Reporting to Loxton High School Staff

Our priority, on returning to school, was to report back to staff as soon as possible, before our ideas and impressions became 'diluted' through incidental conversations or 'waned' through the immediate demands of starting a new term! This being our first day back for Term 2, it was heartening to hear that a significant number of our colleagues had followed our blog over the holiday period.

The plan was to condense our expansive series of blogs, to a 30minute 'snapshot' presentation, at the scheduled Monday afternoon Staff Meeting. Staff were given an individual sheet with the key focus areas listed; they were asked to highlight which areas they liked / or could see being applicable to our setting / or would like to discuss at greater length.

In order to gain an overall picture of which focus areas generated most interest amongst staff , dot charts were used to provide feedback for the entire group.

While we could have spoken for a lot longer, I think we achieved our goal of 'surfacing' the ideas we

discovered in Calgary and certainly gained valuable feedback on which ideas appealed most to our colleagues. The next step is to meet with our principal, John Tiver, to coordinate a 'plan of attack' to move forward on some of these targeted areas. Hopefully, conversations will continue in a more informal way and questions that have been raised on the individual feedback sheets can be addressed.

Working at Gate 27

Still maximising our time together, trying to coordinate our thoughts, what do we like? - big ticket items that need serious consideration and the little gems we don't want to forget!

Leaving Calgary

So here we are at  Calgary airport, all 'tagged up' and ready to move on to the next adventure. We have a couple hours to kill so there will be an opportunity to gather our thoughts in regard to how we will present our findings once arriving home. While we have certainly gained ideas that we think would work well in our system, we would like to present more of an overview to staff so that they can then make up their own minds. There is nothing worse than someone telling someone else what is good for them! A guaranteed way to put them off!

The hardest part will be narrowing / refining our rambling blog into a coherent and succinct report. Anyone out there who has been following and would like to indicate their 'nugget' / 'pearl'.......could help share in this process!! We are more than happy to make this an inclusive activity.

Easter will be a holiday for all three of us and believe me will not be feeling guilty! Tara and Skye are excited to be meeting up with 'English Jo' and I am keen to spend time with my sister, Lisa, in Cambria.

The blog will be in recess until we present our findings and then share the, hopefully positive and enthusiastic, response from staff within our school. It will be interesting to see what evolves as a result of this amazing opportunity. We three know it will be something we will never forget, our approach to education (mindset) has been impacted as a direct result of being immersed in the Calgary system. Loxton High School is a special place, we just hope we can  enhance our fine culture by adapting and learning from these experiences.

Special thanks to Colleen from The Calgary Board of Education who coordinated our visit and to all of the principals and staff who so willingly gave their time to ensure we gained a thorough insight into their system. We could not have asked for anything more and would love to return the favour if the opportunity arose. Canadian Educators are certainly a warm, generous and professional bunch who are very willing to share, for that we are most grateful.

Career and Technology Centre

CAREER AND TECHNOLOGY CENTRE

- Libraries are called Learning Commons (change in the structure of a library)
Rene Martin
- Librarian or learning commons must have a masters degree.
- Library assistants - no official training
- The Learning Common is now a space that you come in to create. It's no longer a quiet space for individual study. It is a place for cross-curricular study.
- It is a more flexible space. There are less books in high school, rather there is more focus on online resources. More of a relaxed feel - couches, round tables etc.
- Rene said it would be interesting to look at the literacy rates of people as a result of fewer books
- They have more of a virtual element and are ensuring they have more of a social presence where they can have 24/7 access, online data base and tweeting.
It was such a coincidence that one of our Librarians had commented on a post we had written and asked about the School Library system in Calgary and the first Learning Specialist we met at the CTC was a Librarian! This ended up being a theme for the day.

- There are some 'Learning Commons' ( new North American term for Libraries) where students can self checkout books. They also promote having people in there for students to come and ask questions, help with homework tasks and peer tutoring.
- Experimenting with promoting the importance of servicing creativity.
- Librarians are trained researchers. Rene believes this has been forgotten. They are now working on their skill set so they are more in tune with the needs of students today.
- A number of schools no longer have a traditional librarian presence.
- Librarians help to find guest speakers, experts in certain fields to help teachers teach a unit of work.
- Digital Depository - resources that teachers can modify and contribute to in order to share.

                         

TECHNOLOGY.
- Due to the demands of wireless networks, the main technology approach is BYOD ( Bring Your Own Device)
- We did see the use of iPad ships/pods, which were linked with the mother ship (similar to laptop trolleys). They can then effectively be synced with the mother iPad and iTunes.
- The reasoning for iPads were their effectiveness and the availability of 380 apps that are currently available
- Investigation into other devices have occurred but are not considered as user friendly or serve the purpose with their app system. Chrome books require constant internet and this was not feasible with the current infrastructure and ongoing demands.

WELLNESS PROGRAM ( Nadeen Halls)
- Due to the increase in mental health and wellness issues, the Calgary Board of Education are working on two Wellness projects. Currently, there are 5 schools that are trialling the projects.
- The CBE are Looking at the Australian/ New Zealand - Health and PE program. They are wanting to change their PE course to incorporate more Health topics in the new curriculum. They are wanting to call this program - Wellbeing.
- PE in the CBE is currently taught separately to Health (which is of concern, hence the 
trial). Wellness in the curriculum is said to have a more holistic approach.
- The focus of PE is to a more movement based approach, including TGFU (Total Games For Understanding) This is instead of a sports based approach (to occur at all year levels).
 - Due to an increase in technology use during breaks, research has shown there is too much screen time and too little activity time. This then affects social wellbeing, as face to face conversation is reduced as well as the emotional wellbeing of students showing a lack of resilience to deal with cyber issues.

- The Wellness concept looks at the whole person and their emotional, physical, intellectual, spiritual and social skills.
- Elementary schools are expected to promote 10 minutes x 3 of DPA (Daily physical activity) as well as their HPE lesson (50-80mins per day).
- The CBE website under Health Support uses a lot of Nadeen's work and includes; guiding documents, resilience, coping strategies and handling emotional strategies.
- A big focus is to promote Wellbeing throughout the whole curriculum (along the lines of whole school Literacy and Numeracy) not just in PE. For example - English topics are encouraged to focus on areas of wellbeing - addressing emotional, spiritual, physical, intellectual and social skills. e.g - focussing on texts with bi- sexuals or an author who is gay. Look at 'surfacing' the topic to generate discussion.
- English and Arts teachers are asked to focus on the question - What does it mean to be 'well'? When looking at set texts, they can being to formalise questions that look at 
expression etc.
- Teachers are encouraged to consider how they can address social and emotional issues through the study of literature. By choosing texts, which address themes / issues will help promote conversations with students around the importance of well-being and how this impacts people's lives.
- A phrase often used - "What does it mean to thrive and not just survive?"
- Two books were used to guide the research on wellness:
- 'Spark' - John Ratey - Based on research showing how exercise can positively impact brain function and mental health.
'Physical Literacy' - Margaret Whitehead - What is physical Literacy? What are the benefits of being physically literate?
- Geography books used are the book 'Happy' , the Happiness Ted talk and the 
documentary Happiness. 

