IN THIS ISSUE

Board’s T3 Program Yields Impressive Math Results Top

eqao1Last week’s release of test results by the provincial Education Quality and Accountability Office delivered great news on a math program unique to Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board high schools.

The results were for Grade 3 and 6 reading, writing and math tests taken in 2008-09, as well as that year’s Grade 9 academic and applied math tests. Look closely, and it’s the latter results that stand out.

Traditionally, results on the Grade 9 applied math test have trailed Grade 9 academic math results as you compare the percentage students at or above the EQAO provincial standard (Level 3; a B equivalent). But new, collaborative methods are closing that gap.

Leaps were made at schools in the new numeracy program Tips, Technology, Tutors (T3). It brings a unique package of Board resources to applied math instruction, with supports that include professional learning, use of interactive technology, math coaches to help classroom teachers and online help through the onMATH program.

“You should have seen the teachers when the preliminary results came out in August. They were doing their happy dance,” Donna Hale, secondary program consultant, said of staff in the first year of T3, in 2008-09.

On the newly-released 2008-09 results for applied math, Board students made a 10 per cent leap compared to a year prior. It saw 37 per cent of the 1,365 applied-level math students who wrote the test at Level 3 or above.

At T3 schools, applied math results were:

Read more.

After Consultation, Director Makes Executive Council Changes Top

JMolloy-009802-1Director of Education John Malloy last week shared with all Board staff changes to the structures and responsibilities of Executive Council members. In an all-staff email, he explained his intent.

“My aim is to create collaborative structures on Executive Council, to empower managers and system principals to influence decision-making, and to co-ordinate the work of Executive Council to achieve the Board’s vision,” Malloy wrote.

One change saw the creation of Executive Council sub-committees. To encourage collaboration, Executive Council members have portfolios but they will also work with managers and system leaders through four sub-committees. “This will foster dialogue, eliminate silos and infuse equity and student achievement in all of our work,” Malloy wrote.

The sub-committees include: the Student Achievement Sub-committee, the Parent and Community Engagement Sub-committee, the Labour Relations/Operations Sub-committee and the Student Engagement Sub-committee.

For more details, see the full letter to all staff posted here.

Glendale Auditorium Prepares for its Close-Up Top

Glendale Auditorium Prepares for its Close-Up

If you’re going to put on a big show – and the musical Grease is certainly a big show – you need the right kind of theatre.

It would be a theatre with great house lights, moving spotlights, a 40-channel mixing board and a descending screen on which you can project scenes. It would be nicely painted, with cushioned seats, an orchestra pit and enough microphones to capture teen voices as they begin to sing Summer Nights.

And that’s what’s coming to Glendale.

“We want to give our students the type of sound and lighting systems they would see if they work in the industry,” music teacher Paul Borsc says amid the long blond-wood pews that fill the east-end school’s auditorium.

Borsc, an accomplished musician, lights up when he describes the Allen & Heath sound mixing console Glendale’s getting, with its ability to record digital sound. He’s also keen about the chance that Grease at Glendale may have a mostly-Asian cast.

The auditorium work, still under way, comes as Glendale prepares to offer the Arts and Culture Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM), one of the ministry-approved specialized programs that let students focus on a specific sector, while meeting diploma requirements.

The renovation – which will give Glendale a theatre similar to the ones at Sir John A. Macdonald or Hill Park – is part of an HWDSB plan to upgrade some of its auditoria every year.

Read more.

Ancaster Aviation and Aerospace Program Takes Off Top

Ancaster’s New Aviation and Aerospace Program Cleared for Take-Off

A crowd of VIPs, students, politicians and educators gathered at the home of the Avro Lancaster bomber this month to launch an Ancaster High School program that lets students prepare for aviation and aerospace careers.

Inside the packed hangar of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, Minister of Education Kathleen Wynne congratulated AHS staff on the hard work they put into the Board’s new Specialist High Skills Major.

“Innovative high school programs, like the Specialized High Skills Major, have helped an additional 36,000 students graduate since 2003,” she said. “We are helping students get a jump-start on their careers and supporting Ontario’s future prosperity.”

SHSM programs are bundles of eight to 10 courses that help students focus on a future career through more hands-on learning. There are 16 SHSM content areas across Ontario. HWDSB has seven SHSM programs in 11 of Hamilton-area schools.

