On the road again...

December is a crazy month to plan anything involving Catholic teachers--between the awful weather, the concerts and the Advent activities at school...whew! However, the team project team manged to meet on Thursday the 18th.

Once again, I drove to Formosa for a day of hard, but rewarding work with Cheryl and Francine.

We began with a lovely recap of all we had successfully managed to do so far. Not only did we hold 3 full day PD sessions for our teachers, but it went smoothly and was FUN! In addition we managed to type up and "publish" the anchors for the writing tasks.

Next, we clarified the upcoming timelines. You see, we foolishly have to do this whole process 2 MORE TIMES before we submit our project to the ministry. That's a total of 6 more PD sessions to plan. Yikes! Then we have to type it all up and get it "publication" worthy. Did I say: Yikes?

However, we dove right in. As usual Cheryl had our minutes from our last meeting, our critical path, and our paperwork all ready to role. Our "to do" was long so we prioritized. Then we split up for a few hours.

Cheryl wrote our letters to each principal and teacher, giving them a heads up about upcoming dates and timelines. I revised the rubric with input from Francine. The teachers had given us some positive and negative feedback about the rubric during our last PD sessions. I wanted to be sure to incorporate their input into a new rubric. Francine wrote various school board officials about our wants, needs, desires and hopes for February's PD sessions. She also helped us to keep the Board writing plan in focus and to re-think a few mistakes we made last time.

In the afternoon, we had to write the prompts for each grade for the February tasks. This actually went much smoother than last time. I guess these things just get easier with experience. This time around we chose not to send out packages to each teacher and principal. Instead we created PDF files and emailed them to each person. MUCH, MUCH quicker!

Last but not least, we began to look at what we really wanted to accomplish during the teaching portions of the PD session. These are the things that give teachers a break from marking student work in their teams, but still provide good learning experiences. What Ministry documents, monographs and videos did we feel our French Immersion teachers would learn from? Did we want to practise marking running records? (I got out-voted on that one!). Did we need to look at the Norms for Moderation again? Did we want to divide the groups up the same? Did we want to look at Carmel Crevola's focus sheets? Did we want to show our teachers the new benchmarks that the Board has decided on? You see, all these things are critical and time-consuming. Honestly, there was so much we could have put into our PD sessions, but we have to remain focused on teacher moderation and building a solid final resource.

All in all, it was a busy but fun day. Lots of amazing food too! We had lovely snacks regularly delivered by children (Christmas presents for Cheryl or Francine), hot chocolate delivered by Student council (part of their fundraiser for a third world school), leftovers reheated in a microwave for lunch, many cups of tea, and even some homemade fudge delivered by a Mom. Gotta love rural Catholic schools!

Oh..one more thing before I go...In Grey and Bruce Counties, Feb is notorious for "snow days". These are days when roads are closed and school are closed too. One year we had 8 snow days! Of course our next PD sessions are in Feb. Anyways, the entire day we kept thinking and saying "Well, if there's a snow day..." or "What if there's a snow day...." or "That timeline might be short if we get two snow days..." It's too funny! I bet the Ministry of Ed people in Toronto never have to think about snow days when they plan PD!

Thanks Cheryl and Francine for another great day.

Working on my TLLP

Hateful computer glitches!
I had another opportunity to work on my TLLP project today. I ended up ‘re-doing’ some work that I had done last month. My laptop runs on the new Vista operating system (not XP). I had created a wonderful slide show for use during the PD session in April. It had taken me the better part of a day. Well, today when I tried to open the file, it was corrupted. Argh! I asked the computer technician to help me recover the file, but no luck! She informed me that this happens a lot with Vista and that the operating system is not very stable. Jeez!

Today, I also did some mathematical calculations. I have spent over 1500$ for resources for this project. My original budget was 1100$. Ah well. I guess the Ministry will forgive me, since I'm likely to under budget anyways.

My original plan was to travel to Toronto this week, in order to locate some missing resources. However, I decided to hold off. Two reasons: 1) My hubby is away and so I'd need someone to take care of the kiddie if I took off to Toronto 2) My budget is um....non-existant!
So, I guess I'll take a wait and see approach to this road trip.

Friday in Formosa

Cheryl and I had another busy day today. We spent most of the time on our laptops. We had to take all the hard work our PD sessions resulted in, type it up and make copies. It was quite the adventure to decipher everyone's handwriting and communicate someone else's thoughts in a clear and concise manner.

Here are some pics and video of our PD sessions with the French Immersion teachers. As you can see, we had a busy bunch of days!

Primary level Teacher Moderation

Ah...the end is in sight...for term 1! Today we met in Formosa for another all day PD session. We have used the same basic format for every day and have been able to lead the teachers quite productively.

