Thirteen boards in running for 2008 Premier’s Award for School Board Innovation and Excellence
Thirteen projects are in contention for the $3000 Premier’s Award. The ASBA presents the award annually in recognition of the unique role school boards play in launching projects which improve student learning. The Premier’s Award will be presented Nov. 18 at the ASBA’s annual general meeting. Read these summaries compiled by Teresa Ergezinger.
Building Speech and Language Capacity
Calgary Catholic Schools
The Calgary Catholic School District, Building Speech and Language Capacity Project, developed to support Grade 1 teachers in the regular classroom, addresses the needs of students with communication disabilities/delays. Building on the district’s work with the Calgary Health Region, the initiative provides teachers with resources to meet students’ heath-related learning needs when their instructional programming was negatively impacted as a result of a regional shortage of Speech-Language Pathologists. This need was particularly evident to teachers when Kindergarten children with significant communication disabilities/delays moved into Grade 1. A resource binder was created and all Grade 1 teachers were required to attend a professional development in-service focused on articulation, receptive language, expressive language, phonological awareness and social language. Evidence suggests the early intervention provided to students through this resource has reduced the need for speech-language services through the Calgary Health Region and the regional Student Health Partnership.
Inspiring Hearts and Minds – Futures Planning at CRPS
Canadian Rockies School Division
The Canadian Rockies Public Schools futures planning process “Inspiring Hearts and Minds” was designed to surface key directions for moving further towards creating a learning organization and a 21st century approach to education and learning in their schools. The process is meant to achieve the following: identify community values, education trends and the forces of change affecting education; determine future directions for public education in the Bow Valley; inform future CRPS strategic planning and decision making; create actions that will support achievement of the CRPS mission; challenge the status quo thinking about what is important for children and their development and what learning environments (classrooms) look like; examine how to address the desire for access to a broad range of programs within small schools; examine how to enliven program delivery and increase engagement with students; engage stakeholders (students, teachers, administration, parents, and community) to identify key directions for action; and create dialogue between the key stakeholders. The final report including key directions was developed by the stakeholders through a planning group and key innovative initiatives are being implemented in Phase 2 this year.
Career Focused Education (CFE) Framework
Edmonton Public Schools
Recognizing that schools were experiencing challenges with the implementation of Alberta Education’s Career and Technology Studies (CTS) program, the board of trustees in 2002 approved a comprehensive strategy to help students transition from school into post-secondary education studies and into the workforce. The Career Focused Education (CFE) Framework was developed to provide teachers with supplementary tools, resources and program delivery options to support the teaching of the CTS program. The goal is to ensure that every junior and senior high school student is equipped with the skills, attitudes and abilities required to complete high school and pursue their own unique interests after graduation. Developed, implemented and monitored by the district’s curriculum department, the CFE framework initially synthesized the original individual learner career pathway work outlined in the CTS program into relevant programs for teachers. Teachers and school counsellors are provided with the tools to help students develop learning plans and create their own graduate profile documents, which outline their future goals and the post-secondary education or workplace training they require to achieve those goals.
Partnership between Golden Hills School Division and the Royal Tyrrell Museum – Locally Developed Course: Palaeontology 15
Golden Hills School Division
Palaeontology 15 is a completely unique course developed for grades 10-12 students in Alberta. This course gives students broader exposure to science and takes advantage of the unique Alberta geology and world-class experts in Palaeontology at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller. The partnership between Golden Hills School Division and the museum provides in-school classroom instruction with an opportunity to learn laboratory and excavation techniques at the museum through actual or video-conferenced field trips. Using the power of Supernet, students are able to access this course and the scientific expertise at the Museum through the Alberta video-conferencing network. A few of the program goals are to provide variety in course selection and access to a unique learning environment/field of study that in the past was not available to school populations through an engaging delivery method; to develop geological knowledge in students of a worldwide heritage site; and to strengthen the concept of basic scientific processes critical for science students at the secondary and post-secondary levels.
