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Radio Interview CJAD           January 2022 Making the Decision to Register Your Child for School

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Radio Interview CJAD           January 2022 Making the Decision to Register Your Child for School

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Why chose pre-kindergarten, and SWLSB? Helping make the choice.

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Interview: April 20, 2022 Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board Truth and Reconciliation Initiative

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Interview: April 20, 2022 Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board Truth and Reconciliation Initiative

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(Must scroll back through catalog)

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On Demand

"Let's Go" with Sabrina Marandola celebrates local stories, explores a range of perspectives and shines a light on people making a difference in our community. Get all the latest news and transportation updates to move into your afternoon.

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Let's Go with Sabrina Marandola | Live Radio | CBC Listen

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"Let's Go" with Sabrina Marandola celebrates local stories, explores a range of perspectives and shines a light on people making a difference in our community. Get all the latest news and transportation updates to move into your afternoon.

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Comprehensive presentation on process for transitions to school

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Collaboration Between SWLSB Transition Dossier and Partners

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Collaboration Between SWLSB Transition Dossier and Partners

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A roadmap for collaboration among the 3 Regions and community partners of the SWLSB

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Radio Interview CBC February 2022 What Should Parents Keep In Mind When Registering Young Children for School This Year

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Radio Interview CBC February 2022 What Should Parents Keep In Mind When Registering Young Children for School This Year

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15 minute interview covering everything from making the decision, to getting children ready.

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Quebec AM

What should parents keep in mind when registering young children for school this year? Carolynn Roberts weighs in

Children set to start kindergarten and pre-K in the fall will have spent more than half their lives in the pandemic. As registration time approaches, Carolynn Roberts, project development officer for Early Transitions at Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board, explains how schools are preparing.

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What should parents keep in mind when registering young children for school this year? Carolynn Roberts weighs in | Quebec AM | Live Radio | CBC Listen

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Children set to start kindergarten and pre-K in the fall will have spent more than half their lives in the pandemic. As registration time approaches, Carolynn Roberts, project development officer for Early Transitions at Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board, explains how schools are preparing.

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Promotional video for the Kindergarten Cycle with SWLSB. A collaboration with the PSD Ed. Tech team, WOTP program and McCaig Elementary

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(French Dubbed) Promotional video for the Kindergarten Cycle with SWLSB. A collaboration with the PSD Ed. Tech. team, WOTP program, and McCaig Elementary

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(Created) Links to important information, community partners, and resources (based on concerns expressed by parents when registering their children)

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Welcome to the SWLSB access point for resources TO HELP your preschool-aged child transition to school.

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Collaboration on the Transition to Kindergarten tools, specifically the English version of the Placemat and Brochure.

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Regroupement lavallois pour la réussite éducative

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Les outils " Je me prépare pour la maternelle "

Les outils " Je me prépare pour la maternelle " visent à sensibiliser les parents face à l'importance de leur rôle dans la préparation de leur enfant pour l'entrée à la maternelle. Développés en collaboration avec des partenaires des milieux scolaire, communautaire, de la santé et des services sociaux, ils cherchent à outiller les familles afin qu'elles puissent favoriser une transition scolaire harmonieuse à travers des gestes simples, des jeux et des activités du quotidien.

Ci-dessous, vous trouverez les versions téléchargeables des outils:
- Napperon-jeu
- Feuillet à l'intention des parents
- Feuille à colorier

Pour accéder aux versions anglaises de ces outils, cliquez ici.

10 fiches-conseils pour se préparer à la maternelle dans le plaisir!

En raison des circonstances extraordinaires générées par la COVID-19, les activités d'accueil et d'information pour l'entrée à la maternelle, habituellement offertes par les écoles et les organisations communautaires, ont dû être annulées. Malgré la situation, le RLPRE et ses partenaires travaillent pour soutenir et outiller les familles concernées à distance, afin que celles-ci soient bien préparées à la rentrée de 2021.