The Primary level teachers were pretty cool. They are a fun bunch, with a true sense of humour and a respect for the silliness of teaching 5 year olds! It takes a certain brand of crazy to try to marshall 19 little people through a full day of writing, reading and math! Francine, Cheryl and I are all experienced (read "old") primary level immersion teachers and it was nice to network with the new crop of teachers.

We accomplished a lot as a whole group in the morning. I found the primary teachers were already quite aware of what teacher moderation looks like. They were able to quickly reach consensus on the first student's level of achievement.

After a yummy lunch, we spent the rest of the day looking at the student's work in small, grade-level groups. My group even managed to create the next writing prompts.
Good job Primary teachers and thanks for your open-ness and positive attitude.

Junior level PD session

Well, I'm feeling so positive and exhausted too! Today we met the Junior level (gr 4,5,6) teachers to assess some student writing and experience some Professional learning. I have to say this group was very positive, open and was easy to lead. I felt that our work to date was respected and appreciated. The teachers all had a chance to moderate several pieces of writing and consolidate their thinking.

Great job Juniors!

The Intermediate level teachers---what a cool bunch!

TA DA! One PD session down and 2 to go!

It was a wonderful, productive and interesting day today. Francine, Cheryl and I led our 4 Intermediate level teachers in a full day PD session. The Intermediate teachers are a neat bunch because....they put up with 7 and 8th graders all day, they are well informed about current practises, they don't mind a little conflict, their kids had really interesting writing to mark and ....some of them only have 9 or 12 kiddies in their split classes. Boy, can those immersion kids pump out pages and pages of creative work! Mon Dieu!

We started with a prayer and an overview of what Francine, Cheryl and I have been up to, our goals, what a TLLP is etc etc. Then, we watched a few videos from The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat (hereafter called the LNS). We watched a clip of teachers moderating a piece of writing and we shared our thoughts and reflections afterwards. Next, we looked at....an LNS monograph. (Yeah I know...monograph is not a word ya see every day. It's just a piece of writing reflecting on one topic and showing research based best practises). We discussed the pitfalls of discussing and marking work together and agreed to some "Norms" for how we would conduct ourselves. We agreed to limit the brawls to 2 minutes and that name calling could only be in French!

Next, we looked at one piece of grade 7 writing as a large group. We ran into a few glitches. For example, the rubric had a few vague words and unclear qualifiers. We agreed to revise it for next time out. Also, some of the teachers let the kids do the work in 2 sessions, or write a draft and a good copy. Although, this wasn't how we had envisioned the on-demand task being administered, we agreed that next time we would more clear in our directions. Another glitch was a long discussion about whether the text form, genre, format should have been written on the answer sheet or whether we should expect 7 and 8th graders to determine the "best way" to write on a specific theme.

I can see Francine, Cheryl and I making some revisions, and tightening up our rubric for February. We were glad to receive the feedback and the discussion was very enlightening.

Next, we had a fabulous lunch of sandwiches and delicious little MandM brownies. Delicieux. The best part of PD is lunch! Why...well, we talked about all kinds of things and had a laugh and we compared some things happening in our classes and some of the struggles we are experiencing. We also talked about Differentiated Instruction and some MISA Ministry thingy that I knew nothing about.

After lunch we were on fire. Having gone into great detail looking at ONE piece of writing and experienced all the pitfalls, we were able to more quickly reach consensus on the rest of the gr 7 work. We then moved on to the grade 8 writing samples. It was really cool from a grade 3 teacher's perspective to see what the older kids can produce.

All in all a productive and busy day. Did we finish everything on our list? Nope. Did we remain focussed, productive and collegial? You bet. Did we wish we had 3 more hours? Uh huh. So...next week we shall meet again.

In the meantime, tomorrow is a new day, a new set of writing to assess, a new set of teachers to provide PD to and of course, a new delicious lunch to enjoy. The junior level teachers arrive in Formosa for 9 am and boy are they gonna have a hard time topping today.

Formosa...it's starting to feel like home!

Once again I found myself in Formosa. On the drive I saw 5 Mennonites, 2 roadside stands selling produce, 3 combines, 2 hay wagons, a stray dog, various horses, lots of roadkill and ...a farm selling Labrador puppies. Oh, how I wanted to stop and bring a pup home!

Cheryl, Francine and I got down to work right away since the clock is ticking. In less than a week we are leading our first PD session with the Immersion teachers. Yikes!

First, we went over the "to do list". We quickly realized that we should have taken a whole day off for our project, not a half day. Ah well...we prioritized and worked like demons. We previewed the DVD about Teacher Moderation that we will be showing the teachers. We choose a followup for the DVD too. Then we talked about what our PD session should look like in terms of goals and timelines. This involved : what we planned to talk about, who would do what, how long each job should take, how we would organize the groups, what overhead, charts, resources and photocopies we would need and of course...what should we have for morning snacks. Anyone who has led a PD session with teachers knows that snacks are essential.

