{"id":1314,"date":"2016-11-16T12:57:38","date_gmt":"2016-11-16T17:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newwestschools.ca\/archive_241212\/?p=1314"},"modified":"2018-03-13T23:31:21","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T03:31:21","slug":"a-rotary-gift-of-literacy-for-fraser-river-middle-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newwestschools.ca\/archive_241212\/a-rotary-gift-of-literacy-for-fraser-river-middle-school\/","title":{"rendered":"A Rotary Gift of Literacy for Fraser River Middle School"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"reading5\"November 16, 2016<\/em> – It is a big help if you are a brand new school starting up a brand new \u201cLearning Commons\u201d to receive a $5,000 gift in support of literacy.<\/p>\n

The donation from the Rotary Club of New Westminster to Fraser River Middle School <\/a>this month means teacher-librarian Kristie Oxley can buy 2 copies of Gord Downie\u2019s graphic novel, Secret Path<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That’s the story of the lonely journey of 12-year-old Chanie Wenjack, the\u00a0Ojibway boy who died from hunger and exposure on the railway tracks after trying to find his way home from a residential school near Kenora, Ontario. \u00a0His death 50 years ago \u00a0led to national attention in Canada about the treatment of Indigenous children in \u00a0government-run boarding schools.<\/p>\n

It means Oxley can also order I Am Not A Number<\/a> by Jenny Dupuis and Kathy Kacer, and Sugar Falls<\/a> by David Alexander Robertson. Both focus on stories about residential schools, an\u00a0 important part of the revised school curriculum in B.C.<\/p>\n

In addition, Oxley can bolster the school\u2019s non-fiction collection in poetry, fine arts, technology, history and general sciences \u2013 while adding \u201chigh interest, current fiction\u201d\u00a0 to help students develop a passion for reading.<\/p>\n

You can never have too many books!<\/h2>\n

For Fraser River Middle School Principal Debbie Jones, the offer from the local Rotary Club was \u201csuper exciting.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a boost to the school as it builds a new foundation of resources for what is now called a \u201cLearning Commons\u201d\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 a flexible, learner-centered space for collaboration, inquiry, imagination and play.<\/p>\n

The move towards the Learning Commons concept emphasizes space where students and staff can create projects and share new understandings – and where teacher-librarians help build resources by collaborating on the projects they create.<\/p>\n

For Rotary Club President Dave Vallee, the $5,000 gift is one way for one of the oldest Rotary Clubs in the province to contribute to the local community.<\/p>\n

\"img_2105\"
Fraser River Middle School Principal Debbie Jones and teacher-librarian Kristie Oxley receive a gift in support of literacy from the Rotary Club of New Westminster.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although\u00a0 the nearly 90-year-old club\u00a0 has just 32 members, it contributes some $17,000 for scholarships and bursaries to New Westminster Secondary School, while also supporting other local educational institutions. \u00a0In addition, the local club is actively involved in international projects, focusing on\u00a0 Uganda. \u201cWe also support a free dental clinic in the community through Douglas College and the University of British Columbia\u2019s School of Dentistry,” said Vallee, who noted the club welcomes new members (contact Vallee at 604-788-5453).<\/p>\n

As for the emphasis on books, Vallee notes that while kids do spend a lot of \u2018iPad time,\u2019 books are still important.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am super happy about this,\u201d said Jones. \u00a0“You can never have too many books!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 16, 2016 – It is a big help if you are a brand new school starting up a brand new \u201cLearning Commons\u201d to receive a $5,000 gift in support […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-school-news","category-featured-news","category-page-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newwestschools.ca\/archive_241212\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newwestschools.ca\/archive_241212\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newwestschools.ca\/archive_241212\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newwestschools.ca\/archive_241212\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newwestschools.ca\/archive_241212\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/newwestschools.ca\/archive_241212\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1554,"href":"https:\/\/newwestschools.ca\/archive_241212\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions\/1554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newwestschools.ca\/archive_241212\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newwestschools.ca\/archive_241212\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newwestschools.ca\/archive_241212\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newwestschools.ca\/archive_241212\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}