10 fiches-conseils pour aider les familles à préparer leur enfant à son entrée à la maternelle par le jeu et des activités du quotidien. (En cas de difficulté, l'utilisation des navigateurs Chrome et Safari est recommandée pour visionner les fiches.)
Une fiche de ressources numériques qui vous aideront à aller plus loin.
Cliquez ICI!
Des fiches pour faire connaître des ressources familiales dans les six territoires de Laval :

- Est de Laval

- Ouest de Laval

- Sainte-Rose / Fabreville

- Vimont / Auteuil

La Passerelle - Je me prépare pour la maternelle

Le comité Je me prépare pour la maternelle est heureux de présenter La Passerelle, un questionnaire qui vise à dresser le portrait du développement d'un enfant qui vivra bientôt son entrée à la maternelle.

Rempli par le parent et l'éducatrice de l'enfant, ce document de travail cherche à aider l'enseignante du préscolaire à mieux connaître son nouvel élève pour mieux l'accueillir. Il vise ainsi à assurer la continuité du parcours éducatif de l'enfant, en favorisant la communication entre les personnes qui l'accompagnent au fil de cette première transition.
Téléchargez La Passerelle

ABONNEZ-VOUS
À NOTRE
INFOLETTRE

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regroupement lavallois pour la réussite éducative

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Transition vers la maternelle - Regroupement lavallois pour la réussite éducative

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Les outils " Je me prépare pour la maternelle " Les outils " Je me prépare pour la maternelle " visent à sensibiliser les parents face à l'importance de leur rôle dans la préparation de leur enfant pour l'entrée à la maternelle. Développés en collaboration avec des partenaires des milieux scolaire, communautaire, de la santé ...

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Transition to School Timeframe For SWLSB

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Transition to School Timeframe For SWLSB

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Timeframe of actions for transition to school with SWLSB school community and partners

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Entire binder of timelines, resources, etc.

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Consent form for parents to sign for communication between partners in education

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Parental Consent to Share Information FRENCH

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Parental Consent to Share Information FRENCH

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Consent form for parents to sign for communication between partners in education FRENCH

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SWLSB Parental Questionnaire at Registration

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SWLSB Parental Questionnaire at Registration

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Parents to fill in when registering their child for PreKindergarten/Kindergarten

(NOTE This was the first comprehensive tool created provincially and was used as a model)

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SWLSB Parental Questionnaire at Registration French

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SWLSB Parental Questionnaire at Registration French

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Parents to fill in when registering their child for PreKindergarten/Kindergarten. FRENCH

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"Tom “Teacher Tom” Hobson is an early childhood educator, international speaker, education consultant, teacher of teachers, parent educator, and author." (AKA "A Guru of what early childhood education should be!)

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Teacher Tom | Consultancy | Teacher Tom's World

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The kids I teach are learning the way humans are meant to learn: taking risks, falling down, making their own choices, getting dirty, agreeing to their own rules, and engaging in real life experiences like growing food and dealing with conflict.

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A FANTASTIC resource for everything early childhood (training, resources, blog, etc.)

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This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website.

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Reconciliation Liaisons Padlet of Initiatives and Ideas

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Reconciliation Liaisons Padlet of Initiatives and Ideas

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Measure 15061 April 19th Screening of Beans and Blanket Ceremony

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Measure 15061 April 19th Screening of Beans and Blanket Ceremony

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Quebec's third-largest English school board, whose vast territory includes the Mohawk community at the centre of the 1990 Oka Crisis, wants its teachers to have a better understanding of Indigenous issues and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action.

On Tuesday, a group of educators from across the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board gathered at Laval Junior High School to learn about the Oka Crisis and the importance of teaching about the conflict from a Mohawk perspective.

The group screened filmmaker Tracey Deer's movie Beans, which is inspired by her experience as a 12-year-old during the turbulent 78-day standoff in Kanesatake and in Deer's home community of Kahnawake. The teachers participated in a panel discussion with the director afterward.

The event was part of a push by the school board over the past five years to incorporate more teaching about Indigenous issues, history and culture into its schools.

"It means so much to me because when I went to high school ... I was surrounded by white kids, and the very little that we spoke about Indigenous people, it was like two pages in a history book," Deer told the 40-or-so teachers, designated as liaisons for truth and reconciliation at the schools where they work.

