It All Begins With A Great Leader...

I have so much information to share about the non-categorical resource model implemented at my school this year. There have been many highs and lows. Some days, I worry that we are not providing the level of support our colleagues need to differentiate instruction in an engaging and meaningful way for our students. Our primary goal this year was to join colleagues in the classroom and support them by creating a combination of teacher directed, teacher selected activities, as well as learner centered, and learner selected activities.

One thing I do know is that it all begins with a great leader. I am very lucky this year to be in a school where our leader cares about each and every student. Within the last month, she has challenged us on our beliefs about differentiated instruction and teaching in an all-girls school. She asked us to think about differentiation not as a curriculum but as a way of thinking about teaching and learning. As Carol Ann Tomlinson says, "differentiated learning is just good teaching." At our all girls school, we are challenged to think about what we want the girls to know, understand, and be able to do? In addition, we are also challenged to think about how the girls benefit from learning in an all girls environment. What are we doing instructionally to get our girls to achieve their goals as well as the prescribed learning outcomes? How are our girls showing what they know? Do our girls persevere and know what to do when things get tough? Are they flexible in their thinking? Can they work successfully with others who learn and understand differently from them? Most importantly, how is the learning engaging for our students?

All of our girls spend most of the day with their peers in the regular classroom. We know that our students differ in so many ways... from interest and learning profiles, to ability levels, medical needs, talents, gifts, learning styles, etc. It makes sense for our resource team to work collaboratively with our colleagues. We have begun to see some beginning successes:

1. We have documented increased academic learning and can show how we are trying to make the curriculum accessible to many of our identified students.
2.  We see the girls continuing to develop increased confidence and willingness to take risks and persevere when things get tough
3. We are teaching girls with identified needs the skills they need to become good self-advocates at any age
3. We get to observe how the girls think, learn, and create in different ways -- it is truly wonderful to see and is most natural when they get to learn together.

In my next blog I hope to share student examples from Kindergarten to Grade 12. I would love feedback and see if there are other resource teachers who are trying a similar model.

A Lost Opportunity...

A few weeks ago, my son came home and indicated that he had to do some tests. I wasn't able to get much information from him other than he was scared at first. His name was called over the loudspeaker requesting that he go to a certain room. My son got lost along the way. Fortunately, a teacher was able to help him out. Once he arrived at the room, he was met by a resource teacher who indicated that she needed to do an evaluation to assess his needs and strengths.

I was so disheartened because my husband and I were excluded from the process. We didn't have the opportunity to be partners in our son's assessment.  I had so many questions and couldn't get any answers until the assessment was completed and scored. Later, I found out that a Level B assessment was administered without our knowledge or consent. Apparently, it is not required in some school districts to ask for parent consent. Why does this happen? Are there other options being practiced in schools to ensure that parents are equal partners in the assessment process? Do other school districts invite parent consent when Level B assessments, such as the Kaufmann, are administered to our children during school hours?

Why am I posting this information? Well, as a mom and resource teacher, I now know exactly what it  feels like when we forget that parents are our partners. They have a right be involved in their child's learning, especially when our children are being described as struggling or advanced learners.

Soon, end of year report cards and learning support letters will be issued at my school. My goal is to make sure parents have an opportunity to talk with me. It isn't too late to engage in a dialogue about how parents can help their children learn over the summer. Handing out assessment information the last hour of the day without involving parents in the process creates missed opportunities to engage parents in their child's learning.

I will be thinking about these questions as we complete our year-end IEP reviews and begin to generate goals with students for the new school year. I will also think about my assessment practices as a resource teacher and ensure that I invite parent consent, input and feedback when I administer a Level B assessment tool.

Crosscurrents Conference 2012

Four of my colleagues and I attended a fantastic conference hosted by the Special Education Association (SEA), British Columbia Teachers Federation. Teachers from the western provinces and northern territories were in attendance. It was great opportunity to network with collegues from Nunavut and NWT.

I chose to attend sessions on differentiated instruction. Faye Brownlie is a fantastic speaker. She has reaffirmed my beliefs in 'all means all' - no matter what age, grade, school or subject taught. How refreshing!

This year, our school is in it's first year of implementing a non-categorical resource model. More time is spent supporting students in the classroom with opportunities for older students to receive help during study block periods. There are many ways to accomplish this. We set a few goals and decided to follow Faye's guidance be developing classroom profiles in October.

