Blog Posts

With all that has transpired in this country and in Europe over the last few weeks, it is easy to slip into despair. However, when you work with and in service of children it is both difficult and unhealthy to live in that space. I had the distinct pleasure of meeting with a group of eight students from Robert Bateman Secondary last week, and true to form, they not only affirmed the importance of our work, but lifted my spirits about the fundamental importance of our ongoing journey to deepen student learning experiences in our schools.  

Empowering language proficiency and fostering global citizenship in the additional language classroom

“To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world.” - Chinese Proverb

I have a hope that one day we will not have to celebrate Black History Month, that our society, discourse and school curricula will be redolent with the contributions and experiences of Black Canadians, that Black students in our schools will be proud of who they are, that they will see their history and culture in the ecology of their school experiences, and that they will not suffer the legacy of prejudice and racism as their previous generation had.

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.

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.

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. 

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.