"So even within my own school, I felt invisible and not important," Deer said.

The teachers were invited to ask questions. They'll be expected to share what they have learned with their students and colleagues.

The Laurier board's efforts come as the Quebec government is working to implement recommendations made by retired Superior Court justice Jacques Viens in his damning 2019 report on how Indigenous people are treated by the province.

Viens found "systemic discrimination" against Indigenous peoples across the spectrum of public services in Quebec, and he recommended the school curriculum be overhauled to properly reflect the history and contributions of First Nations and Inuit.

The Laurier board's initiatives, including Tuesday's workshop, are funded by a $51,000 grant from Quebec's Education Ministry to raise awareness and training for educators about "Indigenous realities" in the province's schools.

One scene in Beans is depicted exactly as Deer lived it in 1990, when she and her sister were being driven onto Montreal island in a convoy of women, children and elders evacuating Kahnawake, on Montreal's South Shore.

As they drove into the city, an angry mob pelted their vehicles with rocks, as police stood idly by.

In the scene in the movie, Beans hides on the floor of her mother's car as the vehicle's back window shatters.

Deer has described that moment, along with others from that summer, as the most traumatic of her life.

'It really hit home'

Vicki Fraser, a teacher at McCaig Elementary School in Rosemère and one of the liaison teachers at the event, said the movie changed her perception of the Oka Crisis.

"Watching the film today, it really hit home," said Fraser, who was also a child at the time of the crisis. "We need a clear picture of history so that we can do things to make the future better."

Fraser said the movie has given her a sense of urgency to act. She said she'd been reluctant at first to take on the role of liaison, out of fear that she didn't know enough about Indigenous issues, "but you know, after today, I was thinking, it's also my job to learn."

Deer became emotional while thanking the teachers.

"Events like this, I'm so happy to get the call, so happy to say yes. Events like this bring me healing. I'm so thrilled to see you all here and that you're all putting in this effort, and you all care," she said.

Michael Quinn, the school board's assistant director of pedagogical services, said the board hopes to expand the scope of its program to spread awareness.

"We really want these issues to permeate the whole life of the school. What we're trying to avoid is tokenism, which is very easy for our schools and for us all, to fall into the trap of wearing an orange T-shirt on Orange Shirt Day, maybe doing a charity event, and then that's it. It's done," Quinn said.

"We want something that's long-lasting."

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How teachers at Quebec's Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board are learning about truth and reconciliation | CBC News

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Quebec's third-largest English school board, whose vast territory includes the Mohawk community at the centre of the 1990 Oka Crisis, invited filmmaker Tracey Deer to share her childhood experience of that conflict with educators, who will share it in turn with students and colleagues.

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Padlet for Parental Component Funding Ideas

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Padlet for Parental Component Funding Ideas

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Moving from Parent Involvement to Family Engagement with Karen L. Mapp

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Moving from Parent Involvement to Family Engagement with Karen L. Mapp

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P artnering with families to promote learning starts with having a mindset that all families have much to offer, Harvard educator and researcher Karen L. Mapp believes. Mapp has long promoted the idea of educators working in tandem with families and has researched the impact of family engagement on achievement. In 2003, she served as Deputy Superintendent for Family and Community Engagement for Boston Public Schools, and from 2011-2013, she was a consultant on family engagement to the U.S. Department of Education. Mapp is the author or coauthor of many books and reports, including Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family-School Partnerships (New Press, 2007), the 2014 SEDL report Partners in Education: The Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships, and Powerful Partnerships: A Teacher's Guide to Engaging Families for Student Success (Scholastic, 2017).

Schools have good intentions about involving families, but families often don't become true partners in fostering students' learning. How do good intentions go awry?

We've learned over the years that good intentions aren't enough. I get invited to visit a lot of school systems, and many reach out to me that have good intentions. They truly want to have a more effective partnership with their students' families. But because the practitioners who are interested in engaging families were never trained on how to do that, they often engage in practices that aren't effective. So they become frustrated and sometimes give up. Or worse, they get it into their heads that families don't care.