We have a long way to go but I know we are moving in the right direction. I am looking for anyone out there in the blogging world who is using a similar model. Something I've learned from implementing a non-categorical resource model is that you need support from other resource teachers.

I hope to begin documenting differentiation in action at my school (with permission from my colleagues, of course). Stay tuned.

Noncategorical Resource Model - Faye Brownlie

It's been an incredibly busy year and I love my job! I have the privilege of working with some talented educational assistants, teachers and leaders. As our school develops a vision for learning in the 21st century, my colleagues and I are trying to figure out how our roles as resource teachers will change. How do we help our students develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes that will help them become engaged learners?

Since September, our resource team has developed a unified (Kindergarten to Grade 12) noncategorical resource model - based on the work of Faye Brownlie. With this model, resource teachers work with classroom teachers to meet the needs of all students in their classroom. The opportunity to work as a team is what really inspired us to build upon our current practices.  So far, by incorporating this new model we have learned a few lessons:

1. Educational assistants and resource teachers are assigned to work with fewer teachers. This gave us a more manageable workload.

2. As a member of a teaching team, we have opportunities to help all students in a classroom, not just specific referrals. We try to work closely with our colleagues to differentiate instruction. This may seem easier to do in the primary and intermediate levels. However, we are supporting our Senior School colleagues by team teaching and working with small groups of students while the subject teacher works with other groups of students.

3.  We still provide individualized support; however, there seems to be less need for pull-out programs. Students have scheduled study blocks and can receive individualized support as needed.

I suppose our biggest lesson this year is that quality of planning and instruction matters most. This is a big change from our previous model where we would focus on placement of students as the key to success. A great deal of time would be spent on when to pull students and then develop individualized education plans based on needs.

We are now at a point in the year where we want to invite our colleagues to give us feedback on the resource model. We want to look at the effectiveness of our school-based teams and where we can improve.

Stay tuned.

Making a Difference

I am a Learning Support Teacher of students in Grades 10 to 12 and a  Learning Support Coordinator in a Kindergarten to Grade 12 campus. This year, we are trying to make a real commitment to a more differentiated approach to support our students. It doesn't mean that we are starting over, but rather building on promising instructional practices in an intentional, focused and systematic manner.

As a young educator in Nunavut, I participated in a number of amazing workshops with Carol Ann Tomlinson. I did not know it at that time, but as I look back, I realize what a gift it was to have been learning about differentiated instruction from such a wonderful and gifted teacher. This occurred in 1993. I loved listening to someone who truly put children and youth first!

Since then, I made a commitment to read current research in the area of differentiated instruction and look for resources that I can use to support all of my students. In my role, I have the added responsibility of assisting my colleagues as they create differentiated classrooms. I have encountered many great resources from ASCD. I like to find materials that are practical and easy to implement in the classroom. I also look for materials that I can share and explain to families - it is just as important for parents to understand what a differentiated classroom is and is not.

I just reviewed a resource from Alberta Education entitled - Making a Difference: Meeting diverse learning needs with differentiated instruction Teacher Resource.


This resource offers general information and strategies for differentiated instruction,
including why and how to plan, how to develop learner profiles, assess student needs and progress, create differentiated learning activities, integrate technology and develop school-wide support. Part 2 provides strategies for support students with special learning needs, including struggling and advanced learners.

Here's to great a school year and making a difference in the lives of our students and their families.

New Beginnings...

Today is my birthday! As a gift to myself, I decided to create my own blog. I follow the blogs of other teachers and principals and admire their ability to share so many amazing resources with other dedicated educators. I want to be a part of this group : )

I am very proud to say that I am a teacher. Like my husband, I have lived and worked in each of the western provinces and three territories. Only one more province to visit and then I can say that I have explored all of  Canada's provinces and territories.

Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to work as a teacher, inclusive schooling consultant, curriculum developer and Supervisor Of  Schools. I have enjoyed each position and was lucky to have mentors who were so passionate about education. My mentors guided me on my path to professional growth and competence through reflective practice, collaborative planning and action research. I miss those days. I especially miss my colleagues in Nunavut.

I have many areas of interest in education. I look forward to reading many more blogs related to 21st century learners and 21st century education. I am a big advocate of personalized learning and hope to learn more about the ways in which I can honour and recognize the gifts, skills and attributes of each of my students, as well as their challenges and obstacles to learning. I am so excited to be moving beyond the traditional classroom.

Here's to new beginnings...