Variety is what Light of Christ Catholic School Division offered its teachers for their first week back in school.
Karen Hrabinsky, superintendent for curriculum and assessment, said the week before the students go back to class has been devoted this year to a new professional development model. One size does not fit all, so rather than having one main professional development event for all, teachers were encouraged to choose from a number of sessions according to how they believed those sessions would meet their own professional development needs.
"This year we offered teachers a choice of a variety of sessions so that they could attend where they wanted to learn more," she said Tuesday.
With a focus on increasing student engagement, she said, each teacher could choose sessions they felt would be most beneficial to them in that goal.
Sessions address teaching strategies for math, reading and writing as well as look at issues such as demographics, as in the session entitled "Who are our kids?"
There were also sessions for those who teach English as an additional language, on higher order thinking skills and on zones of regulations, ways of helping students self-regulate and become accountable for their own behaviour.
There were also sessions on using mobile devices in the classroom. Together, technology and digital learning play a significant role in education, now and into the future, said Hrabinsky, and its emphasis is imperative.
The division has a policy of allowing students to bring mobile devices into the classroom. It has to be monitored, of course, she said, but by integrating mobile devices into the classroom, students learn how to use them constructively. By doing so, they also develop critical thinking, she said; students can say, "Now that I know this, how can it help me in the future?"
For example, she said, one classroom teacher has introduced students to an app for their phone to help them learn about taking measurements.
In another example, she added, students visited a car dealership for a finance class, and used their phones to capture information digitally that they could take back to the classroom.
Moodle and flipped classrooms were also session subjects. Moodle refers to a web application that can be used to create online learning sites. The flipped classroom refers to an inverted teaching method in which instruction is delivered online and the classroom is used to engage the student in the related work.
Of course, there are also faith components in the sessions. As a Catholic school division, said Hrabinsky, they work toward a "permeation of faith" across the curriculum.
"It's not just math, science and social," said Hrabinsky. "We educate the whole child."
All the sessions have been facilitated by central office staff as well as teachers from the division who were willing to share their strengths, said Hrabinsky.
The new model comes out of the division's goal to continue improving student achievement, said Hrabinsky.
"Over the past number of years, the division has been working hard to implement the new curricula that was [mandated] by the ministry of education," said Hrabinsky. "The entire division focused on the outcomes in those curricula and how to assess the students to know they achieved those outcomes."
Assessment has shown good results across the division, she said, and in order to continue to get good results the division must effectively implement and support professional development for its staff.
"Staff as well as students are learners and we need to empower our learners so they can succeed in the present as well as engage future learning and growth."
The division started the week off with an opening mass celebrated by Bishop Albert Thevenot and many of its parish priests, said Hrabinsky.
"We were also fortunate to have the Bishop speak to us as well as a guest speaker, Ken Yasinski, in the afternoon. Their message was aligned with our theme this year, Following our faith compass: Live it, Breathe it, Share it. It was a great way to begin the year in community," she said.