This happens when no real love has been cultivated between families and school staff. Say a school tries to have an open house for families or runs a typical parent-teacher conference event. They send out emails or send notices home with the students, but because they haven't cultivated a trusting, respectful relationship with their families, the families don't come. Or sometimes families are intimidated because they've had bad experiences themselves in school. Or maybe the only phone calls home prior to this event were bad news about their child.

When districts and schools engage in more effective practices, that's when we see good intentions become high-quality family engagement. And many districts around the United States are doing fabulous, intentional work around engaging and partnering with families.

What are effective practices for engaging families?

In 2013, working in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Education, I developed a dual capacity-building framework for family-school partnerships. The framework gives guidance on what effective practice actually looks like. The most important practice to integrate into any family engagement initiative is to link that initiative to student learning and development. In the garden-variety parent involvement strategies-the sort of "random acts of parent involvement"-there's no direct connection between engagement activities and student learning.

Often when I'm working in districts or schools, I ask school leaders and their staff to identify an area in which students might be struggling academically or with social-emotional development. They'll identify some challenge-for example, strengthening literacy. So I'll ask them whether the family engagement events they have scheduled are focused on partnering with families to improve student learning in this specific area-and I get blank stares. They realize that they've scheduled the formulaic family engagement events everybody's been doing for the last 50 years, and those events are absolutely not linked to learning and student development.

We're trying to move away from the term parent involvement and switch to family engagement. Parent involvement almost always refers to individualized, passive forms of involvement.

What might a more effective open house, for instance, look like?

Some years back, I worked with a K-8 school in Boston. They made their beginning-of-the-year open house an event that would signal a change in terms of its feel and intentions. They changed the name from Open House to Family Fun Night. Teachers had the students write personal invitations to families, and the leaders scheduled time at the end of the day for teachers to make personal phone calls to parents, not using the robo-call approach, but saying, this is a night we're going to have fun and share with you some of our goals and what our kids are going to be learning.

That night, a band from Boston's Berklee College of Music played in the school. There were refreshments, and teachers wore badges that said "Welcome to our school. My name is ___." When families went into the auditorium, instead of the principal talking about the rules of the school or curriculum, the principal and staff members shared three specific goals they'd decided on, after looking at achievement data, for what all students should know and be able to do by the end of the year. There were goals around literacy and mathematics, and there was a social-emotional goal.

When the families went into the classrooms, they participated in activities teachers had designed, things that could be done at home and in the community that would support one of those goals. For example, in the early elementary classrooms, families learned how to practice sight words with children. In the 6th grade classroom, math teachers shared content connected to working with statistics. As families played board games, teachers showed them how they could translate this play into talking to their kids about mathematics concepts. The school took everyday things that families do and showed how these activities could get kids to practice important learning skills that the teachers would be going over in the classrooms.

So the families walked away from that event having learned something they could do with their children that was linked to one of those three goals-and that made families feel good. This school's teachers told me later that it made a huge difference. The families had gotten so charged up about what they could do to help their children-seeing the fruits of their labor, because the teachers would let the families know they were seeing improvements-that they wanted to learn more.

At schools that use such goal-oriented strategies, families end up really interested in being engaged. I've heard family members say, "We show up for things now because we feel like partners." These initiatives take work, but the end product is so much more exciting and fulfilling.

Stacks of research studies show that when you support family engagement in ways linked to learning and development, you see results. A few years back, a study came out that basically stated that the effectiveness of parent involvement was overrated. But what that research actually pointed out is that when schools do random parent involvement activities with no clear learning goal, that's when you don't see the effects on student outcomes.

When you look across the last 50 years of research on family engagement initiatives linked to learning, you do see results. For instance, researchers at Johns Hopkins University published a study on the effects of home visits. They found that students who got a home visit, so that the teacher and parent developed a trusting relationship and began their partnership on the right foot, not only ended up reading at or above grade level, but also had much higher attendance rates than their peers who didn't get a home visit.

It's not just grades and test scores. You also see that students whose families are engaged are the students who like school, who aren't suspended, and who graduate on time.

