Sept 26th ILD Meeting Summary 10:45-12:20 AM in the Library

Members Present In attendance: Colline Coe, June James, Nicole Summers, Paula Jamieson, Lilia Trynova, Laurel Cooper, Kathy Cepus, Wendy Nielsen, Navshina Savory, Mike Dumouchelle, Megan Simmer, Andrew Holland, Heather Hart, Brent Schieve, Stephen Koehn, Stacey Myrah, Holly Egan, Tammy Stockli, Patrice White, Carrie Carlsen Stefan Stipp - Did I miss anyone? I forgot to write it down at the meeting. Information Update Nothing new to report Agenda 1. Planning regular meeting dates Action: We agreed to meet every second Monday from 3-4 in C-109 starting on October 3rd. 2. Decision making Action: After a long discussion which tested our level of resolve in sticking with our agreed upon processes, we agreed to the following procedure for Meta-decisions: a. A rotating person in charge will be appointed each meeting based on an alphabetical list. Members can opt out of being person in charge. Carrie Carlsen is person in charge next meeting. b. Stefan will chair the meetings for now. May consider rotating chairs in the future. c. No quorum is required because we each have veto power and we trust that no small group of us will try to make important decisions behind each others backs. Also we are not the final decision making place for big staff wide proposals so theres little danger in anyone going crazy with power. d. To decide when to decide we will follow this procedure: i. Anyone can call for closure ii. Someone seconds. iii. The proposal is summarized. iv. Poll using gradients of agreement v. If no one vetoes, person in charge decides whether to proceed with proposal, discard proposal, continue discussion. 3. Our Purpose: We agreed that it is worthwhile to start from scratch in terms of our overall purpose. To that end we meet in small groups over lunch to begin to answer the following questions: Grade 8 and 9 Whats going well? Relationships with kids Staff awareness about student needs Staff willingness to address those needs Grade 8 attendance (except for a few chronic offenders) Behaviour management most kids respectful ESL integration we have different levels of ESL integration Variety of exposure to different courses/ areas Thinking outside the box: were not afraid to try new things. Sometimes the box is a bit small SESM recognizes the need for transition from 7-8 but these needs dont just disappear

Whats wrong? What needs to change? Lack of genuine engagement 1. Kids learning for grades not to learn 2. Some kids generally apathetic 3. In hierarchy of needs for our kids, education is at the bottom 4. Lack of connection between courses- academic and elective 5. Lack of relevance Students not prepared academically or emotionally for Grade 10 and the grad program 6. Lack basic skills literacy, numeracy, critical thinking 7. Lack of confidence Homework completion Lack of community in the classroom Lack of social responsibility Grey area kids not getting their needs met go unnoticed b/c were overwhelmed Our definition of literacies is too limited expand to include physical, technological Lack a uniform, comprehensive approach to whatever we want to accomplish Marks review needs more distinctive consequences and accountability Grade 9 attendance and lates Lack of collaboration time for teachers What are we trying to accomplish? What would we be proud of at the end? Graduates who recognize that learning goes beyond School Thinkers who can make informed decisions and choices Need to develop some means of providing students with the ability to be academically and emotionally successful for their grad program and/ or career path. This conversation will continue next meeting with the intention of creating a statement of purpose and a set of guiding principles. Future meetings 1. Continue figuring out our purpose and guiding principles 2. How students might be involved. 3. How we will proceed on our exploration of other programs/ schools 4. Dividing up into working groups (ex. PLC, engagement, school exploration) 5. Your ideas.