Stay up to date on news, events and special features.
Inner-city students need food and clothing
A teacher from Vancouver’s inner city has issued a heart-wrenching plea for help, saying she needs warm socks, shoes without holes, snacks for hungry tummies and — most of all — people to care for children living in poverty around Admiral Seymour elementary.
“From where I sit every day, things are not okay,” Carrie Gelson says in a letter she penned Friday and addressed simply to the people of Vancouver.
“I can teach these children. Love them. Advocate for them. Stock my room with great books. Give away parts of my lunch.
“I can build community partnerships. I can build relationships with families. I can watch others around me doing the same thing. But until I know you are helping, too, it will remain not good enough.”
Gelson, a Seymour teacher for 16 years, said the words “just poured out” after a particularly frustrating day and she decided to circulate her letter in the hope it might strike a chord, spark a discussion, produce volunteers and encourage people to care about the state of inner-city schools and the crumbling housing projects nearby.
While individuals, groups and businesses have tried to help, Gelson, who teaches a Grade 2-3 split, said it’s not enough.
By the third week of the new school year, she already had a list of items she needs:
• Recess snacks for children who arrive late and have missed breakfast.
“We have had donations and thank goodness. But I have many hungry kids and the stash in my file cabinet won’t last.”
• Warm, dry socks for children who come to school without any or with a pair too small.
“The rains are coming. This just isn’t okay.”
• Boys’ shoes size 3 or 4 and for girls, toddlers’ size 13 to a girls’ size 2, because every day some students come to school wearing shoes with holes.
• A counsellor for the cloakroom, to mop up tears and talk to children who may only be seven or eight years old but are often overwhelmed by sadness. The school has a counsellor who visits once a week for part of a day. “We have bigger needs — plain and simple,” Gelson writes.
• Lots of advocates.
• Affordable, safe housing.
Click here to read the entire Vancouver Sun article.
Linking Your Students to Course Readings
To help direct your students to their course readings and specific web pages please refer to our help page on “Creating Persistent URLs”.
Persistent URLs (PURLS) for web pages, course readings and e-books on their own do not allow the system to authenticate users. This means that your PURLS won’t work when accessed from off-campus. To avoid having this happen you will have to add the following prefix to your PURL: http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=. This prefix will prompt students to log-in using their CWL before accessing the article, allowing the system to confirm that the user is a current UBC student, faculty or staff-member.
Go to the following page for assistance in Creating Persistent URLs
http://help.library.ubc.ca/help-for/faculty/creating-persistent-urls/
Year-round schooling may start in Vancouver next year
The Vancouver School Board could launch a year-round school pilot project at several city schools as early as 2012/13, according to superintendent Steve Cardwell.
Last year, trustees asked the district’s calendar committee to examine if educational advantages exist in having what’s known as a balanced calendar, which involves lengthening the school year, shortening the summer break and adding longer breaks between sessions.
Several schools in B.C.—including Richmond’s Spul’u’kwuks elementary, Maple Ridge’s Kanaka Creek elementary, Langley’s Douglas Park community school, and Glendale elementary in Williams Lake—offer year-round schools.
“We have not worked out what schools [would be involved] at this point, but we’ve been talking about the balanced school calendar—year-round schools—for a year or so now and believe that the old agricultural, industrial-based calendar that currently exists with long summers may not necessarily be the right thing for everyone,” Cardwell told the Courier. “We want to give another choice to parents and students. We are aware Maple Ridge and Richmond have schools with a balanced-year calendar and they have long lineups or waiting lists to get in and we think we should be looking at the same concept.”
Come Celebrate Science!
Celebrate Science is a festival of B.C science writers for children and teens. This is a reminder that the event will be taking place on Saturday, 24 September 2011, from 8:30 am – 12:30 pm at the University of British Columbia’s Beaty Biodiversity Museum.
This science extravaganza will appeal to teachers, teacher-librarians, student teachers, public librarians, child care workers and parents. The half-day program will feature talented Canadian writers and illustrators whose books and passion for science spans all ages. They’ll explore scientific topics with the audience and highlight a wide range of books available for youth. The keynote speaker is Dr. Jeanette Whitton, Environmental biologist and Co-Director, Beaty Biodiversity Museum. Featured scientists include Dr. Wayne Maddison, the spider guy; Dr. Amanda Vincent, Project Seahorse researcher and Dr. Eric Taylor, UBC Fish Collection.
Science writers from the Children’s Writers and Illustrators of BC (CWILL BC) will be presenting their books:
Fiona Bayrock, author of Bubble Homes and Fish Farts
Tanya Kyi, 50 Questions series
Shar Levine & Leslie Johnstone, authors of over 70 hands-on science books such as Kitchen Science and their latest Snowy Science.
Cynthia Nicolson, Totally Human: Why We Look and Act the Way We Do;
Barry Shell, author of Sensational Scientists
Jim Wiese, Surrey High school teacher and author of over 40 books including Spy Science, Rocket Science and Cosmic Science.
There will be a science book fair and sales with a 10% discount for attendees.
To register online go to http://www.bookcentre.ca/store/products/celebrate_science_a_festival_bc_science_writers_kids_teens.
We hope to see you there!
Children’s book too hot for U.S. publishers warmly received in Canada
Daniel Loxton, an illustrator and writer, created a children’s book so outrageous, so outlandish, so controversial no American publisher dared touch it.
It does not depict nudity. It does not contain curse words. It does not include blasphemy. The love scenes, such as they are, involve males with females.
It does include a straightforward explanation for the complexity of the natural world through a simple scientific theory.
“So many of the publishing professionals I was talking to were leery,” he said.
“When push came to shove they declined to publish the book. Several did indicate to me it was too hot a topic.”
The book wound up being published by Canadian-owned Kids Can Press, which also expected objections from creationists.
So far, the book, Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be, an illustrated primer written for readers in Grades 3 to 7, has generated more prize nominations than controversy.
Click here to read the entire Globe and Mail article