Home and School

At the PEI Home and School Federation’s 60th Anniversary Concert this Saturday night, March 2, 2013, there will a silent auction of artworks from invited guests. These original works have all been created from a single sheet of bristol board and crayons, and are on the general topic of “memories of public school.” Here’s the contribution from Catherine:

If you’re a longtime reader you may recall part of this image from a photo I took on Oliver’s first day of school:

Catherine took Oliver, and added me. My own galpumphy presence notwithstanding, it’s a beautiful piece, crafted from Japanese paper ripped and glued to the bristol board (Catherine’s never been one for following the rules).

Limited tickets are still available for the event; call the Confederation Centre Box Office to reserve yours soon!

The PEI Home and School Federation is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2013, and a big part of this celebrating involves a fantastic concert coming up on March 2, 2013 at the Confederation Centre of the Arts. Featuring current students in the Prince Edward Island public school system as well as a collection of talented alumni, it promises to be a great night; see the full line-up here.

You can get tickets for $14 ($10 plus their fees) online or over the phone from Confederation Centre of the Arts box office, or if you’d like to get them “wholesale” without those fees you can order them from me (or any local home and school) for only $11.

Every year the Prince Street Home and School holds a Christmas raffle to raise money. And every year for the past 5 years I’ve volunteered to produce the tickets; for the last three years it’s been a good opportunity to take the letterpress out for a ride. This year, partly because I was running out of time, and partly because of design inclination, I decided to go very simple:

If I had to do it all over again, I would have realized that when I flipped the “Phone:” and “Name:” around to face the other way (to let me slip a piece of steel under the perforation) their order was reversed. The perforation really is a perforation, and this was the first time I’d set up a job to print and perforate at the same time.

The type is the 24 point Bodini Bold I purchased from Atelier Domino in the spring. My favourite part of the job was the opportunity to use the ffl ligature — a ligature is a special piece of type that combines several letters that would otherwise run together unpleasantly, and most often involves the letter f — in the word Raffle (apologies for the obviously-not-cleaned-enough type!):

The tickets didn’t technically require numbers, but, well, I like using my numbering machine, if only because it’s just a lovely piece of technology: on every impression the number automatically increments, and the “No” is the trigger for this:

When you put it all together it looked like this:

It took me about an hour to run 300 tickets; it would have gone faster but I stopped the press every 30 tickets to carry a bunch of tickets across the room to set out to dry. I’m rather pleased with the result.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow, December 8, 2012 at the Charlottetown Farmer’s Market (next to Lori and John’s perogi stand); you can also buy them at the Prince Street School Christmas concerts on December 10 and 12, and then again at the Market on December 15; the draw is at 2:00 p.m. on December 15 at the Market. Tickets are $2 each or three for $5.

You may recall a post here back in January about a project to bring the home and schools of the five downtown Charlottetown elementary schools together to organize a joint activity together. I’m happy to report that we’ve been meeting over the winter and spring (at each other’s schools, which has been a great learning experience in and of itself) and our activity is happening this Saturday, June 2, 2012 at the University of PEI campus.

We sent out registration sheets to all of the families in the five schools (West Kent, St. Jean, Spring Park, Prince Street and Parkdale) last week, but just in case your family’s sheet didn’t make it home, here are the details.

The “Downtown Schools Family Fun” event runs from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on June 2 at UPEI. Everything is free, and the event is limited to parents, students and other family members of those from one of the five participating schools (families of children entering kindergarten in the fall are welcome). Registration starts at 11:00 a.m. in the foyer of the CARI complex. The following activities are scheduled:

• Atlantic Veterinary College “Teddy Bear Clinic” — bring your teddy bear or other stuffed animal to the vet college where vet students will give it a check-up and treat for any illnesses or injuries. In the AVC foyer.
• Mini-university Activities — a selection of activities from UPEI’s summertime “Mini-University Camps,” all with an emphasis on participation and involvement of everyone in the family. In the AVC gymnasium.
• Mult-Sport Activities — a selection of sports and recreation activities, also geared for everyone in the family. In the AVC gym and, if the weather is good, on the turf field to the north of the CARI complex.
• Open Swim — starting at 2:00 p.m. and runing until 4:00 p.m., in the CARI pool, a free open swim for all attendees in the CARI pool.
• The Provincial School Track and Field Meet is being held on the track next to the CARI complex, and everyone attending our event is welcome to take in some of the action there (admission is free there too).

You can pick and choose which events you want to attend, or do everything. You don’t have to show up right at 11:00 a.m. — the registration desk will be staffed until 1:00 p.m.

We asked families to register in advance on the forms that were sent home last week, but if for some reason yours didn’t, don’t let that stop you from attending: just show up at the registration desk any time after 11:00 a.m. You don’t need “proof of studentship” — it’s on the honour system.

Parking is free (park in the CARI lot behind the pool/rink complex) but we’re encouraging families to take public transit: just tell the driver you’re going to the Family Fun event at UPEI and fare is only $1 per person each way.

The event is happening with the generous support of the UPEI Athletics Department, the CARI complex, principals and parents at the five schools, and with funding from a Parent Leadership Grant from the PEI Home and School Federation.

Every year at our Annual General Meeting, the PEI Home and School Federation considers resolutions presented by our local associations and by the provincial board. This year many of the resolutions concern information technology: how it’s funded, how it’s managed, where the emphasis lies.

My favourite resolution, and one I forwarded and wrote, is the one titled “Simplification of the Acceptable Use Policy” and its “resolved” section reads:

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the PEIHSF requests the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development replace the current “Minister’s Directive for the Acceptable Use Communication and Information Technology,” with a simple statement, to be signed by students and affirmed by parents: “I agree to use computers, the Internet and related resources in a manner that respects myself and others.”

Go and take a look at MINISTERS DIRECTIVE NO. MD 2005-04 Acceptable Use of Computer and Information Technology, the policy we’re seeking to simplify: it’s a confusing rabbit warren of language for which the maintenance and evolution of inside the education system has consumed hundreds of hours of time. 

I like our simplification resolution because it’s clear, simple, and addresses a needlessly bureaucratic overhead the system bears each year: a policy that few if any parents or students ever read (and yet are required to sign) that fruitlessly attempts to cover all possible calamities and misdeeds and offers penalties — “cancellation of access” — that are, in this day and age, effectively impossible.

The suggested replacement of:

I agree to use computers, the Internet and related resources in a manner that respects myself and others.

is simple, comprehensive, respects rather than assumes the worst, and recognizes that there are shades of grey in everything. We’ll be considering it at our Prince Street Home and School meeting tonight, and then at the PEI Home and School Federations Annual Meeting on April 14th.