Secondary Newsletter 32 – April 9, 2020
Principal’s Message
Secondary Student Survey Results
Whole School Parent Survey Results
CAS Corner
Dear Parents,
We have completed our second week of distance learning. We are all continuing to learn and adapt and it is a challenge which our students and teachers are accepting and meeting with flying colours. Thank you for those who gave us feedback on the surveys sent last Friday. We received 84 Secondary student responses and 66 whole school parent responses. I have read the feedback received from every survey response and shared it with the teachers. If you ever want to provide further feedback please send me an email at secondaryprincipal@baliis.net. We are welcoming feedback so we can continue to improve in all aspects of running our school in these trying circumstances. Please also reach out to our Counselor, Ms. Rachael Gerbic (counselor@baliis.net), if you have any concerns about your child/ren’s wellbeing.
Student and Parent Feedback Summary
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- Very positive feedback, our community is very appreciative of teacher efforts and support
- Our schedule is popular as it provides students with flexibility to prioritise tasks
- Our students are clear on expectations and feel supported by our teachers
- Face to face homeroom meetings are their favourite part of the day and helps them to stay connected, they miss their friends and teachers.
- Some students feel there is too much to achieve in some subjects/grade levels. I have reminded teachers that we should be realistic in our expectations.
- Overwhelming feedback is that students miss working in groups and collaborating with their peers to complete tasks. We are exploring the use of Zoom for breakout groups, some teachers have already recognised the benefits.
- Students enjoy the video explanations as long as they are short and concise
- Some students want more variety in tasks
The graphs for each question is detailed below
Secondary Student Feedback
CAS Corner by Noa Michael-Lohs
Evidence:
| Planning | Inspiration | My Attempt |
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Reflection:
My first day of drawing was on point with the time of doing the activity as well as completing the activity within the designated time-frame I had initially set forth. I had set an alarm for 5 o’clock in the afternoon for the activity which I achieved and a timer on my phone set for 30 minutes to complete the drawing which I also accomplished. However, I do think that this time (30 minutes) may have been a bit too short because I realized throughout drawing that I was rushing the process which obviously affects the final outcome.
After the first drawing, I had planned that I would write a reflection every Friday. This I did not accomplish until now as this is the first reflection.
The following week I had already lost motivation to draw without reason and did not spend any time drawing.
An error I made when creating this activity for myself was the time in which I chose to do this activity as I would spend the next 2 weeks studying for the exams coming up.
Though I want to keep my time limited to 30 minutes, I need to find a loophole that allows me to create a drawing that is not rushed in any way.
Strategies for improvement in future drawings :
– create a linear structure of the drawing, without using that time in the 30 minutes. (Since I am new to this concept, I want this step to be taken slowly until I am confident)
– the drawings need to be much smaller. Since the first one was pretty big which uses more time.
Strategies for further improvement in time management :
– Instead of only drawing on Wednesdays, based on my abilities, I need to be a bit more lenient so that this does not feel like a task which knowing myself will demotivate me. (I need
to be more realistic because I know that I struggle a lot with time management). This means that I will still draw once a week but not specifically on Wednesdays.
– Create a timetable on a Google document that includes work outside of CAS to give an idea of when I have spare time to draw.
– Reflections: Not specifically on Fridays (in case we are asked to do something else), still doing reflections in homeroom but only when I have spare time. *If I do not complete any reflection work in homeroom, it will be done at home.