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 St. Joe's students spent Tuesday learning the value of co-operation at the school's second annual Respect Conference. These young ladies show off the houses they built. From left to right are Julianna Newdorf, Chantelle Duval, Stephanie Canning, Chelsea Larkin, Danielle Wendehorst, Hope Laverdiere, Emily Hamm and Kiah Debogorski. - Alex Glancy/NNSL photo |
The occasion was St. Joe's second annual Respect conference and this year's theme was "Respecting others through co-operation."
Students from Grades 1-8 spent the day doing a variety of co-operation-building activities. Some put together houses, where every student contributed a wall, and others built an island or played co-operative games. There were 20 different activities in all.
Hope Laverdiere, Grade 2, helped build a house and learned more about "helping and sharing," she said.
Grade 1 student Emily Hamm learned "how to make houses and trees. It's a lot of hard work." Others didn't have much to say about what they learned.
"Probably nothing," said Grade 4 student Bryne Lowen. "Because I was always good at working together."
Teacher Laurette Debogorski agreed: "He was the first one done with everything," she said.
The conference ended in the gym with a performance from Yellowknife hip-hop artist Godson -- who spoke to the kids about the importance of respect in his own life -- and a slideshow on the day's events.
Set to the tune of... what else? Aretha Franklin's R-E-S-P-E-C-T -- which was played not once, but three times -- the photos brought shrieks of laughter from the students. Well, technically it was the older kids in the back laughing every time they saw someone they knew, but the younger students took their cue and joined in.
The conference found its basis in the school's Effective Behavioral Support program (EBS), which "emphasizes positive over negative (behaviour)," explained assistant principal Gillian Dawe-Taylor. "When you follow an EBS perspective, you reinforce the positive," she said.
"I was absolutely overwhelmed by your positive behaviour," principal Flo Campbell told the students.
Joseph Ouellette got the point of the Respect Conference.
"It's better to co-operate because if you didn't, you wouldn't really get anything done," he said.