We then took an hour and reviewed the "on demand" writing tasks that the students completed. We had to read through them all and choose samples that would be used during the PD session. This sounds simple...but was not. In the end, it's a good thing we all have a sense of humour.

Next, we split up the rest of the jobs---some of us photocopied, some of use found necessary equipment, some of us finished up prayers and templates etc etc. It was a last hour blitz that spilled over into dinner time. Ah well.

I wowed the team with my super duper Zellers purchases. I managed to find 27 door prizes for $9 at the Zellers end of season sale. (75% off) I think that's the best deal I've found since I purchased a year's worth of size 8 clothes for my son on eBay for 50$! I love a deal.

In other news, I am still dealing with the mess I made of the "requisition order" for my own TLLP project. Clearly, bending the rules is frowned upon by the School Board. I just hope the matter of paying the Centre franco ontarien gets resolved, before they blacklist me and ban me for life. If I were the CFORP I'd be adding a little surcharge to the bill!

Creating a slideshow

Well today I had another chance to work on my TLLP project.

I started by creating the slideshow I will be using during the Professional Development session I will be leading. I HATE making slideshows. I get frustrated. I bang on the keys! I tear out my hair! It took me 2 hours to create about 15 slides. Nuts!

After that I spent a few hours working on the handouts I will be giving the teachers to guide them through the process of becoming comfortable with the idea of Mentor texts.

I have to admit, I got a lot done and I felt proud of all I accomplished. This is a nice feeling, since as a primary grade teacher I often feel like the day slips away from me and I don't accomplish much. This could be because my grade 2 kids still need help opening their thermos, tying their shoes and want a band-aid for every little boo boo!

A day to work on my individual project

Today was very productive. I had a full day out of my classroom to work on my own "Mentor Texts for French Immersion" project. As you’ll recall I am locating books that can be used as part of the Writer’s workshop as Mentor texts, and helping French Immersion teachers to use them.

First, I unpacked, stamped and organized all the books I have managed to locate since April. It was fun to see the books come out of their boxes and see the light of day. I organized the books by genre and then by grade level. I know now which teachers will be working with which touchstone books.

Next, I took a few hours to plan out the actual PD session that I will be leading in April or May. I broke the day down into goals for each hour-long block. I now have a pretty solid plan of what this day will look like. Next time I have some time to work on the project I will have to make up my personal "To Do Lists" for each hour block.

I next took some time to review the Lucy Calkins "Launching" module and I choose a section to share with the teachers during our PD. The section relates to using Mentor texts during a Mini-lesson. I made copies for everyone.

Perhaps the toughest part of the day was making up a useful template for the teachers. This template will guide the teachers through the books I have chosen, giving them options to consider, points to ponder etc etc. I had Denis, our francophone expert, look it over. Making this template took ages because I am so picky about making PD useful to teachers. I dread the thought that a teacher might attend my PD session and feel like his/her time was wasted.

We took over Francine's office

Another day on the job!

Today Cheryl, Francine and I met in Formosa to continue working on our TLLP. It was a beautiful drive to the little town of Formosa and I found the school easily since the steeple of the Catholic Church was a beacon, shining from miles away.
Our "to do list" was vast, but we were fortified by coffee, Hershey’s kisses and Werther’s Originals.
First we talked about our slide show, which some of us had shown to our staff last week.
Next, we looked at the logistics of who would visit each of the 3 remaining Northern schools, to show our slide show.
We then discussed where we should hold the upcoming October professional development sessions. We will be leading the teachers through a "Teacher Moderation" session, encompassing a full day.
Of crucial importance was who would order the food for the sessions, who would pay and how exactly would it arrive? This is not as easy as you might think, since Formosa is half between Nowhere and Really Nowhere. We set the budget for snacks, drinks and lunch and made the necessary phone calls.
Next, we looked closely at the marking rubric that teachers will be using during the Teacher Moderation sessions. We spent ages playing around with the qualifiers, language and spacing of the rubric. We are now happy with our final rubric and have made copies for all.
After lunch, (leftover spaghetti for me!) we looked over the work we had accomplished in August. We made some revisions, re-checked our ‘francais" and rolled the presses. Yeah! We did it! All French Immersion teachers will get the on-demand writing prompts tomorrow.
Last, we prepared packages for each teacher, principal, and Supervisory Officer that will be involved. Cheryl did a great job of writing a cover letter to clarify any outstanding questions and to lay out our future plans.
Next we will meet on October 8th. The agenda for that day includes all those pesky, last minute details that crop up when leading a group of teachers through a new process.