You've said effective family engagement needs to be developmental-to build people's capacity-and that one key is family members seeing their role in the school differently. How should their perception of their role change?

Kathy Hoover Dempsey, one of my colleagues and mentors, did wonderful work a few years back where she identified why and how families become engaged in their children's education. One thing she talks about is role construction: the way that families see their role in their children's education. A lot of times, family members-particularly those who didn't graduate from high school or have postsecondary opportunities or who are new to this country-don't feel confident in their ability to facilitate their children's learning. Kathy talks about how important it is for those families to be invited into the world of supporting children's educational and social-emotional development. They have to be invited and have opportunities to learn new things.

Many people need to be made aware of the fact that they already have skills and tools to help support their children's learning. No one has told them, "Look, you already have funds of knowledge to help support your child-we just need to cultivate that knowledge a bit more. Let's build on the actions you're already doing and see the connection between things you already know how to do and your child's development." Sort of unlocking the potential of families.

An initiative that came out of the Logan Square neighborhood in Chicago is a good example. The Logan Square Neighborhood Association collaborated with neighborhood schools to start a parent mentor program. Many of the moms who got involved didn't speak English and thought they had no talents or skills that would let them support their child's education. Through this program, parents were each assigned to a classroom (not their child's classroom), where the teacher encouraged them to help with, for instance, a few students' reading. Family members started to feel a new sense of efficacy around their ability to support not just their child, but others' children. Lo and behold, some of these parents decided, maybe I want to be a teacher myself! That developed into a grow-your-own teacher initiative in Illinois.

We often hear about the barriers families face to getting engaged. Do classroom teachers have barriers they need to overcome to partner well with families?

Teachers need training to do this work well. We really do a disservice to teachers by not providing them with the training to partner with families. A study done by MetLife a few years back found that the number one area in which teachers feel incompetent is engaging with families.

I do many speaking engagements with groups of 200-300 teachers and principals. I always ask, "How many of you have been classroom teachers?" Usually everybody raises their hand. Then I ask, "How many of you have ever received a full course, not just a workshop, on engaging and partnering with families?" And maybe one or two people raise their hands. I've done this over the last three years, and it's always the same. I don't blame teachers and principals for not knowing how to effectively engage families. We've done a horrible job providing them support to do that.

Now we're seeing more intentional efforts by districts to train their school leaders and teachers in family engagement. That's what it's going to take-that and robust preservice work. Preservice is where we need to start. If new practitioners understand that family engagement is a key component to their being effective teachers, that will carry with them throughout their careers.

I'm working hard now on trying to get states to include some proficiency standards for teachers on family engagement. For new teachers, proficiency in family engagement would be part of the licensure criteria; for practicing teachers, it would be part of their evaluation standards. The Massachusetts Educator Evaluator Standards for practicing teachers, for instance, include family engagement standards. Districts are using those standards to figure out the kind of training they'll develop for their practitioners. But we also need standards around family engagement for new teachers, because that will cause teacher training institutions and certification programs to be more rigorous about training for family engagement.

It's also important to have district teams that support this work in the schools and to train teachers on more effective engagement practices. This is what I mean by family engagement being systemic throughout a district. When I was Deputy Superintendent for Family and Community Engagement in Boston in 2003, that was one of the few districts in the United States in which a staff member who oversaw family and community engagement was part of the superintendent's leadership team. There were a handful of such positions back in 2003; now more than 150 districts have family engagement practitioners at the central office level who oversee the work at the district level.

What are some things a teacher might do to start repurposing her practice in this way?

The work has to start with self-reflection. When I work with teachers, the first thing we do is examine their core beliefs around family engagement. I ask questions like, "Do you believe all families have hopes and dreams for their children?" "Do you believe families can be your partners?" "Should you play a key role in starting those partnerships?" We ask teachers to tell us about the families they serve, including what talents they've identified in caregivers. A lot of times, those are hard questions for people to answer. If someone hasn't examined his or her biases, those biases can get in the way of trying to reshape practice.