                          

Our Career and Technology specialists with three Loxtonites.

Robert Thirsk High School

The Robert Thirsk High School is named after the famous Canadian Astronaut. It is Calgary's newest school, having been recently opened in September 2013. The school started with 850 Yr 10 & 11 students, 850 in total but with a capacity of 1500. Their logo is 'The Comets'.

INTRODUCTION
- The school has been established to run a piloted flexibility program and look at high school re-design.
- The schools three focus areas are 'Personalising, Connecting and Thriving'.
- Selection processes - staff had to present what they could bring to the school, which was unique and how they would connect student learning to 'personalising, connecting and thriving.'
- Staff have a combination of skill sets.
- The school doesn't feel like they are doing anything radical, rather they are just able to pull ideas from a range of schooling environments and trial them in this new setting.
- They've had lots of successes, but their biggest challenge is to communication with the public - students 'get it' but parents are harder to convince!

      The Living Wall - this school also has a passion for plants / worm farms and other Ag Science.

SETTING OBSERVATIONS
- Community Learning Leaders - multi disciplinary. Work together in these groups on different ideas/ projects. This happens in Year 10. They meet with their learning faculties one a month, but in Community groups they meet once a week, focussing on student intervention or cross-curricular planning.
- Students are structured into community groups. They are named by colours. This is different from other schools.
- They only have 2 APs due to the size of the school and budget.
- Teachers are assigned a community and follow that community through until the end of Year 12. 
Once the kids go, they start back at the year level they started with.
- The teachers in a community come from all different subject areas. There are around 4-6 teachers in each community. These teachers are then divided into Connect Groups (Home Group), which meet on a Friday. This block rotates through e.g Friday lesson 1, then Friday lesson 2 etc.
- Students are of mixed ability in each class- no 10-1, 10- 2etc
- 2 programs for students with cognitive delay. Sometimes these students are incorporated into life style courses. at the community level staff are encouraged to modify etc. credit rescue approach - students work is accommodated or modified so they get a basic understanding of the course so they can get the credits.
- Learning Commons (Library) - physical and digital/ virtual hub. 8 entrances. Have a tech area where students can do activities such as tech conferencing.
- No streaming In English and Social Studies in Year 11 & 12. This does occur in Maths and Science from Year 11.
- Focus groups occur for an hour before lunch on Monday to Thursdays.  Students are able to access any teacher during Focus Group time. All students must be in a class with a teacher (in theory?!)
- Lessons are 70 minutes a day, except for Friday when lessons are 60 minutes.

ASSESSMENT
- Assessment in each subject is competencies based.
- Teachers write reports 4 times a year. They use common descriptors based on the competencies across the subjects rather than grades. They also have 2 parent/ teacher nights, mid semester after the reports have gone out. Parents go to the Connect teacher for the interview. Teachers provided the connect teacher with enough information from their subject to speak on their behalf.
- In a Maths test they promote the importance of self-reflection. Will indicate that there is an error in a certain area on the test, rather than point out the error. The process is then about error analysis.

Tom Baines Junior High

As a late addition to our schedule we decided we really should see a Junior High setting. Colleen was fantastic in arranging this visit to Tom Baines Junior High at short notice. We were very grateful to principal Rick Petrowitsch for fitting us in to his busy schedule.

SETTING OBSERVATIONS
- School has years 7-9
- 750 students, 35 teaching staff.
- Junior High timetable - 7 x 50 min lesson. Mid morning break - 9 mins. 2 more periods, then a 50 min lunch - this includes 25minutes inside and 25minutes outside. The cut off temperature for students going outside is -20C! We shared the opposite end of the spectrum of 40C as an outside cut off!
- No separate English or Social Studies lessons, this is combined and called Humanities.
- SMATH taught in year 7. This is a mixture of Science and Maths
- Used to have a policy of no mobile phones, however, considering the majority of students have a mobile phone they have experienced a shift in thinking. Now students are allowed to use them under the direction of the teacher.  They can also be used outside of the school building. If used inappropriately they are taken away. 1st time they would lose it for 24 hrs, 2nd time - 48hrs, after the 5th time the parent has to come in and get it. A personal item incident sheet is filled out if the phone is confiscated (also to ensure a student doesn't make false claims of damage).This form has to be signed by a parent.
- Average class sizes this year - 36. Next year they are making changes so the principal and AP will teach a line, so that the classes will start at 30 - most schools are talking about having to deal with budget cuts.
- During work period students can listen to music.
- There's one Assistant Principal and eight Learning Leaders responsible for individual faculties.

TECHNOLOGY
- Students bring own devices to school. They log in to the wireless network, however, the school struggles with the capacity.
- All desktops are Apple Macs. They are seen as easier to use and more user friendly. They also have a number of iPad pods.  They do not like Google Chrome.

ASSESSMENT & REPORTING
- Descriptors are used for reports. No grades. The principal doesn't like the connotations of grading.
- 2 reports per year - end of Jan and June.
- They use an online program called 'Home Logic' where teachers are constantly putting up student comments/ marks received for assessment tasks. Through this program teachers provide formative feedback to parents throughout each term.
- Parent/teacher interviews are student led conferences for core subjects. This is where students show 
their parents their learning on the day through completing a number of activities and showing them 
the work they have completed. This occurs 3 times a year. There are 3 families in the room at once. This ensures no personal interviews occur - choice subjects have drop in interviews. Parents are asked to check 'Home Logic' for information on how their student is going and if they want to book an interview with the teacher they can do so at another time.

THE LEARNING CENTRE
- Sheltered program for students with special needs.
- Used similarly to those in Calgary High Schools.
- Students on IPPs ( our NEPs) can study a course called the Learning Option Program, which has been designed by the school.
- Students can also bring their work from other lessons to get specific help identified in their individualised learning plans.
- It's timetabled in the option program / choice subjects. Core subjects are still taken in mainstream 
classes.
- Students who are 'falling through the cracks' can also access this class.
- Those with anxiety issues can drop in to the Learning Centre throughout the day, as long as it's part of their individualised program - try to identify a separate space in the room.
- The school is able to provide such a resource by increasing class numbers. 


