Nanaimo Ladysmith School District - Community of Learners

Background

Nanaimo is a city located on Vancouver Island, 45 minutes north of the State capital of Victoria. It has a population of around 90 000 and its main industries are forestry and fishing, however unemployment is high. The school district has over 40 schools. My contact was Laura Tait, who is director of Instruction and Learning Services for the school district.

A group of teachers have been developing an innovation project called The Community of Learners. The project is values/ competency based student led inquiry which extends through elementary school to secondary. The project is a journey and the teachers are working through many of the issues and barriers Hampden Street faced in our MLE project. Mary-Lynn Epps is now looking at refining their Community of Learners to better reflect the values and understandings of the First Nation people (aboriginal people of the island).

The central Philosophy for the Community of Learners is "We are all Learners; we are all teachers." Collaboration is key whether it be working with partners, in circle meetings, in peer conference sessions or elbow to elbow in coaching sessions.

Like the students the teachers are very much learners and they are encourage to investigate aspects of their own practice in a teacher-led inquiry. They then showcase this to peers.

The school district is very much about community partnerships, whether that be hosting students from teacher training programmes in the school, hosting an author or tribal elder, photographers, visiting local places of interest etc. One of the many benefits of the school district concept is the ability to attract quality partnerships - culturally, in the community, academically and with business.

The Community of Learners Inquiry Cycle was similar to many you would find at schools in NZ. It was as a cycle not a series of linear steps and it allowed for students to direct their learning and collaborate with each other.

Something that stood out to me was the concept of the 'Showcase' to celebrate learning at the completion of each inquiry. When a learning showcase is used as a required element of the inquiry cycle, it provides an opportunity for a powerful culminatiion event for the inquiry. Classmates, school administrators, families, teachers and students from other schools and community members are all invited to view the products that the students have created, and to discuss their learning with them. Most of these Inquiry Showcases were held in the evening so working parents could attend.

Dover Bay High School.

Lynn Brown is a passionate 8th Grade teacher and, along with Mary-Lynn Epps and Terill McDonald, created the Community of Learners. Lynn shared two of her Year 8 Humanities classes. These classes are an integration of the Social Sciences and English.

The Totem sits in the Foyer of Dover Bay High school

Year 8 cohort developed and negotiated the Descriptors for the four "Cs" Community of Learners values - commitment, cooperation or collaboration, communication and contribution (self) or control. They did this at the start of the year as a collective group in their multi-purpose room. This process was also shared with new teachers so they had buy-in and ownership of the process. These are guiding values not just for the class but for any project inquiries.

The Community of Learners Agreement in the Year 8 Humanities class

The students had completed three linear (longer) inquiries this year each allowing students to drive their learning to some degree. The Inquiries go for a longer length and students worked in 4 x 80 minute periods a day, although many students felt for Year 8 60 minutes would be better. However, most students commented that allowing the extra time to complete their inquiries allowed them to investigate to a greater depth. As an important part of their assessments students presented their inquiries to an audience that included parents, and teachers from contributing schools. Students that did present their inquiry (not all did) commented how much they enjoyed it and looked forward to doing their next inquiry.  Overall 100 students presented to parents on the night with the class teacher doing an introduction and then parents could move around the stations where students presented. The students had set ways to present - PowerPoint, board game, video clips, and speeches. The next project which is about Global citizenship will allow the students to choose how they will present their inquiry.

The Year 8 Community of Learners at Dover Bay High School

The teacher inquiry process is based on the "Spirals of Inquiry" Model developed by Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser in association with the BC Principal and VP's Association. Laura gave me a copy  :-) Teacher's drive their learning through this process.

It was interesting to hear the students talk with excitement about their next inquiry. As a global citizen they need to choose a cause that interests them and develop some way to promote and participate in it.

Challenges and Barriers: Although the Community of Learners/ Inquiry are being driven by a passionate group of teachers, some of the more traditional style teachers are questioning its merits, which is leading to some negativity from students. It has also caused some parental concerns.

There was a wonderful collaborative environment in the class where the students spoke freely but also respected each other and their teacher. They had a growing ownership of their learning and were excited about future projects.

Randerson Ridge Elementary School

We visited Terrill McDonald at Randerson Ridge. She has been running the Community of Learners for a number of years and it was well embedded into her class. She had built on it throughout the years, linking it to Gardner's Multiple Intelligences where students have identified their learner’s strengths and the areas they need to develop. They had also looked into kindness and students have been challenged to do random acts of kindness for class mates, families etc. When they do this they add a link to a kindness chain.

