community
L-3.8 select and perform volunteer tasks as a class or as a group