Food for Thought: Sharing data on Best School in the Universe

Dear all,

Hope you had a good week. It was so good to see Ashley and Anna back in school this week and looking well after their motor bike accident.  Time seems to be flying by faster than normal this year. It is hard to believe that next week is the start of week four. Our traffic plan seemed to work quite well on Monday, Thursday and Friday mornings but on Tuesday and Wednesday due to restrictions imposed by the Metro construction we had serious problems. It is a shame that more of our parents don’t use the time to come in school grab a coffee or attend a mindfulness session instead of becoming angry and frustrated sat in traffic queues that none of us can control.

I wanted to let you know that we received a health warning about Dengue in Vietnam. This is what it says:

“In Brief:
A significant increase in dengue cases has been reported in several parts of Vietnam. The disease is spread by mosquitoes, and is present in both rural and urban or city areas. Dengue can cause a range of symptoms and has no particular treatment. Some people, especially those who have been infected with dengue before, get a more severe form that can lead to fatal complications. There is no vaccine.

Advice

• When outdoors, wear clothing that covers most of your body (long sleeves, long pants, socks).
• Use an effective insect repellent that contains DEET, Picaridin, PMD, or IR3535.
• Ensure windows are covered with fly-wire. Use "knock-down" insect spray to kill mosquitoes in your room.
• Choose air conditioned accommodation if possible.
• Seek medical attention if you develop a high fever, especially if you suffer "rigors" (shaking) or a rash.

More Detail
Dengue activity continues to increase in many states. Nationally, around 25,000 cases have been confirmed since the beginning of 2015, higher than that observed for the same period in 2014. At least 12 cases have been fatal. Frequent heavy rainfall may be contributing to the persistence of the outbreak. Dengue is consistently present in Vietnam. “

There has been concerns expressed in the past about the number of plants that we have in our classrooms. However, if you look carefully at this diagram you can see that dengue mosquitoes need a week from laying eggs in water till the emergence of the adult mosquito. Hence it is important that we don’t over water our plants and have them constantly sitting on a tray of water.

A good slide share on Dengue: http://www.slideshare.net/jyotirout/guidelines-on-the-prevention-of-dengue-fever

Last weekend a teacher sent me information about an activity that they felt was so engaging, energizing and empowering for her students that they wanted to miss lunch to continue their work. It was described as one of those ‘best in the universe’ moments. Since then several other teachers and administrators have also described ‘best in the universe ‘moments when everything goes perfectly. These comments gave me an idea that was further cemented by this article that describes the importance of collecting data that creates a holistic view of our students so that we can get to really know them as individuals. This fits perfectly with our mission because it enables us to truly welcome our students to class whilst being able to use our students likes and dislikes individualizing their learning when necessary.

Hence what I have decided to do is create a simple template that can be a live document and shared on Google.  This will allow us the opportunity to keep a record of these moments as they occur during the year. Hopefully this will stop us forgetting these good moments, in our busy school days, and provide a resource for others to look and say, wow that was a good idea/ activity. I think I’d like to try that. I would appreciate your ideas for creating the columns for the template. What do you thinks should be recorded, so that it is easy and efficient to complete whilst at the same time showing the reader what went well and why? Please email me your thoughts.

Wishing you a good weekend,

Yours

Adrian