Chairs at the Table

I promise that this will be my last conference or workshop post for the next little while!

I really didn't want to be away from my students or my school again, but this was a learning opportunity I didn't want to miss. In addition to the various teaching roles I have (teacher-librarian, ESL teacher, STEM teacher, guidance teacher), I am also the PoR, otherwise known as a Position of Responsibility, otherwise known as the Chair. Chairs in elementary schools serve many functions. The school board arranged a day for chair people to gather for some professional learning. I won't write up my description of the day like I have with the various conferences I've recently attended; instead I'll do a quick recap of highlights for me.

1) Setting the Day Up for Success with Jason T.  = I liked how deliberate everything was, from grouping us to sit in our Family of Schools areas, to providing the coloured index cards for Traffic Lights that were a no-tech equivalent to Plickers ("reading the room" in a quick way - speaking of which, I really wish I knew where in my own building I lost my Plicker cards ...), to providing a QR code with the slide deck and a virtual "parking lot" for questions.

2) School Improvement Plan with Linda E. = I was surprised to hear about how few schools were as intimately involved with uploading files to the SIP Monitoring Tool. I appreciated Linda's candor when explaining how and why certain things were included in the template.

3) ESL with Keethai's representatives = I needed that reminder about where to find the junior and intermediate division social studies and science lessons and resources tailored for multilingual learners. I'm nervous about moving from TRELLIS to Power School for ESL reporting, but the rationale is sound.

4) Literacy with George J. = I have heard George talk about the six literacy practices you should do daily with students, but my co-chair made a great point that this could be the foundation for some useful PLC conversations.

5) Pop-Up PoR Concerns facilitated by several people = It was helpful to discuss pressing issues related to being chair people, from the stress of being an "emotional bridge" to clarification on our roles. I'm not sure we found concrete answers, but it was nice to be heard and our PLC and union steward models I shared with our break-out group seemed to intrigue a lot of people.

6) Math with Jason T (the "other one") = I appreciated how Jason explained to us that we need to be data hunters rather than data gatherers; it's easy to collect satellite data (EQAO, report cards) and map data (test scores, surveys) but we should focus on street data (student work samples, interviews) to give us a true picture of what is going on with math education in our schools.

7) AI with Jason T (the "first one") = Jason reminded us that we do not have to use AI in our classrooms. The second of the officially Ministry mandated AI learning will happen on the last day of school. I am happy that Jason took us through the "shallow end exploration" through Google Classroom (which I wasn't aware of - I knew more about the "deep end exploration" by using Gemini). He reminded us to make clear with students our guidelines (personal as teachers and as a school board) related to AI use, and encouraged us to focus on process rather than product.

It was delightful to see former students in the halls after the professional learning day was done. (Even though the host high school is not our feeder school, several of our students chose to attend.) It was also great to see many familiar faces. We talked about Chomp Saws and Tracey Donaldson and I filmed a video that CSL submitted as part of our response to IFLA's new School Library Manifesto. (Thank you Tracey!!)

The list of topics I want to circle back to on my blog grows longer and longer. I want to mention my recent social studies lessons and how we authentically addressed bias in a non-judgmental way. I want to talk about how I'm trying to celebrate home languages in my ESL program when their over-reliance prevents some of the students from progressing as far as they might (and can lead to some conflicts). I want to share some of the great articles that I've been co-writing with others in between the various demands on my time. What I'm sure to write about next week will be a big-time visit scheduled for Tuesday. Stay tuned!