Published on
April 26, 2010 in
Blog.
Yesterday afternoon at the Wychwood Barns, I attended a panel discussion on how children and youth use public spaces. The panel was hosted by Spacing publisher Matt Blackett in support of Hadley Dyer’s new book Watch This Space, which uses an illustration-heavy format to spark discussion of public space issues among 8- to 14-year-olds. Inevitably the discussion came to the topic of how to build communities where we don’t need to be afraid to allow kids to walk or bike to school.
Like this example in Milton, I think it would do wonders for our community if virtually all students were able to use a mode of active transportation (walk, bike, scooter, inline skate, etc) to get to school. Not only would we have more animated streets and a cleaner environment, we would also have healthier children.
But how can we make it safe enough for parents to trust that their child will get to school safely?
In addition to traffic calming measures (stop signs, reduced speed limits, speed humps, etc) and having police around schools to enforce traffic calming, one idea put forward was to get drivers’ attention by using different materials on roads to draw attention to the fact that there are a higher volume of pedestrians than in most other areas. One prime example of this is on St. George St. on the University of Toronto campus. (If you click on the link, zoom in to the “Street View” level and look at the surface of the road). This is a popular solution employed in Europe.
Do you have further ideas on how to make our neighbourhoods safe enough for students to walk and bike to school? If so, please share them in the comments or by e-mailing them to me at adam@adamcf.ca.
Published on
April 21, 2010 in
Blog.
Until March, the Winona Sr. Public School pool had been dark outside of school hours. In spite of it being a beautiful, 25 yard pool, heated 4-6 degrees warmer than most other TDSB pools and with its own, separate entrance to boot, the TDSB hadn’t made an attempt to provide community access before or after school.
Now it’s April and no longer is the pool dark every night. As vice-chair of the St. Clair West Aquatics Club board, I’m excited and proud to be part of the rebirth of the Winona pool as a community asset.
Last week, SCWAC got swimming lessons up and running on Monday and Thursday evenings in partnership with St. Alban’s Boys & Girls Club. Earlier this week we held our first community swim, which attracted 70 tots, children, youth, adults and seniors from all over the neighbourhood. There is another community swim planned for Monday, May 3. And the SCWAC summer program will be announced shortly with registration in early June.
This is the beginning of a beautiful community meeting place. A place for children to meet friends new and old, for families to bond through recreation, and for the entire community to participate in a healthy, active lifestyle. A prime example of how working together can improve communities all across St. Paul’s.
Published on
April 19, 2010 in
Blog.
Today the Globe and Mail reports that the TDSB ’squandered $7.6 million’ by hiring retired teachers instead of new (fresh-out-of-school) teachers to do supply teaching. While the headline is rather sensational, the article presents the issue in a more nuanced light. One of my followers on Twitter, M. Ventresca, asked for my thoughts on this so here they are. But before I discuss this issue further, a disclosure: my father is presently a teacher and plans to retire in June.
I’m not convinced that picking exclusively new or retired teachers is the right approach, nor is a hard cap on what percentage of new or retired teachers need to be utilized. What I am convinced of is that in developing policy in this area, the focus ought to be on how to ensure students adapt well during a period of significant and unexpected change. Closely following student success should be consideration for developing new teachers and the financial sustainability of the system.
The reality inside the classroom is that when a long-term substitute teacher is required, students are going to be forced to go through an unexpected transition that will result in some degree of disruption to their learning process. Students will need to adapt to a new teaching style while the teacher does his or her best to figure out where their predecessor left off and how best to tailor the course material to students they’ve never met. Students are also likely to go through a phase of testing the new teacher insofar as rules, expectations and discipline are concerned. The wrong mixture of students and teacher could lead to chaos that benefits neither the students nor the chosen teacher (particularly a new teacher who is looking to gain experience and confidence through a long-term occasional assignment).
So with that said, I think that discretion for principals is key. Discretion can take into account the type of class (special needs, ESL, gifted etc.), the dynamics of the class (some classes are known to be very orderly while others are more challenging) and other fine details that should guide student-focused decisions. At the same time, the central administration should provide guidance to assist principals in exercising this discretion to ensure that a given principal isn’t unfairly prejudicing one type of teacher over the other. Using qualitative and quantitative analysis throughout the year should tell us if greater intervention is needed.
