Kobza's Komments

For me, spring is a wonderful time of year as it is a time of new growth and renewal.  My favorite flowers, tulips and daffodils, emerge from their winter’s sleep and I love seeing the trees gradually turn to that special shade I call “spring green”.  Its feels like we also emerge from our winter’s sleep at the school as the warm temperatures allow us to shed our heavy coats and we change from the dark colors of winter to the bright pinks and yellows of spring.

Spring is also a time of renewal at FLVT as people have had the chance to relax over Easter and are refreshed for the last three months of school.  Currently, the production team is busy gearing up preparations for our Spring Production Get a Clue which takes place at the University of Lethbridge Theatre during the first week of May. April is busy with rehearsals: singing from Mondays to Wednesdays, dancing on Thursdays, and acting on Fridays. Full dress rehearsals for the entire cast take place from 10:00 – 4:00 at the school on Saturday April 16 and 23. On Monday May 2 the entire cast is at the University of Lethbridge Theatre all day for a final dress rehearsal.  From Tuesday to Thursday the students will perform a matinee at 11:00 for our Holy Spirit Schools and an evening performance for the general public starting at 7:00 pm.  Tickets for the evening shows can be purchased at the office or at the door and are $10 for adults and $8 for students. I’m looking forward to seeing the end result of all the hard work our students have put into the production. Hope to see you there!

We are also in the midst of new growth as we are planning for the 2016-2017 school year. We are working on timetabling options for our junior high classes and have changed the registration process to a two round electronic format.  In the next week students will be completing an electronic form whereby they choose their top choices.  Once students have listed their choices we will tabulate them and then schedule courses based on student choice.  After we have the schedule made then we will then have students choose their options based on the schedule.  The process takes some time and should be completed in early May.  We are also going to be gathering feedback on junior high core course redesign.  Last year, we looked at research on best practices for scheduling and grouping and we made a shift in philosophy on how we teach our cores. We moved from a single teacher with static class configurations to a team teaching approach with flexible groupings and units. The benefits of the approach is that over the course of three years, students would be exposed to a richer curriculum as teachers are familiar with students’ learning needs and they would build closer relationships with students and parents. Students also have a team of teachers that they can go to for help and could have the opportunity to have a concept explained in different ways. As with every gear change we make, there have been positives and negatives, and we are looking at collecting feedback to incorporate into our planning for next year.

Finally, I would like to congratulate Mr. Parr as he will be moving on to the Associate Principal position at the Children of St. Martha School. A search is currently underway for Mr. Parr’s replacement. I would like to wish him well in his new position and to thank him for sharing his gifts, talents, and leadership with us.