Next week, the Richmond School District will host a number of events as part of Education Week. It’s billed as a celebration of public education and involves thousands of students showing off their skills and knowledge
At Henry Anderson Elementary school is where you will find Grade 7 teacher Glyn Davies, who passes his passion for teaching down to his students.
Davies says his students have taken learning to a whole other level.
“They don’t just learn. They create,” explained Davies, a 35 year veteran educator, who won a teaching award and class scholarship last year for his science initiatives.
This year he’s doing it again.
Davies has harnessed his students’ energy to create the Underwater Paradise display, which can be viewed all week at Aberdeen Centre. Students have spent countless hours building the display as well as papier mache animal models. But the most important part of the display is the interaction the students will have with the public as Davies has instructed the students to teach others about the animals they have studied.
Teaching the public
“It creates a different dynamic in their learning because they realize it’s not just their parents or teachers who are interested in them, it’s the public,” said Davies.
To build their display, the science class has employed numerous members of the community, from employees at Home Depot to secondary school shop teachers to other scientists. Davies even tasked a former student, now a radio broadcaster, to give students a lesson on public speaking.
“The children have limitless potential,” said Davies. He said procuring help from the community is important as there are always budgetary constraints.
“There is never enough. In my whole career, there has never been enough money to do some of the things we want to do, but by involving members of the community, parents and friends and the dollar store we make it happen,” quipped Davies.
Because Education Week is a celebration of public education the News asked Davies how Underwater Paradise relates to such a theme.
“Public education is available to all. The biggest difference is we have kids of all levels and all different needs. We have lots of kids who’ve just come to Canada and they’re 100 per cent engaged — learning, designing, teaching — I think that’s one thing that’s special about the public system,” explained Davies.
Davies noted that the science project is partly a result of more flexibility when it comes to curriculum and government mandated learning outcomes.
“This new curriculum that is coming out is enabling teachers to be more free. There are less outcomes. The ministry has reduced the number of items and let the children progress in areas that they are interested in,” said Davies.
An example of this flexibility is how student Sharon Tu took on studying coral for the project. Davies said she understands more about coral species than he could have imagined.
Another example is how students designed a website to document the project. Initially, Davies told them they couldn’t do it in class, but the students took the initiative and did it anyway in their spare time. Now it’s an integral part of the project.
Skills training
Not far down the road from Anderson is the transportation technology shop class of Phil Read at MacNeill Secondary school where students have been busy building an electric vehicle, which will also be displayed at Aberdeen next week.
The project has students designing and constructing the vehicle from scratch. The long flat aluminium sheets cover a steel frame body welded by students and a solar panel on the back of the vehicle provides enough power to the battery to run approximately 12 km.
The project is but a mere example of Read’s students applying themselves in the skilled trades, something the school district has been heavily promoting over the past few years.
Read said a class like his is a logical answer to the government’s growing need for skilled labourers.
“It only seems like common sense that there should be more investment in skills training at this level because lots of kids make career choices at this age. Students need to have an avenue to contribute and for a lot of kids this may be their only avenue,” said Read.
One of the largest exhibits for Education Week will be Science Jam, a cluster of science projects from various elementary schools in the district. The public will be able to view students’ hypothesis and have the conclusions explained orally. Some of the projects on display at Aberdeen will be interactive.
Students at Hugh Boyd Secondary school will lead the charge at the Skills BC regional competition at Aberdeen, whereby over 100 students from the district will compete in various contests. While there is a public speaking competition, many of the contests relate to applied physics skills such as a gravity car race and a spaghetti bridge. Winners move on to the provincial championships where they have a chance to then move on to the prestigious Skills Canada competition this summer in Toronto.
“These competitions allow students not only to apply their knowledge but also to build their team working and communications skills,” said Boyd science teacher Douglas Park.
Jazz night
At Gateway Theatre on Feb. 25 student jazz musicians will show off their talents in the annual Richmond Jazz Night.
“Music is a great way for people to interact and gather at one place to appreciate skills that individuals have,” said drummer Lucas Estabrook.
Meanwhile, also on Feb. 25 at Aberdeen, the Richmond Multicultural Community Services organization has helped a diverse group of students, including those with special needs, to perform a talent show.
The show will include spoken word poetry, singing, dancing, music and a short play on anti-bullying and self-empowerment.
