Professional Development

On Friday, November 26, the David Cameron Staff got together to explore our personal and professional pre-dispositions towards learning and the learner.  Our session was facilitated by retired Vancouver School District Superintendent, Chris Kelly.  The idea for the day was to discuss and share our personal views of our learners and how those views impact upon the students' ability to learn.  This was a great opportunity for our staff to work together and gain a stronger understanding of individual beliefs  and how they support our greater collective beliefs.

During the day we explored three key questions posed to us by Chris, these were:
1.  How do we actually view children and young people as learners?
2.  How do we define the core purpose that focuses, guides and characterizes our efforts as educators?
3.  How should we continue to engage in, and support our own learning and development as a professional learning community?

These are three very big questions to tackle in a single day.  As we began our work together it quickly became evident that as a collective group we hold the learner in high esteem and believe that we do have a positive impact on them as developing human beings.  Much of what we have done and continue to do in our school around beliefs and values surfaced and were reinforced through our conversations.

A key notion that emerged was the importance of belonging, competence, and self-determination as essential aspects for learning.  Much of our conversation centered on the importance of belonging and ensuring an environment where students, staff, and families feel part of a strong community.  It became abundantly clear that in order for students to be successful as learners they need to be in an environment where they feel a strong sense of belonging and that we as a school community must continue to reinforce and explore new practices that support this concept.

This day was a great starting point for us as a staff.  Our next steps are to explore continued ways to engage in professional inquiry that will support our learners in reaching their potential.  In the end, Chris left us with the notion that it is our job to "enable rather than determine a person's capacity for learning".

Student Conferences

Each year at this time parents, teachers, and students get ready for our first round of student conferences.  These conferences create the opportunity to meet and discuss student progress to this point in the year.  Student conferences are considered one of two informal reports (along with three formal reports) mandated by the Ministry of Education.  Informal reporting can be accomplished in many different ways, including such methods as, email, phone conversations, interim reports, and just recently completed by one of our staff, Skype.

While conferences are considered informal, they are an important contact with families to see their child's classroom and meet face-to-face with the teacher.  Many families have already had conversations with their teachers and have a good sense of what is happening, so this simply presents another opportunity to reinforce student successes.  During student conferences, most teachers share samples of student work, discuss areas that they are doing well in, as well as areas for improvement.  This is also a great time to discuss goals for the next term in order to help students focus their energies in areas of needed improvement.

The value in having these conferences is in the strengthening of the home-school relationship.  The greater insight that families have into their child's learning, the better able they are to support the learning.  When we partner in this way, we are able to make much more progress than working separately.  So, thanks to all of you for your efforts on behalf of the students at David Cameron and your willingness to take the time to have these important conversations.