Rachel Roper

I have the best job in the world, with the best colleagues and the absolute best little rascals. Found this graffiti when taking apart a bulletin board. I love you too kiddo, whoever you are.

The Royal BC Museum and the Terry Fox Centre have proudly entered into a 20-year long-term partnership to protect and preserve the iconic Terry Fox collection. The Marathon of Hope van is on display in the museum lobby, now through early May. bit.ly/3w7cHSF #bc #Canada

Thanks to ⁦@Chedoke_HWDSB⁩, ⁦@WHBallard_HWDSB⁩, Shannen Koostachin ⁦@shannen_hwdsb⁩, ⁦Ridgemount @RHwdsb⁩, & Westview for brightening this rainy day with their fabulous music at Elementary Bandfest!

It was an honour to have been invited to watch our @WHBallard_HWDSB bobcat Tenley receive her jr Black Belt. Sharing the stage with her mama Miss. Sarah, our most amazing volunteer in the Bobcat Den who received her 2nd degree black belt today as well.

Another championship weekend for a @WHBallard_HWDSB bobcat!!! Way to go Makayla and the #Rosedale jets! Alliance houseleague champs! This team won city playdowns to represent Hamilton at the alliance finals!

@WHBallard_HWDSB @PromProjectHam #HWDSB so grateful for the amazing team behind prom project. We were honoured to lend a hand prior to the big day today. Thank you for having us!

Big day for some #BallardBobcats on the ice! Congrats to #HMHC #citychamps in u9 + u11 from Rosedale. Our very own Nolan  & Makayla sporting new gold medals! 2 former bobcats, u15 William & u18 Jamieson #newhardware Your educators are #ProudOfOurDen Share your extracurriculars!

One of those times you will always remember where you were when it happened. I was at @WHBallard_HWDSB

Champs! #hwdsb

Champs! Thank you to Viola Desmond for the invitation :) #HWDSB

Ms Campbell & Ms Roper had so much fun with some of our grd8 students today helping set up Prom Project at Sir Winston Churchill @PromProjectHam

I love this place. Missed the kiddos today @WHBallard_HWDSB but have the best collegues to have this memory with forever @skilltyssHPE @WHBSheahan

Pale Blue Dot is a photo of Earth that was taken by the Voyager 1 space probe in 1990 from a distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) as it was leaving our solar system. This is what Carl Sagan said about the photo: "Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor, and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

@WHBallardnews track and field for juniors is not happening today! Rain delay!

Here to condemn the hateful attacks against the LGBTQ2S+ community. Seeing children destroy pride flags and members of the LGBTQ2S+ community being attacked is heartbreaking. How can we say we love others when we can't love people for who they are? Stop the hate!

If you’ve never spent an hour watching an ECE help a child grow, do yourself a favour. You’ll be a better human for it. Working alongside and learning for ECEs has been one of the biggest gifts I’ve had as an educator. They teach me everyday.

This gov't is failing kids with disabilities by critically underfunding special education programs across the province. It is appalling that Min @sflecce can claim that the special education allotment is enough while kids with disabilities are being left behind. #ONPoli #onted

Environment Canada has issued a Special Air Quality Statement that covers the Hamilton area. As a precaution, we will be keeping students indoors on Wednesday, June 7, 2023, and will continue to monitor air quality over the course of the week. Read more: hwdsb.on.ca/blog/environme…

“Maslow Before Bloom” An educator at one of my recent trainings on challenging behaviors, trauma and mental health stated that he consistently takes away recess as a consequence, punishment and as a deterrent. Remember that even prisoners get daily time on the yard for movement and physical activity. I personally struggle with the logic in taking away movement/recess. We punish a student for being overly active, lacking focus, not completing work, and as a result disrupting the learning of others by taking away that which would most likely benefit them the most. Wouldn’t a better strategy for reducing these behaviors be to pro-actively “prescribe” more movement and physical activity during the school day (i.e. running, circuit training, yoga, martial arts, etc.)? Health experts recommend a minimum of 60 minutes of exercise per day for a "typical" child age 6 and above. The same experts say that long term sitting is considered as bad for the body as smoking. They also recommend movement breaks every 30 minutes. How many of your students are getting enough exercise and movement at school or at home? How many of them sit too much at school and are in front of a screen the rest of the day at home? I truly believe that we have to focus on interventions and strategies that are logical, effective and most likely to produce positive outcomes for our students. Basic human needs first! Maslow before bloom! Join a community of people who are committed to helping all children to achieve in school and life at the “Maslow Before Bloom”Facebook group: Facebook.com/groups/maslowb…