A Fresh Grade expert training team was on campus last week to provide training to a few classes of students at Pope John Paul II school and École Ste-Marguerite Bourgeoys on how to use the Fresh Grade program. This group of experts was the grade 6 students from Mariette Martineau's class from St. Louis school who piloted the program last year along with the rest of their school. Now each newly trained class of students from Pope John Paul II school and École Ste-Marguerite Bourgeoys will go on and train the rest of their school on how to use Fresh Grade.
Two members of the St. Louis expert training team share their thoughts on how the training day went:
"It was really interesting to go into the other schools to do the training", says grade 6 student Ella. "I liked working with the other students and showing them how to use Fresh Grade and showing them the things I have in my portfolio."
"It was awkward at first being the teacher but as the day went on it became fun," says Maverick. "I really like Fresh Grade because you can use it from anywhere."
Teresa Stevenson, Digital Innovative Learning Lead explains more about the program. "Fresh Grade is a digital platform that allows students to create their own portfolios all about themselves that will follow them through their learning from Kindergarten to Grade 6 within the board. In their Fresh Grade portfolios students can post the things they like, the places they have been, their friends, the learning that makes them proud, sports events, holidays and so on. And it's not limited to the classroom either. Students can share information about things that are important to them at home or outside of school. I really love that it allows teachers to know their students on a different level as well. It also gives parents a lens into the classroom to know more about what their child is learning, and it's especially helpful for the parents whose child doesn't share very much about their day at school."
Jody Pochailo a parent shares her experience with Fresh Grade from her son Tyler's Kindergarten class with Mme. Sara Van Walleghem at École Ste-Marguerite Bourgeoys last year. "I love Fresh Grade because it gives me instant information about my son's learning and what is happening in his classroom. At the end of the day I could ask Tyler specific questions about the things he was learning and he was often surprised by how much I knew about his day. I think it's a great program and a really effective way to stay connected to your child's learning. It was like having a window into the classroom."
Fresh Grade is being implemented across the Kenora Catholic District School Board in all elementary schools from Kindergarten to Grade 6. Students will have a similar program from 7 - 12 at St. Thomas Aquinas High School.
Below are some pictures from the training session with our expert Fresh Grade trainers from St. Louis School