Making progress and having fun

Francine, Cheryl and I had a productive day. It was surprisingly fun to work together, even though it was a 25 degree sunny August day! We met at St Mary's High School early today and worked through the entire day without a break.

We managed to complete a rubric for the teacher moderation process, by looking carefully at the OWA, the French curriculum for Immersion, the English curriculum for language and some sample rubrics from the internet. It was very interesting to see the different approaches towards assessment for writing.

Next we worked together to create the first writing tasks for each grade (SK to 8). This involved looking at other on-demand tasks, the Board's writing plan, the OWA, a writing assessment plan from Kawartha's school board and lots and lots of creativity. I have to say that using accents in French definitely slows down the typing! We used a template that I had created over the weekend.

At the end of the day we typed up the final copy of the rubric, made a short Powerpoint presentation for the principals and teachers of each school, wrote a preliminary table of contents for the first tasks and filled in our mileage forms. WHEW! It's no wonder I'm ready for a nap.

Next steps include: working on the second set of on-demand writing tasks, communicating our progress to the teachers and other staff, fixing any errors to our first set of tasks and planning our first teacher moderation session for October.

What is the OWA???

Overview:
Ontario Writing Assessment for Kindergarten to Grade 8 allows teachers to determine each student’s strengths and weaknesses
in writing. The results from this assessment can be used to help plan and deliver appropriate programming, and to measure
student growth over time. Ontario Writing Assessment is aligned to the Revised Ontario Language Curriculum expectations
and the Achievement Chart, as well as the expert panel reports and guides to effective instruction.
Benefits for Teachers:
• Provides a common writing assessment tool for a teacher, school, or district
• Supports identification of student strengths, needs, interests, and attitudes in writing
• Includes 48 levelled anchors and three task-specific rubrics for each grade to ensure confident and consistent
assessment of writing skills (based on the Revised Ontario Language Curriculum and the Achievement Chart)
• Provides valuable “Next Steps” for tailoring instruction to meet the needs of all students
• Supports tracking student progress over time with easy-to-use tracking sheets
Components:
A single, comprehensive Teacher’s Guide featuring:
• On-demand Writing Tasks that can be administered three times per year (fall, mid-year and end-of-year)
• Task-specific Writing Rubrics, Anchors, and Rationales that are aligned to the Revised Ontario Curriculum and
Achievement Chart
Authors:
Mary Reid – Principal, Bluewater District School Board
Steven Reid – Superintendent, Bluewater District School Board

Our group project gets some attention

Today Francine, Cheryl and I spent a very productive day working on our Exemplars project. We met early in the day at the local high school and quickly got down to work. I really enjoy working with these two women. They are bright and funny and have a good outlook about our project, and about teaching in general.

We spent a long time looking at the critical pathway for our project, setting deadlines and goals for each month between now and June. We were careful to align our dates and deadlines with the School Board's scope and sequence for the school year.

Then we had an upclose look at the Ontario Writing Curriculum, a new resource that is being phased into use in our school board. We decided that our Writing Exemplars project needed to follow the new OWA resource closely.

Here are some pictures of the day:

Some books arrive

Today I was happy to see a big box of books in the school office. I dove right in! Ah! Bliss!
In the box were copies of all the mentor/ touchstone texts I ordered awhile back. They will now have to be cross-referenced with the invoices and stamped with the school board's "Property Of..." mark. I'm excited and happy.

Two days ago I spent an hour hammering out some dates, budget concerns and timelines. Catherine M, my board level supervisory officer, calls this is a critical path. It was good to break this huge project down into bite size chunks and to realize that it was "do-able".

Francine, Cheryl and I agreed to inform the staff members that will be involved in our group Exemplars project this coming week. So I need to work on a short presentation for my staff and the staff of Notre Dame, outlining the project, goals, objectives, and timelines for the group project. Too bad that report cards are due tomorrow or I might be tempted to get started on that right now.

Our re-re-write is Accepted!

Yes, folks it's true. Francine, Cheryl and I have just received approval for our new and improved budget. The "budget enhancements" will make our job much easier but also ensure that our project is a success. We are thrilled.

One of us is now a PRINCIPAL!

Well, it's been an exciting week for Francine. She has just been given her first principalship! Congratualations, Francine. Cheryl and I are so proud of you. Now we have 2 "ins" with the principals- you and Cheryl's hubby!

Another book I'm considering

A sample of some new books

The paperwork bites me!

Well, I've made my first blunder. I'm glad to have it over with, since making a dumb mistake was inevitable. It's kind of like my sister when she dropped her daughter by mistake- she was relieved that she's got that over with and no one was hurt!

So, here's what I did. I ordered 200$ worth of books from the Centre des Ressources Pedagogiques "direct" without filling in the Board office's PO. A "P.O." is a purchase order. Who knew! Ah well! No harm done. I just have to do it correctly the next time.

