Classroom Assessment That Works - PD for Grades 6 to 8 Teachers

Calling all grade 6 to 8 teachers!! You've taken the rest, now take the best - PD, that is!

You are invited to join us at the ETFO Durham office for a new and informative three-part series that is being offered by the local in partnership with provincial ETFO. The series includes two half-day sessions (with release funded by ETFO) and one afterschool session. Specific times and dates are listed below. Classroom Assessment That Works for Intermediate Teachers has been designed to meet and support your daily classroom assessment needs, by providing you with the following:

• A variety of assessment tools and strategies, information on gathering data for feedback and reporting, and methods for using assessment data to inform instruction.
• A toolbox of assessment strategies and information that can be used to reflect on assessment practices.
• Time and an ETFO space to collaborate and brainstorm with colleagues about some of the challenges that face classroom teachers with respect to assessment practices.

See the flyer on your ETFO bulletin board for registration information, or speak to your Workplace Steward (they will receive a PDF version of the flyer today via Lotus Notes). The registration deadline is FAST approaching - Tuesday, March 2nd, and there's space for only 25 members. Hope to see you there!

Session dates/times:

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 - 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

OTF/OTIP Teaching Awards - Recognizing and Celebrating Teaching Excellence

Each year, the Ontario Teachers' Federation (OTF) and the Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan (OTIP) present three awards to outstanding teachers - one for elementary teaching, one for secondary teaching, and one for a beginning teacher.

To find out more about how you can help recognize and celebrate the excellent teaching of one of your colleagues, click on the title of today's post or visit www.teachingawards.ca.

Nominations for the 2010 awards are now open - the deadline is April 12, 2010.

General Meeting Tomorrow!

Just a final reminder that our winter General Meeting is tomorrow (Wednesday, February 24th)! All members are invited to attend at the Deer Creek Golf Club at 4:30 p.m. On the agenda: a presentation by Jim Greenlaw (Dean of the Faculty of Education at UOIT), debating resolutions to send to the 2010 AGM, the election of delegates to AGM, as well as a number of reports on timely issues. Hope to see you there!

ETFO's e-Newsletter - another edition "hot off the press"

The ETFO e-newsletter is hot off the press this afternoon. Click on the title of today's post to link you to the e-newsletter on ETFO's website. While you're there, sign up to receive future e-newsletters from ETFO. They are a quick read and include lots of great information regarding recent events, upcoming workshops, dates to remember, etc.

Growing Success - Report Card Update

ETFO continues to monitor the consultation process of the Ministry of Education's Growing Success document. Growing Success is the policy document that will usher in the changes to report cards next school year. The release of the first edition is still scheduled for the end of March 2010. As we've reported earlier, elementary teachers from grades one to eight will be writing one fall progress report and two provincial report cards, beginning in the 2010-2011 school year.

Due to the phase-in of full-day, every day kindergarten, kindergarten will NOT be included in the first edition of the Growing Success policy document. The Growing Success Ministry consultation team is gathering input on the draft Kindergarten program from phase one schools to inform the final policy. As a result, the final provincial kindergarten report card templates will not be implemented until September 2011. The final document, including the kindergarten program, is to be released in the spring of 2011.

Reminder: Upcoming Local Events

Just a couple of upcoming events to remind you about... if you'd like more information about any of these, you'll find the flyers on the ETFO bulletin board at your worksite.

1. Our General Meeting is scheduled for next Wednesday, February 24th at the Deer Creek Golf Club in Ajax. The meeting will start at 4:30 and the agenda includes a brief presentation from Jim Greenlaw, Dean of UOIT's Faculty of Education, as well as consideration of proposed resolutions for the 2010 provincial annual meeting. All members are welcome to attend - no pre-registration is required, just show up!
2. The Status of Women and Equity Committee invites you to their annual dinner in celebration of International Women's Day. Always a fun and popular event, this year's dinner will be held on Wednesday, March 24th at 5:00 p.m. at the Mandarin restaurant in Pickering. The cost is $10. per person and all members, regardless of gender, are welcome! See the flyer for registration information...

Sad, but true: the PD fund is spent

Yes, that's right folks.... Our ETFO Durham Teachers' Local PD fund for 2009-2010 has been spent for the year! All $50,000 of it has been distributed already to members, or promised for future PD events and professional purchases. The local's proposed operating budget for 2010-2011 will be presented at our May 5, 2010, annual meeting and once it's approved, PD fund applications for any events/courses/purchases after July 1, 2010 (the beginning of the next fiscal year), can then be approved. You can check out earlier posts regarding the PD fund for guidelines and information on how to apply - just look for "Professional Development Fund" on the right hand margin.

School Information Finder Campaign

Concern with the Ministry of Education's School Information Finder website has been ongoing since last spring. Launched in early April 2009, the School Information Finder profiles schools using EQAO test results along with students' socioeconomic, ethnic and racial background, and the number of new immigrants in the school neighbourhood. The "indicators" the Ministry has chosen to highlight are selective and misleading, such as primary class size (but no mention of larger junior and intermediate class sizes).

ETFO has created a special NO SIF! website, that is part of ETFO's larger website. You can link to it by clicking on the title of today's post, or by going to this web address: http://noSIF.ca At the website, you'll find lots of information about the School Information Finder campaign, as well as an "email your MPP" tool so that you can voice your concerns to your elected government representative.

And finally, a Facebook group has been set up for the School Information Finder campaign. You can access it at: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=289172506732&v=wall This link can also be found on the no SIF website. If you're a Facebook member, we'd encourage you to join the group.... as I sign off on this post, I'm headed to Facebook to join the group right now!

Time to get social!

The following social events have a few spots still left as of Tuesday, February 2nd - if you're interested, please contact Kent Clark via Lotus Notes as soon as possible. It's first come, first served, folks!!

• The February 19th "April in Paris" cooking class has just a few spaces left. See the flyer on your ETFO bulletin board for more information;


• The February 17th Raptors vs. Grizzlies basketball game - there are about 6 tickets left for this event. These are balcony prime seats that normally sell for $65 each, but are selling for $45 each! Again, check out the flyer for more info...;


• Maple Leafs game tickets are available as well. Only one pair is available (purple seats) for each of the following games and the cost is $95 per pair:


• Saturday, February 6th vs. Ottawa


• Monday, February 8th vs. San Jose Sharks


• Thursday, April 1st vs. Buffalo

Don't delay - these tickets will go quickly!