This past Friday, on our Professional Learning Day, UTS staff grappled with the challenge of identifying a set of values which can help to define what we, as a school, view as important. The school has been exploring values within the context of our program for several years. Prior Professional Learning focused on the writings of Howard Gardner, Harvard psychologist, which challenge educators to consider the importance of developing in students Five Minds: the disciplined mind, the creative mind, the respectful mind, the synthesizing mind and the ethical mind. Australian schools today operate within the context of a Values Framework that identifies nine values. Perhaps most significantly, the Australian government has undertaken research as to why it is important for schools and school systems to have a set of values. Their research suggests that having a values framework:

• Increases values consciousness
• Leads to improvement in social and emotional wellbeing
• Supports the development of various forms of agency (capacity to act independently and to make choices and act on them)
• Contributes to a greater sense of connectedness between teachers, students and parents
• Is transformation in student learning, in teacher best practice, and personal change

Look forward to reading more in the future about UTS’ proposed values.

The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) reports that one in five Canadians will be affected by a mental health challenge during their lives and that almost everyone is affected through family, friends and colleagues. In the March 2012 issue of Scientific America, the editors have written an editorial entitled “A Neglect of Mental Illness”. The editorial alerts us to the fact that “nearly one in two people in the U.S. will suffer from depression, anxiety disorders or another mental health ailment at some point in their life”.

Removing the stigma which still surrounds mental illness was the focus of a recent media campaign which featured Carla Hughes, Olympic medalist in both cycling and speed skating. For two years, Carla suffered from depression and she is now speaking out to break the stigma against mental illness. Indeed, approximately two out of three people who suffer from mental illness fear revealing their health condition. We are fortunate in Toronto to have CAMH, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the country’s largest mental health hospital and research centre. On Queen St. West, CAMH is building a new hospital which will be integrated with the community and which aims to transform the treatment of mental illness.

At UTS we understand the need to develop supports for promoting positive mental health for our students and staff and to ensure that we provide education to help dispel the stigma which surrounds mental illness. This needs to be an ongoing focus for educators today.

http://www.camh.net/About_Addiction_Mental_Health/Mental_Health_Information/index.html
http://www.ontario.cmha.ca/about_mental_health.asp

The famous inventor Thomas Edison contended that “genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration”. In 2006, Cambridge University published The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance. This significant edited volume consists of studies of expertise from a range of perspectives. The conclusion of the experts is that Edison’s insights need a slight tweak: genius is one percent inspiration, 29 percent instruction and encouragement, and 70 percent perspiration. The researchers isolated the role of expert instruction, supportive feedback and “deliberate practice” as critical to moving beyond competence to expert performance. Deliberate practice consists of exercises, carefully designed by an expert, to take the learner to a new level of proficiency. The steps involved in deliberate practice, according to one of the authors in the Handbook, include “task analysis, goal setting, strategy choice, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and adaptation” (Zimmerman, 2006, p. 705).

The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance,
by K. A. Ericson, N. Charness, P. J. Feltovich, and R. R.Hoffman
(Cambridge University Press, 2006)

As mentioned in a recent post, our Equity Review is underway and more details are now available. The review will complement our Strategic Plan review process. UTS is a very diverse community and it essential that we ensure that every student, family and staff member feels a part of an inclusive community that welcomes diversity. Our students’ recent production “SHOW 2012″ certainly revealed that our students value the diversity of their school community!

The review will be conducted in partnership with OISE’s Centre for Urban Schooling (CUS). The Centre is an education, research, policy and advocacy centre established in 2005 to connect OISE to schools and communities. The Centre is committed to social justice and equity for all students. Members of the centre support educational change initiatives in schools and districts. The Centre also addresses issues of culture and the arts; religious, ethnic, linguistic and sexual diversity; politics; immigration; and teaching and learning, both within the education system and Canadian society as a whole.

With support from the Centre we will review and reflect on how we are fulfilling our vision of creating “socially responsible global citizens.” Central to social responsibility is making sure that we create safe, respectful, and inclusive workplaces, schools, and communities. With the support of a steering committee made up of staff and students, CUS will help us identify how UTS policies, practices, and curriculum, ensure that all students, staff, and parents are able to participate fully in every aspect of UTS life. CUS will also be holding focus group sessions with students, parents, and staff to identify any new work we can do to ensure that UTS is not only, itself, a safe and inclusive community, but also a world leader in graduating students with the skills needed to create a safe, inclusive, and equitable global community.

