Good Spirit School Division (GSSD) the school division that represents Melville, Yorkton and surrounding communities is geared up for a new school year with a historic first for the division - more students in addition to new technology and continued emphasis on successful programs from the last three years.
Students will also be enjoying major upgrades to the technology at schools across the division called a "technology rollover" and continued emphasis on improving reading under the "Reading for All" program and the "Know problems" math enhancement project.
"For the first time in the history of our school board we are projecting an increase in student enrollment this year and we believe unlike previous years this won't simply be new students replacing ones that are moving away. We are really excited about this," says Dwayne Reeve, director of education at GSSD, about the prospect for more students for 2010-2011 year starting Monday.
"While we cannot offer definitive numbers until the school year begins, compared to this period other years numbers and forecasts we are projecting an increase," Reeve says.
The next big change students will notice is every school will now have wireless Internet and new computers, allowing students to bring their own wireless devices to school.
"This change gives all students much greater access to the internet and related technology," Reeve says.
Some adjustment time will be needed as all the new computers have new software packages and the server changes with the new wireless technology. Teachers will also benefit from the wireless technology in a big way with each teacher being given a laptop computer permitting them to keep pace with students at school and permitting teachers to work after regular school hours with greater ease.
The GSSD is now waiting for the province to catch up with upgrading the provincial Community Net to have greater bandwidth capacity for the new systems at the GSSD schools.
"In order for us to really unleash the potential of all our upgrades we need the province to fast track the Community Net," Reeve says.
He also says the school board is not neglecting the basics and is building on the strength of two major initiatives that have been in place for the past three years. The programs focus on reading and math "Reading for All" and "Know Problems."
"Reading for All" is to enhance the reading skills of students in the Grade Three to Six range.
"Up to Grade Three our students' really perform well but then we need to work on continuing the development of reading skills," Reeve says.
To continue the positive trend in reading schools in the GSSD began a program with Grade Three students called "Reading Power" developed by educator Adrienne Gear.
"This program uses self-awareness of reading to develop comprehension. Primarily it will use making the use of reading personal such as using reading to solve a problem that affects the student personally. Reading is so important to students because it is interconnected with all other school work," Reeve says.
He stressed this is about building on success.
"We have great results from the time kids enter school to Grade 3 with reading and this program builds on that success," Reeve says.
He adds, the "Know Problems" program is more focused on improving a noticeable challenge.
"Math scores have been a weak point for Saskatchewan" Reeve admits. "It's a concern for the school division."
He says the GSSD really wants to see better results and believes the "Know Problems" program is an excellent tool to tackle the math challenge.
"Know Problems" is a program that uses everyday situations to teach students math.
"The past few years we set up summer math institutes for our teachers and because of the success of the program each year the program was expanded with more teachers. This year we have not only primary school teachers but also some high school teachers and teachers from outside the division," Reeve concludes.
