Dec 2 - Ward 18 Forum

On Wednesday, Chris Spence, the TDSB's Director of Education, will speak at the Ward 18 Meeting at Birchmount C.I. at 7pm. This is a rare opportunity to learn about the TDSB's vision for our children's education. Please RSVP if you plan to attend. (Details in the poster below.)

Swimming lessons at SATEC / WA Porter

As part of the effort to keep the SATEC pool open, the aquatics team at West Scarborough Neighbourhood Community Centre will now be offering Red Cross-based swimming lessons at SATEC (WA Porter) in addition to their existing programs at WSNCC. Here's the winter program. Contact aquatics coordinator Simon Easton for more information.

EQAO: What can parents do to help?

As parents, we all know that we have a huge role to play in supporting our children’s learning. But what specifically can we do? Here’s some advice from Mr. Frenette:

• Encourage and support our children as they’re doing their homework
• Set aside focused time for reading. Have fun with it.
• Show children the value of reading for a purpose: to explore an interest, to find out information.
• Expose your children to household math: clocks, recipes, finances, counting, etc.
• Advocate for your children. Become engaged.
• Communicate with their teachers. Use the school agenda, read the classroom blog if there is one, send the teacher a note or ask for an appointment. Open communication and trust are key to success.
• Teach your children the concept of time and the importance of punctuality.
• Demonstrate your interest in school. Have a meaningful dialogue about what they’re learning.
• Use weekends and breaks to expose your children to new places, ideas and experiences.

And finally, says Mr. Frenette, parents, teachers and administrators alike must keep the big picture in mind. What is our vision for these children? It's that they'll become responsible, respectful, productive and happy adults.

I, for one, continue to be confident that Clairlea is setting our children’s feet firmly on that path.

EQAO: Clairlea's action plan

As I reported in yesterday's post on Clairlea's EQAO results, Mr. Frenette has every confidence in Clairlea students’ ability to succeed. The school is putting several programs into place to give students the resources and support they need.

As Ms. Persaud told the school in a letter when the results came out, "Student results on EQAO assessments are an important source of information about student strengths and areas needing improvement. As a school community, we use them along with other information to guide our own school improvement initiatives and instructional programs. The result of this work benefits not only your child but all students in the school. The testing results are also used by our school board and the Ministry of Education to direct attention and support where they are needed."

What that means is that Clairlea has a school improvement plan. It is too complicated and multi-faceted for me to explain here, but certain programs have already been put in place and there's more to come. Mr. Frenette reports on the plan at School Council meetings and everyone is welcome to attend (whether or not you are a voting member of Council) to learn more and to pose your questions.

Mr. Frenette also shared his views on what parents can do to support our children in the learning process. More on that in tomorrow's post.

EQAO: How did Clairlea do?

This is the second of four posts on the EQAO program. In this post, we look at Clairlea's results from 2008-09.

From the graph below, you can see that in grade 6, Clairlea is pretty close to average by most measures. You can find more detailed numbers in the school’s report – see page 10 and 11 for grade 6.

Grade 3 paints a bit of a different picture. It’s important to view these results in context, and here’s what Mr. Frenette told me.

Since only the English stream does the reading and writing tests, the total number of participants is quite low – just 23 students in grade 3 reading and writing. That means that a small number of children having difficulty can greatly affect the numbers. As you can see, Clairlea’s grade 3 mathematics score (with 53 students participating) is closer to the provincial average, though still below it.

While the school takes the results seriously and is acting on them, Mr. Frenette cautions against becoming overly concerned. He emphasizes that the EQAO test is merely a snapshot, taken at a single point in time, and that it is one of many ways of measuring student achievement at Clairlea.

In addition to the low participant numbers, Mr. Frenette acknowledges that there were certain factors last year and the previous year that may have resulted in lower scores in 2008-09. In my next post, I’ll tell you about the school’s action plan to ensure that all students at Clairlea are able to learn successfully.

“I have all the confidence in the world in our students,” Mr. Frenette concludes. “They are in good hands. Our job is to give them hope, and the resources they need to succeed.”

