Exciting Times

Each year the Ministry of Education sends a delegation of Achievement Officers to visit the various boards for an annual review of progress towards achievement of the goals set out in the Board Learning and Improvement Plan (BLIP). Yesterday, Ms. Lima and I were presenters for the TCDSB review meeting. We were asked to speak to the first goal of the BLIP regarding increasing student engagement in our schools. This was not only a tremendous opportunity for me and Ms. Lima to share the great work of her students but most importantly it speaks to the progress being made here at St. John. The amazing work that her class is doing was well-received by all in attendance. St. John is one of four schools from across the board that was chosen to participate in a collaborative inquiry project. Throughout this school year, we have visited three schools with an inquiry focus, attended regular group discussions and gathered numerous valuable resources to help develop an inquiry stance at St. John. 

 Next up, we have the St. John Food Fair run by our Grade 8 team on May 29th from 1:00 - 3:00pm in the gym. After watching the documentary FOOD INC. our Grade 8 students started to ask and explore some pretty deep topics regarding the food industry. A visit to Fresh City Farms @freshcityfarms followed fairly soon after and now the Food Fair will bring this important issue to the attention of our St. John community. This event is the perfect example of the intellectual engagement that comes from a curriculum approach based the "real world" and based on student voice. 

     

This project is the quintessential example of what 21C learning embodies: student engagement, real world connections, critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, communication, community connections and purposeful use of technology. I want to congratulate Ms. Bain, Mme. Battista and Ms. Horbay for being open enough to student inquiry that the kids could put this big event together. The Toronto Catholic District School Board is very excited about this event and will be represented by Angela Gauthier (associate director of the board), John Shanahan (our Area Superintendent), Lori Di Marco (Superintendent of 21st Century Learning), Mike Wetzel (TCDSB elearning coordinator), Jan Murphy (TCDSB School Effectiveness Lead), the entire TCDSB Academic Information and Communication Technology Team with a possible appearance by the Director of the TCDSB Bruce Rodrigues and our local MP Matthew Kellway. We look forward to welcoming our guests. Parents are also most welcome to attend.

 We are so proud of the efforts of our teachers to embrace an inquiry approach to learning. St. John is truly  moving in positive and  innovative direction thanks to a wonderful staff, an energized student body and a highly supportive parent community.

CSAC Funding Proposal

St.John The Path Forward from The Digital Frontline

Moving St. John Forward

Every school in the board has a "School Improvement Team" (SIT) that is made up of teachers and administrators. SIT's job is to develop the "School Learning and Improvement Plan" and aid in its implementation. At St. John, we are blessed with a truly dedicated and visionary team. This year we have worked hard to provide a direction for programming at St. John that will enhance student learning in a transformative manner. Our goal has been to create the conditions for our students to take charge of their own learning. Success in our rapidly changing world can best be ensured through a life-long learning mindset with a strong foundation of faith.

Our discussions led to the creation of a mission, vision and values statement that highlighted our goal of fostering life long learning. The whole team had input throughout the process but Ms. Bain and Ms. Burke were able to best articulate our ideas. All events, programs and resource expenditures at St. John will be shaped by our mission and our School Learning and Improvement Plan (SLIP). 

MISSION:
To empower life-long learning and a faith-inspired global outlook.

VISION:
A community of educators nurturing students to become innovative, engaged and socially aware members of the 21st Century Global Community.

VALUES:
curiosity, inclusivity, innovation, creativity, hope, empathy, faith, and wonder

Posters for the mission, vision and values are up in the building already but the idea is to do a full unveiling and implementation in September of the 2013-14 school year. 

The goal now is to create the strategic framework that will put these ideals into practice. Mr. Sousa, SIT and I strongly believe that we must have an action mentality to support our students. Our mission, vision and values are useless without the right strategy to breath life into them. We are still in the "thinking" stage but a broad framework is developing. 

We believe that a plan built around 1) Inquiry - an approach to learning that values student curiosity and interest 2) Self-Regulation skills - developing students ability to control their actions, learning and assessment and 3) Digital Access - provide the tech tools necessary to accelerate learning and broaden the scope of learning. Of these three, Digital Access is FAR and away the most capital intensive but thanks to our partnership with CSAC with have made tremendous inroads in this area.

Stay tuned as we share details regarding strategic planning!  

A New Direction

On Monday May 6th and 7th, I was lucky enough to attend the Connect 2013 Conference in Niagara Falls. The focus of this conference was 21st Century Learning and the growing role that technology plays in our schools. Nearly fifty TCDSB administrators, teachers, coordinators, superintendents and business leaders  made the trip to this ENORMOUS conference. Some of the sessions validated long held beliefs of mine while others opened me up to brand new possibilities for student learning. Most importantly though, I gained some new insights into how we can all help put St. John in a leading position in regards to innovative and highly effective practice.

A session hosted by George Couros (@gcouros), an Alberta school district leader, gave me pause to consider how our St. John Community Connection could be better utilized. Mr. Sousa and I have worked hard this year to share pictures (and other media sources) via email and this site to give parents a window into student learning at St. John. I think that we can go another step further by regularly blogging on this site. Regular sharing on this site can help build community and mobilize the amazing resources available to this school to advance student learning.

The goal is to blog at least twice a week about what's going on at St. John. The calendar can speak to dates and events; this blog will focus on the insights gained from activities and learning. We want to share our thoughts and concerns in an open manner. We invite dialogue with the community through the comments feature found at the bottom of every post.

Let the blogging begin...

SK - Grade 1 Inquiry Project

Earlier this year, St. John was chosen to participate in a TCDSB Collaborative Inquiry Project. Ms. Lima, Ms. Valentini and Mr. Kerr have been working with teachers from several schools to develop a better understanding of inquiry based learning. As part of the project, our team has been lucky enough to observe inquiry based learning in action at Bishop Strachan's Reggio Based Primary Model and the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute for Child Study Lab School U of T. The goal of the project is to empower students to become more engaged and in control of their learning. The results have been amazing! Through inquiry based learning, curriculum expectations become grouped together and subjects are taught in a more integrated manner.

The video below is a quick peek at the Grade 1inquiry into snails (Science and Language Arts rolled into one):

Academic Priority: Learning Goals and Success Criteria

The St. John School Learning and Improvement Plan is a 3 year roadmap towards improving student success. A core priority identified is Assessment for, as and of learning through a focus on "Learning Goals and Success Criteria". These elements help give students a clearer idea of the road to success. Students have the opportunity to become better at self-regulation and take more power over their own learning. As a staff, we have identified "life-long learning" as key to our mission. Learning Goals and Success Criteria empower our students to become life-long learners.

  To view our School Learning and Improvement Plan, please visit: http://portal.sliderocket.com/BBGQJ/SLIP-2012-2015

  For more information about Learning Goals and Success Criteria, please view the document below:

St. John Read-a-thon