Tag Archives: Learning

Victoria Elementary School Rankings

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After hearing it discussed on CBC Radio yesterday, I spent some time looking at the Fraser Institute’s controversial “Report Card on British Columbia’s Elementary Schools 2010” primarily based on BC’s Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) Testing.

As to be expected, it looked like the Victoria public schools that did the best in 2010, and consistently over the last 5 years are in the “best” neighborhoods.

I’m encouraged that it looked to be fairly equal English and French immersion schools, as we don’t intend to go French immersion. We have heard that if enrolling English consider a full English school.

It’s kind of sad, but expected that our severely underfunded education system would be most successful were supplemented by parents, and where parents put more value on school excellence, and have the energy to be more active in their children’s educations.

I was disappointed, but not surprised that the closest school to our house, Cloverdale Traditional School did not do well. Although, surrounded by some nice neighborhoods, there are also commercial areas close by and (relatively) less expensive homes. I was hopefully that the focus on tradition of the school would give it a significant boost. The reported 49.4% ESL surprised me.

I’m looking forward to reviewing the 2011 reports for elementary and secondary that will come out next month. Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) will be doing a report for the Western Provinces for the first time this year, but only for secondary schools.

Each Season

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I had an amazing time snowboarding yesterday up at Mt Washington with my father-in-law, B.

It was a last minute trip made possibly by our flexible schedules.

The conditions were incredible. A light layer of fresh snow on a solid base. Not windy. Sun poking through for much of the day. I’m told it was more winter skiing than spring.

There were no line ups. B made the point that people are already well into their spring thinking, and have left the mountains behind. The awesome sunny days we have had contributes too.

It was great to see so many elders skiing. You aren’t old, if you’re active.

It’s been many years since I last boarded, and I barely shook off the rust yesterday. Thankfully, my legs are not feeling too sore today.

It made me think of other favorite activities I’ve left behind, and how important for mind, body, and relationships, it is to do the activities each season. Of course, it also made me think of all the many new fantastic activities I now share with my family.

Learning by doing something else

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Dr. Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov

Dr. Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov Sculpture photo by Flickr user dbking. Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (May 21, 1921 – December 14, 1989) was an eminent Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and reforms in the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. (wikipedia)

There is a small project that I’m working on with a friend, and since for years I’ve wanted to try Python…

I find two of the greatest assistants in learning and developing expertise in something are:

  • Helping someone else (teaching).
  • Using something else (compare).

Experimenting with something else helps me take the emotions and religion out of what I’m developing expertise in. It lends to a pragmatic foundation and helps be able to speak to another audience.

So while I work on this Python project, I won’t feel like I’m cheating on PHP and WordPress. Instead I’m continuing my learning about both and will be a better representative of both.