Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Pacer Swimmers Excel at Provincial Championships

Kudos to the 29 members of the Pacer Swim Team for their outstanding performance at the Provincial Championships this past weekend in Nanaimo. The Pacers placed 6th in the province and first in the combined events standings! A deep and talented team, a total of twenty-three swimmers made it through the qualifying heats to compete in the finals.

Special recognition to Dalton Boon, who received 4 gold medals with 3 Best Time swims and to the Girls Open Medley team (Madison Milford, Kiana Beaton, Sidney Peake and Nicole Currie) who captured a silver medal....while the Mixed Medley relay team (Madison Milford, Kiana Beaton, Travis Rogers and Robby Arundel)....and the Open Mixed Free relay team (Travis Rogers, Sidney Peake, Robby Arundel and Nicole Currie) brought home bronze medals. Congratulations also to senior Jeffrey Yamasaki, who was awarded a BC Aquatics Scholarship.

As is the custom, the entire team displayed excellent sportsmanship and represented DSS with class! Well done, Pacers!

For a complete listing of the results click here.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Personalized Learning - Starts with Meeting Students Where They Are

During the next 21 days, Delta Secondary students will participate in The Tell Them From Me school survey from The Learning Bar. The survey will focus on student engagement, wellness and aspects of classroom and school climate. Having data that tells the student story at DSS will provide our  community with valuable information for school planning and school improvement.

Healthy learning communities reflect on perspectives of all partners and collaborate to design and implement plans for improved student learning. We're all looking forward to the rich discourse that we will encounter in the weeks ahead.

I encourage you to check out the North Delta Secondary Student Focus Group Initiative that has been a source of both information and inspiration for our team at Delta Secondary School. In the past year, North Delta students have graciously lead training sessions for interested students at DSS. The response has been promising with student leadership evolving and student voice being sought out and accepted as important data. Again, the TTFM survey will create a significant point of dialogue for our school community.

It's encouraging to see more examples of students having an expanded role in determining the type of education they will receive experience in the future. Many believe that students will thrive when learning is relevant, purposeful and co-designed. The current call for a more personalized education requires us to meet students where they are. Gathering the data on student perspective and engaging students in dialogue about their learning will allow us to do just that.

See the video: Intro to DSS's TTFM Survey

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Pacers Got Talent!

Congratulations to all of the students, staff, and community involved in producing Delta Secondary's annual Festival of Lights Concert, the showcase event of Diwali week @ DSS. Special thanks to Mrs. Khara (and her family), the DSS Bhangra Team and the community of Ladner for their generous donations! Here's a few highlights ... more video to come.