A great night at Princess Elizabeth CLC

We're just back from an evening visiting the Princess Elizabeth CLC. What an amazing place! There's something for everyone, and we mean everyone: basket weaving, Zumba, cooking, guitar lessons, gardening, you name it!

Thanks to Pervana and her team for pulling out all the stops and showing us what can be done with hard work, perseverance and a dedicated (and seemingly unlimited) team of volunteers.

Embodied Messages

This afternoon, we met with and observed the "Embodied Messages"WOC. We loved the way that they could take situations that expressed intense feelings and desires through body movement and facial expression. The story came out loud and clear with only a few words spoken. For more information speak to the Theatre group speak to Anthony or Claire.

Future directions

We believe the future direction that needs to be explored is that of financial collaboration with foundations, private companies and all levels of government. CLC sustainability will require innovative methods of financial planning. As school boards struggle with cutbacks, CLCs provide an avenue to bring in extra human and financial resources for the benefit of all (students, parents, teachers, community partners, etc.) An important note to consider is the underutilization of charitable tax receipts that could be given to private donors. For more information click here.

It Turns Out Pinterest is Easy Too

Pinterest is a great tool for collecting, sorting and presenting images. (Kim Buffitt proudly calls herself a member of the Pinterest cult. She has over 3300 pins and the number is growing every day.)

The CLC WOCs (Ways of Communicating) infographics group has set up a new Pinterest board here. Follow them here.

Ben's Breakthrough

 

One of the breakthroughs that have jumped out at me is the importance of using hard data to illustrate the great successes of the CLC initiative.  Qu’Anglo shared that “more data would be convincing”.  It's a personal wake up call.

It was also surprising that “only half of CLCs are recording volunteer hours”.  By putting systems in place, we can better represent the incredible work being done in our network.

I’m not bringing up these findings to be negative, but as a challenge to myself that we should be moving in new directions to ensure we are getting the message out in a way that will be heard.

Over the next months I’ll be trying to link how the work of teachers, supported by CLC coordinators and partners contribute to student engagement and student success?  I will be researching the common measurements that schools boards and MELS use and ways CLCs work can plug in.

Stay tuned evaluation nuts…

Some Good News

A great way to start the day: At this morning's opening session, Leo La France announced that arrangements been made to provide bridge funding to the CLC network for the upcoming school year. Keep the good news coming!

Handy Web 2.0 Presentation Tools

Looking for some quick and easy-to-use tools to spruce up your presentations? There are a number of Web 2.0 tools that can make your life easier. Web 2.0 refers to the second generation of web sites that allow people to collaborate and share information online.

Here's a few to get you going. The best part is, all of these sites are free!

piktochart.com

infogr.am

prezi.com

haikudeck.com (for iPads)

Welcome to our blog! We've learned that blogging is soooo easy! This blog is the result of four CLC coordinators and one principal who attended Ben Loomer's 45 minute workshop on blogging. Check it out at blogger.com.

Our home for the next three days.

 P.S. Check out our sister blog by clicking here.