Some teachers have revealed that they didn't think certain families had the capacity to support their children's education. The "certain families" changes depending on the context, but typically it's families who come from poverty, who don't speak English, or who've experienced some sort of trauma. In some cases, teachers will admit to me that they have racial biases they haven't examined, or that they've assumed-particularly with families coming from poor communities-that families don't want to be involved or don't care.

Some years back, teachers from a new school in the Boston area came to talk with a class of my graduate students. One teacher said she thought her job was to inoculate some students against their families and their community. I think this teacher thought that she had good intentions. She wanted to lift these kids up. But clearly, she had a bias about that community, thinking that everything in it was negative.

Once teachers have had conversations about biases and assumptions, they need to start letting parents in on what it is they're trying to accomplish. I don't know how many times I've had families tell me, "Dr. Mapp, the school's not telling us what our kids should know and be able to do by the end of the year. We want to know."

I was in a session in Texas with Latino parents, talking with them through a translator, and the parents began to weep and say things like, "Please tell the teachers that we want to be engaged. We want to know how we can support our children's learning." They were very passionate. They actually told me, "We think the teachers think we don't care because we can't come to the school. We can't come because our jobs prevent us."

We have to get away from thinking that it all happens at the school. Here's one example of how a school changed their practice: In an Iowa district, many parents worked at the meat packing plant. So the school worked with the supervisors at the plant to do their engagement activities there when parents went on break.

What are three key things any caregiver should know about their child's school and school work?

First, they need to know they are an integral part of their children's development. That regardless of their past education experience, regardless of their socioeconomic standing, they are their child's first teacher. And they are already doing things that support their children's learning, things that can be enhanced through partnership with the school.

Second, they should know that families have knowledge about their children that we, as educators, need. Teachers who've been working in real partnerships tell me, "Boy, the knowledge I get from families about what their child likes, things they've noticed about their child, really helps me differentiate my instruction."

Third, families need to know that they shouldn't be afraid to reach out to their child's teacher and school. We should respectfully tell family members to reach out and say, "I really want to know how to best support my child."

What about the unspoken rules schools operate by-things like the fact that it's OK to request a certain teacher for your child? Is it helpful for teachers to clue parents into those kinds of things?

What's most effective isn't teachers giving only a few parents advice. It's a more concerted effort. For example, when Andres Alonso was superintendent of Baltimore City Public Schools, he contracted with five community organizing groups in Baltimore. He realized that these were important and knowledgeable constituents, so he partnered with them to coordinate parent leadership trainings around the city, explaining to large groups of parents the basics of how schools are run, giving parents insider knowledge. Teachers did some of these trainings. They'd talk to parents about things like how the school budget works, district policies around bilingual education, or what a whole-school reform strategy looks like. So it wasn't just teachers doing little things or saying, "Hey, you can do this for your child." It was about creating a community in Baltimore that supports the schools.

Family-school partnership is better if it's happening systemwide, with larger groups. We want to build partnerships between families and teachers that are about lifting up all boats, not just a few.

Editor's Note: This interview has been edited for space and clarity.

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Unlocking Families' Potential: A Conversation with Karen L. Mapp

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P artnering with families to promote learning starts with having a mindset that all families have much to offer, Harvard educator and researcher Karen L. Mapp believes. Mapp has long promoted the idea of educators working in tandem with families and has researched the impact of family engagement on achievement.

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Comprehensive guide to including parents in the early learning transition and enhancing their connection to school

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Encouraging Positive Behavior (Early Years Classroom)

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Encouraging Positive Behavior (Early Years Classroom)

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Trauma Informed Lens

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Play-based, the program, teaching the program, developmental expectations, management, online learning environments during Covid

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Using Observation for Instructional Practice and Assessment in an Early Years Classroom

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Using Observation for Instructional Practice and Assessment in an Early Years Classroom

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Maximizing the benefit of observation not as an "additional thing" but as a tool for instructional practice AND assessment. Use of Yardsticks, and Focused Observation.

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Communication About Learning Versus Reporting ON Learning

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Communication About Learning Versus Reporting ON Learning

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Explanation of tools developed for communication with parents.