“What a great way to start the second day of school,” said Director of Education John Malloy. He praised the work of the Ancaster program’s committee, among others. He cited a 90 per cent success rate for Grade 11 and 12 credits in SHSM programs.

Ancaster, which put together a proposal for the aviation and aerospace SHSM, is the only school board in Ontario to offer this program. It grew out of partnerships the school cultivated with the Ontario Aerospace Council, Hamilton International Airport and Mohawk College.

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Getting By? Or Getting Better? Author Asks Direction Teams Top

wayne-edit“Fifty bloody years,” Wayne Hulley says as he recounts a story of a woman he met who was in the first class he had ever taught, back in 1959 at James Hillier elementary school in Brantford.

She approached the retired educator with an old yearbook and, sure enough, there was Hulley’s scrawl inside the cover. She asked him to sign it, again.

It was that kind of authentic experience, that kind of bond with students, that the Burlington-based speaker, author and consultant shared Sept. 3 at the annual Direction Teams breakfast. He drew upon his book, Getting By or Getting Better: Applying Effective Schools Research to Today’s Issues.

“What is our purpose?” Hulley asked the crowd of more than 510 administrators and teachers. Direction Teams, now in their fifth year, guide school improvement efforts and tailor Board programs to a school’s needs.

“Our purpose is to ensure success and to create hope,” he said, adding that it’s crucial that a school mission statement be succinct and sincere.

Hulley, whose presentation was marked by humour and colourful stories, said educators need to have both character and competence to create influence and leadership in a school. He said being effective isn’t just about collecting data – it’s about motivating others.

“If I can get your heart, your head will follow,” Hulley said.

Students and Parents Informed about H1N1 Top

H1N1 BrochureAll of the 52,000 students in Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board this month received a Back-to-School Guide from Hamilton Public Health Services detailing a timely concern as flu season nears – how to guard against the H1N1 virus.

Since April, the new influenza strain H1N1 (sometimes called “swine flu”) has been circulating in Canada. On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated the current situation a pandemic. That means the virus is continuing to spread in communities world-wide from person to person.

Parents learned that, as usual, they will report a child’s absence to the school; but, to help both schools and Hamilton Public Health Services, they are asked to note the reason for the absence. Schools are already starting infection-control measures, as shown by signs at entryways asking you to clean your hands, and planning for any outbreaks.

Although Hamilton Public Health Services is looking for the least disruptive measures to control the spread of infection, school closures are one of the many public health measures being considered. School closings are very disruptive to the community but if they become necessary, by planning now, you can minimize the potential impact, the brochure states.

Find the full guide here. To stay informed, resources include Hamilton Public Health Services, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care and the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Balaclava Uses Peer Mediation to Cover a Big Playground Top

Students Practice Peer Mediation at Balaclava ElementaryTake Highway 6 toward Guelph and, in the north-east corner of the Board near Mountsberg, you find idyllic Balaclava elementary with its quiet country road, big trees and sprawling playground.

Unlike principal John Gris’s previous school – the 700-student W.H. Ballard elementary in urban east Hamilton – Balaclava’s challenge isn’t a matter of population, it’s all about space. Staff members have a lot of ground to cover whenever it is their turn to supervise recess.

So Gris invited special guest Lesley Cunningham, the social worker at Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board overseeing violence prevention to teach 40 students and five teachers one way to keep peace in big yard. It’s called peer mediation.

Peer mediation, Cunningham explained, isn’t about preventing all conflict. Nor is it an attempt to solve problems for people by bossing them around, she adds. It’s a process that helps the fighting parties resolve their argument.

Cunningham covered the guiding rules of peer mediation, as well as the scripted steps it entails. Rules for all parties include: don’t take sides, tell the truth, listen and let the other person speak, keep hands and feet to yourself and stay until the problem is solved. Students had left plenty of time to practice what they had learned, using role-playing.

Read more.

Q & A: Student Trustee Haakim Nainar Top

Student Trustee Haakim NainarWestdale secondary school student Haakim Nainar, 17, is a new student trustee at Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board. Here, we learn a bit more about the keen International Baccalaureate student facing a hectic year.

Q: Tell us a little about yourself.

Well, I have been in HWDSB schools since junior kindergarten with the exception of Grade 9, when I did my schooling in India for a year. I am in Grade 12 at Westdale Secondary School, in the second year of the International Baccalaureate program. My interests tend to be varied, ranging from trivia to international affairs to sports to math. I do not really have a specific area of interest, but rather, I like to enjoy the wonders and peculiarities around me!