Last night and tonight I managed to work away on the new pile of books that were sent to me. They were mostly fabulous. I also spent some time fiddling around on the internet for our group project. I didn't find anything interesting though. (Well, I did manage to buy baby Adara some clothes on eBay, but that was just a 10 minute sidetrack).

More wonderful books

My project has been put on the back burner this last week as the Grade 3 EQAO test looms large on the horizon.

I did, however, receive another set of possible books to order from Catherine P at the CFORP. She's been invaluable. I now need to find the time to peruse them and see which ones will make a good fit with Lucy Calkins curriculum.

Our group project is stalled too. We are all looking over the existing exemplars from other provinces for Ecriture and picking our favourites. We are also looking carefully at the OWA (Ontario writing assessment) and seeing where their "on demand" tasks might work for us.

The re-re-write of our proposal

The group recently received a request for clarification about our new budget, from the Ministry of Education. Francine re-re- wrote our proposal and emailed it to Cheryl and I for re-re-reapproval, before sending it off to the Ministry. It's getting kind of silly!

But we are thrilled that the Ministry is considering our request for a larger budget and that we will likely be able to undertake our project in the way we had originally hoped.

My own personal project is at a stand-still. I've ordered some books, Catherine P at the Centre des Ressources is sending me some new options, and that's about it. My homeroom is a Grade 3 so the EQAO primary assessment test has kind of overtaken my life. We write it at the end of May.

And from the ministry we hear a resounding...maybe!

Francine, Cheryl and I received an email from the Ministry of Education today. I must give them kudos for speed and direct, clear communication. Camille Chenier and her team seem okay with our revisions but have asked us to make some changes. It sounds like we actually have a chance though. They seem to understand that we need to make these changes, and that these changes cost money. Yeah!

Meeting at the Board office

Today Francine and I met with Catherine Montreuil, our Superintendent. She has been assigned as our contact person for the Teacher Leadership and Learning projects. She was very positive, and seems excited by our projects and how they dovetail with all the Professional Learning goals for the School Board.

Francine and I got answers to most of our questions. Those that couldn't be answered by Catherine were redirected to those individuals who could answer them.

I feel really positive about this journey. Next I meet with my principal to update her and then next week I have one day to work on the project.

First Class is up and running

As part of the project the Ministry of Education has set up a First Class online email program for the project participants across the province. This email/chat/directory will likely prove quite useful. Unfortunately, the Ministry did not include Cheryl's name in the directory....I guess because she's not a project leader.

On Friday I sent my first box of books back to the Centre des Ressources Pedagogiques. I kept about 15 books and ordered additional copies. I asked Catherine P at the Centre to help me locate some other "All About" and "biography" books. So, I'm making progress.

On Monday the members of our group are meeting our Superintendent at the Board office. We have a few questions for her and I'm sure she wants to be very clear about how to manage all that cash!

On Wednesday I presented the outline for my project to my staff at St Basil's and they were very supportive and enthusiastic. I also briefly outlined the group project.

And now...my baby boy's First Communion

Okay, not related to our projects, but I couldn't resist!

Revisions, revisions

It seemed clear to Cheryl, Francine and I that our group project was "somewhat" ambitious in scope and that our budget was (hmm.... what word to use) "flawed." So we decided to revise. There were 2 options 1. revise the project objectives
2. revise the budget and submit it again to the Ministry of Education.

After some debate we decided to go with option 2. Cheryl and Francine made some minor changes, I made some suggestions, we added some mileage and...TA DA! A new, bigger budget.

Let's hope the Ministry realizes we are serious.

A short list of some possibilities

Today I spent several hours reviewing the books that I recently recveived from the Centre des Ressources Pedagogiques. It was great fun, even if I kept being interrupted by 4 neighbour kids, the phone, the dog, the laundry and of course, my hubby. Jeez, working on a Sunday...there must be a reason God wants us to take this day off!

Here are the covers of some of the books I have chosen.

Cheryl writes her first blog entry

Cheryl writes:

Kristen, Francine and I met for our first "official" TLLP meeting in Kincardine on Tuesday April 22nd. We had a huge agenda and worked hard to get through it. What a great team we are! We divided jobs in an attempt to conquer yellow sticky lists and then met back to celebrate periodically during the morning. We discussed our plan and made some worthwhile decisions about the where, what, when, how and why of our proposal.
We established a time line for when we would pull folks together to moderate on French writing. We got our budget code and are ready to roll financially! Yeah! We created lists of how to group teachers and grades to best accommodate needs and discussed our strengths at each division. That was fun as we are all primary teachers! LOL.
In the afternoon we prepared our initial presentation to FI teachers so that the message is clear and delivered in the same way. We are excited to get folks on board and realize how much this proposal is a collaborate effort that requires the input from all stakeholders. We are excited to create something that reflects our Catholicity and is authentically ours!
We worked on organization of information collected thus far and created binders and a bin to keep us on the right path. Francine took on the job of recording the minutes from our chart papers. The room was well decorated by the end of the day! Kristen will keep the blog going and we will all add to it as we learn and grow through our journey. I will take care of the finances and submit to the board. As far as implementation of the proposal we will share that equally.
I feel blessed to be part of this amazing team. The day was super productive and the enthusiasm was contagious. We are ready to proceed on this learning adventure!
Cheryl

Cheryl, you don't need a laptop, just borrow mine!

