5.01 -IF Cox - TNT

The I.F. Cox School in Redcliffe has implemented a program called TNT (Try New Things) for students in grades 1 to 3. The program offers various options for students to explore, such as sports, arts, and science experiments. The program has received positive feedback from parents and has helped students develop new skills and engage with the community. Challenges include limited space and the need for additional support. The school is working on making the program sustainable and continuously seeks input from students and staff. The upcoming session will include activities like baseball and yoga. This time we are with a school that is brand new to Prairie Rose Possibilities, and we are excited to welcome I.F. Cox, Isabel F. Cox School, which is a JK-3 school located in Redcliffe. They have 290 kids, and of those 290, about 200 of them are in grade 1 to 3, and those kids participate in their Prairie Rose Possibility called TNT, which stands for Try New Things. Today we have with us Tracey Frank, and she is the Vice Principal here at I.F. Cox, and she's also the organizer or head honcho of TNT, and so Tracey, why don't you start off by telling us what is TNT, how is it set up, what happens in TNT? Alright, in 2022 we started a multi-graded program, an options program for students that came to life after Prairie Rose did an assurance survey post-COVID, and we got a lot of feedback from parents saying that they would like to see a broader program offering at our school. We came together as students and staff, and we talked about having this options program led by our teachers in the school, so the grade 1 to 3 students on consecutive Fridays or Wednesdays will have an hour to participate in different options that are... That's okay. Why don't you tell us some of the types of new things that students try? Okay, so we have run three sessions of our TNT program so far, we're starting our next one in May, and we've had 35 different kinds of classes. We've played baseball, we've had pickleball, we've had pottery, cooking, baking, we've had coding for the computers, we've had students working on plays and programs for our Easter and Christmas programming, we've also had a science experiment class, those are just a few of the ones. Well, 35 is a lot, and so your students then are mixed in a single session, it goes for six weeks or eight weeks? It goes for six weeks. So in that six weeks, they meet once a week for an hour, and in each class there's a mix of grade 1, 2, and 3 together? Correct, it is a multi-graded experience, and there's approximately 12 to 15 students per class. All right, so what would you say has been one of the biggest highlights or biggest successes of your program in its short time so far? Well, we have done surveys after each session, and we have received, out of all the parents, we received 92% of our parents giving us feedback, which is really kind of unheard of. And they were all very positive responses. We have had a lot of parents say that their children are cooking different things at home, or they're taking the skills that they've learned playing the baseball or with their soccer or different options, and they're taking it to their home, they're talking to their parents about it. Maybe they're then getting their families involved in the different options. And there's a true excitement from the students, as well as we also, we've had opportunities then to bring different stakeholders into our school, as well, and build some relationships. We've had different, we've had people that play sports at Medicine Hat College, the Rattlers. We've also had education students from the college come in and help us. We've had the Pickleball Association in Medicine Hat come and do a session for the students. We've had retired teachers come and help with art, art programming. And so it's just allowed people back into the school, and again, to build those positive relationships between the community and stakeholders. So you've just told us tons of community connections, and that's awesome to see that sense of connection. Tracy, can you think of a way that you might describe some of those projects as actually then serving your community or making your community a better place because some of those projects exist? Certainly, a lot of the students are quite excited about the skills that they're learning during these options, and they have been more engaged in some of the programming through the town. They have joined different clubs, different sports, and we've also got them to be able to take field trips to different venues and just get engaged in some different things that maybe they didn't have the opportunity to or didn't know about previous to their option class. Excellent. So let's do one of the more challenging parts of keeping your project vibrant or functioning. You're going into round number four, and so you've probably learned some things along the way. What are some of the little bumps or hiccups that you've had to deal with? Well, with probably every school, we have sometimes a lack of space for all the different projects that we want going on, as well as when we're done our six-week sessions, we want to obviously store our materials for the next round if there's another class that is needing the materials. So storage is a big thing, space to work with. Sometimes some of the students are needing a little extra support during that non-structured classroom time, so extra hands would always be helpful as well. I suppose you've got, especially that mix of students, right, to find an activity that works for a grade one and isn't too challenging, but yet at the same time keeps the grade three student interesting, that takes a little extra. Yes, and one of the huge benefits actually of the program is that we also were very aware of the students having some anxiety, transferring, transitioning from one grade to the other. So it really gets them to know other staff in the school, it gets them to know the other students, and we're finding that there's a camaraderie between the different kids in the different groups, and it's nice to see them working together and feeling that more relaxed with, say, the grade ones working with the grade threes. And it's offered them an ability to kind of feel more comfortable in the school. What a great outcome. So as you're going into your fourth round, what are some systems or moves that you're putting in place to make this project sustainable into the future, year after year? Well, again, we've tried to involve different stakeholders and bring different people into the school. We are always at the forefront of our meetings, and we're always, you know, once we've done a session, we are always surveying, trying to pick, maybe, possibly different times, different arrangements that may work better for the staff and students. We've changed our format a couple of times now, and there's always, we're hearing a lot, oh, that would be a great T&T session, or I've got somebody that would be really good to come in and do this with the kids. So it's just, the staff has kept it in the forefront, and they're collaborating, and the students are always bringing us suggestions of what they would like to see, for sure. So I have two final questions. One, what's the kind of craziest student suggestion you've had? And then, as you're about to start your next session, which, what's one of the new sessions that you're really excited about? Oh, right. So, I mean, the kids, obviously, they think out of the box more than anybody else in the world. So some of the crazier things, obviously, you know, the kids would want to go on a European trip, or, you know, they would want to, in my science, I ran a science experiment on some of the science experiments that they wanted to do. Sounded very exciting, but I don't think liability would allow us to, you know, build the things that they wanted us to build and use the chemicals that they wanted to use. But, so the kids really come up with, the sky's the limit for them. So then we try to look at their suggestions and kind of bring them down into focus to maybe something that we could do on a smaller scale, on a safer scale at school. I'm sorry. So of the projects that are just about to start, is there a new one on tap that's maybe exciting? There is. I wish, actually, I could take part in this one. It sounds like a really good one. We're going to have a yoga instructor in to do some yoga sessions with the students. We will have, again, because it is our spring session, we have quite a few more activity-based ones. The students will be playing baseball. We're going to have a couple of sessions, and they get to go meet the Mavericks and things. But yoga is the newest one that we're kind of, a new option that's coming up this season, that should be really good. Excellent. Well, we're so excited to welcome your TNT at IFCOX into the Prairie Roads Possibility Fold. And we can't wait to chat with you next time to see what's new and exciting. Thank you very much.