School Nurses to Return

Posted on March 11, 2012 by collinsd

Alberta Education Minister T. Lukaszuk has said that he would like to see the return of the school nurse. (Edmonton Journal March 11, 2012) I have never attended school with a school nurse. I am sure that much of my current good health is thanks to a nurse who visited school regularly. It was a community nurse who gave us vaccinations. It was a community nurse who identified I needed glasses despite my attempts to keep it secret. Community nurses also made sure we knew how to look after our teeth.

Mr. Lukaszuk though is talking about more than just the school nurse who visits for these services. It sounds like he is investigating the return of a nurse who is present at the school, available for the students. This is an idea that I definitely can support on two main points.

1. As a principal of an alternative school we have many students who suffer anxeity and depression. Part of many factors that these youth face are health concerns. Some suffer from continous colds and fevers and never seem to shake them. Others have insomnia. Many just don’t know how to take care of themselves. These youth also do not trust the system (vor a variety of reasons) and do not have the motivation or the skills to go to the local clinic.

2. Why are the services that designed to target children and youth not directly involved in the one place that many youth connect with, namely schools. The family is a main connection point but otherwise these government services ask their clients to go to a different building. I maintain that if we want to support youth we need to go where they are instead of waiting for them to come to us. I constantly ask to partner with other professionals and to come to our building. Counselors, psychologist, and nurses who want to work with youth but wait for them go to some professional building will be missing a large part of their clientèle.

Thank you Mr. Lukaszuk for questioning and investigating ways to make this common sense partnership to return.

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Replace or fix?

Posted on August 31, 2011 by collinsd

As long as I’ve been a teacher and as long as I’ve been in administration I find myself defending the profession. There are the usual attacks on teachers as public employees and all the benefits we receive that are costing the tax payer exorbitant amounts of money. What I find more difficult to deal with are the demands that the system has to change because the union does nothing to get rid of bad teachers. As a result, more tax money is wasted, and students are suffering.

The question “how do we get rid of a bad teacher” implies an philosophy that there is a dichotomy – something either works or doesn’t. A consequence of this philosophical thinking is that things that are broke must be replaced. Fixing is not an option. I believe this is a reflection of our “disposable” society?

My grandparents insisted on fixing things were not working. Gramma mended socks. Granpa did the regular maintenance on the car and rebuilt the lawnmower. This is a vision that objects exist on a continuum between “broken” and “excellent”. It suggests that the object is good overall but if a part is faulty it could be repaired. The whole object is not worthless because of one fault.

It is a better model to view a person in this way. There is some value in taht person and that skills can be improved. Of course, with teaching (and I’m sure any profession), identifying the skill in need of repair can be difficult.

And then I bring up another issue that affects education (and I’m sure any profession). How do we keep good teachers?

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Effective Teaching Workshop

Posted on March 7, 2011 by collinsd

Recently attended a two-day workshop on what constitutes effective teaching and how we, as administrators, can identify it, encourage it, and improve toward a better environment for our students. Overall, I feel refreshed when I come out of a workshop like this because I can see many of the things we do at Vermilion Outreach being affirmed by the research.

In summary, many researchers found that teachers are very important to student learning. One study out of Australia suggests that the teacher accounts for 30% of the influence accounting for student achievement. The same study says this is second only the student himself which accounts for about 50%. Items such as peers, home and school vary each between 5% to 10%.

What was surprising was what did not matter: level of teacher certification did not affect student success, level of advanced degrees, and neither did the extensiveness of classroom experience. Teachers in their first three years of teaching were not as effective but they did improve. After 5 years there was no distiction between teachers.

Factors that could be measured in effective teachers were things such as knowledge of their subject areas (but did not require doctoral level knowledge) and pedagogical knowledge. Teachers who had many skills in the techniques of teaching resulted in improvement in student achievement.

There were intangibles. Items that lead to high student achievement:

  • teachers who had a belief that all students could learn
  • belief in their own abilities as teachers
  • ability to connect with students
  • teachers who strive to continue to grow, to improve, to learn

I always question my role as an administrator after workshops like this. Based on what I have learned, what can I do to make sure my school and my staff remain effective and help our students? I see my role as a principal in two modes: some who makes sure the staff have what they need to do their jobs, to provide the right environment and support and the role to guide them in the direction I see for the school. These roles can be at odds and complimentary. They are most at odds when the staff disagree with me on the direction I see for the school.

Fortunately, our strength as a school is connection with the students. We also are constantly working to learn and improve our craft. I also believe we are very knowledgeable about the courses we offer. I am fortunate to have specialists who provide teaching for courses that I am not well versed in. This may be an area of growth for our school with such a small staff. We will certainly be working to learn more skills in working with our students and supporting them.

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Moving with Purpose

Posted on December 14, 2010 by collinsd

I want to thank Kelly from Boston Pizza for a statement she made a few days ago. I hope you don’t mind, Kelly, but the statement has stuck with me and I just have to bring it up in this article. Kelly and I were meeting and discussing helping students be successful in the work place. She said, “It is important that we all learn to move with purpose.”

When you go to work, what do you do and how do you decide when to do it? For me, it is usually revolves around checking email, looking over my materials and lists of lessons and activities that are going at school for the day. I work to be ready for the students. As the day continues there are other actions that have each as a purpose.

I think Kelly’s point was that some students (and adults to be sure) wait for work or school to happen TO them. The idea of moving with purpose is to bring yourself to the job that is at hand. How do we help and guide our colleagues and children understand this? What does it look like to move with purpose? I would like to see students who come to school with a plan of what they want to accomplish for the day. If they are looking for a good day, I would like to see them take action to make it a good day and not simply just hope that good things come.

3d person - puppet, rising under the yellow di...
Moving with Purpose

One of the things we like to do at Vermilion Outreach is Goal Setting. This is a weekly activity for most of students. For some, we goal set everyday. Students are partnered with an adult in the school who they work with to come up with a plan for the week that includes the courses they are going to work on, what assignments are going to be finished, and what days and times they are attending. An important part of this process is the question, “How is this week going to be?” It is rewarding when the student reminds me, “Isn’t it time for goal setting?” It is their goals and not mine and it’s great when they take ownership.

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Who Attends Vermilion Outreach

Posted on December 8, 2010 by collinsd

This article appeared in the Vermilion Standard and Vermilion Voice.

The Vermilion Outreach School is a choice for high school students who have not had success in a regular school. This simple description of our school does not reflect the variety of reasons that people would choose to attend VOS. Outreach schools were formed in the province over ten years ago in order to provide a way for students who have left the school system to complete their high school requirements. During a recent conference, many Outreach teachers have commented how our student population has changed.

Currently Vermilion Outreach has almost fifty students registered. About two thirds of these students are full time students. These students are taking all of their courses at our school. There are many reasons why a student would choose Vermilion Outreach. Vermilion is fortunate to have four high schools, each with unique strengths and each family chooses the school they feel is best for their child.

Students who choose Vermilion Outreach find our flexible scheduling, smaller facility and independent learning program with one-on-one support a good fit. The remaining students are considered part time. Students in Alberta are eligible to attend high school as long as they are nineteen years old as of September 1st. This allows students time to improve their high school transcripts. We are certainly seeing a rise in the number of students who have finished high school but are returning to upgrade marks or have realized they need different courses for their postsecondary plans. A part time student may be taking courses at another school and are coming to Vermilion Outreach to pick up a course that did not fit in their timetable. Other part time students are balancing work or family commitments.

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