Here is Cheryl hard at work. She was emailing 2 teachers in our board to see if they would be on-site team leaders (you see, the team is expanding as we speak!). Andree D has agreed and we are waiting for confirmation from another teacher.

Earlier in the day we contacted the Ministry of Education with a question and----get this---we got a person, on the phone, immediately, bilingual, helpful and cheerful. After recently dealing with Ma Bell, this was an exciting event for me. See, it doesn't take much to make me happy.

Ummm...here?

Here we are, hard at work- Kristen, Francine and Cheryl. We ended up covering the entire room in chart paper. We were at St Joseph's school in Kincardine and I wonder what everyone thought of our wall papering job. I had a blast working with you today ladies. A la prochaine!

The team at work

Diving into the box of treasures

As I mentioned before I received a box of books for my project this week. They are just lovely. The book fan in me is salivating. I have 3 weeks to evaluate the books, choose those I want to keep and return the others, before being invoiced.

So...here I am working on a Saturday. The Ministry of Education is so SMART! They forsaw this, I'm sure! You see, part of the budgets for 2 projects included "release time". "Release time" is teacher talk. It means you are out of your classroom and a supply teacher is hired. During that time you work on your project. Yeah...well...I'm a sucker! You see, I've done hours and hours of work already, as has my team. All of it in the evenings and weekends. Therefore not applicable for "release time" money. Hmmmm. So I'm wondering if the Ministry is going to let us have "lieu time". This is when you bank hours on weekends and evenings and then add them all up. Once you have enough lieu time a supply teacher is hired and you are FREE! Why am I skeptical??

I guess it's the perfectionist in me. I can't have a pile of books taller than my 7 year old sitting in my office and NOT dive in. I can't postpone starting this work until a day when a supply teacher is available. I'm a sucker, for sure!

So, what have I been up to today? First, I did some re-reading of Lucy Calkin's Primary Writing program- specifically the introductory stuff. Then I spent a pleasurable hour reading some of the new French books that have been calling to me. Later this week I'll let you know which books have made my "possible" list.

On Tuesday Cheryl, Francine and I are meeting for the entire day. This is "release time" and I can hardly wait!

2 projects, 2 new developments

Today my first shipment of books arrived from Catherine Payant at CFO. Yeah! Quels beaux livres! I can hardly wait to tackle them.

For the group project I located this website last night. It parallels our project in many ways: It is an exemplar project. http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/perf_stands/f_premiere.pdf Check it out.

I also received an email from a good friend of mine: Andrea H. She wanted to let me know that's she's been reading the blog and she's impressed with the projects. She reminded me that she has access to 400 kids in Immersion, through her school board. She offered any help we might need.

Interestingly, our recent School Effectiveness framework meeting with the Superintendent, outlined the need for more teacher-directed Professional Development. I think these 2 projects are a definite fit!

Cheryl, Francine and I are looking forward to meeting on Tuesday and getting started in earnest. I think we'll like begin by looking at what the above-mentioned project did and going from there. I know we definitly need to set some immediate goals and deadlines, or we are going to sunk!

I suppose I will soon need a 1/2 day to get started looking at that box of possibilities that Catherine sent my way. If I don 't send them back within 21 days I get invoiced for ALL of them, not just the ones that will be useful to my project.

Lucy Calkins links

http://www.unitsofstudy.com/author_bios.asp

This is the biography and summary of Lucy Calkin's primary writing resource. This is what I will be using for my individual project.

Contacting the experts

Once our team had recovered from the drive to Toronto we began making our plans in earnest.

For my individual project I contacted the Centre Franco-Ontarienne des Ressources Pedagogiques-- a wonderful center in Hull/Ottawa that helps Ontario French teachers locate and purchase quality resources.

I made contact with Madame Catherine Payant. I explained my project and was gratified to get an immediate response: She would help me and she was excited for me! Together Catherine and I put together a first group of books for my perusal. They are slated to ship out today. Now I just have to notify someone at the Board office that they can expect a large shipment of books...I wonder who?? Accounts payable? French resource? Literacy? hmmmm. I never can get the Who Does What of Board Offices straight!

