Learning @ Home

The pages linked here will provide Glen Cairn PS families with resources to support learning at home. The “Parents in Partnership: A Parent Engagement Policy for Ontario Schools” document outlines the critical role that parents play in supporting students in their learning:

Parents play a vital role in education. When parents are engaged and involved, everyone – students, parents and families, teachers, schools, and communities – benefits, and our schools become increasingly rich and positive places to teach, learn, and grow

At Glen Cairn PS we share your high expectations for our students. The learning that happens in classrooms is focused on providing opportunities for students to develop their critical thinking skills. We want our students to question what they hear and see, to engage with the world around them, and to see the difference that they can make in their world. We see ourselves as a community of learners in this shared commitment:

Research has shown that positive parental aspirations and expectations for their children’s educational achievement have a strong relationship with children’s actual achievement…. The positive results of a genuine partnership between parents and schools include improved student achievement, reduced absenteeism, positive student behaviour, and increased confidence among parents in their children’s schooling. (Parents in Partnership)

Learning @ Home vs. Homework

We call this section of our website “Learning @ Home” deliberately. I often hear parents lament that their children no longer receive “homework”. These parents want to support the learning taking place in classrooms and worry that their children are not developing the study habits necessary to be successful as students move through their schooling. Students must develop strong organizational skills, initiative and responsibility for their learning. In our classrooms, there has been a shift from more traditional “pencil and paper” assignments designed to assess students’ knowledge and understanding of content, to more experiential learning where students are encouraged to wrestle with big ideas and to generate inquiry questions that will lead to deep engagement with the world around them. This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a place for learning at home.

Joyce Epstein, an expert on educational partnerships, notes that homework no longer means only “work that students do alone but also [means] interactive activities that students have and discuss with others at home and in the community to link schoolwork to real-life experiences.” The concept of help at home refers to families encouraging, listening to, praising, guiding, monitoring, and discussing schoolwork with their children, and not whether or how they teach school subjects. Volunteer means not only someone who helps out at school during the day but also anyone who supports school goals and children’s learning and development in any way, at any place, and at any time

There is and the resources linked here are meant to provide you with ways to support your child at home. It is not an exhaustive list. Don’t forget that visits to the museum, volunteer endeavours, trips to the library and even family movie nights provide rich learning opportunities. We invite you to encourage your child to question the world at every turn. Isn’t this what adolescence is all about, after all? Why not have fun with it and ponder some big ideas this weekend?

Regards,

Glen Cairn Staff

French as Second Language Resources

English Language Arts – coming soon

History and Geography – coming soon

Instrumental Music – coming soon

Mathematics

Science – coming soon

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