SEL Trailblazers at Terry Fox Elementary
submitted by Douglas Stewart, Principal of Terry Fox
Like children throughout the LBPSB, Terry Fox Elementary kids are accustomed to walking and running every year in support of cancer research. But our kids are forging a new kind of path which we are calling Terry’s Trailblazers.
Every Thursday morning at the 9:10 am bell, our student happily scramble from their home room classes to reconvene with their Trailblazer family, taught by another home room teacher, subject specialist, resource teacher or special education technician for 1 hour of social-emotional learning (SEL) games, activities, and special group projects. Trailblazer families are comprised of 12 to 15 students from grades K5 to 6. All of the activities are prepared by cycle teams for monthly units addressing essential themes such as Gratitude, Healthy Relationships, Rejection and Feelings, Rumours & Cliques, and Differences. Each month, cycle teams gather to plan and prepare materials for the entire school, ensuring that all grade levels can participate and contribute to the activities. We are able to cover a lot of bases when it comes to building an interdependent school community; our staff work together to create and execute the program while our students of all ages work and play together, having so much fun that they forget that they are learning valuable prosocial skills throughout each Trailblazer period. Monthly end-of-unit assemblies celebrate the learning of our Terry’s Trailblazers with a variety of activities to get us all cheering for each through games, contests and recognising student accomplishments.
Thanks to a Learn Quebec John Killinbeck Grant, this transformational activity was inspired by a visit by a team of Terry Fox Elementary teachers to the Bellevue School District near Seattle, Washington in November 2023. The Bellevue District is a national leader in a district-wide implementation of SEL and trauma informed teaching practices. One particular school we visited practiced their own version of weekly Trailblazers SEL programming which they called Eagle Clubs. The Woodridge Elementary School team has been extremely forthcoming with support and encouragement well beyond our visit to their school on that day.
Additionally, our programming is supplemented by Quebec based Moozoom; high production value videos and materials available both in French and English. Moozoom provides a yearlong thematic framework of plug and play resources in support of our monthly units. We have received ongoing support and online training throughout the year. Even the principal (me) creates weekly Flipgrid videos giving shout-outs to special kids, celebrating birthdays, and reminding our students of the value of being kind to each other. A few jokes and a little bit of silliness always helps get the message across.
The goal of Terry’s Trailblazers is to forge a sense of community that celebrates diversity and transcends grade levels. Our team would love to extend our Trailblazer community to other LBPSB schools. If you would like to know more about what we are up to, please contact Doug Stewart, the school principal, he would love to share more about this initiative and provide you with some useful tips to get you started.