LEARNING COMMONS (LIBRARY)
- Students scan own books out. Staff member scans in.
- 33 computers, plus 30 iPads available.
- Room for 2 classes.
- QR readers
- No food allowed.
- Removed the carpet and bought new furniture. Tables have wheels so students can reorganise them for group or individual study. Book shelves are also on wheels. Chair legs have 'tennis ball' covers to stop noise.
- Students don't have to be quiet. Student collaboration is encouraged.
- A flexible space.
- Reading corner with comfortable chairs.
- There's a 'thinking wall' for brainstorming ideas - a wall whiteboard. Wobble stools are located near the wall and plugs for recharging personal devices.
- Living wall, with plants.

CONCLUSION
-This experience was very reassuring in that some of the 'controls' we have in place for our students, still exist in a Junior a High situation.

Centennial High School

All three of us were back on deck this morning. We woke to a snowy landscape and the 'flurries' continued for most of the day. Colleen had told us to allow an hour for travel, but due to the weather / driving conditions....two hours later (having driven past several accidents) we arrived safely at Centennial High School. For those of you who know him, meeting principal Matt Christison was like meeting Kent Spangenberg; an enthusiastic leader who backs his staff and personal judgment. We spent the majority of the day with Matt but also met many other staff on our school tour. Over an extended lunch (prepared by the cooking class) we were fortunate to spend time with not only Matt, but also the 3 APs  and the Admin Secretary. They were so generous with their time and sharing of ideas.

INTRODUCTION
- There is a group called Student Voice, very important for them to function - not elected, students choose to be part of it. Some will come and go. Meetings at lunch.
- Student Leadership course is a subject at Year 10, 11 &12. Sell popcorn once a week. Go to conferences.
- Outdoor Pursuits course - mix of Science &Outdoor Ed. The school is 10 minutes from the forest. It's in the South, just out of the city. They have a lot more access to natural environment (Kannanaskis)
- 50 international students, fees are paid to the Board of Education. There are a lot of students from South China, Korea. Families are willing to host international students (home stays).
- 290 English Language Learners (ELL)
- Lots of students from Central America
- Small First Nations population - 30 students
- Strong gay alliance in the school
- Very large LDS population - Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints or Mormon. If students have a spare they can use it for a Seminary if it works. They can't dictate when they will go, it has to be educationally sound.
- Staff can get frustrated with students' extra curricular activities that impact on how much time they
are in their classes. They need to understand It's about teaching students and there WILL be
restrictions and consequences for missing work, the question asked is how are the students AND staff going to deal with meeting educational requirements and their extra curricula activities.  Just because they may be out for 4 days doesn't mean their work from school goes away. There are lots of complexities around this issue. Principal asks the questions - What can be done differently? Why not?? Need to think outside the square.

TIMETABLE
- Tutorials 8.30-8.55
- School starts at 9am
- Teachers used to have 125 hours of instruction time per subject. Now there is no stipulation but an end number of instructional hours, which is 1000 hours a year.
- YOTES - occurs once a week on a Friday. This is similar to Home Group. YOTES stands for - Your
 Opportunities To Enhance Success (ties in nicely with shortened nickname Coyotes).
- YOTES - grade 10 is about learning skills around how to deal with transitioning to high school. May use this time for course registrations (subject selection). YOTES classes are decided by alphabet, 20-30 students. This same group stays together through to year 12. YOTES in year 11 - focuses on success in high school and year 12 focuses on successful transition to the life beyond high school.
- Importance of listening to student voice - they wanted a break on a Friday so they are now given 15 minutes before session 3. Also longer lunch break of 45min.
- Have built contact time in the timetable  for teachers at the end of the day. The rule is that staff can't work alone during this time - could work with a teacher to plan, work with students, discuss issues with other teachers about a student etc. This time has been built in because it needs to be valued and this is achieved by being formalised. Staff can't do the same thing in this time every day. Students know this time is available to see teachers.

SITE IMPROVEMENT PLAN
- Matt sees himself as a 'resister'. What do I HAVE to do and what can I NOT do?! Wants to be unique! Happy to be seen as 'contrary' - his staff loved him for this!
- Don't focus on the Diploma (ATAR, for us) rather focus on the big picture and what is happening in other classes eg Maths 10 - sounds like they focus more on the backward planning model - results are a reflection of the teaching practices in the early years as well as the final year, equal importance.

This was the day the Canadian Women's Ice Hockey Team defeated The US at The Winter Olympics in Sochi - Centennial students were transfixed on rooting for their team!

SETTING OBSERVATIONS
- There is an educational alliance between Finland and Alberta - 'FINAL'. Teachers and students exchange both ways.
- The school challenges students with ideas that may not always be great, so that students 'push back' (resist / oppose) which will eventually result in something better. Important for developing independent learners. Eg Yr 12s Graduation assembly - principal says, "This is what you need to understand that if you've got an idea on a grad prank if you can't tell me what it is then you can't do it? You have to be clever, not disruptive. The question is what do they want to be remembered for?      
- Visitors wear visitor tags on lanyards - user friendly.
- Less reliance on school busses, lots of students use public transport or drive.
- Learning Leaders schedule times to meet once a week.
- Non instructional days set by the board. This time is often flexible - used for own prep, marking etc.
- Support staff work together in YOTES time on T&D - they don't just stay in the office. They also work with students.
- Important for the principal that everyone is seen as equal 'teachers' - no hierarchy. Rather people just have different responsibilities.
- Parents have access to attendance and marks through Home Logic online database. This helps students stay more accountable.
- 1800 students.
- The principal doesn't track the extra curricular hours that teaches do, but involvement is heavily
encouraged, as is working with other staff on an activity. If there are staff members who don't do anything, then there will be discussions with the principal. Often this attitude changes when they are paired with someone on an activity.
- 90 staff only 3 are part time staff
- Assemblies in the gym. Can stream these to other rooms through TV system. Can hold up to 1000 students. These are held through YOTES time, to avoid interrupting instruction time.
- AP duties - one is responsible for timetabling with principal, no teaching lines, work with students who are designated to them alphabetically.
- The alphabetical groupings for YOTES and AP supervision are flexible depending on personalities / clashes.
- The four leaders use a radio system to stay in contact throughout the day, also used by yard duty staff, especially when out in the community. This system is linked to the Resource Officer (constable).
- Cell phones welcomed. Up to teacher whether they are used in class. If phones are used inappropriately the phone is confiscated for the rest of the day. After the 9th time harsher consequences!
- Rooms are built for 32 students but commonly classes are often around 35-37. There are some at 40.
- Assemblies are held for each Grade level (10, 11 & 12) of one hour duration to present different awards eg subject awards, artisans (trade courses eg people who work with their hands). Parents invited, held during the day - winners invited, everyone welcome but not a requirement).  Athletics awards are held held separately as a banquet, community coaches are invited. APs take in turns running each of the assemblies. Principal present for all.
- School banners highlight focus activities (see picture) Visible recognition of successful students
AND criteria. Other posters made by Student Leadership class to publicise all special events occurring throughout the year.

