September's Wellness Focus - Coping and Resiliency

Each month we are going to recognize a different Mental Health issue that could possibly affect our students or people we care about.  The focus for September was the importance of developing coping and resiliency skills. We know that living with a learning disability can be stressful at times.  Not everyone fully understands what learning disabilities are or what it must be like to face LD-related obstacles every day.  It's important to help our students to recognize possible triggers for stress and to teach them a variety of strategies to help overcome these hurdles by building their coping skills toolbox. At our Terrific Kid/Wellness assemble for the month of September we will recognize students who have overcome something something difficult in their first month here at Sagonaska. Please feel free to comment below if you want to recognize any individuals or if you have strategies that you have used that have helped you to cope with something difficult in the past.

Integra Program - Fall/Winter Workshop Schedule

A parent of one of our students recently shared with me the name of a program that is part of the Child Development Institute (CDI), a children’s mental health agency in Toronto.  The Integra Program is an accredited  agency that provides services to children, youth and families who are dealing with mental health issues complicated by learning disabilities.
The Integra Program provides family-centred, evidence-informed direct clinical services to children and youth ages 8 to 18 with diagnosed learning disabilities and mental health issues in Toronto. Although we at Sagonaska have not attended any of their workshops and cannot speak directly to the services they provide, the program does come highly recommended by several parents.  Below is a link to their website and a quick look at some of their upcoming workshops. If you have any feedback regarding their services or workshops, we would love to hear so please comment below.

Click here to go directly to The Integra Program's website

Workshop Titles Include:

• Walk A Mile In My Shoes
• Accessing School Supports
• All About Moods: Understanding Anxiety, Depression, and LDs
• Bullying and LDs: Building Your Toolbox to Support Youth with LDs
• Introduction to Executive Function

Wesley Acres

Last Wednesday, the staff and students of Sagonaska spent a glorious day at the Wesley Acres facility in Bloomfield, Ontario taking part in a variety of team-building activities!

A favourite of the day was the Elevate Course! Everyone was encouraged to step out of their comfort zones to attempt the high-rope course, which included a zip-line four hundred feet into the woods! We were blown away by the bravery and trust demonstrated by our students, not to mention, the natural ability so many of them had for scaling the tall poles and balancing on the tight rope/balance beam across the top! Mr. Mortaley even caught some of the action on a camera on the school's drone!  Video coming soon!!

The low ropes course gave our students, teachers and residence counsellors an opportunity to put themselves in situations that require trust and dependence on others in the group. A lot of laughs and fun were had by all as groups attempted activies such as moving the whole group from one platform to the next, without touching the group, using only two 2x4s! The low tight-rope was another favourite of the day!

A true sense of community was established through a variety of team-building games, such as Human Knot, Team Rock/Paper/Scissors and What Would You Rather?

Finally, our entire group was lucky enough to take in the sights of West Lake while hiking through the beautiful grounds of Wesley Acres.

A big thank you goes out to Mrs. Brintnell for organizing such an amazing event and all the parents of our students should be proud by how respectful, polite and engaged your students were all day! It was an incredible day and it brought us together as a school community and family!

21st Century Learning Video

For the past five years, Sagonaska has been a part of a 21st Century Teaching and Learning project through the Council of Ontario Directors of Education (CODE) focusing on the use of personal devices to assist students with learning disabilities. Although the number one goal of our school is to help our students improve their reading, we also aim to improve our students proficiency with personal devices to support them both in and out of the classroom. Last year, we had the opportunity to capture our learning in a video that was recently shared on the Ministry of Education's EduGAINs website (http://www.edugains.ca) so that educators across the province can see first-hand the transformational learning that takes place at Sagonaska.  Not only do our students increase their reading scores, they develop life-long technology skills that support them in their learning and spark their curiosity and critical thinking skills.

To view this video, please click the following link, EduGAINs: Innovation in Action, and scroll down until you see the title, "Sagonaska Demonstration School: Using Assistive Technology for Creativity and Communication" then click on the image. You will catch a glimpse of how the use of mobile, personal devices is embedded in our daily routines and hear first-hand how the use of these devices is assisting our students with developing personalized learning strategies, while at the same time improving self-esteem and independence.

LD@School's 2nd Annual Educator's Institute Conference

For the second year in a row, LD@School is offering a two-day conference filled with hands-on workshops for all educators, particularly K to 12 classroom teachers, who work with students with learning disabilities. The workshops are based on current research and offer practical information on effective assessment and instructional strategies, including technology.

Two of the workshops being offered this year have been created and will be delivered by Sagonaska staff! We are very excited to join the amazing team of presenters at the Educator's Institute and are looking forward to collaborating with professionals from across the province.  Our team from Sagonaska will be sharing information on how we use our personal devices to transform our learning and practice as well as how to use blogging in the classroom to connect with the world and improve student learning. We are looking forward to sharing with delegates of the conference the way Sagonaska is using technology to create independent learners and critical thinkers that are savvy in the technolgy and skill set that will be essential for them to be successful in their future endeavors.


CLICK HERE to learn more about the 2nd Annual Educator's Institute

Nick Foley’s Ride for Inclusion

This past Monday, Nick Foley, a local Belleville man with a cause, stopped by Sagonaska to speak with our students about his passion.  Nick is currently biking across Canada, a journey that began in Victoria, BC on April 22^nd and ends in St. John’s, Newfoundland on July 26^th.   His ride is called “Ride for Inclusion” and it is a fundraising event that will help launch his organization, Move for Inclusion.

Move for Inclusion (MFI) is an organization that will raise money for local, national, and international inclusion charities and organizations.  One of the inspirations for Move for Inclusion came from another of Nick’s organizations called “Celebrate the Hero”. CTH aims to motivate young people to make a difference by focusing on the positive change they can make, big and small, in their lives and the lives of others on a daily basis.  We have been a part of the CTH movement at Sagonaska for the past three years and have daily messages on the announcements encouraging our students to celebrate the hero in each one of us.

The other, more significant inspiration for MFI is Brynn, Nick’s daughter, who was born in 2012 and diagnosed with Down Syndrome.  Nick shared with us a story of how, four days after Brynn was born, he overheard a conversation between two men were complaining that there was a child in a wheelchair in their children's class and they felt that student was taking away from the learning of others.  It was at that moment Nick knew he had to try and make the world a better, more inclusive place, for his beautiful daughter Brynn.  Through MFI he hopes to raise awareness and improve the world by encouraging inclusion and acceptance of all people without bias.

Fortunately for us, Nick stopped at our school on Monday as he made his way through Belleville along Highway 2.  He spoke about the importance of giving and accepting others and “winning the day you’re in”.  Our students found his stories entertaining and inspiring. We here at Sagonaska would like to contribute something to such a worthy cause.  There will be a collection bin on Tuesday at our Recognition Ceremony for anyone that would like to donate to Move for Inclusion.  Any contribution will be greatly appreciated.  

Social Media Presentation for School Council

Last night at our school council, we had a short presentation on the types of social media our students are using. Click through this slide show to see a brief description, the pros and cons, and educational applications of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, and Ask.fm. It's hard to stay on top of all the different applications and platforms out there, and this list will most likely be out of date by the time I hit "Post", but as educators and parents we need to at least be a part of the conversation. For those that attended last evening, I was able to find some information on Tumblr and have included it as well!  Check out the Google Presentation from last night and contact me at Anne.Truaisch@ontario.ca if you have any questions.