Q: What made you want to become a student trustee?

It was a combination of things. I really did want to get involved in policy matters relating to students because I felt that the variety of student voices is something that has to be heard. Also, I felt that this was a position that requires skills that I have had experience with before. So it seemed to me like I could actively contribute to the student representation at the Board.

Q: What would you like Board staff and trustees to know about the student experience?

I would like them to know that the student experience is not monolithic and it is something that needs periodic observation for improvement. In this ever-changing world, our experiences as students cannot be static and immune to the changes that are happening around us. So, what students need is a keen eye on improving what needs to be improved – and changing what needs be changed – so that every student’s experience is optimized to meet each student’s potential.

Q: How is your 2009-10 academic year shaping up?

I feel that it is going to be quite hectic! What with all the applications for various things, the final exams, the last memories that are being made and of course, the last mutual contributions between the school and myself!

Welcome Wall Invites Hess Street Students From Around Globe Top

Welcome Wall Invites Hess Street Students From Around the World Five girls whose family heritage stretches around the world scan the wall inside the entrance to Hess Street School, gazing up, and trying to name each language they see.

“There’s Bengali.”

“I think this is Arabic.”

“That one is Japanese.”

It’s been this way at the downtown school since May, when Hess received what students and staff call the Welcome Wall: a bright, energetic section of hallway jam-packed with lettering in 19 languages.

Each script contains one word: Welcome.

“It’s so students feel like they are at home,” says Grade 8 student Preet Ranu, who speaks Punjabi.

“So they feel they are the same as everyone else,” adds Fahmin Mazumder, who knows Bengali but thinks she’s forgotten how to write it.

Hess Street School is an incredibly diverse school, with about 30 countries and 40 languages represented. Some students arrive from refugee camps without formal education. However they arrive, all students appreciating a nice welcome.

It all began this spring, when English-as-a-Second Language teacher Lesia Farrell at Hess Street contacted a caretaker at Central Public School just blocks away. Caretaker Peter Gushie is an artist who has painted in Dr. John Seaton and Holbrook schools, as well as on restaurant walls and elsewhere. He’s been in the arts pages of the Hamilton Spectator.

“I really don’t like to toot my own horn,” a modest Gushie says as we tour Hess Street School. “I have an artistic flair and I just have to get it out.”

“I do it for free after my day is done (at Central) because I really like the kids. And I think that, with something like this, everybody wins,” says Gushie, whose workday starts at 6 a.m. but included painting with Hess Street students too.

Read more.

Virtual Views Featuring Trustee Wes Hicks, on Sport Coaches Top

Wes HicksIt is an honour to be a trustee and advocate for the best of the best – the coaches of Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.

Coaches have one of the most important roles in our school system: teaching, guiding and mentoring the student-athletes of today so they become the mature, responsible, accountable and productive adults of tomorrow.

I am convinced that coaches are among the hardest working, most dedicated teachers in the school system. Their typical day is filled with teaching classes, assessment and evaluation. Then their nights are filled with practices or games. In addition, most of their weekends are dedicated to tournaments, regattas and other athletic events.

The countless hours of preparation and competition are second to none among Ontario teachers. They have laid the foundation through sports that will give our students the skills and talents for lifelong success in any career path that they may choose. Sport and competition are the ultimate teachers. It is here that our athletes learn commitment, dedication, self-sacrifice and, above all, teamwork.

Our Board has 22,423 elementary students participating in six sports and 7,989 secondary students participating in 16 sports. These figures represent an amazing commitment, when we consider the number of hours that our coaches volunteer their own time.

Vince Lombardi once said: “Individual commitment to a group activity… that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” It is this teamwork that you learn from sports. It is this team that the coaches of HWDSB foster and nurture.

I have been a Hamilton school trustee for more than 22 years. I have seen two decades of growth and change in the school sport system. The one constant, the one thing that has remained the same year after year is the high calibre of coaches in the system. We must not forget those coaches who are no longer with us, but who will always be remembered thanks to their passion for elementary and high school sports.

It is time for all of us to stand up and cheer for the doers, the achievers, the coaches of HWDSB for their passion to succeed.

Wes Hicks
Trustee, Ward 8 (West Mountain)