News from the Nest - Oct. 25-29
Spotlight on Learning: WJM Careers using ChatterHigh for Post-Secondary and Career Exploration
The Career classes (CLE 10 and CLC 12) at WJ Mouat Secondary have been using the ChatterHigh platform for our students to explore career and post-secondary opportunities in a fun way. Through ChatterHigh, students do a daily 10 question quiz that takes them to various post-secondary and career exploration websites where students will research options to find the answers to questions.
Students have contributed to helping WJM win the National competition for the AAAA Let’s Talk Careers: Canada’s Most Informed School. As a result of the competition our school has benefited by winning the grand prize as well as some students winning cash bursaries. (Over 50 students winning last year.)
Here is a quote from a grade 9 student last year:
“One thing I love about ChatterHigh/competition is how it taught me so much about different universities and colleges. I learned all the different majors and what each is about since we had to research and read the paragraphs to answer the questions. Another thing I like about ChatterHigh is it showed me the different careers or studies I may be intrigued in. Some of the questions we had to watch videos for which I liked, and it was like a change and not always having to read to find the answer. ChatterHigh also was really helpful in teaching me the skill of skimming/reading through and researching the answers, which I think is a really important skill for the future too, so it helped me improve on that!” WJM Grade 9 student
This Fall’s competition begins October 25th, and we hope to repeat as champions again.
Here is a short clip on how to use ChatterHigh: https://youtu.be/vvGNcSD-ERI
Grand Prizes won by WJM the past 3 years:
2021 - $1200 cash prize
2020 Lincoln Electric MIG Welder and cart $2300 value plus $2500 cash prize.
2019 “Compugen secured a Cisco and ViewSonic classroom video conferencing kit valued at $27,000. This includes 4K screen, video camera package and curriculum.” Plus $2000 cash prize.
With the cash prize money, our department has purchased 20 Chromebooks to be used by our students.
Transportation Woes
We have a couple of transportation hiccups happening. First, we have Bus 31 arriving late daily. It arrives daily between the first and second bell (sometimes after the second bell) and is causing anxiety for our students who don’t want to miss class or be late. Transportation is aware of the late arrival and is working on timing however the issue seems to be late pick ups. Second, like many industries we are short bus drivers and hence when a driver is ill the district as limited ability to replace them. As a result, Bus 80 has been cancelled multiple times in the last two weeks. Bus 80 has 28 Mouat students mostly in French Immersion classes. Again, students are impacted with added stress of missing classes or finding an alternate ride. Please show grace and kindness as neither example is the responsibility of students.
Bathroom Vandalism
We are in the depths of ongoing substantial washroom vandalism in both the boys and girls. The 200-level girl’s washroom was vandalized last week, and the boy’s 100 washroom was targeted this week. Custodians are tasked with first ensuring that our school is cleaned and disinfected nightly. If they have any remaining time, they are then tackling the graffiti and attempting to remove. In most cases, the graffiti requires maintenance removal due to the chemicals used to remove sharpies etc. Beyond graffiti, we must also call-in plumbing to remove debris in toilets and sinks and ventilation to remove items put in air ducts etc. The result is that the washroom is closed while the repairs take place. Because “a picture is worth a thousand words” here a look (see above) ….
