Focus on Youth Toronto

One of the programs that the Liberals addressed after the "Year of the Gun" was a program called Focus on Youth.
The program focuses on two factors -
1) Employing young people that may not have the opportunity to work for the summer and give them valuable work experience.
2) Working with Youth - young students who may not have opportunities to attend camps or have experiences that will keep them busy for the sumer but also develop them will skills that will help them in the future.

The program has worked!

Anyone that has a young person in the house, knows how difficult it is for them to find a summer job with the downtown in the economy there seem to be few summer jobs. The grants that are given allow many Toronto students the opportunity to work with young people and become role models. As well the work experience varies from art projects to sports camps ensuring that every student can feel empowered to work in a field they are interested.
Many students comment that they have enjoyed working with younger students and are now considering jobs that work with children..

For those young students they have the opportunity to participate in active organized activities often in local schools, providing structure and comfort. Parents receive a side benefit of free programs that keep their children happy and active.

I hope that the government sees this summer program as an investment and not a cost!

Sal Khan speaking at NSBA

I had the pleasure of hearing Sal Khan speak at the NSBA conference this past weekend. As you know already - I'm a BIG fan of the man that created Khan Academy!

What surprised me most about hearing Sal is that he has a great sense of humour and the time flew by when he spoke.

I was also reminded that many great ideas happen by accident - he was assisting his cousin long distance on learning math and created the shell for Khan Academy - and that people are willing to take risks to make good things happen - he quit his job to pursue this dream.

Sal made some poignant points which demonstrate why Khan Academy works
1) In Mathematics - if you miss a point, you are more and more lost in the subject as our curriculum builds year after year - so Khan Academy helps as you can go back to the basics and pick up the skills you might have missed or need stregthened.
2) Not all kids learn at the same pace or level so having tools that allow kids to work at their pace allows them to catch up in time with the expected norms.
3) Some kids lose their way by having 9 weeks off every summer - having the Khan Academy available allows them to maintain their skills
4) Some kids learn differently - having different resources helps different kids in different ways.

The good part is that Khan Academy now has some results that show that they are making a difference with all kids - which means this is a tool that every teacher and parent should know about.

Technology in the Classroom - what's next?

Students have fully embraced technology - I don't know a student in high school that doesn't bring their smart phone and other devices to school!

So how are we moving forward with assisting them to use technology in the classroom?

It's frustrating as we aren't tapping into the resources in the classroom.

We still are using OLD and OUTDATED models which needs to be blown up and re-thought. Why are we still buying devices and trying to roll them out in an equitable way?

Why are we not looking at NEW and INNOVATIVE models. Why don't we see what students are bringing to school anyway and see how we can incorporate it.

How do we make the transition to College and Universities where students are expected to bring their own laptops?

Do we have the classroom teacher prepared to work in a technological way? Are we letting students lead? Collaborate? Try new ways of working/participating?

What skills have we given them to be prepared for the workforce or more education?

So Are the Proposed Cuts a Bloodbath?

Whenever budget arises there are some truths that I now accept as "norms".

First, cuts of any kind are not fun - someone is affected either directly - through job loss or indirectly through learning to do more with less resources.

Second, unions need to represent their members so they won't like job cuts or changes or re-alignments.

Third, parents don't get involved until they see how it affects them and in most cases this is post-implementation and so TOO late.

Fourth, somehow it's never been enough and the next year there is more cuts!

Fifth, how do we measure impact on students to know what the right decisions are?

Sixth, it was hard when we controlled our own budget and tax increases and IMPOSSIBLE when we control neither!

Seven, how can one work within a pre-set formula when our students are NOT widgets. How do we advocate for more flexibility?

Eight, why is this the most stressful thing I do? and yet I barely get more than a few parents to attend sessions about budget or potential cuts. How do I get good feedback?

Nine, why is the sky always falling? Somehow we are doing better with less! I think this is a testament that we hire better and better and the people in the schools are making significant contributions without any more recognition.

So we over spend on a LOT of budget lines - my view points on the proposed cuts will be in future comments.

Expulsions and Lessons Learned - Part 2

So FINALLY we are looking at the expulsion process at the TDSB. I'm glad to see that we are evaluating it as I see it as TOO expensive for a board that is in dire financial straights and it doesn't benefit our students in the current format.
(NB you will hear a lot more of what I'm prepared to cut based on how I think students benefit).

Most families do not attend these sessions with a lawyer so I really question why the Trustees have a lawyer (I've done enough of these along with several of my colleagues that we don't need that support - and the 1 time I wasn't sure - a quick phone call would have resolved the issue anyway).

Secondly the Principal has a lawyer - and really it's just a re-bundling of their information. So again another unnecessary expense.

I look forward to the review and get the perspective of staff to see what they think they need.

No other board brings all the lawyers to the table like we do and so it's time to make change.

Budget Update March 2012

So it almost seems like deja vu - here we have a different government (Liberals) but it's as if we are back in the Tory land in 1997 - so how did that happen?

Well we TDSB - have never balanced our books - when the Tory's put us under a supervisor - he couldn't balance our books.

Do we overspend? Sure but a lot of things we overspend on is because we are trying to help kids - not because we're trying to line someone's pocket!

We overspend on paraprofessionals so what does that mean? Almost every week I talk to parents who are frustrated that our process for Special Needs identification is LONG and onerous - and yet we are already overspending. The longer these students are not identified and dealt with the less chance they have for success. So this is a hard line not to over spend on this line for me.

There are other lines like Principals and Vice Principals that we overspend on - according to the government BUT in an urban and low income setting this is hard not to have as well as the issues are different than rural and middle and high income earners.

We still have MANY kids come to school hungry and we feed almost half of our student population which is telling of the local struggles which does not fit into a static out of date funding model.

When will a government learn and listen that a one size fits all funding model does not work?

We need real dialogue - it's been too long living in a false economy and now that we are facing an $85 million pitfall what do we do?

Inconsequential Consequences - Healthy Food for Healthy Schools

As someone who has advocated that we have healthy, active kids you may be surprised that I am discussing the downside to the April 27, 2008 Bill8 which forever how we serve food in schools in Ontario.

Well no one will argue that we need to have students make good choices when it comes to eating habits this Bill 8 has had many casualties.

First, many of the food providers are struggling to be profitable or even to break even as students have stopped purchasing in their school cafeteria. For some schools, the local stores have been the benefactors as students flock their instead of purchasing the healthy choices presented to them in school.

Many of the food providers are now questioning whether they can remain in schools - so soon the school cafeteria may be a thing of the past.

Second, and more significantly is the impact to schools and school boards. Many schools used the profits made in their food programs to support the arts and extra-curricular activities - now with little or no profit this is no longer a source of funds. School Boards have lost a funding source which paid for extra things that the funding model did not cover.

So are we really benefitting students when they simply go down the street and make the purchases that we are preventing them from doing in school?
How many programs and extra-curricular events will no longer occur since there are no funds to support these programs and opportunities?

Well I agree that we need students to make good choices when we enforce draconian measures - they simply bypass the system and obtain the 'contraband' somewhere else and so the only ones losing are those kids that benefitted from the profits of our cafeterias and food programs.

And are we teaching them the skills in they go into the workforce or higher education and can make poor food choices - we have all heard of the "freshman 15" brought on by bad food choices.

Sometimes best intentions have inconsequential consequences which don't help kids.