In the next post: Clairlea's action plan.

EQAO: The basics

As you probably already know, our school's full EQAO results are available online, but this 31-page document is difficult to interpret and hard to put into context. Clairlea vice-principal Mr. Frenette recently spent some time with me explaining Clairlea's results and its action plan.

I'll summarize that conversation over the next couple of posts. But first, some basics.

What is EQAO?

EQAO stands for Education Quality and Accountability Office. It is the province of Ontario's standardized testing program for grade 3 and grade 6. It offers a snapshot of students' abilities in reading, writing and mathematics. The test is mandatory, although exemptions are sometimes given.

Is there a different test for French immersion students?

Both French immersion and English students take the test. However, grade 3 French immersion students only take the math test, and that test is given in French. In grade 6, French immersion students do all three tests in English, just like the English stream.

See EQAO's Parent’s Guide for more information on how and when the tests are administered.

How are the tests scored?

Based on their answers, each student is assigned a level in reading, writing and math. Here’s what the levels mean:

· Level 1: Falls much below the provincial standard. (The student has demonstrated some of the required knowledge and skills in limited ways.)

· Level 2: Approaches the provincial standard. (The student has demonstrated some of the required knowledge and skills.)

· Level 3: At the provincial standard. (The student has demonstrated most of the required knowledge and skills.)

· Level 4: Surpasses the provincial standard. (The student has demonstrated the required knowledge and skills.)

In my next post: how did Clairlea do?

Parent-Teacher Interview Tips

Our School Council chair and vice-chair recently attended a conference given by People for Education. The conference organizers shared a series of useful tip sheets, which we'll reprint here from time to time. As Clairlea's parent-teacher interviews are coming up soon, we thought we'd start with this one.

(Click on image for a larger version, or on your language for versions in English, Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, French, Korean, Punjabi, Russian,Somali, Spanish, Tamil, or Urdu.)

Questions, concerns?

Here's a step-by-step guide from the Toronto District School Board on who to turn to with any questions or concerns about school or the school system. Thanks to Tami for the link!

School Council meets tonight - Nov 18

This is the agenda for tonight's School Council meeting. Unfortunately I cannot attend, but I'll post the minutes when they come out. City Councillor Adrian Heaps will be making a special appearance.

(Click on image for a larger version.)

Minutes from last month's meeting will be linked here as soon as they're online. **Here they are.

Put on your dancing shoes!

Is everyone looking forward to the Dance-a-thon on Wednesday?

This fundraiser is being organized by the School Council in support of the robotics program at Clairlea. This year, the program is being offered to grades 7 and 8, but with additional funds raised by Clairlea, it can be offered to younger grades too. The robotics program is known to increase literacy skills and build student confidence. It consists of classroom kits offered by Vex Robotics, which can be assembled by the students as part of the learning program.

Dance-a-thon pledge forms have already gone home; you can also donate online (Nov 18; Clairlea). Donations over $25 are eligible for a tax receipt, and Superintendent Dickinson has offered to match donations dollar for dollar.

Morning kindergarten, grades 1 and 2 will dance before morning recess; grades 3, 4 and 5 before lunch. After lunch we have afternoon kindergarten followed by grades 6, 7 and 8. There will be a videotron in the gym that will play videos; for the younger grades, the videos will have instructions so they'll learn some great dance moves. Parent volunteers will help to supervise.

The enthusiasm is exciting -we hope everyone will have fun. Don't forget your dancing shoes!

PA Day - and the days shift

A reminder that Friday November 13 is a PA Day. That means it's a "Day zero," meaning Monday will be Day 2.

Movie night, Nov 12

Movie night is next Thursday, Nov 12. 7pm in the gym. $2 per person, and the movie is Up.

See you there!

The growth mindset

Model Schools for Inner Cities hosted a seminar yesterday entitled "Raising Smarter Kids: how adults' attitudes can support -or undermine- children's achievement." (No pressure there, parents!)

This terrific session was given by Dona Matthews, a writer, researcher and educator.