BUSINESS & ENTERPRISE
- A student run food cart is set up in the main building outside of the cafeteria - selling food produced by the cooking class - open all day, honour system?
-  A merchandise store is open at lunch selling sporting attire (windcheaters / socks) complete with logos. Four classes of 35 students(Yr 10x2, Yr11 & Yr 12), currently designing hats.
- The Food class caters for special lunches like our own.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
- Teachers write a professional growth plan at the beginning of the year, which is submitted to the principal. Staff have meetings throughout the year with the principal. Their goals need to be focused on their own personal needs, but should consider Alberta Education and site priorities
- $1500 over 3 years from Alberta Teachers Association union, $200 from the school each year, plus each faculty can provide funding for PD.

THE LEARNING STRATEGIES ROOM / THE CLASS / PLP4
-There is a Learning Strategies Room which caters for 15 students.
-The Class caters for 18 students who suffer from anxiety and depression - they are based there with a trained teacher but may go to regular classes with an aid.
- Pace Learning Plan - PLP4 students (15) - reading level between year 3 and 6. Some of these students will enter a Knowledge and Employability course. Congregated but not Segregated, come together for some things but can 'mainstream' for others. This will also be their YOTES class.
- there is always on teacher and one aid in the room.
- Teacher changes in the room. They are rostered on according to certain subject areas. It is seen as important for teachers to avoid isolation and to work with different people.
- No one-on-one aids - rather they will work with groups, unless absolutely necessary . Don't want students to become isolated if they are always with the same aid.
- If a student is studying Maths which is an area of weakness, they will take Learning Strategies in the learning centre as well. The idea is that they will take the strategies learned into their Maths class.
- Courses - Reading 15. Can take 3 Learning Strategies courses over the 3 years. Some students may take Learning Strategies all year and it is paired up with another subject.
- Coded students (students that have an Individual Learning Plan) can come in here to complete a test or exam.
- This room also has 2 small testing rooms attached.
- No drop in students. Mainstream students should be going to tutorials for extra help.
- PLP4 (Pace Learning Plan) - real special needs. Educationally cognitively challenged students and
they may have a physical challenge. Students could stay in this class all the way through. Some students may come out of PLP4  into a Knowledge and Employability course. 1 teacher, 2EAs - due to the special needs of who is in there. There's always one teacher and one EA. The teachers are encouraged to teach at least one other class, rather than being with the PLP4 class all the time.
- Education Assistants support in classrooms where there are the most coded students.

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
- PD days- teachers put in cross curricular groups - 8-9 people (one per subject). Provided with questions and problems - asked how they would address such questions. Conversations lead to common answers around the importance of formative assessment. They then shared formative assessment examples, leading to discussions around how much and how often. This then led to wanting to work with faculty areas to create consistency in their faculty.

TECHNOLOGY
-Pop up windows are used for the bulletin e.g as students get on a computer the pop up message will appear.
-Wireless struggles to keep up with students bringing in their own computer systems
-One full time technician who does the work of two! Also 2 work experience students help at times.
-Windows based machines, some Apple machines.

SCHOOL WEBSITE
- Publicises all staff contact email addresses
- Department information, resources

GUIDANCE COUNSELLORS
- One per AP
- Do a lot of work with students on course selection.
- Students who are not coded work with these counsellors. They help access outside school agencies
and advocacy groups.
- Responsible for the graduation lists, checking subject completion - similar to a SACE Coordinator.

Thanks Centennial High, we felt very  comfortable in your environment, an influx of teacher exchange applications could be on the way!

Western Canada High School

We left Tara home today to research Western Canada High School online, due to a recent outbreak of measles at the school.  We arrived early and parked in the student car park. The school is located on17th Avenue, which is similar to being located on O'Connell St. in Adelaide or Lygon St. in Melbourne. We had time for a coffee at Starbucks (a stone's throw from the school) and later discovered that Starbucks organises their staffing based on the school schedule.
We met principal Kimberly (Kim) Hackman, he was quick to ask us where we had parked and suggested we move to the gated staff area. Later we discovered a visiting Japanese group had their car towed away for parking in the wrong spot!

INTRODUCTION
- Western are one of the top 10 performing schools in Alberta
- Currently there is an issue to be resolved with their school sporting logo. 'The Redmen' and the graphic is the head dress of a First Nation (indigenous) warrior. The Calgary Board of Education have decided that it must change, so the school is looking at alternatives. One suggestion has been The Red Hawks.
- The school has just been through a $35 million development over 3 years.
- There are 140 staff members and 16 of those are Learning Leaders.
- Students can stay at school until they are 20 years of age.
- The school focuses on Academics, Athletics (Sport) and Fine Arts ( Music, Drama, Dance, Art)
- All students are expected to carry a full course load to take advantage of the many programs offered at Western Canada High School.  A full course load is defined as follows:  Grade 10 minimum 8 courses, Grade 11 minimum 7 courses, Grade 12 minimum 6 courses – 3 each semester.
- The school year starts roughly on the 7th of September and the first break is about December 19th. During this semester there will be PD and organisational days where students are off site. Between December 19th and January 6th students and staff have their winter break. They then return to school and have 4-5 days of classes before they go into 2 and 1/2 weeks of exams. Students don't attend school when they don't have exams. Teachers can mark during this time and do prep for next 
semester. Reports are also written during this time. Semester 2 starts around February 3rd and goes thru to early March, followed by spring break for 10 days. The semester continues from the end of March until early June. Again during this time there are PD and organisational days set for teachers. From June 7th until the end of June is for exams, once again students are only onsite when they have an exam. Teachers use this time to plan for the following year. July and August is their summer vacation break.
- School fees are only $132, however, there are a lot more costs that parents pay during the year depending on the courses studied. Most courses have individual costs e.g basketball is $600 due to the travelling expenses.
- Around the school and in main buildings/corridors TV screens are mounted with continuous bulletin notes or relevant quotes. This has been seen in both schools so far.



