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Bulletin Editor
Ursula Henderson
Speakers
Aug 26, 2016
 
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Russell Hampton
National Awards Services Inc.
Sage
Stories
 Speaker for August 26
BRAJINDER DHILLON speaking on Independence of India
Thrive Programme by Tyson Schoeber
Tyson Shoeber of Nootka School started and ended his talk by thanking us wholeheartedly for our help noting that money is hard to come by.
He proceeded by giving a highly informative and detailed account of how successfully our donation of $5000 has helped the Thrive programme for children with learning difficulties in both reading and maths, noting that these children are often very intelligent but fail to read or learn maths, frequently causing them to be disruptive. Without special help they will not succeed. He also mentioned that roughly 70% of prisoners are illiterate.
 
It has been shown that reading problems can be identified at the early age of 4. It has also been demonstrated that affected children are unable to struggle on their own.
Our donation has funded:
1.A Predictive Assessment of Reading Test, originally set up by Dr Frank Wood, which is an amazingly good predictor of a child’s abilities. The teacher, following administration of the test, enters the scores into the system's online database where the child's results are instantly compared to several decades worth of National Institute of Health literacy data. That comparison results in an accurate prediction of the child's end-of-3rd-Grade and end-of-8th-Grade reading abilities.
This test would have been too costly for Nootka School but Tyson has been able to negotiate for his school and all other BC schools to be charged just $4 US per student in batches of 25 (i.e. roughly $100/year). His school has purchased a three-year license for about $300 and hopes other BC schools will take advantage of this offer.
2. Purchase of an exercise bike for $1000 which is installed in a quiet setting available to all with reference especially to children with ADHD.
3.Thrive has also selected a new font for its handwriting programme which is costly as each page can only be used once. Handwriting is still considered an important tool in life.
4.A personalised dictionary, very popular, which can be downloaded and the pages printed and collated to form a book.
5. Printing costs for a student created Memory Game
 6.Renewing the Support contract for the Academy Software.
7.$2300 was spent on reading books, each costing between $25 to $30. The students write in these books so they can only be used once. Tyson is now beginning to run his own books which should lessen the cost.
 
Tyson is dedicated to the Thrive programme, often sharing his new methods and tools freely on the internet.  He teaches a group of 15 students throughout grades 4 to 7.  He told the story of a student who was not reading at the end of grade 5 but with hard work has reached the level of Grade 4, a great achievement for both student and teacher.
Tyson truly demonstrated his love for his work as well as his judicious use of our Rotary Fund.

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Visitor
Derek Moore Rotary Club of Rancho Mirage California and ex president of our club

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Wine draw winner
Tyson Schoeber our speaker

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Insight of the week

One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.

Archibald Rutledge – 1883-1973, Poet