The SHIFT Blog

I really enjoy our April Professional Development day in Halton.  It a chance for our various program areas to get together in one central site to do some sharing.  This past Friday, the Business, Computers, Math and Science teachers from around Halton gathered at Craig Kielburger Secondary School to hear about some of the innovative things that are happening around the board. The day started with a session on Equity.  The student reflections about equity that we were provided were a sobering reminder that there is always more that we can do to create safe and inclusive communities in our schools.  After reading and reflecting on these quotes we watched a short video on equity by our Director, Stuart Miller.  It feels good to work in a board that values student voice and equity.  I was glad to start the day this way. This was followed by learning sessions that we got to choose.  I started my learning off by listening to Kristy Morris...

A few weeks ago, six teachers at our school volunteered to become students for a day.  Each of us was given our own timetable, we were banned from our regular offices, and we were expected to eat lunch in the cafeteria.  After a day of learning, we made some initial observations which you can read about here .  Last Thursday we all (finally!) found ourselves in the same room for a more in-depth debrief.  So what did we learn from our collective time pretending to be students in our own school? TECHNOLOGY Bryn, true to the student experience, waited in line in our library the morning of to sign out a Chromebook for the day.  This sounded hilarious to us.  It also impressed us that Bryn would go that extra mile for the student experience.  However, it reflected something important in our student community (and we are willing to bet the majority of student communities) and that is that students rely on technology a great deal.  It’s important ...

Oh hey...in addition to road tripping, we've also been working on The Case for Community Building. How do you build community?  We'd love to know!

A requirement about being part of The Shift  is that we travel to other schools around the board.  We do this so that we can get perspectives on the innovative things that are happening in all schools.  We also want to help people share their thinking.  The profession of teaching can’t grow if everyone always works in a bubble.  A few weeks ago we had a flurry of travel and unfortunately haven’t been able to write about our experiences until now.  So...where did we go and what did we see? Rethinking Furniture We had the opportunity to visit Lester B Pearson High School to get a first hand viewing of some classroom furniture that rethinks the instructional flow of a classroom.  We tried rocking chairs and stools ( Matt always calls dibs on the rocker ) that encourage movement as a tool to help keep students focused. We saw a variety of smart, well thought out tables as well, The discussion with classroom teachers was honest, exploratory and exc...

It’s 12:25.  Jamie is ten minutes into Grade 10 Boys Phys Ed.  He is dripping with sweat and all he is doing is goofing around with a basketball.  He’s wondering, just how did I end up in this situation?  What he doesn’t know is that in twenty minutes he’ll be suited up in road hockey gear playing goal for twenty moderately aggressive students who want to take a shot on net.  How did he get here? Matt Coleman, Andreea Stoica, Jamie Mitchell, Bryn Dewar, Ashley Stephenson and Sahar Monzavi on the steps at the beginning of the school day Flash back 4 hours to when six teachers agreed to become students for the day.  We gathered on the steps before the bell at the start of the day, waiting with the other students, grabbed a quick photo to mark our day, and after Oh Canada, off we went to our various classes.  Our lead guidance counsellor, Tracey Forde, helped craft our timetables, as guidance counsellors so expertly do, so between the 6 of us, w...