SCHOOL PROGRAMS
- International Baccalaureate is offered at the school. The IB program is designed to be a challenging alternative for academically motivated high school students.  Students may pursue either a Certificate (partial) program (with a minimum of 2 subjects) or a Diploma (full) program.
- The school offers the following international languages: French Immersion, French, and Spanish. 
It is a special achievement to maintain a successful standing in three courses offered in French.  Those students receive an award of a French Immersion Certificate when they have earned 45 credits, which include FLA 30, Social Studies 30F, and Math 30PF.
- CALM (Career and Life Management) is a mandatory course related to healthy living and finance, which students must pass. It is worth 3 credits. It can be done online but students must meet once a week with the teacher at lunch. This course is under review due to the amount of mental health issues in society, the belief is that there needs to be more emphasis on the content. 
- Individualised programs are offered for example there are quite a few athletes performing at the 
Olympic level and need to have their programs modified. Another example is a student who was 12 
years old when they began studying Maths and by the age of 16 had finished his whole Maths requirements for the Diploma. 
- Alberta has a National Sports School which means that all subjects are taken online. Western also have many high level athletes who attend their school, they choose to do so because of friends, but programs are adapted to allow them to do courses online.
- Kim predicts there will be no handwritten exams in 2 years time. 

RESOURCE ROOM / THE CLASS 
- There are 2 areas that support students with special needs.
- The Resource Room has a Learning Strategist available to help students who would like assistance with their school work.
- All students who require extra help or have special learning needs can receive services such as,individualised  assessment, and learning strategies including: organisational and time management skills, study and test-taking skills, managing test anxiety, and self-advocacy skills.
- Assistance finding a peer tutor is also available.
- The Class is for students with anxiety.
- The students are coded depending on their level of disability. A level 50 is for mild to moderate, 42 is severe. 200 students are coded and require individual program plans but this also includes the gifted students.
- In the Resource room students get credits for undertaking the program Learning Strategies.
- 5 schools in Calgary offer 'The Class' program. It's really for the introverts and those who internalise issues. Students are carefully screened because there is a fine line between mental health and behavioural issues. There is a ratio of between 5-7 students to 1 support person. Sometimes this is a teacher with a support person. 
- Dr Stankutcher (Canadian Psych Specialist) has written a mental health curriculum.
- Once a week there is a meeting with a psychologist, psychiatrist and family education officer.  

SCHOOL TIMETABLE
- 80 min. periods  - Monday- Thursday 
- 8:35-9:00 Tutorials, 9:05-10:25  (Block 1), 10:30-11:50 (Block 2), 11:50-12:30 Lunch,12:35-1:55 (Block 3), 2:00-3:20 (Block 4), 3:20-3:40 Tutorials.
- Friday - 8-9am Meetings, 9.05-10.05 (Block 1), 10.10-11:10 (Block 2), No Break,11:15-12:15 (Block 3),  12:20-1:20 (Block 4), 1:20 - Dismissal

SETTING OBSERVATIONS
- Every school has their own Casino fundraiser. Representatives from the school help to run it, which result in the school earning $50,000 -$100,000! This money then goes towards purchasing equipment etc.
- Students on work free periods (frees, spares, private study lessons) are required to be out of the halls at the period bell and in one of the following locations only: library, cafeteria, study hall or off campus.
- Card playing (or games of chance) are not allowed.
- Staff meetings are held once a month as are faculty meetings. Thejustification for this is that smaller groups are far more productive. There is virtually no whole school T&D.
- Kim as principal gets pulled out of school so much that the 3 APs are like principals of their own groups (Alphabet system). Each AP has their own secretary and Guidance Officer. They are also responsible for taking yard duty down 17th Avenue. This is important for maintaining a positive culture and ensuring students don't take their privilege to leave school grounds for granted.
-If there was an attendance issue a staff member would send an email to the relevant AP and Guidance Counsellor. If there was a health issue the teacher would send an  email to the Guidance 
Counsellor, but would cc the AP in the email to keep them in the loop. If a teacher thought there was a subject placement issue with a student they would email the Learning Leader, who would follow up with the AP and Guidance Counsellor. 
- Technology is limited in the school due to lack of power points and the age of the building. There are a number of SMART boards and many data projectors in use.
- We asked Kim about other good models of education in the world. He spoke highly of China and Singapore, but one interesting comment was about Denmark. From K-9 it is a very 'motherly' environment, but in year 10 students can choose to travel for a year, work for a year or go on exchange, because this is a time when they are still trying to work out what they really want to do. Denmark stream early and their technical schools are phenomenal.
- Canadian teachers max out at $90,000 and $96,000 for a Learning Leader.
- Principals are respected for their highly developed communication and managerial skills and some will move into the business sector in human relations.
- The 3 guidance counsellors do not teach.
- Western choose to have bigger classes, 40-43 students is common, to allow for the Resource room and The Class. 

MOBILE PHONES
- Mobile phones must not interfere with the learning environment.  They must be turned off and be out of sight during instructional times (i.e. when classes or tutorials are in session) and in instructional areas (hallways are considered instructional areas during class time).  Students who use cell phones in class, without teacher permission, can expect the following: confiscation of phone for a period of time decided on by their Assistant Principal, contact with parent, suspension.  Western Canada High School has an office phone available to students for emergency use.

EXTRA-CURRICULAR
Fine Art:
- There is a strong choral program, which occurs from 7-8.30am or from 7-9pm. This occurs outside of school hours because students don't have time to fit it into their schedule. This equally applies to drama productions and bands. 
-There is a close relationship with the Calgary Philharmonic orchestra. 165 students are going to Chicago for a 10 day trip as part of their extra curricular activity with school bands. The school will charter a flight with the extras having to be fitted on a regular flight. Due to past litigation there is a mountain of paper work required for each trip. When deciding on who goes staff have to ask themselves the question, "Do you know your kids well enough that you trust their mental health?" On every major trip a member of the leadership team goes with them. 
-Teachers often apply for grants, which allows them to use expertise outside of the school area.
-On Saturday night there was the annual Arts celebration which is a festival of art work, mini productions (dance and drama) and Art work is auctioned at the end of the  night. From that they raised $50,000. 

Fitness Centre:
- The school has a Fitness Centre available to all students from Monday through to Thursday in the mornings, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.  If a student is a fitness club member ($50 for the full year, $25 for 2nd semester). On Fridays it closes at 2:30 p.m.
- Western staff are available during these hours to answer any questions that a student might have concerning the equipment and how to use it properly.
- Equipment includes - free weights, 4 squat racks and lifting platforms, weight machines, cardiovascular equipment including: treadmills, elliptical trainers, rowing machines, lifecycles and spin bikes, various fitness accessories including: fit balls, medicine balls, skipping ropes, bosu ball, styrofoam rollers, fit sits, and plyometric boxes.

Clubs:
- Western offers 22 different clubs
- The Gay/ Straight alliance club has 65 student members. Gay staff may choose to be involved.
- One of the 4 leadership members are expected to be on site for every activity whether morning or night. Leaders schedule their supervision at the beginning of each week.
-There is a review of stress points. The aim is to maintain standards but some things may need to be 
let go in order to be sustainable.

