2017-2018: Nara Riplinger is supporting the Columneetza campus inquiries this year. Caitlin Sabatino is providing this service for the WL campus. Inquiries being supported this year include:
In personal interviews, most students accessing the support programs revealed that they felt challenged in their support classes and felt that they were receiving the help they needed. They also felt fairly connected with their support teacher and they believed that their support teacher thought they would be a success in life. However, it is interesting to note that most students still wait for feedback from the teacher to tell them how they have done instead of self-reflecting (refer to interview summaries). It would be interesting to compare the students receiving support with the rest of the student population.
The classroom teachers also felt that the programs were successful as the students who needed more individual support were receiving it. One teacher also commented that she was now able to focus on the rest of the class (refer to interview summaries). Teachers would like more valuable communication from the support teachers to allow them to communicate with parents.
The support teachers found that they needed to support their students in multiple ways. Curriculum, reading, math were taught but soft skills were also emphasized. Students were continuously reminded to bring their supplies, to stay focused, to ask for help when needed, and to take risks. While most Grade 7 teachers also emphasize these skills, the smaller groups that support blocks offer allow the teacher to really focus on each individual student. Students in smaller groups are not able to ‘hide’ as they would in a larger classroom.
One concern was the possible lack of connection between the student and their regular classroom. As the support program did not begin until February, students had ample time to connect with their main teacher and their peers. Furthermore, most students were only out of class for a 41 minute support class. Other students who needed more intensive intervention were in a support class for 82 minutes (1/4 of the day).
It would be beneficial to gather baseline information through some standardized test early in the year (September). The STAR program is excellent as the test is administered online, multiple students can be tested at once, there is no extra marking for teachers, and most importantly, data can be summarized quickly and efficiently. We are currently looking for a similar math program to facilitate data collection.
It would also be beneficial to have a rough estimate of the number of students who may need support in September so the support classes can be built into the school master timetable in June. We have added English 8 Essentials, Math 8 Essentials, English 9 Essentials and Math 9 Essentials to the current schedule. We are currently investigating ways to add structured support classes to the Grade 7 schedule.
The driving philosophy behind the addition of intensive support programs was inclusive education. Middle school students who are many grades below grade level seem to be disengaged. If they are not able to participate in a specific lesson or activity as it is too difficult, we need to meet that student where they are at. This may mean an intensive pull-out program. Many of these students do not ask for help in a regular classroom and would not feel comfortable reading a Grade 2 book in front of their peers. One teacher also noted that her math group was very reluctant to use manipulatives even though it is what they needed to learn the concept. If the school as a whole is inclusive, every learner should be able to be successful. This may mean developing structures that support students both within and outside of the classroom.
2016-2017: The Vice-Principals of the Columneetza campus (Grant Gustafson and Craig Munroe) are sharing the PLC Facilitator role this year there. LauraLee Dubuc is providing this service for the WL campus. Inquiries being supported this year include:
Inquiry 1: Can we collaborate as a department to determine what are the core requirements needed throughout the grades for our students to focus on and have success? Can we identify causal factors in high failure rates, collaborate on corrective strategies, and implement a plan that improves student results?
There were many other areas that our plan wanted to look at. One major area was having the students understand their own learning style. I think going through this exercise was very valuable. I think it is important for our students to understand how they learn. It is equally important for teachers to be able to adapt their lessons to meet the learner’s needs. Finally, since this was the suggestion of one of the Ed. Coordinators, it goes a long way to helping to build trust, let our FN partners know we are listening and build a strong relationship of working together.
Another one of our original goals was being able to identify, using “Reclaiming Youth at Risk”, FN student who were at risk, why they were at risk, and how to reconnect them to the school. Our plan was to have all teacher select two students who they would take under their wing, get to know them, follow up on their learning, and be accountable for their success. Unfortunately, we did not get this far in our groups and the great idea will have to wait until next year.
If nothing else, we were able to distribute 11 copies of Brendtro’s and Brokenleg’s “Reclaiming Youth at Risk” and have created conversation in the area. I have had other teachers coming to ask me if they could also get a copy for the summer.
