Blog Posts

There are many words to describe our experiences with the fall and early winter of 2021. Does disillusionment resonate with anyone? Disillusionment is a phase that researchers have used to describe the overwhelming feeling and challenges experienced in November and December on the roller coaster ride of first year teaching. More than any other year I think this phase could describe many of our experiences. The good news? The same researchers find that following disillusionment, beginning teachers experience rejuvenation, reflection, and anticipation for the adventures teaching brings.

Reflecting on the teaching and learning that is happening in our middle schools, there are many bright spots among the challenging territory we have been navigating this year. This confirms the commitment and dedication that our teachers have towards ensuring equitable and inclusive classroom environments. As we continue our progress towards our collective goals of improved reading, numeracy, and social-emotional competence, it is essential to anchor this work in our understanding of how our actions impact students and their success in our schools.

Over the last few years, it has been my practice to post a “Top 3” January blog related to our educational transformation efforts and ways these ideas might be manifested in the coming twelve months.

When I was recently asked to share with some of my colleagues how our school district was handling the challenges related to the recent rainstorms and flooding, I could not help but reflect on the numerous calamities we have experienced as a community over the last decade. In addition to the pandemic and disastrous flooding of the last three weeks, our community has endured more than its fair share of tragedies. We have lost more students from a range of misfortune too difficult to recount here.

On the heels of our decision to open some of our schools last week, several high school students wrote a version of this letter below to me:

Dear Dr. Godden,

On behalf of several students in the Abby school district, we would like to request that you close the school district completely for the remainder of the week as well as thank you for your prompt decision making in this unfortunate situation. 

This year, secondary schools are engaging in professional inquiry questions that help educators learn about the inquiry cycle and experience strategies that they can use in their classrooms with students. Teacher inquiries focus on the five key underpinnings of inquiry: questioning and curiosity, engagement, student agency, assessment and evidencing, and competency development. Keeping true to our triple-track agenda, where we model and experience what we want for our students, teachers exercised their agency by selecting which underpinning they wished to focus on.

Kaitlyn Yates, LSS Teacher at Dr. R. Bondar Elementary school recently experienced the power of student involvement while including her student in his IEP meeting. The student was able to share insight to some of the concerns staff was observing, was open to acknowledging his challenges and eager to collaborate in co-planning a signal to draw upon when feeling overwhelmed, like a break system.

It is an exciting time to be a literacy teacher. Teaching literacy is a complex job, as it encompasses many discreet parts, each being an important piece in developing a skilled reader. If you visit our elementary schools, you will see many examples of how our teachers are meeting the literacy learning needs of our students in engaging and joyful ways. The Scarborough Reading Rope helps to illustrate these essential components of learning how to read and how interdependent they are.

The ELL Department has continued to build our relationships and learn from colleagues locally and worldwide who are leading culturally sustaining pedagogy. We are continually incorporating, modelling and developing practices that embody all aspects of the Abbyschools Equity Framework. Below are just a few examples of some of the great work that is happening in our district.

As a way of keeping our focus on the teaching and learning in our schools, I have drawn a distinction between the “work”, our primary focus on providing for the educational needs of our students, and the “weather”, the conditions under which we do this work. In uncertain times if we are not careful, we sometimes confuse the two. While it is clearly important to ensure that we are following all the public health protocols, caution must be extended to ensure that this does not become the primary focus of our discourse and practice.