ACTION PLAN FOR LEARNING

2012-2013

GOLD BRIDGE COMMUNITY SCHOOL School Community

Gold Bridge Community School is a one-room rural school located 106 km South of Lillooet in the community of Gold Bridge in the Bridge River Valley. The school serves students in outlying areas such as Bralorne, as well as students living in town. Gold Bridge Community School currently enrolls five students in Grade 2 through Grade 7. Student programs are delivered through a combination of outdoor learning experiences and classroom instruction. In addition, the school houses a two-day per week 0-5 years program run by parents. Despite its rural location, the school is able to access a variety of resource people including: Public Health Nurse, Child & Youth Mental Health Worker, Speech-Language Pathologist, District Learner Support staff, Dental Health Workers, and Infant Development staff. In addition, the school is supported by an active Parent Advisory Council. The PAC sponsors a school-wide hot lunch program for all students every day of the week, and fundraises for school trips and activities. Some challenges of the school are related to its small size and remote location. The low number and multi-age nature of student enrollment restricts peer social opportunities for students and limits student participation in team sports. Although field trips and many day-trips are arranged each year, they are limited by road conditions and weather especially at certain times of the year. While the school population is small, students benefit from the familylike dynamic and low student-to-teacher ratio. The teacher, students and families are able to form long-term relationships. The lack of a gymnasium at the school facility means that most of the Physical Education program takes place out of doors. Students are able to participate in a variety of unique outdoor experiences including cross country skiing, sledding and skiing/snowboarding. Last year students enjoyed participating in a number of outdoor education experiences with the Lillooet Naturalist Society, learning about invasive and native plant species, fish and wildlife habitat, and local reptile populations.

Inside this Action Plan

School Community Long Term Goal Inquiry Question Research Foundation Action Plan for 2012-2013 Evidence Support & Connections for Success 1 2 2 2 3 3 4

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ACTION PLAN FOR LEARNING

Long Term Goal

By June 2013, 100% of students will indicate that they are engaged in their learning.

Inquiry Question
Students and community members cleaning up the Welcome to Gold Bridge sign

Will providing the opportunity to engage in hands-on, project-based learning activities for one afternoon each week lead to more positive scores (sometimes or very often categories ) on the student engagement surveys and to an increase in community involvement with the school?

Research Foundation
Project-Based Learninglearning about a topic spanning multi-disciplines over an extended period of timehas been found to help students develop deep understandings of real-world situations that are of interest to them. Howard Gardners book, Multiple Intelligences (2006) states that projects foster positive cooperatives in which each student can make a distinct contribution at their own developmental level. This means that students from kindergarten to grade 7 will all be able to experience success while working cooperatively on the same project. Working cooperatively with others and experiencing feelings of success have both been shown to increase motivation and feelings of accomplishment within students. Projects that are done in the wider community have the added benefit of involving community members, who can become mentors and role models for our students who do not have the same opportunities for interpersonal interactions as their peers studying in larger urban centers. Seeing adults excited about and involved in learning opportunities in our community is a great way to model the lifelong passion for learning that schools hope to instill in this generation of future leaders. Furthermore, research shows that students who have a single positive adult role model in their lives are more likely to graduate high school and go on to attend post-secondary education, regardless of other influencing factors (Donna Beegle).
Participating in monthly Roots of Empathy sessions

Weekly projectbased learning opportunities where students and community members work together.

Community members can become mentors and role models for our students.

According to Kieran Eagan in Learning in Depth (2010), long-term projectbased learning engages students imagination and emotion in learning, and builds confidence because students are successful simply by participating in the project. Projects undertaken in the outside community that are visible upon completion will continue to remind students of what they have accomplished, which can further increase their motivation and engagement in future projects and in learning within the classroom. The Bridge River Valley is the perfect place for our students to build community connections through weekly project learning. There is a large concentration of adults living here who have expert knowledge in areas our students are interested in. This is an opportunity for our students and for ourselves as members of this vibrant community to share what we know with each other and with the community, building relationships with the students and thus making a positive impact on those who will be the leaders of the future.

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ACTION PLAN FOR LEARNING

Action Plan for 2012-2013

The plan will involve soliciting willing community members to commit to spending one Wednesday afternoon a week for a month working with students on a project in which they have some expertise. For example, a carpenter in the area might dedicate a month of Wednesday afternoons to helping students build their own patio chairs. Another example would be helping a local family in their garden for one month of Wednesday afternoons. June 2012
Learning how to skin a deer

"What I think engages a student most is interactions with real-life dilemmas and an opportunity to learn how to solve them. Also, projects that are unique and one of a kind that other schools would never think of. - Heather WolpertGawron

Make a list of student interests Start making contact with possible specialist volunteers to explain the program and ask if they would be willing to commit to an afternoon per week for a month Speak with community members about projects that need to be done as a service to the community: an example would be cleaning up community green spaces that have become neglected Provide information to parents and community members about the project via newsletter and a letter home, and at the Year-End Tea at the Grounds CleanUp & BBQ, and having an information booth at the Bralorne Farmers Market Fall 2012 Contact interested volunteers and establish a schedule of monthly projects Collect baseline engagement scores Start monthly projects with a monthly tea/share-out afternoon at the completion of each project Winter/Spring 2013 Collect engagement scores during term two and three assessment periods to compare scores June 2013 Year-End Tea to celebrate our projects, community project leaders, and community and student participants

Evidence
Data will be collected during the fall, winter and spring assessment periods. We will collect data on:

Student Engagement Parental and Community Involvement (attendance on each project

day)

Student attendance
On an ongoing basis we will track parent and community member participation in learning activities. We will also be collecting informal feedback about the projects from parent/caregivers, community members, and our local project leaders.

Planting native plants at the Lillooet Restoration Site.

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ACTION PLAN FOR LEARNING

GOLD BRIDGE COMMUNITY SCHOOL

Gold Bridge Community School 89 Haylmore Ave. General Delivery Gold Bridge, BC V0K 1P0 Phone: 250-238-2255 Fax: 250-238-2255 E-mail: jlanthier@gw.sd74.bc.ca

Signatures
Principal Name: Jacquie Ledoux Signature: School Planning Council Chair: Nigel Hopp Signature:

School District 74 (Gold Trail) www.sd74.bc.ca

Board Chair: Carmen Ranta Signature: Superintendent: Teresa Downs Signature:

Support and Connections for Success

How will we provide for staff development and collaboration? How will we involve parents and caregivers? How will we communicate our work in the school and community?

staff will be engaged in working

on the same projects with students and community members, learning about areas of mutual interest alongside students

post an open invitation with a

list of activities and dates at the post office and billboard beside the General Store

the schools monthly

newsletter will feature information about the current and upcoming projects copies of the newsletter go up at the Post Office, at the bulletin board outside of the General Store, and at the Pub.

monthly school newsletters school blog articles in The Mountain

Telegraph

use collaboration funds to

consult and plan with community member volunteers

student-written articles and

photographs will be submitted to The Mountain Telegraph

engage in professional development based on: Learning in Depth by Kieran Eagan

mention upcoming projects at

PAC meetings and school events

school blog that will be

updated regularly by both students and teachers

find out about projects that the

parent/caregivers would be interested in working on with their children

Publish attendance data and

engagement survey results in the monthly newsletter once collected

Students will discuss

projectspast and future with parents during StudentLed Learning Conversations

Information booth at the

Bralorne Farmers Market