CEC Conference Summary

When teachers apply to the Pro-D Fund for conference funding, we ask that they find a way to share what they have learned, pass their professional learning on to colleagues, and make use of new skills or ideas with their students. We also ask them to craft a statement to be posted here. We are pleased to celebrate the professional development of our teachers.

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Conference: Council of Exceptional of Children (CEC) Convention

Participant: Shelien Hadfield, teacher, Nusdeh Yoh Elementary

Summary: The workshops at the Council of Exceptional of Children (CEC) Convention helped me to refine my thinking about how I provide support services to students with disabilities/learning difficulties and how I can intensify interventions when students aren’t responding well. Many of the workshops referenced Response to Intervention (RTI) models explicitly (“this is how we designed our tiered intervention”) or implicitly (the intervention described was implemented in Tier 3). In the sessions that spoke explicitly about RTI a common theme was the importance of having universal classroom instruction that is meeting the needs of 70-75% of learners. This allows your school support staff to focus their efforts more intensely on the 25-30% of students who aren’t responding well. Screening two to three times a year allows us to gauge how effective our universal instruction is for our students and identify students that need more intensive supports. To implement this suggestion, I’m going to take a more active role in analyzing data that teachers are already collecting such as Developmental Reading Assessments (DRA) in the primary grades and use this data to gauge whether my support would be more effective in the form of supplemental intervention (small groups) or classwide support (consulting with classroom teacher to decide an appropriate model).
I attended several sessions on how to intensify interventions. A common theme in these sessions was the importance of using valid, reliable progress monitoring tools weekly with students receiving Tier 3 interventions. Progress monitoring data allows us to gauge if our interventions are working. Weekly updates allow us to fine tune the intervention throughout, rather than getting to the end of the unit/term/year and realizing that the intervention didn’t work. A specific approach to intensify intervention is data-based individualization (DBI). Charting progress monitoring data is integral to DBI. When 3-5 data points fall below the goal line, the teacher intensifies the intervention (smaller group size, increase frequency or duration of sessions, increase student response rate, etc.), then continues monitoring the data to decide if the intensity is sufficient or if further changes are necessary. Research on DBI shows that it can help very low performing learners close the gap with their peers. The intensity of this approach highlights why it so important that universal & small-group instruction meet the needs of most learners in our school. Intensive instruction is by nature resource-intensive. I’m planning to use my end of the year assessments to identify five students that I can work closely with next year using DBI.

I’d be happy to discuss these topics with interested colleagues. My preferred contact method is email: shadfield@sd57.bc.ca. Musi!

Mental Health First Aid workshop report

When teachers apply to the Pro-D Fund for conference funding, we ask that they find a way to share what they have learned, pass their professional learning on to colleagues, and make use of new skills or ideas with their students. We also ask them (optionally) to craft a statement to be posted here. We are pleased to celebrate the professional development of our teachers.

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Workshop: Mental Health First Aid for Adults Working With Youth from the Canadian Mental Health Association - Prince George Branch

Participant: Tracy Larson, Prince George Secondary School

Facilitator: MaryLu Spagrud, Education & Projects Manager

Summary: This is a worthwhile program for all public school teachers. It addresses issues that occur at both the elementary school and secondary school levels. The specific topics covered include:
Substance use disorders, Mood disorders, Anxiety disorders, Psychotic disorders, Eating disorders, Deliberate self-injury

It also teachers crisis first aid skills for: Substance overdose, Suicidal behaviour, Panic attack, Acute stress reaction, Psychotic episode

The course instructs teachers, through the use of discussion, case study, interactive activities etc. how to respond when a student is showing signs of these disorders. The goal here is to empathize with the student (the way he or she is feeling) and put the student in contact with supports. The acronym ALGEE was used - A - assess, L - listen non-judgmentally, G - give reassurance and information and , E - encourage appropriate professional supports, E - encourage appropriate self-help and other support strategies.

An ongoing discussion of the professional, self-help, and other supports available in the community was very helpful. The manual provided is also a goldmine of resources.

Overall this was a great use of time. The program is 14 hours and ran over the Thursday night - 4:30pm to 10:00pm and all day on Friday. A nice mix of SD57 employees (teachers and EAs) as well as other community mental health workers.

Pro-D report for January 2015 SRA/AGM

The PD Fund continues to support teachers as they design professional development activities that require advice or coordination, incur costs, or simply need help getting off the ground.  We have funded about 45 out-of-district applications this year, which accounts for about $45,000 of our $110,000 budget.  The rest of the budget is for additional applications in the year remaining, local pro-d, release time for teachers, and the Spring Fling Conference. Last year we spent most of the previous year's surplus of $14,000.  This year we may end up with a surplus of around $10,000. In years long past the Fund would often start with over $100,000 in surplus, but we don't see that anymore -- teachers are using their PD money, and that is a good thing.  The Spring Fling conference planning is underway with about 30 workshops dialed in and room for plenty more.  If you or someone you know would like to present, please direct them to the conference website at http://springflingconference.weebly.com. We are encouraging a few enterprising teachers or community partners to organize excursions - buses leaving from and returning to PGSS during the Spring Fling for some site-based professional learning. This year we are also adding a 2nd day just for New Teachers, featuring sessions from Provincial Specialist Associations and BCTF professional issues workshop presenters. In between these two days will be a Social for teachers at Hummus Brothers in the Treasure Cove Hotel.  Look for more information about all of these things when you return from Spring Break.