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Parents as Partners in Early Learning Environments

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Parents as Partners in Early Learning Environments

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Seeing the role parents have in early learning environments and feeling safe to welcome them into the partnership.

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Workshop 2 November:  Working Together to Create Instructional Units

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Workshop 2 November:  Working Together to Create Instructional Units

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Beginning the process of developing content units for the classroom.

1 Year Funded Project to create developmentally and program relevant content for Pre-Kindergarten

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PEDCOM Presentation (to School Board and Department Directors)

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PEDCOM Presentation (to School Board and Department Directors)

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Presentation 2019 explaining the Pre-Kindergarten program and directions.

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Collaboration with all Departments regarding the implementation and impacts regarding the province-wide roll-out of Pre-Kindergarten

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Workshop 1 October: Working Together to Create Instructional Units

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Workshop 1 October: Working Together to Create Instructional Units

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Workshop 1: Collective Understanding: Program, goals, assessment, techniques, inclusion

1 Year Funded Project: to create developmentally and program relevant content for Pre-Kindergarten

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Workshop 3 February: Working Together to Create Instructional Units

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Workshop 3 February: Working Together to Create Instructional Units

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Self-Reflection on Implementation of Program and Practice. Role of observation and communication.

1 Year Funded Project to create developmentally and program relevant content for Pre-Kindergarten

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Play in K: A Full Day of Exploration of Play as an Instructional Practice in an Early-Years Classroom

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Play in K: A Full Day of Exploration of Play as an Instructional Practice in an Early-Years Classroom

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Presentation includes collaborative notes from participating teachers.

A full day of learning about how play is an actual instructional practice. Exploration of play, games, etc. and collaboration between teachers to generate ideas.

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Presentation to In-School Professionals (Psych, OT, SLP) 

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Presentation to In-School Professionals (Psych, OT, SLP) 

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Presentation on Ministry's plan for early years educational environment and the in-school professional role

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Pre-Kindergarten Workshop for Teachers August 2019

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Pre-Kindergarten Workshop for Teachers August 2019

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Exploration of program, expectations, collaboration

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Transitions to School: Presentation to Principals

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Transitions to School: Presentation to Principals

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Presentation regarding the transition process to schools

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Transitions to School: Presentation to Community Partners June 2019

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Transitions to School: Presentation to Community Partners June 2019

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Setting the stage for how partners in education, health and social services, and community-based organizations can work together in the transition to school process

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Transitions to School Presentation to Community Partners October 2019

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Transitions to School Presentation to Community Partners October 2019

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Continuing to expand a collaborative model between all community partners in health, social services, community-based organizations in the transition to school process

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Transitions PreK-K Document for PreK Teachers

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Transitions PreK-K Document for PreK Teachers

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Snapshot of PreK students going to K, including details about services received in the PreK year.

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Form for all daycares to fill in regarding students currently in their care and moving to PreK/K the following year (NOTE This was the first comprehensive tool created provincially and was used as a model)

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Vetted by Dan Hedges and myself

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Measure 15061 Raising Awareness (Systemic Change)

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Measure 15061 Raising Awareness (Systemic Change)

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The outline of the project to implement systemic change in our school board

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Sample Newsletter for Indigenous Liaisons

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Sample Newsletter for Indigenous Liaisons

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National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

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NOTE: One of our first newsletters; we reflected upon the use of the term "ambassador" and change it to a more appropriate "liaison"

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Rest, Play, Grow by Dr. Deborah MacNamara

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Rest, Play, Grow by Dr. Deborah MacNamara

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A MUST read for any early years (and beyond!) educator!

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Based on science and the relational developmental approach of renowned psychologist and bestselling author Gordon Neufeld, Rest, Play, Grow reveals how adults have a critical role to play in creating the conditions for young children to flourish. This is the story of how young children develop, from their intense need for attachment and the vital importance of play to discipline that preserves growth.

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Focused Observations: How to Observe Young Children for Assessment and Curriculum Planning

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Focused Observations: How to Observe Young Children for Assessment and Curriculum Planning

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A FANTASTIC "How To" Guidebook for using observation for planning AND assessment (includes links to videos as well which are also all on YouTube!)

