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.

Having Fun

As I sit here on Halloween Eve, I can't help but reflect on the fun we had at school on Friday.  Our students were fantastic, lots of kids dressed in costumes and many brought in carved pumpkins for display. Having a day where kids (and staff) can have a little fun together is a great way to ensure positive connections.

Our day started with a parade of fabulous costumes as students and staff arrived at school.  We had ghosts and ghouls;  Michael Jackson, fairies and princesses (plus lots of others).  As well as the costumes, we had students arrive with their pre-carved pumpkins for display in our main entrance.  Just before lunch time our primary students came to the gym for a little dancing fun.  The students enjoyed dancing to the Monster Mash, the Chicken Dance, and many other favourites.  At lunch time it was the intermediate students' turn to dance.  There music was slightly more current with pop hits blasting in the gym.  After lunch all of our students participated in a Halloween Safety assembly to help ensure their safety while trick or treating.

All of these things show that we can have fun together at school and still meet expectations for how we behave.  I am reminded of something I read years ago that said, "student's won't always remember what they learned in school, but they will remember the fun they had with their teachers."  I hope we can be the kind of school where we can all have fun together to help make the learning easier.

 Happy Halloween everyone.

Creating the Conditions for Students to Fix Problems

On Thursday and Friday last week, seven of our staff were able to participate in a session on "Control Theory" led by Diane Gossen.  Control Theory comes from the work of William Glasser, a noted psychiatrist who has been working on the concepts of behaviour for more than 40 years.  Control Theory forms the basis for Restitution, a way of working with students to help them fix behavioural mistakes.

At the center of Control Theory is the notion that humans have different realities and experiences (pictures in our minds).  It is through these realities that we understand the world.  If we have different pictures then we experience events differently.  Students that have limited pictures or options see only a few behaviours as choices for themselves and when their choice doesn't match the situation, we have a behaviour problem. Control Theory also focuses on the notion that all behaviour serves a purpose - we behave in certain ways for a reason.  We cannot control others, we can only control ourselves.  As a result, the way in which we work with students is to create an abundance of new options so that they can choose alternative pathways to get their needs met.

When individuals perceive a mismatch between what they hoped to get and the end result, they behave in certain ways to close the gap between their need and the reality.  For example if someone orders a cup of coffee with a particular picture of what that coffee will look and taste like, and the actual coffee does not match our expectation, we have a mismatch.  This is where behaviour comes in, we can make a variety of choices to adjust our expectations down ("it's okay I can manage with this cup") or we can adjust to get what we want (send it back to be re-done).  In short, we have a variety of socially acceptable ways to get our need for a good cup of coffee met.  Students who struggle with behaviour issues have these same mismatches with everything from school work to relationships.  The difference is that they don't have enough strategies to adjust so that they can get their needs met, the only options they have are to show alternate behaviours.

The day and a half session with Diane has opened our eyes to working with students to figure out what needs they are trying to meet through their behaviours and to provide them with alternate pathways to get those needs met.  Control Theory is more supportive and learning is enhanced through this view of behaviour.

Giving Thanks

What a fabulous weekend this has been.  The weather was great, the food was great, and connections with family were great as well.  I began thinking about what to write in this week's blog on Friday, after another very busy week at school and how much I was looking forward to the Thanksgiving weekend.  Normally, I'm not one to get too hung up on the whole "what am I thankful for" thing, but this weekend I started thinking about how thankful I am for the tremendous staff I have at David Cameron School.

This really became clear to me as I read an interview with Bill Gates in the latest Maclean's magazine.  He was lamenting the failure of the American education system and the tolerance for mediocrity in its teaching ranks.  As I read, I kept thinking how opposite his perspective is to my reality.  At David Cameron we have teachers that are not only dedicated, but have the learning needs of all of our children as their central focus.  Our teachers are not complacent and happy with the status quo, they are constantly looking for new insights and strategies for their teaching that will help students achieve greater learning.

Last week, I wrote about our Literature Study Circles as an innovative, cross-grade method of increasing the sophistication with which students comprehend text.  This is a single example of the kinds of things that  our teachers do on a daily basis, while at the same time supporting the variety of needs that students in their classes have.

David Cameron school has become a complex, fast-paced, large elementary school, but despite these challenges our teachers remain committed to the learning of each child.  So, Thanksgiving has made me think about how truly thankful I am that I get to go to a place every week that has such a caring and forward thinking group of teachers.  Thanks to each of you.

Literature Study Circles

Last year at David Cameron School we began to use an instructional process called "Literature Study Circles".  This is a way of engaging students in reading a wide variety of books in order to respond and comprehend what they have read.  The key to engagement is that students can choose books that they are interested in and then read at their own pace.  Students then meet up with others reading the same book to discuss their thoughts.

Last year we had a number of classes involved in this cross-grade process that has students from different classes joining together in conversation about the books that they have read.  While most of the work was done at the grade five and six level, we had staff try it out in other grades as well, including grade one and two.  The strategy teaches students to "say something" about what they have read or about connections, questions, or comments other members of their group have made.

Our experience last year was incredible as we sought to help students develop into more sophisticated readers.  The depth of understanding and comprehension that students were able to demonstrate was impressive.  As a result of these positive outcomes, our school is continuing to work on this as a means for student learning and staff collaboration.  Our vice-principal, Ms. Jarvis, has done an incredible job taking on the leadership of this with staff and in gaining outside funding support through the Raise-a-Reader fund.

Our students are fortunate to have such a forward thinking and engaging process to be a part of.  We are excited about extending this program into more classes this year and having more students and staff involved.

Knowing Students By Name

I have been asked several times by parents over the years, how I know all of the kids names.  I have a confession to make, I don't know them all - yet.  This year I probably know 85 to 90% of our students by name and I am working on the rest.

Knowing students by name is an important part of my work in the school - maybe the most important.  When I'm able to say "hi" or call a student by their name it helps to create a connection between me and them.  This connection helps me to check in on what's going on or help to resolve problems that might be occurring.  I really believe that it helps in creating a positive learning community as well.  Students feel welcomed and included at our school and knowing their name contributes to this.  Besides, calling to a student in the hall and saying "hey you" doesn't quite have the same affect.

There are some pieces of educational research that suggest a positive relationship with a caring adult at school helps students to feel accepted and competent in their academic work. In our school plan we refer to this as "belonging" and it is essential to a person's learning success.  "Belonging encompasses a person's own sense that they are genuinely and caringly included among all others in their place of learning, and that they can feel personally secure in this" (Chris Kelly, 2010).   Calling a student by name is one way that I can show I care.  This is a small contribution to the much larger connection that our classroom teachers and support staff make in getting to know our students on a much deeper level.  No where is this more evident than in our class placement process at the end and beginning of each school year.  When we discuss possible class lists our staff know, in detail, what works for kids, who they connect with, and what supports they need in order to be successful.  The depth with which our staff know your children never ceases to amaze me.

How fortunate we all are to have a place where our students are connected in such a meaningful way to adults that care and in turn, this breeds confidence in learning.