ALBERTA HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA REQUIREMENTS
- Definition: Courses that start with '30' are Year 12 subjects, those that start with '20' are Year 11 subjects and courses that start with '10' are Year 10 subjects. If they are followed by a '-1' (dash one) they are the top level courses, '-2' (dash two) are a level down.
- After six semesters of high school, students must meet the following requirements in order to graduate:
1. Obtain a minimum of 100 credits
2. Complete and meet the standards of the following courses: English 30-1 or English 30-2 or French 30, Social Studies 30-1 or 30-2, Math 20-1 or Math 20-2 or Math 23, Science 20 or 24 or Biology 20 or Chemistry 20 or Physics 20 (or Science 10 and any other 5-credit science course) 
3. Complete and meet the standards of the following: Physical Education 10 (3 credits), Career and Life Management (CALM) (3 credits), 10 credits from: -  Career and Technology Studies (CTS) or -  Fine Arts or -  International Languages or -  Physical Education 20 and/or 30, 10 credits, in any combination from any 30 level courses (including locally developed), in addition to English 30-1 or English 30-2 and Social Studies 30-1 or 30-2.

CONCLUSION
Another fantastic experience, thanks to Kim and his staff at Western Canada High School. The length of this blog is testimony to how much we gained from our visit.
Skye and I were also very impressed to return home to a clean house and freshly laundered towels, courtesy of the house-bound Tara who couldn't sit still!

Sir Winston Churchill High School

Today we were very fortunate to visit one of the best schools in Calgary. We thank Dave Nickell, our mentor for hosting us and being a wealth of knowledge. We certainly found our visit very informative and found it gave us lots to think about.  We have tried to be brief!

INTRODUCTION

- Teachers are scheduled to take 3 out of 4 classes and are actively encouraged to be involved in extra-curricular activities. Staff are also expected to be involved in extra-curricular activities and would do between 70-150 hours per year.
- Some teachers will teach 4/4 if they are not involved in extra-curricular activities.
- Incorporated the International Baccalaureate (IB) into the school in 2003. About 25% of the 2014 graduating class has taken at least one IB course.
- School finishes at 1pm on Fridays. Most use this time for marking, preparation or involvement in sporting activities.
- The School day officially starts at 8.55, however, they run Tutorial sessions from 8.15-8.55am. Tutorial sessions are for students wanting to get some extra help in a certain subject. Tutorial rooms exist for every subject on a rostered basis and have up to 3 teachers available. This is an optional service that students can access, or if they missed a day of school they are expected to go to the tutorial session the next day.
- Clubs meet at lunchtime / most sport is after school.
- Spares (frees, private study lessons) are not supervised. Students can choose what they do during this time (including leaving the grounds), but are not allowed to sit in the hallways. Most go to the library, cafeteria or study spaces. Students who are 'at risk' must go to The Learning Centre for supervised study.
- Student stress is an issue due to the prestigious nature of the school.
- Lots of support systems are in place for students e.g. The Learning Centre, The Class, Guidance Counsellors, Tutorials, Supportive teachers etc

SCIENCE/ MATHS
- Resource on the website - Science Process Skills Booklet. This is introduced in Year 10 and used all the way through to the end of Year 12. Students have easy access to it. It provides students with concept definitions, text type scaffolds etc. Teachers refer to it often, providing consistency in how concepts and text types are taught.
- One teacher is using the flipped classroom approach in most of her Math lessons. This is where students watch the filmed lesson at home and come to class to work on questions etc. This provides students the opportunity to work with the teacher and get immediate help as it is needed. Examples are on You Tube - The Davis Domain. A disadvantages of this approach is that the student may have misinterpreted the lesson and then by the time the teacher works it out the student has already reinforced the error.

TIMETABLE
- The timetable is set by The Board of Education.
- Students study 4 subjects per semester. In year 11 students can have one spare (free lesson) over the year e.g will study 7 subjects. Year 12s can have 1 spare each semester.
- School times - Monday to Thursday - Session 1: 8.55 -10.15am, Session 2: 10.20 - 11.40am, Lunch: 11.40 - 12.20pm, Session 3: 12.25 - 1.45, Session 4: 1.50 - 3.10
- Concern from staff - next year the timetable structure will be changing. Instead of having the 4 lines spread evenly over the morning and afternoon sessions, next year two lines will only operate in the mornings, while the other two will occur in the afternoon. An example of this being an issue is in PE with outdoor practical activities been set in the morning when conditions will be hypothermic. Also in Maths and Science, teachers would ideally like some morning time due to student attentiveness, but this is not guaranteed.

SETTING OBSERVATIONS

- Leadership structure: Principal, 3 Assistant Principals - timetable / budget, diploma exam, / facilities and maintenance. Learning Leaders for each faculty area.

- At the beginning of the day many students sit in the hallway working on their homework, studying etc. There is a lack of windows compared to 'home'.

- Staff remain in their department areas at lunchtime. The department office space has a fridge and other kitchen facilities. Not many teachers use the staff room, in fact it is often used for Muslim student prayer.

- Students have access to the D2L website (school intranet) where they can access practice exams and other samples of work. The school has a Scantron, which scans multiple choice questions of an exam/ test which gives them immediate results.

-WOW moments: walking in to the Cosmetology classroom (Hair & Beauty)  and the two Mechanics workshops / Schwarz Motor Repairs!
-For a school of 2000 they only have one full time, permanently on site computer technician, who works above and beyond his hours.

- No school uniform.

- Very multicultural.
- The school holds assemblies at the beginning of the year in year levels, as the school is too big.

- Very few part-time staff.

- Police constable on site - may break up fights, deal with issues around stealing etc. Mostly their job is about being a presence in the school, someone students can talk to if needed, ask questions etc. The Constable also gives seminars to students.

LEARNING CENTRE

- 2 staff members and 2 assistants are in the room full time. One is an English teacher the other is a Maths teacher. Occasionally a Social Studies teacher comes in to support.

- They have a course students can study in the Learning Centre called the Learning Strategies program. Students can study this course for credits in Year 10. The course includes identifying their
learning style, strategies to prepare for exams, study skills etc

- Any student can drop in and get support with their studies.

- Students come in who have learning difficulties and can get assistance with their work.

- Students with cognitive delay will come in for a block of time each day and study English and Maths. An SSO will go into the classroom with these studens to support them with writing etc. They will only study courses that provide life skills eg Food. Will go to classes to learn the basics, but are not assessed. Rather they are marked on their effort, attitude and participation.

-Peer support - students who tutor their peers often come in at 8-8.45 before school starts.

-The room exists for students willing to work.

-Open 8-4pm.

-These teachers don't have prep or marking.