On a personal level, I was frustrated with the amount of time I was able to put into the PLC this year. There were many factors that came into account for this frustration. I was also frustrated with the anticipated level of results. I still feel passionate that we can make significant gains this area. I started my PLC group meetings with the idea of needing to have courageous conversations about FN results. I still feel passionate about this area and hope to continue to have these conversations. There is still much work to be done in this area and it will continue, even without having the PLC position next year. I think the ball has started to roll and next year, we will be able to give it a significant push. My personal goal of starting to rebuild the connection between the educational system and FN bands has been successful. A foundation of trust has been built and we are now ready to start building on it.
Inquiry 2: By reading and applying the “7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens” can we motivate students to practice and internalize those habits, with the goal of increasing their achievement and sense of belonging to the school?
Maintaining consistency in the use of the ‘7 habits of Highly Effective Teens’ language continued to present challenges, but anecdotal feedback seemed to indicate that it was better done this year than the previous year.
The percentage of students that would not ‘buy into’ the program, although bothersome and frustrating, seemed to reflect the same percentage of students that we continually struggle with to engage in school in a meaningful way. The ‘7 habits of highly effective teens’ seemed to be beyond their present realm of educational focus.
Classroom visuals helped foster efforts in some classes as they could see the fruits of their labour and compete with other classes: That being said, it was duly noted by several teachers that the competitive nature of grades and school in general often worked counter to students actualizing the last 4 habits fully.
As always the connection to educational success, not just academic, and any specific initiative is hard to say the least; however, PLC staff truly believe, from anecdotal observations, that the efforts are having a positive impact in their classes. Links were made with other activities such as ‘Mind Up,’ daily meditation and journaling as teachers made extensions into the last 4 habits.
Staff also thought that getting together at the beginning of next year to share teacher resources, activities and strategies would prove very beneficial. Although the book has many great examples, locally developed activities that had success were deemed better as well, instances of chance behavior occurrences in the school offered many learning moments to link with the 7 habits.
Once again we decided that targeting the first 3 habits (being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, and put first things first) was paramount to successful implementation.
This targeted learning worked well; however, a new and unforeseen revelation was staff venturing into the last 4 habits having a very positive response from students. Success was clearly observed and heard by staff being able to connect the last 4 habits to existing programs and activities and the students then using the language. Considerable time was still spent by the staff outlining in ‘kid friendly’ language what the first 3 habits could/should look like in classroom environments and as it applied to them as students.
We have planned to professionally study habits 4,5, 6 and 7 but this unfortunately did not happen due to staff being at all stages of the continuum and me simply not getting meetings together. I should have a better ‘excuse’ for this but I do not. We collectively decided that we need to get on top of including and implementing the last 4 habits to provide a more holistic model to the students.
Release time for teachers to observe other PLC members teaching the Leader in Me during their classes was utilized to some degree but we could certainly do more in this area as we all have something to share and hopefully learn from one another. The short release time provided when the 7 habits of highly effective teens was discussed was adequate to the task and reduced the need for excessive prep and planning for teachers to observe their colleagues.
The entire group felt that the ‘new’ curriculum offers a unique opportunity to link the 7 habits of highly effective teens with the core competencies and can thus be addressed in a multitude of other classes and in the Grade 8 & 9 classes once the Grade 7’s move on. We will look to investigate this opportunity next year.
Lastly As PLC lead I encourage all PLC members to partake in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People professional development course if the opportunity presents itself.
Inquiry 3: To what extent will focused teaching of research techniques in one class spread to use by both staff and students, in other classes?
2015-2016: The Vice-Principals of Lake City Secondary (Grant Gustafson, Craig Munroe, Curt Levens and Ken Lucks) are sharing the PLC Facilitator role this year. Inquiries being supported this year include:
Leadership (Ryan Hanley, Trish Maas, Siobhan Wright, Jodie Mason, Shannon Reerie, Robin Fofonoff, Craig Munroe)
Discussion of the habits of highly effective teens, the cornerstone of the Leader in Me book, was informative and a positive learning experience for the students. That being said, our time allocation to this endeavor in class needed more attention as the data leans slightly to the negative side. Adding to the need for more attention it follows fairly obviously that we need to use the language of the habits more in our classrooms in order to keep it at the forefront of our daily routine and embed it into our natural ways of thinking about our role responsibilities both as a student and teacher.