Cheryl, Francine and I are busy emailing each other to make plans for next week. What in heavens name did people do before email? We hope to meet for a full day to firm up a few things and pick some initial tasks for our Immersion teachers to administer.

I have had lots of positive feedback about this blogs. Francine and Cheryl will be contributing soon and I'm hoping to take some pictures. My sister, the ever-brilliant Kendra, suggested creating some links to Lucy Calkins and curriculum resources too. I wonder how to do that?

It's off to Toronto for us!

So, in late March, we headed off to Toronto. The Ministry of Education wants all the teams and individuals who made successful project proposals to meet. The Marriott on Yonge Street was our destination.

Now, I don't know about you, dear reader, but I HATE driving in Toronto. I do it, but only out of love for my sister, who lives in the big city. At first, Cheryl, Francine and I hoped to drive together. Unfortunately, other committments meant that I ended up driving alone.

The conference was planned for a Wed night, Thurs and Friday. I wrote up 2 days of complex day plans for my supply teacher, and off I went. It was all good until the DREADED 401. I hate that highway. It is the site of daily deaths and I am not known for making shoulder checks. Jeez, I usually drive in Owen Sound, where the biggest threat on the highway is a cow or wild turkey! But, it actually went okay. Using Mapquest printouts I navigated my way to downtown Toronto, only to miss the Yonge St exit. Yikes. So I take the next exit and backtrack on Lakeshore to Yonge. My heart was pounding, my hands were sweating, my head was aching. But I made it!

I have never been happier to hand my keys to a concierge! I met Francine and Cheryl at the hotel and we registered.

The conference was great. We learned that the TLLP was a pilot project and that we are "Pioneers". We had some great speakers who inspired us and made us wonder what we'd gotten ourselves into. We even had the Minister of Education visit our table and chat for awhile. Can't beat that! Some of the workshops were about how to present our findings to colleagues, how to use technology to make our tasks easier, how to track our progress and budget, how to keep the attention of a group of Adult Learners, how to publish our findings, and how to work with a team. So, of course, we felt over-whelmed and excited. We felt like the Ministry was truly committed to helping us suceed and we wondered if we were crazy for taking this whole thing on.

We also met some wonderful teachers from across the province. Some of them seemed so organized and "with it". Others were like little lost lambs, being led to the slaughter. We felt somewhere in between. I always knew teachers are a talented and intelligent bunch, but boy oh boy, were some of those fellow teachers amazing people. It was inspiring and terrifying.

So what's the project about anyways?

I'm sure you are wondering. So here it goes:

Project One: Mon prof adore lire

This is the individual project. In my school board we have spent a lot of time, energy and money on new literacy initiatives. One resource we have been using at the Primary level is Lucy Calkins' writing curriculum for primary grades. This is a wonderful resource that shows teachers how to run an effective writing program. It uses mentor or touchstone books to begin each lesson. For example, the personal narrative lessons recommend the use of several wonderful children's books, that are personal narratives, to show the students what good writers do. The picture books are crucial to the outcomes.

Unfortunately, French Immersion teachers have been struggling to use this resource. You see, only ONE of the mentor texts that Lucy Calkins uses is available in French. This leaves French Immersion teachers with a huge problem. Most have solved the problem by searching for other quality books to use during Writer's workshop. This has been a difficult, time-consuming and frustrating undertaking. It has been made all the worse by the fact that the school board has purchased a set of the recommended texts for each school. English teachers have exactly what they need to implement Lucy Calkin's writing curriculum. French Immersion teachers do not.

My project proposes to find quality French books that dovetail with Lucy Calkin's resource, purchase them for classrooms in our school board, and workshop their use with all the French Immersion teachers in our Board.

PROJECT 2: Ici on Ecrit

This is the team project. Again, the project is based on a missing resource for French Immersion teachers. In this case the missing resource is a set of Writing Exemplars for French Immersion. The Ministry of Education has published a set of Writing Exemplars for each grade level, in English and in French. However, the French exemplars are intended for use by French First Language teachers, not Immersion. Exemplars show teachers what their students should be doing at each grade level, and provide examples of work at level 1,2,3 and 4. This is a valuable resource for teachers.

Francine, Cheryl and I intend to create these Exemplars for Immersion teachers. We will be collecting writing samples from Immersion students across the school board, marking them using a common rubric, and publishing our findings. We will need the cooperation of all Immersion teachers to undertake this project. The proposal is so expensive because of the time needed to collect, mark and publish our findings. 3 teachers working together, means 3 supply teachers in our classrooms- a considerable expense. In addition, we will need to meet with all the other French Immersion teachers in our board on several occasions. This means more supply teachers.

I hope these two outlines will help you understand the scope of our projects. Needless to say, Francine, Cheryl and I have a lot of work to do in the coming months!