Dr. Matthews draws a distinction between two types of mindsets that both parents and children have. The fixed mindset assumes (falsely, according to Matthews) that intelligence is fixed and stable. The fixed mindset is associated with lower achievement and lower self-esteem.*

The growth mindset sees intelligence as developing over time, with appropriately "scaffolded" opportunities to learn. The growth mindset is associated with greater confidence, risk-taking, and higher academic and career success over time.*

Dr. Matthews challenged some traditional thinking about children and intelligence. For example, she argues that people are not born smart; instead, their intelligence develops over time, with appropriate learning opportunities.

She also argues that parents should not praise their children's intelligence. This actually holds them back by making them afraid to take risks because they don't want to lose the "smart" label. Instead, we need to be praising their work, their achievements, their effort, persistence, strategies and results.

Dr. Matthews challenges our thinking regarding hard work, quick learning, failure and potential. Instead of labelling children "gifted" and putting them in segregated programs, she prefers to refer to children who have special learning needs because they are very advanced in a particular subject at a particular time. She believes those advanced needs are best met within the classroom rather than in segregated programs. She notes that any child can be advanced in a certain area at a certain time - not necessarily in all areas and not necessarily all the time.

What can parents do?

- Encourage our children to take risks

- Praise their effort and achievements, not their intelligence

- Talk to them about the concept of mindset, and the idea that their intelligence grows and changes over time

- Allow them to see failure as an opportunity to learn

- Expose them to as many different ideas, interests, activities and experiences as possible, and encourage them to pursue their interests

- Discourage perfectionism

For more information about these ideas, see Being Smart about Gifted Education by Dona Matthews and Joanne Foster (2009) and Mindsets by Carol Dweck (2006).

*Quoted from the handouts at the session.

November newsletter

The November school newsletter is now available online.

Summary of Oct 21 School Council meeting

**Updated Nov 19: here's a link to the official minutes.

My apologies for taking so long to type up a summary of the Oct 21 School Council meeting. Here are my recollections of the meeting, in a nutshell. Please send me an email with anything I've missed.

*Clairlea will be sending two Council representatives to the People for Education conference on all-day kindergarten in Ontario. Ginnie and Tami will report back on what they learn.

*The Principal reported that safety continues to be a top priority at Clairlea. Card-readers have been installed at certain doors with more to come. Ms. Persaud asks that all parents respect the traffic guidelines at the school and park only where permitted. All students have received a refresher on school bus safety. Ms. P. was pleased to note that Clairlea will continue to have a nursing student on-site into 2010.

*Each year, every School Council is asked to update its principal and vice-principal profiles; these are essentially guidelines for what we are looking for in that role. Your thoughts on this are most welcome.

*Vice-Principal Frenette reported on Clairlea's EQAO results. There was considerable discussion on the meaning and significance on the results. Mr Frenette has kindly agreed to spend more time with me explaining these results and the school's action plan, so that I can pass that information on to you. More on that soon.

*Treasurer Ann Silver presented the School Council finances, and there was a discussion about future fundraising plans and areas of spending, including yearbook, grade 8 and kindergarten graduation and other school projects. 2010-11 Fundraising and budget planning meetings will take place in the spring.

*Ms. Rule reported that Clairlea is now a Silver Level Eco School! Congratulations to all involved. She also reported that the Grade 4-8 World Cup soccer is now finished, and that the Grades 1-3 are now playing soccer at recess.

*The Junior-Intermediate Drama Club (grades 5-8) will be putting on a play this winter. Follow Ms. Park's blog for future details.

*Council approved $160 to fund a photography project for the Home School class.

*The Clairlea Fun Fair will take place on June 12, 2010. We're actively seeking volunteers as well as donations for the silent auction. Please email us if you're able to help.

*A Dance-A-Thon will take place on Wednesday November 18. This is a fundraiser to support a robotics program at Clairlea. Details to come.

I think that was about it - but the official minutes will capture everything in detail. Please let us know if you want to join the School Council's email list.