Students generally thought the learning of the habits was a positive factor in helping them become better prepared students. Additionally, there was a positive correlation to students thinking these habits helped them completed more assignments.
A small but noticeable correlation can be made that students were wanting to learn more about the habits was gleaned from the data, as well as a very strong correlation that this would be a good experience for younger students.
As PLC designate for the school, I will try to encourage and facilitate release time for teachers to observe other PLC members addressing the Leader in Me during their classes to learn from one another. The release time forecasted, in discussion with teachers from our May meeting, need not be for entire classes but rather only short segments of a class when ‘The Leader in Me’ is discussed. This plan should thus reduce the need for excessive prep and planning efforts and facilitate observation occurring more frequently.
We have a strong core group of returning teachers to the PLC for next year and will be looking to recruit new teachers into the project for next year. The Leader in Me concepts fit in seamlessly with the new curriculum and will therefore be formally added into the CAPP portion of the Grade 8 Expo rotation thus enabling all Grade 8 students to have some exposure to the ‘habits.’
A short teacher survey revealed similar results as discussion topics that surfaced in our meetings. Through self-reflection it was very evident (100% agreement) that they did not spend as much time as they had initially wanted to do and did not use the language of the habits in class as much as they had set out to do. These results, I would suggest, are a typical outcome when people are trying to implement something new while trying to gain knowledge and skills at the same time. A learning curve is to be expected from a first attempt. With more discussion of the habits and familiarity, I suspect this aspect of the PLC will improve for next year.
Other teacher results were uniform in believing the PLC goal was worthwhile, a positive experience on our students and would like to continue on for next year.
Teachers have clearly voiced that they would like me as their PLC leader to check in more with them to encourage their efforts and remind them to use the language. Teachers have requested all avenues of communication be used (email, meetings, hallway discussions to name a few). It was also noted that more support in how to collect and track quantitative data is needed so that we can better reflect on our efforts in moving towards our PLC goal.
Math Collaboration (Grant Gustafson together with Nara Riplinger, Carl Johnson, Pennie Daffurn, Lucinda Wittgrubber, Anna Donaldson)
There were also many other areas that our plan wanted to look at. As a group we wanted to look at the core requirements of our math curriculum. This was an area that we could focus on, partly in the provincial CI days and partially in the department meetings. I feel the department has a good grasp on the new content and will be able to deliver it effectively next year.
Another one of our original goals was being able to identify factors that were leading to failure in the courses. Three factors we were able to identify included attendance, connections, and maturity.
Attendance is an issue that is a concern through the entire school. As an entire school entity we are looking at how to address our attendance concerns. We should have an action plan ready to go by September.
Connection was another issue. Teachers felt that our timetable was not allowing teachers to connect to their students and stay on top of them in the same manner that our grade 8's were used to in grade 7. For this reason, we have gone back to the cadre system for next year. This system will also hopefully address the teachers’ concerns regarding maturity. The maturity they were concerned about stemmed from the 8's not being responsible enough to manage multiple classes with days separating them.
On a personal level, I was also able to identify a couple of other concerns. These include having some staff that are not comfortable with the materials and perhaps don't have a passion for the area of mathematics. To address this, we have to have a significant look at our hiring practices long term. We really need to hire people who specialize in math. To address this issue in the short term, I was able to create an easy to use binder that provided interesting and fun math concepts. The idea was to provide examples that use math to perform magic, tricks, and real life situations that would be fun and useful to students.
We also made significant gains in a teacher who wanted to look at how to individualize instruction. She worked hard in collaboration with another staff and made valuable improvements to her practice. I guess the key for me is to have her discuss her positive results with other staff they are willing to try in the future.
I did find the process valuable. Going through the process also led me to discover an area of focus for next year. As a math group, we need to look at the area of assessment to make sure that all members in the math department are on the same page.
Math Peer Teaching (Caroline Chupa, Tyler Allison, Curt Levens)
Question 1. How will peer teaching between Math 11 Foundations students and LSU students help improve students’ sense of belonging and feelings of inclusion within our school?
