Opening up thinking about education today for tomorrow - Imagining possibilities and solutions

Thursday, May 04, 2006

A few interesting things

I have a number of highlights of my trip.

Toronto is a great city. The people are friendly. The weather had been great. the food is fantastic! Canadian wines aren't too bad!

Had the opportunity to meet with Barbara McMorrow (former principal of Mary Ward Secondary School). She is now with the Ontario Catholic Principals Council). They have done some interesting work on professional learning communities in a Catholic context. She had done some brilliant work in Mary Ward!

Visited Halton District School Board. Some interesting work being done on teacher voice and student voice related to school improvement via on-line surveys. They are extending this to parents in the next month. The data collected from the surveys is aggregated (where possible) and principals receive information relevant to their school.

Halton also have a process of bringing together schools with a common alliance(eg. secondary schools with their feeder primary schools) to determine literacy and numeracy targets. This promotes (according to Halton) understandings of contexts and greater collaboration and sharing of results, goals and challenges. They use the motto: keep the faces of the students in your mind when establishing the targets!

Head to UK tonight. Red-eye trip!

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