This Week @WLE – February 7, 2016

Posted: February 8, 2016

Well, we’re more than halfway through the school year already, and it has been a great one! Here’s what’s up at WLE and beyond this week.

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The Langley International Film Festival is coming! Click on the poster to the right for complete details.
Jump Rope for Heart is coming! The kickoff assembly for the 2016 campaign is this Thursday at 1:00 pm. Parents are welcome to join, though it won’t be our kids who are the center of attention!
Don’t forget Wab Kinew is upcoming on February 19th and 20th. Check last week’s This Week for details.
If you don’t have anything to do Thursday evening this week, Wade Davis is speaking at Langley Fine Arts School. It looks like it will be a great experience. I just have to remember to take my copy of Into the Silence for him to sign. 🙂
The grade 7s are selling Candygrams all week to support their upcoming trip to camp. Lollipops or chocolate hearts will be sold at recess and delivered to the recipients at lunch. 50 cents apiece! A bargain!

Treat Day is this Friday. mmmmm. Thanks to all who are participating.
Don’t forget to mention West Langley Elementary any time you buy at the Walnut Grove Cob’s Bread.

Of course, we know reading with kids at home is enormously beneficial. It should come as no surprise that adding math at home has the same positive impact. While I don’t endorse the specific app the article talks about (though it is free), I do endorse the idea of adding math to kids’ learning activities at home.
I’m not saying that we should go out of our way to frustrate kids (or each other) but frustration can be productive, at least according to Tim Hartford.
Another writer espouses the benefits of uncertainty. This article talks about helping kids be comfortable questioning ‘conventional wisdom’. I’m not sure I always want mine questioning my own conventional wisdom, but I also don’t want them to just take the world as being fixed and immutable.
Speaking of defying conventional wisdom, Boyan Slat didn’t let his age or conventional wisdom limit his thinking. He thinks the oceans can be used to clean themselves of the tonnes of plastic garbage humans have left drifting around. The original talk is a bit old, but there was an interesting article in the Sun this weekend, updating the original story (sorry, that one isn’t online that I can find) and it jogged my memory. While the science establishment told Slat he was totally off base, he has persisted and is continuing his work.

February 15 – Girls’ basketball tournament @Yorkson Creek

February 19 – Pro-D Day. Students do not attend

February 22 – Report Card Prep Day. Students dismissed at 11:26

February 24 – WGSS Counsellors visit grade 7; Grade 7 Boys’ basketball tournament @WGSS