Student sense of belonging, especially for the LSU students seemed to increase dramatically. After collaboration they had familiar faces and “big buddies” in the school that they could say hello to and even hang out with sometimes at lunch and locker breaks. Most LSU students do take part in school electives but often don’t work inclusively with other students, so often feel quite isolated and not part of the general school population. Seeing them work with and be an active part of learning was huge for all the LSU students and definitely contributed to sense of belonging. After each collaboration session Mr. Allison reported all of his students enjoyed the activity and loved working with the “older kids”. Mr. Allison definitely feels collaboration events make our school more inclusive.
The Math 11 students also enjoyed each event and felt it led to a better sense of belonging and more inclusive school. Their experience was much different from the LSU students but all of them looked forward to working with their “little buddies” and helping them work through Math problems or projects. They reported their empathy increased because they had a better understanding of the physical and/or mental disabilities the LSU students had to deal with on a daily basis. Every Math student noted they are now more aware of the LSU students and would say “hi” to them in the hallway and stand up for them if they were being bullied.
Question 2. How will peer teaching between Math 11 Foundations students and LSU students improve enjoyment of and achievement in Math?
It was very difficult to measure the improvement in Math achievement for the LSU students because of their varying levels of Math ability, however after working with their “older buddies” for a very short time, all LSU students were able to meet their individual personal learning outcomes for the tasks provided. Whether it was matching shapes, placing animals in the appropriate habitats, or playing games, LSU students quickly learned new tasks and concepts after their Math partners explained it to them. LSU students looked forward to, and enjoyed, each collaboration session and common behaviour issues in their regular classrooms basically disappeared while they were with their Math buddies who were demonstrating how to do the various activities.
The Math 11 students also demonstrated a higher level of math enjoyment and strong achievement while engaged with the LSU students. According to pre-task and post-task surveys, all the Math 11 students reported enjoying working with the LSU students and felt it helped them learn the concepts better with more depth and detail because they had to demonstrate and teach the concepts to their LSU counterparts. Ms. Chupa reported that students scored very well on the Math 11 Foundations rubric which measured their inductive and deductive reasoning. After the various activities Ms. Chupa reported all of her students achieved acceptable standards and the vast majority met standards of proficiency or standards of excellence.
The learning piece achieved through the collaboration was also very unique and I feel meets 21st Century learning and the entire concept of personalized learning. All students got to share their knowledge, be leaders, be followers, and be team players while achieving the goals set out by their teachers. Students felt success, were given an opportunity to assess their own learning and others in their group and were given timely and useful feedback by teachers, other observers, and most importantly by their peers and other students they were working with. I know it isn’t realistic to get through all the current PLO’s due to the amount of time it takes to do projects like these but I believe anytime we can add group collaboration to our classes it is a huge benefit.
The collaboration piece was a very important part to me because due to our 2 campus, 7-12 configuration we have struggled to get teachers together collaborating teaching strategies, team teaching, or just talking. I feel collaboration is a huge part of teacher and staff development and ultimately helps increase student achievement and involvement. I would like to use the success of this collaboration model as a platform to help encourage, support and facilitate regular collaboration between teachers at both campuses and between campuses of Lake City Secondary. Ultimately, my goal would be to have weekly, built in collaboration time for teachers to get together and share ideas but until then hopefully more activities like this can occur.
Attendance Policy (Ken Lucks together with J. Anderson, D. Beauchamp, M. Bouchard, M. Burgar, W. Cartwright, M. Cebuliak, D. Chorney, C. Chupa, L. Csizmadia, T. Duff, R. Fofonoff, P. Grinder, A. Hutchinson, J. Jack, T. Johnston, N. MacDonald, R. Manarin, S. Pritchard, S. Rerie, A. Riegl, G. Robbins, C. Sabatino, C. Sowden, K. Taplin, T. Westwick, D. Wilson, M. Wilson)
2014-2015: Erin Pedersen leads the PLC at Lake City Secondary - both campuses. She is supporting several different inquiries.
Grad Transitions:
Alternate Program:
Will students in the Alternate Program complete more courses in the 2014-2015 school year compared to student course completion accomplished in 2013-2014?
Grade 7:
What adaptations or accommodations can be made so that the learning needs of all students are met?