- Liaison between teachers, parents and students. Strong communication with teachers. Teachers will send info/ emails to the learning centre to let them know what students are working on.

- Help with year 12 transition

- Write all learning plans for students with learning difficulties referred to as IPPs. These are discussed with students then sent to parents.

THE CLASS

- Room set up for students who struggle in a normal classroom setting. These students
 have high anxiety for a multitude of reasons.

- 1 teacher, 2 assistants. Funded by The Board of Education.

- Sometimes an assistant may go into the classroom with the student.

- A psychologist comes in once a week to work with these students. There are 18 students on their books at the moment.

- Behavioural specialist comes in and works with students individually, will accompany them to class and provide support with behaviour as needed.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

- Staff are encouraged to attend professional development. They are given $400 to spend on T&D per year. They can choose to cash it in every 3 years for $1500. This means they can choose to do
something bigger with their time and money.

LEARNING LEADERS

- Have 2 teaching lines out of 4 per semester.

- Their role is about liaising with their faculty, informing and sharing ideas/ instructions from Admin and The Board of Education

- Schedule who will teach which class. Teachers wanting to teach IB classes are given 1st priority, as there are fewer IB trained teachers.

- In charge of the budget and ordering supplies.

- Support staff in their faculty wherever necessary eg Tech issue, will take relief lessons if someone needs to go to an appointment

 No extra duties outside of the one faculty area (except for the extra curricula expectation).

- Any teacher performance issues are dealt with by the principal / assistant principals, not the learning leader.

- Go to Learning Leader meetings to discuss curriculum changes. Need to share this information with faculty. Don't do any curriculum writing. Programs of study dictate what is taught. Teachers are trusted to follow this in preparation for student exams.  Exam results are one indicator of teacher success.

- Conduct faculty meetings once a month. These are more about sharing information, than anything else. Faculty meetings are planned in parallel to staff meetings, which are also held once a month.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

-There are at least 10 teachers in the faculty,  who predominantly teach PE.

- The aim is to develop life long engagement in PE, this includes 'disguising' running through
activities rather than running laps.

- There are a variety of PE courses that students can choose from and include; Sports Performance,
Sports Management and Yoga. These courses can be taken in years 10-12. (See the website for more
details)

- PE is compulsory in year 10 for one semester.

- In year 10, a PE unit typically goes for 7 days (activity specific). This is due to length of the lessons.

- Topics will vary from year 10-12 and aim to expose students to a variety of activities

(Some different activities include CPR, Combatives, Curling, Social Dance, Rock Climbing, & Camping). The website has more detail.

- Outdoor Education is not offered, however, it is combined through PE. Students often choose PE specifically to access the Outdoor Education component, as that is the incentive to take the course due to the social and personal development as well as the life long learning.

- They bring in outside experts (eg hip hop instructor) 

- Students will do a self evaluation after each practical unit to see where they think they fit. Teachers will give specific feedback according to their evaluation.

- Technology is rarely used in PE classes, this is because of time constraints, concerns about increasing obesity levels, access out on the oval and the associated costs. Videoing performance and reviewing is starting to occur in some classes.

- Students are evaluated and marked on the following:

       Attitude and participation - 40%-50%

       Knowledge and understanding - 0-25%

       Physical skill and fitness - 25%-50%

       Class citizenship 0-25%

- Effort is recognised as they are mindful not to "put the kids off" - even though they have high standards.

- Theory work is limited and is comprised of peer evaluations, assignments and the occasional written
test.

- Leadership courses in each year level are enjoyed by students.

- Students are encouraged to choose extra curricula activities (School Sport) where they train up to 4
nights a week from 4:00pm until 5:30pm. One of these nights is "game night".

- Of the 2000 students in the school, 1500 are involved in sport. The Principal sends a letter home to every student/ parent to congratulate them on being involved on the extra- curricular activity. He signs every one of those letters personally. He doesn't want to email it as it isn't personal enough. If they don't receive at least 2 letters a year, he believes they are not doing enough and should be getting more involved in the school.

- An outcome of the Sports Management course is where students are expected to be a trainer for a sports team for a minimum of 60 hours during the school year. 

- On a Monday afternoon, we witnessed the following sports in action; Boys and
Girls Rugby, Hockey, Athletics and Soccer. The principal was out supporting the boys soccer team game night. One of the students injured her knee and a student sports trainer was able to assist.

CONCLUSION
We really appreciated the willingness of the staff to so freely welcome us into their school and the ELL class in particular who showed such interest in the Aussie way of schooling. An impressive start to our school visits, we feel like we covered so many different aspects of what they had to offer.

Researching Winston Churchill High School

We have just spent the past hour or so doing some background reading on the Internet about our first school Winston Churchill. We are in awe of what they have to offer and the professionalism of their web site.

Dave Nickell is our contact person and we need to arrive at 8am.

We are particularly impressed by the English Department's information and student resources. One of our questions will be who has done all this work?!

Another impression from the website is the  vast number of activities and clubs on offer ranging from Climbing and Anime to Robotics,  Science Olympics and Yoga we thought we did a lot at Loxton High!! But do they offer Pedal Prix??!!

We have also noticed that after school tomorrow Athletics training is on, specifically distance running and Hurdles, we will be there!

Tomorrow should be very interesting and no doubt very enlightening!  Dog sledding is already a distant memory!

Weekend Free Time

After 2 days with The Calgary Board of Education we earned our weekend getaway to the mountains. We woke up to a snowy landscape on Saturday morning and with some trepidation I took to the wheel and headed north west (we think!). The roads had been graded with a combination of dirt, gravel and salt and weren't too bad as long as it didn't get too slushy. I found a fellow cautious traveller, tucked in behind and just followed!

We stopped in at Canmore on the way to our ultimate destination, Lake Louise. We walked the Main Street, it was very cold close to 0C. On to Banff, where we did some shopping - some warmer clothes to suit the 'arctic' conditions was in order. We arrived at Lake Louise late afternoon and the weather had cleared so we were keen to get some photos of this picturesque spot while we could.

Sunday morning two of us headed out early for a hike, -16C I might add, thank goodness for the purchases made yesterday! All 3 of us returned to Lake Louise in near perfect conditions to update our touristy photo shots with the sun at a better angle. We then travelled back down to Canmore to try a new adventure - dog sledding! The best part was actually driving your own sled, not many companies allow this but it was so good to be in control, it really added to the challenge! Not to mention driving the sled over a frozen lake.

Sunday night back in Calgary and we are preparing for the next four days in schools. Colleen has done so much work in setting this up for us, we don't intend to waste a minute!

Food for thought

In the first few days at the CBE, many in depth conversations have been had. The following points are simply "food for thought", and something that can possibly be explored.

