HomeLogic

You probably received a recorded message from the school in the last few days about opening and accessing a HomeLogic account. HomeLogic is a portal for parents to the information that the CBE has about students. This is a tool that parents can use to view information about their child's Attendance, Schedule, Transcript, and Demographics. Sign up is simple and is a great way to keep track of important information. There is even a list of your child's current teachers.

Here is the letter that describes HomeLogic to parents and here is the web page from Wilma's website with all the links you need. If you want to just go and sign up: click here and select 'new user?' under the credentials section.

Resources for Familes Affected by Flooding

From the CBE:

"As a result of the devastating flood last June in southern Alberta  we have many students and families who have been affected. In addition to the resources available with the Calgary Board of Education , there are other resources available through Alberta Health Services."

Click here to find out the details.

Urgent Request from the Bingo Team

The bingo is tomorrow night! The roster is almost filled up, but we need 3 more (and a few people on the reserve list would be good). Thank you to those who have signed up so far.

If you have been thinking about signing up please do it now.

http://www.volunteersignup.org/TCMW8

Maybe you can sign up other family members (over 18) to help out. Please forward this email to anyone you think might be interested in helping out.

Thank you for volunteering!

The Wilma Hansen School Parent Association (WHSPA)  Bingo Team.

Role of a Trustee

The following is an excerpt from an excellent article by Laura Shutiak for a group called Artics (Association for Responsible Trusteeship in Calgary Schools). In it, she examines the role of a trustee on the CBE board, shows examples of real transparency, and points out some of the differences in our trustees.

In mid-September, a few parents took to Twitter to thank Calgary Board of Education Trustee Joy Bowen-Eyre for helping them secure additional bike racks at their school. A picture of bikes stacked neatly by the school door accompanied the thank yous.

Why shouldn’t you pat your trustee on the back when you think he or she has been responsive to an issue?

Well, because securing resources for an individual school, whether it’s a computer, basketballs or bike racks, isn’t the job of a trustee.

Now, we don’t actually know what impact Bowen-Eyre had on this decision, if any. We also don’t know if there were other, more needy schools that missed out because of politics.
But, doesn’t it show there’s problem in the system when the principal couldn’t secure needed facilities for his or her school? Instead of handing out kudos, perhaps those parents should be demanding answers.

So, what is the role of a trustee? - Click here for the entire article.

Meet A Trustee Candidate

In 26 days municipal elections will be held in Calgary. We will be voting for a Mayor, 14 Councillors, 7 Public School Trustees and 7 Separate School Trustees - are you ready? Don't let the voting booth be the first place you see their names.

Since this is a school related blog, this post will be about the Public School Trustees in our area. There are seven trustees on the board, each representing two wards. Wilma Hansen is in Ward 14. Our present, long time trustee Carol Bazinet has announced her retirement from the board.

There are three declared candidates for Wards 12/14. They (and their websites) are:

Amber Stewart

Christina Steed 

Malik Amery

The Council and Parent Association will be meeting on Wednesday, October 16 at 7pm in the library. One of the candidates, Christina Steed, has asked to chat with us during the first part of our meeting. Plan on coming out and listening to Christina and asking her some questions about her candidacy.

Find out about all the candidates in our ward by reading their websites and sending them questions. The CBE Board of Trustees makes decisions daily that directly affect our children's education so your participation in this process couldn't be more important.

CBE Report Card Processes

From the CBE:

"Our provincial programs of study are changing and like many other school divisions in Alberta, the CBE is re-designing assessment and reporting practices to reflect these changes.
The introduction of new reporting processes, including a new report card, will be an important part of our work moving forward. The direction of our province, as well as current research on assessment, evaluation and student learning, require us to work together to understand, recognize and communicate about student learning in new ways."

Read more details here.

AGM Tuesday Night

Please plan to attend the Annual General Meeting of the Wilma Hansen Parent Association and Council on Tuesday evening. The meeting is held in the library and starts at 7pm. Click here for the Parent Association agenda and here for the Council agenda.

Volunteers required for the financials of last year: We need two parents to review the books and statements this month. It will only take 1 or 2 hours, no experience or special book-keeping knowledge required. If you can help out, please email wilmahansenparents@gmail.com.

Check the calendar at the bottom of this page for various events/locations/times. Please submit any missing calendar entries to wilmahansenparents@gmail.com.

One more item for this blog entry: If you wish to volunteer for anything, if you want more information regarding Council/Association items, if you want a blog entry about a subject, if you want to contact us for any reason - just send an email - we'll get back to you, use wilmahansenparents@gmail.com.

Teens, Phones, and Sleep

There has been a lot written in the press lately about cell phone usage among teens. One of the things that researches are helping us parents to worry about is cell phone usage at bed time. Screen brightness, late night texting, melatonin levels, snapchat anxiety, etc all seem to be contributing to our kids getting less sleep and/or lower quality sleep.

CBC recently reported:

The average teen should get nine hours of sleep, but the medical literature and research at SickKids suggest they get only about seven hours. - link.

The Better Health channel in Australia reports:

Adolescents (teenagers) need between nine and 10 hours of sleep every night. Regularly not getting enough sleep (chronic sleep deprivation) can affect a teenager's academic and sporting performance and may increase their risk of emotional problems such as depression. Even 30 minutes of extra sleep each night makes a difference. - link.

Dr. David Palmiter:

...three out of four teens report bringing their cell phones into their bedrooms at night, with 56% texting every night/almost every night... - link.

I suppose all this is applicable to adults as well, do you watch tv or read on a back lit electronic device at bed time? Maybe you're being affected too...

CAPSC Meeting September 18

From CAPSC:

The Calgary Association of Parents and School Councils would like to welcome you back for another school year!

Please join us for our first meeting of the 2013/2014 school year.  The meeting will take place Wednesday September 18th 7:00pm, AE Cross school library (3445-37th St SW).  We will have guest speakers from the CBE in attendance to discuss the personalization of learning and Iris. Our executive has also been working on a number of initiatives over the past few months and we will update you on all those happenings as well.

This meeting will also be a great opportunity for you to purchase your CAPSC membership for this year.  We will be able to process all of your membership requests at the meeting, or please view our webpage for more information.  If you have any questions regarding your membership status, please contact our Communications Coordinator.

We look forward to seeing you there!