Alternative Schools Advisory Committee (Ottawa)- Approval of January 23, 2012 Minutes
- Round table
- Lady Evelyn
- Updatet on Freedom Fridays (aka Personal Project Fridays), a cross-school project to engage kids in self-directed multi-disciplenary and multi-age learning.
- The school has taken part in Shannon's Dream, including marches and speeches at Parilament Hill and the Supreme Court and attendance in the House of Commmons for the vote to support Aboriginal Education.
- Grant
- Directors' Cut, with the children developing stop-action movies, will be culminating in an event on April with a "World Dance"
- Winter Carnival, with alternative games, was a great success
- The whole school attended the Museum of Civilization on a field trip
- They have contacted Ray Zahab about his "Challange, Distance, Discovery" program
- Fun Fridays are 20 minute parent-led workshops
- Planning a suicide awareness workshop
- Riverview
- Literacy Night in late February with hot chocolate, cookies
- February 29 is Pink Shirt day in support of anti-bullying
- Movie Night Friday is being planning
- In April a family dance is scheduled
- Summit
- Gatineau Park snowshoeing
- February 16th were student-led conferences
- Late February was the annual Carnival, with parent-cooked breakfast and outdoor traditional Carnival games
- Council is planning two fundraisers - cookie dough and popcorn
- Disagreed with teh Citizen article about insufficient music programs in middle school. The article missed the value of percussion and non-european music.
- Churchill
- Friday Math Electives day
- Two student teachers have been helping with a stop-action animation project. This will culinate in a screening ($5 for parents) at the Mayfair Theatre.
- Council Meetings have been experimenting with an OCASC-style chalk-it-up session
- Sixth year of "School of Rock" will culiminate in a performance this year at WestFest
- Lady Evelyn
- Co-chairs' Report
- Demand Survey Extension.
ASAC has supported a request to delay for one year the demand survey for the area outside the greenbelt. This is duee to the ongoing tenet redevelopment work that needs to be completed before the communication part of the survey can take place. A request went to the board on February 22nd with support from ASAC. Sheri to lead up work with Pino and Frank to set out timelines for the completion of various motion-directed items.
- Demand Survey Extension.
- Sub-Committee Reports
- Alternative Tenets Subcommittee
Sheri was not able to attend to provide an update - Secondary Schools Adhoc Committee
Joey has indicated that he is interested in the area of special ed resource allocation and wanted to know if ASAC wanted him to pursue this under the ASAC banner. Agreement that the issue of spec-ed resource allocation is real, but some concern (since Joey was not in attendance and so the request was second-hand) that it not appear that ASAC is saying that Alternative Schools are in worse shape than other schools or deserve extra support.
- Alternative Tenets Subcommittee
- Staff Appreciation Dinner
- Richard to contact Ern about possible date in April
- Check with Megan on how the dinner was organization last year
- Discussion of what kind of food would be provided. Depends on numbers and funding from the board. Sheila suggested Thyme and Again. Deli paltters also suggested.
- What role would ASAC play. It was suggested that we might show up for h'orderves and then leave staff to discussions
- 4:30 - 5:00 meet and greet
- The objective is to support an "Alternative Practives Staff Dinner", "Sharing Best Practices", "Best Practices with the best food going".
- Shelley has offered to help.
- Priorities/Action Items
- None
- Upcoming Events
- None
February 27, 2012 Minutes
Location: Riverview Alternative School
Date: February 27, 2012
Time: 7:00 PM
In attendance:
- Shelley Rivier, Grant
- Frank Wiley, Superintendant of Instruction
- Maria Hunter, Summit, Churchill
- Robyn Leslie, Riverview
- David Benes, Riverview
- Richard Deadman, Lady Evelyn
Items
Welcome
Alternative School Advisory Committee of the OCDSB
Welcome to the web site of the OCDSB's Alternative Schools Advisory Committee. This is a place to find out about Alternative Education in Ottawa, see our schools, read news and look at upcoming events.
The structure and organization of the Alternative Schools / Programs, allows for the philosophy to be implemented through a triad of responsibility shared amongst staff, students and parents. Students learn in non-graded multi-aged groupings and are exposed to an integrated curriculum which stresses the inter-relatedness of all learning and subjects.
Sir Ken Robinson, March 2011, Learning Without Frontiers
Posted by rdeadman
Posted on 07:24, Tuesday, February 21
CBC Radio interview on Report Cards with Dr. Joel Westheimer
Posted by rdeadman
Posted on 11:27, Tuesday, February 14
The report cards are in, but what do they mean? Dr. Joel Westheimer, who recently spoke at Lady Evelyn, explains on CBC Morning (radio) why report cards have become almost unintelligable.
RSA talk by Sir Ken Robinson - Changing Education Paradigms
Posted by rdeadman
Posted on 23:29, Monday, January 10
There is an animated version of a talk entitled "Changing Education Paradigms", adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award. The talk discusses the history and goals of education and why it's reliance on standardized testing, single grades and single-topic thinking stiffles creativity and lateral thinking.
For more information on Sir Ken's work visit: http://www.sirkenrobinson.com
Ottawa Parent's Eduction Network questionaire available
Posted by rdeadman
Posted on 11:41, Wednesday, October 13
The "Ottawa Parent's Eduction Network" has sent a questionaire to all candidates. Some responses are available now. While not tied to the Alternative prtogram, the group does ask some relavant questions about parental involvement, accountability and consultation. Two questions that directly concern our community are:
7. Last year, the Board reviewed its Alternative Schools program and its Secondary Gifted program. Despite strong stakeholder support for these programs, Board staff recommended that they either be closed or eventually phased out. As a trustee, what kind of information would you seek and what would kind of questions would you ask in order to come to a decision when staff recommendations are opposed to the views of the community?
16. The Alternative Schools program was reviewed this past year and found by the Board to have many benefits for students. As a trustee, would you ensure not this program is continued and is extended to zones where it’s not currently available?
Ontario Teachers want to halt standardized testing
Posted by rdeadman
Posted on 12:45, Tuesday, August 17
CBC News is reporting that the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario is requesting a two-year moratorium on the elementary standardized tests to allow for public consultation.
From the article:
From the article:
Annie Kidder of People for Education, a parent-led organization, said testing every single student in Ontario is not necessary.The article even highlights how the tests are being used to rank neighbourhoods."The testing drives the system rather than the other way around," said Kidder, adding that policy ends up focusing on one area of learning and skews the whole education system.
Kidder has said assessments should be done by sample testing.