Another important exhibit will be a display of aboriginal art, created by students, at the Richmond Public Library.
Last year the district reported an above average high school graduation rate (73 per cent) for aboriginal students, who have historically had much lower rates compared to the general student population as a result of systemic discrimination, according to aboriginal support teacher Monique Giard.
For her, art acts as a tool to communicate with students in order to delve into their complex history and understand the wrongs that were committed against First Nations people.
“When students learn about their history they don’t feel so isolated and begin to understand who they are. And once they know who they are, and they’re proud of it, they start feeling better about learning,” said Giard.
There are currently 250 aboriginal students in the district.
Other events during Education Week include an EcoWise display, rolling art boards and a robotics display.
Cutback Cloud Looms
As the Richmond School District gets set to celebrate the work of teachers, administrators and students in the public education system, a dark cloud looms over its schools.
Already facing future budget restraints - such as increases to support staff wages, health benefit payments and utility rates not to mention lowering enrolment - school districts across the province, including Richmond, must now deal with an unprecedented court decision that could have even greater ramifications on next year's budget.
"The court ruling is looming over all of us. This is very substantial. We just hope that whatever happens education is fully funded," said Donna Sargent, chair of the Richmond Board of Education.
The B.C. Supreme Court ruled late last month that the government had enacted unconstitutional legislation dating back to 2002 that removed class-size limits and class composition from the collective bargaining process with the BC Teachers Federation. In the same ruling, Justice Susan Griffin found that the government tried to incite a strike by the BCTF.
As such, Griffin ordered the government to reenact class size limits as well as several stipulations on class composition, particularly the number of special-needs students per class. Also, the teachers have regained the right to negotiate such conditions province-wide.
Education Minister Peter Fassbender told media last week that the ruling could cost $1 billion to implement.
Richmond's school district has some of the highest class sizes in the province and about 60 per cent of students do not speak English as their primary language at home.
Meanwhile the provincial government is presently appealing the decision and asking for a suspension of Griffin's orders until the appeal is heard.
During this process, Sargent and other school board trustees are tasked to draft a budget for the next school year.
"We are already at our limit. We cannot make any more cuts," said Sargent.
"The court ruling is the number one issue. It's so all encompassing and it really overshadows everything we are doing. It's substantial. ...We need both the government and teachers to get to the negotiating table," she said.
Sargent hopes there are no changes to the current budget as the two sides battle one another in the courts.
"It's a very confusing time and we're still going through the process. ...We're carrying on as if things are status quo. And we're really hopeful things will be status quo and we will be advocating for that," said Sargent.
While she could not give any specific numbers, other school districts in Metro Vancouver filed affidavits showing they would need to hire hundreds of teachers, costing them tens of millions of dollars.
Sargent said the same would be true in Richmond in order to reduce class sizes to 2002 levels. Aside from the costs of additional teachers' wages, it would mean more classrooms being used, which could affect programs that lease space in the schools. It could also mean more building costs.
Sargent said the problems the district are having with government funding is nothing new.
"I would say it's been a difficult time in ensuring that appropriate funding stays in education. The board has been advocating for 12 years
- since I've been a trustee - and it's been of continual importance. I think we've been underfunded for a very long time," she said.
Sargent noted that despite all the problems going on at the moment, it is important for parents to recognize the strides the district has made.
"The current state of public education in Richmond is pretty fantastic. The graduation rate is the third highest in the province. Is it everything it could be? No. But we continue as a board to advocate for the services we need," said Sargent Al Klassen, president of the Richmond Teachers Association, said just as much.
"The state of education as it relates to outcomes is that the system is still an excellent system; and that's somewhat surprising when you see the toll on the system over the last decade," said Klassen.
Exacerbating the problems is an apparent failure in communication between the government and the district and teachers. This was evidenced, said Klassen, when Fassbender emailed teachers across the province directly without consulting with districts, who are their employers. Fassbender was trying to defend his government's stance on the court case. Klassen said much of the information was wrong and Sargent felt he blamed school trustees for the 2002 legislation (school trustees opposed a province wide class limit).
"It's disrespectful. We are co-governors," said Sargent.
Klassen believes Fassbender has lost authority to manage the ministry and has tainted him as someone who can find a middle ground.
Still, both Sargent and Klassen hope the government and BCTF can reach a deal.