A Unique Tool in a Teacher’s Toolbox
Grande Yellowhead Regional Division
Grande Yellowhead Regional Division has been recognized in numerous professional publications for its unique and effective approach to its innovative educational options and virtual field trips using video-conferencing technology. This technology allows students to be exposed to additional resources and educational opportunities that children in a rural school setting may not readily have access to and encourages the bridging of cultural differences. This is possible with a full-time coordinator whose passion and ability to customize and build unique programs continues to challenge how we teach today and adds another strategy or “tool” for the teacher in their toolbox. The district continuously strives to provide value added educational opportunities for students by enhancing instructional strategies, expanding program delivery and developing unique and custom-based sessions for the benefit of all, thus achieving the goal of providing unique, valuable and attractive education. In the last eight years, Grande Yellowhead has moved from two one-hour enhancement programs to over 170 sessions, over 40 courses and 12 collaborative partnerships with content providers world-wide.
Decanting Facilities – Bassano/Duchess
Grasslands Public Schools
At a time when there are escalating costs and labour shortages in the construction industry, how does a school board keep the quality of student education in the forefront when dealing with two major modernizations and another small school in desperate need of a new gymnasium? At Grasslands Public Schools, you think outside the box to create an innovative approach to minimize the impact of the dilemma. In 2007 the district received approval from Alberta Education and Alberta Infrastructure for the construction of temporary fabric domes to be used instead of renting temporary portables or alternate facilities. Many of the communities were more than willing to allow the use of hockey areas, community halls, etc. but for longer periods of time this was not practical nor does it maintain the cohesiveness that accompanies housing students at the school site. These structures may not only be excellent temporary facilities but may also be the solution to emergent space needs and a viable alternative to a gymnasium or activity centre. Grasslands proposed this project as an innovative decanting solution and have already received many inquiries from other school boards and communities regarding this type of facility.
Greater St. Albert Catholic School iLearn Centres
Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools
The iLearn Centres create a technology-infused learning environment which provides students with increased access to broader program choices, increased flexibility in scheduling, and access to a variety of learning modalities to meet their diverse learning needs. All students attending an iLearn Centre become motivated, self directed learners who can work collaboratively while using various technologies. The iLearn Centres seek to increase student engagement, motivation, achievement and retention as a means of increasing course and high school completion rates. This learning model demonstrates what school jurisdictions can accomplish when they lead their schools, students and parents to think beyond the traditional to transform the way, place and time in which students learn. By providing high school students with greater flexibility, independence, and program choice, high school completion becomes more easily accomplished and more attractive to all students. The iLearn Centres model is literally changing the way students “go to school” and is leading the province in distributed learning initiatives.
Building Capacity through Partnerships in Rural Schools
Horizon School Division
As the Board began to experience the challenge of population decline in small communities, they identified capacity in rural schools as a priority for program development. Recognizing the school as the pillar of the community, alignment with community aspirations and goals was established. The learning dimension of the program includes a hockey school which attracts over 20 students annually, a baseball academy which brings in over 20 students from across Canada, a program which offers services for children that require early assistance with learning, and a partnership with five major food processors in the area and government agencies that introduces youth to the careers and opportunities available in the food industry. The social/personal dimension of the program includes a partnership with Alberta Mental Health to provide families with the skills to make healthy choices to prevent and reduce the risk of physical and mental health problems. A partnership with the community of Lomond was also formed to build a multi-purpose facility that will function as a regulation size gymnasium for the purpose of secondary athletics as well as serve the needs of the community.