Approval given- Yikes!

Francine, Cheryl and I submitted our proposals to the Board office. We learned quite quickly that the Board had agreed to pass our proposals on to the Ministry. If the Board had rejected our proposals at this stage we would have been able to make revisions and try again, or give up entirely. We were pleased to hear that the Board felt our projects had merit.

So, we waited and waited and went on with the myriad tasks that a teacher undertakes every day. From time to time we wondered if the proposals had even been forwarded! We wondered if the Ministry had received them. We wondered if perhaps the Ministry of Education had laughed at our proposals and promptly shredded them. And then...

Success! We received an email from the Ministry, letting us know that..... both projects had been accepted.

My individual project was accepted with one revision: the books I planned to purchase had to be labelled with the school board's stamp and had to remain the property of each school. This is because the Ministry already funds text books and other books. The project could not be JUST about purchasing books. I agreed to this revision, since that was the plan from the outset; I just hadn't written that into the proposal.

The team project was accepted without revisions. The Ministry even approved the budget.

Working out the details

So far my proposal was coming along really well, and I had agreed to write a team proposal as well.

My principal generously arranged for me to meet with Cheryl and Francine and I made the trip to Kincardine where Francine teaches, the following week.

So here are the team members:
Francine P is a very experienced French Immersion teacher, who has a reputation for getting things done, finding new resources, and being a wonderful mentor and teacher. She is our team leader. Her family is very important to her and she loves a challenge.

Cheryl M is an experienced French Immersion teacher as well. Cheryl is a realist, with a real knack of keeping us on track and being practical in her approach. She is a brillant teacher with lots of good ideas. Her husband is a principal in our school board and her kids depend on her to keep things running smoothly.

Together, we felt we had a fighting chance of getting our proposal approved. We met for one afternoon and put together a rough draft. The draft included a budget, timeline and curriculum links. The team worked well together and really gelled. We felt we could continue to work as a team, especially with Francine leading the way. I was happy to get to know these two women better and to be included in a team that had so much expertise.

At the end of the afternoon we left the proposal with Francine, to finish up, edit and email to us later that week. It was a good working session and despite our $20, 000 budget (!!!!!) we were optimistic.

Crazy me...2 projects on the go!

Once I had a rough draft that I was happy with I decided it was time to talk to Francine. Francine is my French Immersion Literacy Coach, a job she does part-time for the Board.

The next time she popped into my school to chat (January) and look over some new resources, I showed her what I was up to. In typical Francine fashion, she was intrigued and enthusiastic. She encouraged me to submit the proposal and made some suggestions about my budget. (up to this point the budget part of my proposal was just a rough guess!).

Francine then suggested that we write a team proposal with Cheryl, in order to undertake a project that she had been thinking about for quite awhile. I, foolishly, agreed. Why not? Two project proposals is better than one! We chatted with my principal about our idea. Monique, ever the optimist, was keen. She encouraged us to go for it and even agreed to free me up the next week so we could get together.

Looking back I wonder why I agreed to join a team project, on top of my individual project. I guess I just figured there was no way the Ministry of Education would approve my project.
HA!

Writing the proposal

Once I had decided to go for it, I brainstormed some ideas. I bounced them off my husband and a few teacher friends at school. My husband, Greg, thought I was crazy to undertake a new project, after so many years of doing courses. I had to agree!

The Teacher Learning and Leadership Project information given to teachers, through the Ontario Ministry website, was very open-ended. It was a pilot project and it seemed to be easy
enough to apply.

I began writing a proposal. The rough drafts were pretty sketchy on details, to say the least! I kept wondering why anyone in the world would give me money for such a weak proposal.

I ran my first few drafts past my Literacy coach, a wonderful woman, named Staci. She read each draft and made some very insightful comments. Other teachers, who would understand what I was trying to do, also gave me some input. The greatest strength of any school is the expertise and professionalism of the teachers. I am blessed to work at the local Catholic primary school. At this school teachers take their jobs seriously and are always seeking innovative solutions to practical, every-day problems. What a wonderful staff and each person I asked to help me was amazing. So, thanks ladies (and 2 gents)! You keep me sane.

Deciding to go for it

Hello and welcome to my first post.

In December I received an email from my principal, outlining a new Professional Learning opportunity for experienced Ontario teachers. It was a Ministry of Education iniatitive, encouraging teachers to apply for money to undertake a project of their choice, alone or in a team.

I thought for a long time about what kind of project I would undertake. I then decided that I had no interest in doing it. I have a young son and I had just completed 10 years of Additional Qualification courses, resulting in a nice pay raise, and lots of free time.

Then, one day I looked up the Ministry website and thought "Ah, well, I'll just apply. What chance do I have of getting a grant anyways?" . So began my journey.