- Ideas - video for Numeracy and Literacy in the world - Great for a beginning presentation on Numeracy and Literacy.  (See Alberta website)

- A Loxton example of how integrated learning could be used to provide student feedback through different curriculum lenses could be in English and Ag. The students gather information for a Wine Making assignment (Ag) and then learn the structure of the text type needed for this task (English). The Ag teacher could then mark and provide feedback on the content, while the English teacher marks and provides feedback on the Literacy skills.

- Idea - buy a flip camera or any effective camera for each teacher to film activities/ new strategies in practice. Good for sharing, providing evidence and observe own practice.

Effective teaching practices:
- Consider purchasing either: 4-5 whiteboards on classroom walls, buying mini whiteboards enough for one person or whiteboard tables.

- iPads have been discussed regularly as an effective resource in teaching. More investigation will occur when we visit schools this week.

- Using google to share and submit work from students and teachers. It is more than just a search engine.
e.g google drive, google chat, google plus
- could this link in with Day map?
-schools need to consider the infrastructure required.

- Need to weigh up the value of written comments at mid semester reports compared to written feedback, telephone conversations and interviews throughout each semester. Research has proven that students improve with timely and pertinent feedback.

- Make more use of email communication with parents. Could this be through Daymap?

- If a reporting system was to change, the school would need to consider what they are willing to give up, in order for teachers to provide more ongoing communication.

- When introducing a new concept/idea into a school, what is the school willing to give up? Through continuously adding, teachers become stressed, some things need to be put aside in order to be more effective/efficient.

- If considering changes in the reporting system:
Improve the feedback shared with parents in parent/ teacher interviews by providing parents with concrete information on what their child needs to work on, but first provide information on what they are good at.

- Is making a phone call to a parent an invitation or a teacher just 'off loading' and making it their problem?

-Unlike Canada's Provincial test, our NAPLAN occurs early term 2, which means we can use the data to work with those students in the latter part of the year. Similarly the ACER testing that we do at Loxton High School in Maths and English occurs at the start of the year, which provides specific
information on areas of weakness that can then be addressed. Retesting is then done at the end of the
year to see improvements made.

We just wanted to capture some of these ideas while they were fresh in our minds as a way of sharing with others.

Love the Calgary school buses - 'Cheese Wagons'

Another Perspective From CBE

We met with Kirk Newman who works in Learning Services at the CBE - Specialist Mathematics is his focus. Whilst this is his area of speciality he was very knowledgeable in all aspects of education because he is actively engaged in schools so often. This is what we learned:

Importance of integrated learning:
- Important for teachers across the curriculum to 'surface' (Kirk often used this word meaning - to raise awareness) the numeracy involved in their subject, not necessarily teach the numeracy skills. Teach the links!
Rather students could collect  the data and take this information to a Maths lesson to analyse and interpret. Students could then take this information back to their original classroom for further discussion. Integrated Learning!!!
- We should be providing student feedback through different curricular lenses (see Blog - Food for Thought).
- Kirk really expressed the importance of integrated learning throughout the curriculum for students to learn numeracy and literacy skills.
- He was very excited to share an integrated learning program that exists between Physical Education and Science, which is occurring at Centennial High School. We are hoping to learn more about this when we go there.


From Year 10, classes are streamed:
-They are looking at this at present, studying the Finnish model. The question is whether we are encouraging an economic, social gap.
Suggested novels to read on this debate -
'Bounce' - explores talent over effort. 'Growth mind set' by Carol Dweck - focuses on the idea of a fixed mind set.

Early intervention is so important e.g K-3. Greater success holding back students in K. Has been seen as more beneficial than holding back students compared to when they are older.

In Year 11 there is only one semester of English and Maths.
Year 12 - Must study Year 12 English for a semester. In order to get into university students must study the highest level of English and achieve a minimum of 75%.

The Flipped Classroom - Students go home with the teacher's filmed lesson, then come to class to practise with the teacher for problem solving purposes.
Idea - buy a flip camera for each teacher to film activities/ new strategies in practice. Good for sharing, providing evidence and observe own practice.

Effective teaching practices:
- 4-5 whiteboards in a classroom spread around the walls or table whiteboards. This allows students to work on problems in a group. Allows students to engage in conversations with others. Students teaching students. As the teacher comes by, the group needs to be able to explain their reasoning for their answer. (Literacy skills come to the surface - effective communication skills). Teachers have found that students are more prepared to take a risk and share ideas when they know the work isn't permanent.
- iPads have a lot of great resources. Starting to consider students bringing their own devices and provide students access to the intranet by using their own student ID and password.
- Advanced placement classes - 36-40 kids. Lower classes - smaller numbers (Special Ed arrangements sounds similar to LHS)
- Using Google to share and submit work from students and teachers. Not just using it as a search engine.
e.g Google Drive, Google Chat, Google Plus

K-9 year levels going to a similar reporting system to Loxton High e.g the use of descriptors.  They will be using a 4 point indicator e.g successful, emerging. This reporting system will be mandatory from September 2014. This will help students know where they are at. It will help prevent an 'A' being different from one school to the next.
Parent/ teacher interviews twice a year. Only have 2 reports a year, which have no comments. Removal of comments is in the hope to improve the ongoing communication with parents. More formative assessment along the way will help provide immediate feedback.
In changing their reporting system they needed to determine what they would stop doing to be able to start improving their communication with parents and students. They also saw a need for teachers to improve the feedback provided in parent/ teacher interviews. Teachers were asked to provide parents with concrete information on what their child needs to work on, but first provide information on what they are good at.
They also need to think about the purpose of a phone contact, is it an invitation or a teacher just 'off loading' and making it their problem. Need to make it an invitation to work together.

NAPLAN = Provincial Achievement Test in Canada - summative assessment
Tested in years 3,6 (English and Maths skills). In year 9 it tests skills in English, Maths, Science and Social Studies (History).
Moving away from conducting the Provincial Achievement tests at the end of the year, as the information gathered was not being used effectively. Those students have moved on and the next cohort of students in year 9 could have another set of weaknesses. They are hoping to move the test to the beginning of the year, which will include students completing a written and computer assessment. The results will be immediate, providing teachers with an opportunity to plan the curriculum based on students' learning needs.
What they look for in the data at a system level:
-success in certain areas across the year levels e.g. regression. They then look at why this is happening.

At a School level:
-principals have to study the results. From this they need to write a school improvement plan - programming changes.

We were so grateful to Kirk for giving up his afternoon to talk to us. We hope he is doing well in his ice hockey tournament in Canmore. We drove through that town today keeping an eye out for him but our paths didn't cross. We look forward to staying in contact.


  Here we are supporting The Calgary Flames.