Student Leadership and Global Awareness
Northern Lights School Division
The Student Leadership and Global Awareness project was developed to increase student engagement in the school, local and global community and to increase student understanding and awareness of social justice issues in the local and global community. The students define change projects they believe should be accomplished, then work to raise funds in order to, for example, build schools and provide reliable water supplies to children and their families in third world countries. Another example of leadership saw students approach the local municipal district council with a plan on how newspaper that was ending up in the landfill could be recycled and won the council’s financial support to set up a recycling program in the community. Other examples of leadership include students increasing the awareness of impaired driving and volunteering to work in the soup kitchen and leaning about homelessness. All students involved in the Student Leadership and Global Awareness groups have, in effect, dropped a pebble into a pond and created many positive and far-reaching ripples. These students are excellent role models for younger students and they have learned, first hand, what the term “global citizen” means.
Project Peace (Peace River Mental Health Capacity Building Project)
Peace River School Division
Project Peace stems from a provincial initiative funded by Alberta Health and Wellness and supported by the Alberta Mental Health Board as well as Alberta Education. It is one of five original pilot sites in the province that began in 2006 and is under the direction of a management committee representing the Peace River School Division and the Holy Family Catholic Regional Division. It is considered to be an action research project that addresses the needs of adolescents on both reactive and proactive levels. Working with a community-based advisory committee comprised of key partners and community service providers, Project Peace has been successful in promoting health awareness and increasing access to mental health services in a timely manner. This project has staff members in each of the three pilot schools who work directly with grades 7-12 students and their families, as well as collaboratively with school staff. A public health nurse, funded in part by the local health authority, provides health promotion and prevention services for students in all three schools.
Development and Implementation of a Nutrition Policy by Red Deer Public Schools
Red Deer Public Schools
Responding to growing concerns over the eating habits of students and the issue of childhood obesity, the board of trustees, together with the community, recognized both the responsibility and opportunity to provide leadership that promotes healthy eating, active living and the well-being of students. The Board developed and implemented a landmark policy that established nutritional standards for the sale and distribution of food and beverages in schools and provides comprehensive instruction on nutritional health. Believing that policy was the right thing to do and recognizing that, at least initially, implementation of the policy may impact school fundraising, the Board went so far as to offer supplementary funding to offset initial losses in revenue and be responsive to their concerns. This policy has already sparked discussion and action on nutritional health in the community and among parents. It has positively impacted students and their families, staff members, and the community as a whole.
St. Albert Protestant Schools’ Preschool Program
St. Albert Protestant Separate School District
The Preschool Program is a unique initiative that blends the premise of early intervention programming for children with developmental delays while incorporating the needs of the community for quality preschool programming. This blending of two diverse needs allows for ALL children to have access to an early learning environment that is dynamic in nature. The underlying assumption, in the preschool, is that children learn by constructing knowledge in a social environment. There is evidence that all children (both typically developing and those with special needs) benefit greatly from opportunities to play and learn together in an integrated setting. The program only became a possibility through the joint efforts of the district and Alberta Education, which allowed for a unique and innovative approach that enabled the funding designated for individual children to be pooled and expended in a more efficient and effective manner. The preschool provides a positive introduction to school, learning with love, fun and enthusiasm and strives to meet all areas of a child’s development including social, emotional, cognitive and physical well-being.
Aboriginal Culture and Language Program
Yellowknife Catholic Schools
Yellowknife Catholic Schools developed the Aboriginal Language and Culture Program to increase both the knowledge of Aboriginal language and cultural awareness for the students. Targeted Aboriginal language and culture programming strives to provide every student with a holistic and authentic experience from the Dene culture. Dene education means the teaching of the language and culture of the Dene based upon the foundation of Dene perspectives or world view. This is what the elders speak of when they refer to traditional education. All students work with Dene Elders and cultural guides in an on-the-land experience that incorporates language and traditional knowledge; skills the Dene identify as integral in their relationship with the spiritual world, the land, other people and themselves; in short to understand the Dene perspective. The program serves all students in the K-12 system, as well, as students in the surrounding communities. Aboriginal language and culture staff work closely with the language experts in all of the Dogrib (Aboriginal Language) communities in Weledeh and the Tlicho region to produce quality language materials to be used in the language classroom, as well as to support Dene Kede in the regular classroom.
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