Leaders Councils Plan for December PA Day

I received an email with the subject line, "So Good, We Have to Share". The email praised both the Canadian World Studies Council and the Business Council for their PA Day plans. Student achievement data, curriculum revisions and research-based strategies informed the creation of their agendas for the subject-specific PA Day on December 5th. These planned professional activities also indicate what our teachers are concerned about in terms of student learning.

Based on their analysis of student achievement data, Canadian World Studies (CWS) teachers plan to explore strategies for improving the achievement of boys in applied courses. CWS teachers will also host a session addressing the use of hypothesis in the CWS classroom, a session that stems from Chapter four of Marzano's The Art and Science of Teaching. Their afternoon will focus on technology in the classroom, with a hands-on Web 2.0 workshop and SMARTboard and Arcview (GIS) workshops.

The Business Council is inviting a presenter to speak on business ethics; they will explore business ethics through case studies. In the afternoon, the integration of social issues into their business courses will focus their session, with the goal of making explicit the teaching of character education and social responsibility within their course content.

The Avon Maitland DSB has 14 subject councils and each council consists of a department head or leader from each high school. These councils meet twice per year to share best practices and resources; to brainstorm solutions to problems; to gather information from the board and the Ministry of Education and to plan their subject specific PD day.