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Focused Observations, Second Edition: How to Observe Young Children for Assessment and Curriculum Pl

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Focused Observations, Second Edition: How to Observe Young Children for Assessment and Curriculum Planning by Gaye Gronlund and Marylyn James

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Play-Based Learning Videos, Ontario Science Centre

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Play-Based Learning Videos, Ontario Science Centre

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The series of videos put out by the Ontario Science Centre.

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How to get into Play-Based Learning: Part 1 - What is Play?

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Math "Instruction" in early years, outdoors!

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Messy Maths: A Playful, Outdoor Approach for Early Year...

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Read reviews from the world's largest community for readers. In Messy A Playful, Outdoor Approach for Early Years, Juliet Robertson offers a rich resource...

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NOTE: Not an advocate of Amazon, but it's impossible to share link from publisher.

This is just one book..... I prefer YouTube videos. (And it's delightful to see how many more are added daily!)

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Do you want to create exciting outdoor experiences for children? Are you looking for guidance on how to incorporate the wilder and riskier elements of outdoor play into your planning? This book will give you the confidence to offer the children in your setting adventurous and challenging outdoor activities, as well as ways to utilize natural resources to their best advantage. There is clear, practical advice on what you need to do, which is underpinned by the theory that supports the benefits of this approach. Examples from settings are included, to illustrate best practice and to show how things can be achieved. Issues considered include:Being outside in 'bad' weatherThe importance of risk-takingThe benefits of rough and tumble playObserving and assessing children in this modeHow these experiences improve children's learningExplaining activities to parents, colleagues and managersEnsuring health and safety requirements are metThe role of the adult in facilitating these experiencesSuitable for all students and practitioners working with young children from Birth to 8, this book will not only give you ideas for outdoor play but also help you understand exactly what you are doing and why it is educationally sound and developmentally important for children.

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Risk & Adventure in Early Years Outdoor Play: Learning from Forest Schools

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Do you want to create exciting outdoor experiences for children? Are you looking for guidance on how to incorporate the wilder and riskier elements of outdoor play into your planning? This book will give you the confidence to offer the children in your setting adventurous and challenging outdoor ...

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EVERY school should be a Legacy School!

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Inspired by Chanie's story and Gord's call to build a better Canada, the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund aims to build cultural understanding and create a path toward reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
Our goal is to improve the lives of Indigenous people by building awareness, education, and connections between all peoples in Canada.

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The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund - Indigenous Reconciliation

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The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund aims to shine a light on Indigenous reconciliation and the history of residential schools in Canada.

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Intellectual property of teachers and SWLSB Please email carolynnroberts@hotmail.com if you would like to see samples

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A fantastic book outlining learning and developmental profiles of children aged 4 to 14.

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The "Go To" handbook for evaluating early learning environments.

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The revised ECERS contains inclusive and culturally sensitive indicators for many items. Also, new items have been added on Interaction (staff-child, child-child and discipline), Curriculum (nature/science and math/number) Health & Safety and Parents & Staff.

Scale consists of 43 items organized into 7 subscales:

Space and Furnishings

Personal Care Routines

Language-Reasoning

Activities

Interactions

Program Structure

Parents and Staff

Featuring a new spiral binding, the updated ECERS-R offers more practical assistance in the form of an Expanded Scoresheet (which contains a worksheet) and additional notes for clarification to improve accuracy in scoring. However the items and indicators remain the same as in the ECERS-R.

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The revised ECERS contains inclusive and culturally sensitive indicators for many items. Also, new items have been added on Interaction (staff-child, child-child and discipline), Curriculum (nature/science and math/number) Health & Safety and Parents & Staff.

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Danielson Framework Adapted for Early Childhood

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Danielson Framework Adapted for Early Childhood

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A fantastic tool for coaching high-leverage teaching practices in early learning environments.

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2013 Danielson Framework for Teaching Evaluation Instrument With Early Childhood Examples | Early Childhood Workforce