Oct 31st ILD Meeting Summary 3-4:02 PM in C-109

In Attendance: Colline Coe, June James, Kathy Cepus, Megan Simmer, Heather Hart, Brent Schieve, Stephen Koehn, Stacey Myrah, Tami Stockli, Patrice White, Michelle Johnson, Carrie Carlsen, Leah Christensen, Kristen Dorey, Chelsea Campbell, Stefan Stipp Information Update
Im wondering to what extent the BC Education Plan released by the Ministry of Education on Friday affects our work on the ILDT. In light of our current labour dispute, Im nervous about the ministrys intentions. The current environment of anger and mistrust seems like the worst possible time to introduce it. The ministry still doesnt seem to get that major change does not happen without support from teachers and getting that right now seems almost unthinkable. I also know that the devil is in the details. For example, flexibility can be a euphemism for giant classes or it can mean a fundamental change in how we teach that could be positive. Still, I am struck by the overall congruence of the Plan with our plans. For instance, the Plan states that: Curriculum will be re-designed to reflect the core competencies, skills, and knowledge that students need to succeed in the 21st Century. Reading, writing and math skill will still be emphasized. There will be more emphasis on key competencies like self-reliance, critical thinking, inquiry, creativity, problem solving, innovation, teamwork and collaboration, cross-cultural understanding and technological literacy. By having curriculum build around fewer but higher level outcomes, this plan give teachers and students more time and flexibility to explore students interests and passions. Teachers will be empowered from being the primary source of content to focus on helping students learn how to learn. There will be more flexibility and choice regarding how, when and where learning takes place, and there will be more flexibility about how students are organized. Students will play an active role in designing their own education and will be increasingly accountable for their own learning success. We believe that mentoring is key to supporting teachers professional learning both in their formative years and throughout their careers. Teachers will have increased access to learning opportunities by working with teacher mentors and each other. The ministry has stated that it wants feedback from education partners. I know that this Plan has been in the works for some time and my sense is that it will get implemented regardless of how much we protest. What does all this mean for us?

1. Person in charge for this meeting: Brent Schieve 2. Temperature Check: How are we feeling about ILD right now? Most people were a 4/5 in terms of their feelings about ILD. Adjectives included overwhelmed, excited, hopeful, uncertain, curious, stimulated, frustrated, inspired, thwarted, educational, slowly, methodically, disjointed, necessary, flagging, motivated, intrigued and uncertain. 3. Discussion of the impact of BCs new Education Plan We agreed that we should take the ministrys new plan into consideration but not be obsessed by it. We agreed that we should communicate with someone at the ministry (Marcus Bear) and Mike Mckay when job action permits to get clarification and details about ministry plans as it pertains to ILD. 4. Approve or change Stefans additions Deferred to next meeting Guiding Principles: I added definitions of # 3 and # 4 below because when I posted this on the website it looked funny without them 1. Overwhelming support- We require a very high level of support from those affected by
any changes we propose. 2. Transparent process We intend to openly communicate our processes and proposals to staff and accept responsibility for clearly communicating our plans. 3. Supportive of meaningful relationships Whatever framework we create must be supportive of the maintenance and creation of meaningful relationships within our school community.

4. Long-term sustainable Whatever framework we create must be sustainable in the long

term without putting undue stress on any part of the school community.

5. Exploration We agreed on the following three sub-categories which we will peruse in smaller working groups with regular reporting out to the entire ILD team. ILD team members will sign up for at least one of these working groups using the Doodle link. Structures Creating a time to collaborate (Professional learning community) o Visit successful PLCs o Opportunities include: teacher switches/ mentoring/ more collegiality (good model for kids), collaborative planning, collaborative innovation Exploring structures that get each of us to teach fewer students and facilitate team teaching o Junior program rather than Grade 8/9 o Integration o Would facilitate more meaningful relationships o Keeping students for two years Kids Kids lives o Poverty o Food in the classroom o Building better connections to the community o Look into kids sleep habits o Connect to feeder schools o Explore Gordon Neufelds work o Self-efficacy development

Curriculum Authentic project-based, cross-curricular learning o Great way to bridge gap between elective areas and academics o Huge field trips (bamfield, study abroad/ aboard) o Masterworks project (Island Pacific School) Assessment/ reporting o No percentages/ no grades or fewer grades o Continue work of assessment team Reducing how much we teach o Developing Essential Learning Outcomes (ELOs) for core academics which include reduced content and skills taught for mastery this is a job for departments but perhaps we have a role in helping them facilitate it (release days/ examples from other schools) Future meetings 1. How students might be involved 2. How we will measure success 3. Your ideas Next Meeting: Monday, November 7th in C-109. I propose we start as a large group, iron out any wrinkles that have come up (like how do we separate structures other than PLC from curriculum) and then split up into working groups.