The thing that struck me in Terrill's class was how well embedded the Community of Learners is. I asked the children my golden question, "Point to the person in charge of your learning." The response was immediate, all students pointed at themselves. Not bad for 8 years old!

Community of Learners Agreement in Terrill's Class

Terrill has also extensively used the MindUP™ programme. MindUP™ teaches social and emotional learning skills that link cognitive neuroscience, positive psychology and mindful awareness training utilizing a brain centric approach.

After leaving Randerson Ridge, Laura Tait and I went and had a coffee and discussed our day. The children’s response in Terrill's class resounded with us both. Laura talked about four questions that they often ask students:

§  What are you learning?

§  How is your learning going?

§  How do you know you are learning? 

§  Name two adults in the school that care about you and your learning?

We also discussed the importance of building relationships with students and particularly the at-risk one. Laura talked about the "10 Challenge," where teachers or teacher aides are assigned a at-risk students and for 2mins every day for 10 weeks they check in with the students just to see how things are going.

First Nation People:

A real challenge for Nanaimo Ladysmith Schools is ensuring the First Nation People feel they have a place in the school system and their values and beliefs are valued and integrated into class programmes. There are some real parallels between the plight of Maori and the First Nation people in Canada. The big difference is the huge destruction the residential school system has done to family life for generations of the first nation people. The pace of progress in recognition of First Nation Peoples' place in society is slow and has a way to go but with the hard work of people like Laura Mary - Lynn and Leila things are happening in this school district.

My Reflections: 

The Community of Learners is being driven not only by a group of passionate teachers but has great support from the school district. They are a forward thinking group who have a clear 'Big Picture" view of their district. Having visited Canadian Schools before I am convinced the School district model is something we need in NZ. The COS project the Nelson City Schools are engaging is an exciting opportunity but it is a beginning and rather than having one associate Principal released for a couple of days a week, a fulltime COS supervisor/ director would provide a better overview of the project and have the time to ensure positive outcomes. The school district system allows for more collaboration between schools and teachers. The teachers felt they belonged more to the school district than the school.

There was a genuine connection between the high schools and the elementary schools. Teachers moved between schools and this included taking leadership roles in the High Schools. Elementary teachers attended presentations of projects by high school students. Again our COS will allow us to to do this but we probably need to focus on Teaching and Learning as a whole rather than individual 'silos' such as Mathematics or Literacy.

The Community of Schools had a well embedded Inquiry cycle that the students liked and were very familiar with. They were introduced to it at Second Grade and the same model was being used up to Ninth grade. It integrated subjects well and meaningfully and it allowed time for students to really delve deep into their chosen topic. Because it is student driven the children are engaged and motivated and I think this is key. Often classes run a teacher driven inquiry that misses the interests of the student, often drags and as a results the final outcomes are disappointing and often pointless.

There was not a big investment in eLearning as a tool for learning.

On a completely different topic, after visiting two schools and discussing administration organisation with the Principals and District members I think I'm going to look at how other schools on my trip organise their office. All the schools we visited today had fulltime office managers and they did all administration. The Principal's role was very much the core business.

Implications for HSS:

As a school we have discussed how do we embed our learner qualities and values? We have also debated their worth over the key competences. However, seeing the Community Learners embedded so well in the classes I observed I believe we should look to introducing our learner qualities to students, new teachers and even parents at the start of the year in a mass collaborative way. Then develop a plan of how we ensure they are effectively reinforced throughout the year. Dare I say it may be time to consider whether our six qualities and five values still reflect our schools and do we even need nine separate words.

With the current COS model we would appoint an Associate Principal for 0.4. Something no school is truly excited about and really I don't see any Principal putting up their hand. If the larger schools in the cluster contributed a further 0.6 we could then appoint a fulltime COS Director who could then focus solely on our project and the needs of the district. Either way I now strongly believe the COS is vital to our cluster.

We need to look at how we present our inquiries and whether we are truly integrating these through the curriculum. We have a model which is good but do all teachers, and more importantly students, understand and own it. We need students speaking the language of the Inquiry Cycle.

Consider a 10 Challenge type programme. We have talked about it but I believe this idea may be more achievable.

A huge thanks to Laura, Leila, Mary Lynn, Lynn, Terrill and the Principal's of Dover Bay High School and Randerson Ridge Elementary for hosting me in your wonderful school district!