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What's the difference?

Thoughts on making a real difference in the lives of learners...

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It's not really about class composition!

9/20/2014

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Amid all of the debates back and forth during the recent (now thankfully settled) teachers' strike in British Columbia the most prevalent theme was that of the issue of class composition. As defined for the purposes of this contract dispute, the complaint centered around the number of students grouped in any one class who had a defined learning disability and an individual education plan (IEP). It was claimed that any number greater that two made the class unmanageable and created a negative learning situation for all students in the room.

Now I have to admit to being more than a bit discouraged by the characterization of children with learning differences in this dispute. Although ostensibly calling for greater supports for them in schools, the underlying message was that they were an unwelcome presence in the classroom and interfered with the education of their peers. Government arguments that grouping students with specific learning needs together meant that resources could be concentrated fell on deaf ears and were characterized as a money-saving measure that was bad for kids.

Interestingly, if you accept the notion that the number of students with learning differences needs to be kept as low as possible in each classroom for it to operate effectively, then our school should represent the height of educational dysfunction - after all, every one of our classrooms is full of students with IEPs - the norm is, that there is no norm.

At KGMS and Maplewood Alternative, each of our classes is the most eclectic mix that you can imagine and our school functions quite wonderfully with over 160 different educational plans operating at the same time. Our teachers are masters of the art of running a truly student centered  classroom, being aware of the range of learning styles and needs that they face and helping children and young adults navigate their way through the curriculum. Do they have supports? Of course they do. We have relatively small core classes (15-18) which are subdivided into working groups of five or six with a dedicated teacher for language arts and mathematics; we have specialist support teachers in Science, Social Studies, Phys-ed and the Arts; we have a strong counseling department which delivers our Social-Emotional Learning programme; we have psychologists, an SLP and an OT at our disposal; and a legion of expert tutors that provide close to an hour of one on one tutoring for each elementary student, every day and individualized academic support for all of our high school students.

You see, the real issue is not about who is in your classroom, but rather it is about how you are organized to effectively serve them. In our school, students with complex learning needs are not a challenge to be faced, they are a puzzle to be solved. We work as a team to unlock the barriers to their learning and open up new pathways to success. It is often a difficult task, but it is always rewarding. 

Ironically, the greatest evidence of our success with our students is the fact that they eventually leave us! Most stay for two or three years and, having mastered the intricacies of the their own learning styles, they transition back out to mainstream schools and continue on their educational journey with the tool-kit that they have built with us.

There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding students with different learning needs and nowhere were they more evident than in some of the comments being thrown around in the mainstream and social media during the recent strike. I was reminded of this fact recently when touring around a visitor to our school. She asked whether or not we had any students on the autism spectrum. I replied that we had at least a dozen, perhaps more. Her response was surprise - after all, she said, it was so quiet around the school and it was her understanding the students with ASD would be shouting and making quite a disruption.

We still have a long way to go to demystify the needs and characteristics of students with learning differences but it is essential, if we are to have productive discussions on how we can best organize our schools to accommodate all learners.






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It's great to be back!

9/5/2014

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As much as I love summer, (and the weather this year gave a lot to love!), there is no place that I would have rather been this week than greeting a sea of smiling (and occasionally nervous) faces as they bounded up the front steps to begin a new school year.

We were excited this September to welcome our largest school population in the school's history (160 students) including over 40 young adults in our new Maplewood Alternative High School programme (www.maplewoodhigh.ca) and we have a number of new tutors and teachers who have joined our staff as we continue to increase our capacity to meet the needs of your children.

Here are some other key facts to be aware of as we start the new year!

School Leadership
With the retirement of Rosita Tam last June, we have restructured our administrative supports in order to provide greater access for parents and staff. Most notable of these changes have been: the appointment of Marie Watler as Deputy Head of School. Marie will continue to fulfill her counselling role as well as oversee issues pertaining to Student Life. She will be the go-to person when I am out of the school; and, secondly, that Carleigh Kula has taken over from Rosita as Director of Learning Services. As many of you know, Carleigh came from a similar position in Ontario and spent the second half of last year working in partnership with Rosita in order to ensure a smooth transition coming into September. Other members of our leadership group remain the same as last year with Danielle Auger as Director of Curriculum; Neil Pinkerton as leader of the Math Resource Team; and, Lisa Kantas as our Literacy Team leader. Needless to say, Shellie, Carrie, Katherine and myself will still be hanging around as well!

Outdoor School - September 24-26
This year we have made a change to Outdoor school. There will not be an overnight component. There are two basic reasons for this.

To begin with, when we were originally planning our annual programme at North Van Outdoor School,  it became clear that they couldn’t guarantee that the staff would be available come September due to the strike situation. As you may be aware, a key component of the NVDOS is the use of senior high school students as group leaders and cabin counsellors. Without school being in session, they and the teaching staff are not available. As a result, this option had to be taken off of the table for this year.
At the same time, over the past few years we have been getting to the point where around 20-25% of our students have been opting out of the experience due to either anxiety or health issues or, in some cases, a bit of boredom with having the same basic programme year after year. As Outdoor School is intended as a community building activity, it was beginning to defeat the purpose if we were getting declining participation.

Consequently we looked for other alternatives. What we are going to try this year is a local version of Outdoor School involving all of the elementary students. We are going to take three days (September 24-26) and have a series of outdoor ed and team building experiences by Division and section. Among some of the planned activities: we have set up a special programme with Maplewood Farm; have groups going to Lynn Valley Environmental Centre and Stanley Park; are arranging for Dragon Boating and hiking in Deep Cove; and doing an environmental cleanup at the Lynn Mouth and Seymour River valleys. We are currently exploring some cultural activities as well. We will use the same rotating group model and make it as inclusive as we can. No overnights, but definitely a different collective experience. 

As in past years, the high school will be having a camping trip this month and our three senior elementary classes will be having a overnight camping experience in June.


Curriculum Night - September 16th - 7:00 to 8:30 pm


Curriculum Night will begin in the gym this year with a short presentation on our curriculum mapping initiative in order to bring you up to date on how we are ensuring that we are meeting the prescribed learning outcomes established by the BC Ministry of Education. Following the presentation parents will proceed to their child's home room for an outline of the year's programme.


Upcoming MPC Events


Back to School Barbeque    Saturday September 13th  2 pm to 5 pm


Wine and Cheese                 Thursday September 25th 7 pm to 8:30 pm






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    Author

    Dr. Jim Christopher is recently retired Head of Kenneth Gordon Maplewood School and Maplewood Alternative High School in North Vancouver. A parent, author and long-time teacher, and educational administrator across Canada, he has been actively involved in the drive to differentiate learning experiences to meet the needs of all learners.

    View my profile on LinkedIn

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