With the Toronto Raptors being the latest NBA Champions, the popularity of basketball has greatly increased in Canada. For students at Glenbrook School, the sport of basketball has significantly increased grades in Physical Education on student report cards, and this would not have been possible without the support of EducationMatters, who granted the school funds to install permanent basketball hoops in their gymnasium.

Through the grant the school was able to facilitate a robust physical education program for their students and provide additional opportunities for physical activity, teamwork and fair play. They were also able to implement extracurricular activities for their students, such as their lunchtime Gym Club and morning Spark Club.

“Our initiative was, and continues to be, a success! This is indicated by the increased number of students participating in basketball games during unstructured times, as well as during structured extracurricular activities,” says Brett Kowalchuk, a teacher at Glenbrook School.

The Spark Club in particular provides 20 minutes of vigorous basketball exercise to vulnerable students before the start of their school day, and their teachers have noticed significant changes in the focus and behaviour of many students that had previously struggled in class.

Through an increase of basic basketball skills and health benefits from physical activity, the students are more eager to participate in their physical education class, intramurals, and after-school clubs.

“I feel like an NBA player,” says a grade 6 student.

While Canada is worried whether or not NBA's Most Valuable Player (MVP) champ Kawhi Leonard will re-sign with the Raptors, EducationMatters is confident that, with your continuous support to provide grants for basketball hoops, a future MVP champ can be an alumni of a Calgary public school!

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“When I did not feel like coming to school, I would remember my project and come anyway. It was literally the only reason I got out of bed,” says a woodworking student in the Calgary Board of Education’s Discovering Choices program.

A project with enough power to pull an already hesitant learner from the comfort of their own sheets - that’s not something you hear about everyday. But that’s exactly the impact EducationMatters donors made with their support of a new woodworking shop for Discovering Choices students.

Discovering Choices is an outreach program for students facing challenging personal or family situations who find that regular high school programming and resources do not meet their needs. To encourage students to complete their high school diploma, Discovering Choices is offered at 4 outreach centres across Calgary. Students attend the outreach centres to complete high school credits and to make use of other services such as career counselling, conflict resolution training, time management resources, and study skills assistance.

The new woodworking shop offers students an alternative way to earn high school credit, which can be a welcome break for many students. It’s also an opportunity to encourage hands-on learning and for students to build positive relationships with staff and other students.

“The woodshop has had a tremendous impact on student confidence, engagement, and self esteem,” says one teacher.

“It engages students on a different academic level and provides a break from written work. Students who take on woodworking projects learn to plan, engage in problem solving, and are involved in social interactions.”

Participants create connections to their community by building projects to display in the school, which helps to beautify the space and connect students to their classrooms. They also build instruments for the school which are used in music therapy programming and in drumming classes.

And just because the woodshop may be a welcome break from the traditional classroom for many students, it doesn’t mean there aren’t crossovers. The woodshop offers students a chance to experience their more traditional coursework in new ways.

As another teacher puts it, “Students who are hesitant to engage in a math course embrace the opportunity to work with our teacher in the woodshop. The coordinated effort of the math and woodshop teachers has provided students who would otherwise shy away from tasks involving math calculations to challenge themselves and improve math skill while completing their woodworking projects.”

As the program moves into its second year, the success is clear. Not only is there a growing list of students waiting to participate in the wood shop, but the students who are already working in the shop are attending school more often and completing high school credits more quickly than in the past.

As more students are given the opportunity to learn in the woodshop, the connections students build to their school, their teachers, and their learning continue to grow.

We think that’s worth getting out of bed for.

The post New Woodshop Encouraging Students to Attend Class appeared first on EducationMatters.