In 2009, UTS developed an Equity Framework which established the school’s position related to equity, diversity, social justice and anti-discriminatory practices. The document provides a structure within which the UTS community can ensure that equity is translated into reality in all aspects of the life of the school. The Equity Framework may be read in its entirety here.

Some of the commitments highlighted in the Equity Framework include:

• As a community, UTS strives to create an environment in which the principles of equity, diversity and social justice are celebrated and consistently reviewed and acknowledged.

• We are committed to creating a learning environment that promotes in students a love of learning as well as ethical integrity and great character that seeks inclusiveness, yet respects individual differences, and above all looks to right injustice and any form of inequitable treatment of other members of society.

• The UTS equity initiative aims to give students, staff, parents and volunteers the behavioural tools, vocabulary, insight and confidence to effect the appropriate change and act as advocates for those whose discrimination often goes unnoticed and unchallenged.

The Equity Framework calls for the administration to initiate and facilitate a review of the school’s commitment to equity. To this end, we have partnered with the Centre for Urban Schooling at OISE. Centre experts will be guiding our review process to ensure that we follow best practices. This is a significant development for the school and will support our current review of the implementation of our Strategic Plan. More information on the review process will be forthcoming shortly.

We now know that brains are capable of growth and development throughout life; this phenomenon is called neuroplasticity. We are also very aware that the impact of our pursuits has a profound impact on the brain. Time spent with computers is reshaping our brains. The brains of people who have engaged in digital learning throughout their lives are physically and chemically different from the brains of previous generations. For example, young people who spend significant time using the computer, including playing video games, experience a growth in their visual processing skills. Interestingly, individuals can remember only about 10 percent of information presented orally in comparison to over 65 percent when visual images are added, and this tendency toward visual learning is growing. Students today often prefer processing information visually prior to using text. They prefer exploring hyper-linked multi-media sources as opposed to logical, sequential oral or textual introductions to new topics. At UTS, our science teachers are working with Professor Jim Slotta of OISE and his graduate students who are using technology-enhanced learning environments to support student inquiry in science. This research is providing a basis for rethinking how we can best teach and support student learning in the digital age.

See the recent Globe and Mail article on this research:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/primary-to-secondary/students-take-field-trip-to-virtual-rain-forest-without-leaving-the-classroom/article2278660/

Principal Rosemary Evans, writes:

Learning disabilities – or identified learning differences – are often challenging to recognize. Students with these differences look much like any other student; because they are invisible, learning differences can often go unnoticed.

Identified learning differences may affect such areas as receptive language, which involves listening and reading, language processing, which includes thinking and formulating ideas, expressive language, in areas such as talking, spelling and writing, mathematical computation, organization, behaviour and the ability to recognize social cues.

Learning disabilities must be identified through an assessment process conducted under the supervision of a clinical psychologist and, today, universities and schools are required to provide accommodations for students with identified learning differences. In addition, students with physical disabilities or medical conditions, and students who are blind or deaf, or students who have been diagnosed with depression and anxiety, also have the right to accommodations. These accommodations help to ensure that students with learning differences have an equal right to academic success.

Accommodations can include being allowed additional time for a task, and the use of a computer – including voice-activated software which turns the spoken word into script, or computers which vocalize words for students. For students with mental health challenges, accommodations can include spacing out assessments or reducing course loads. In all cases, documentation from a specialist is required.

If you are interested in learning more about learning disabilities or differences the Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario is an excellent resource. See:

http://www.ldao.ca/

UTS English teacher, Ann Drake, writes:

 This last couple of weeks, I’ve had a lot of conversations with parents and the question asked most frequently is, “What can I do to help my child improve in English?” Mulling this over, I have one suggestion that could help: improve his or her vocabulary.

Often parents will respond, “But he reads voraciously!” Sadly, comprehension does not always follow reading. Last year I gave my S6 classes a diagnostic vocabulary test. Many students did poorly. I was surprised to find, for example, that some of the students did not have a clear idea of what the word “fallacious” meant. Most of the students said that they guessed a word’s meaning from its context. The students who knew the most said that they studied vocabulary lists, such as SAT lists. (These are available in the Student Services office.)

We do try to work on vocabulary in English class, but there are many other skills to address as well. Vocabulary, however, is something the whole family can have fun learning. Imagine a dinner conversation where the whole family tried to use the family “word of the day”. Family competitions where your child could compete with you on equal ground would be fun.

If you think this might be a good strategy for you, choose a vocabulary book carefully. Quite a few of them are organized in stuffy old-fashioned lists based on Latin roots or families of words. I think that the books organized in levels are preferable. I would recommend a book called Verbal Advantage by Charles Harrington Elster. I like it because the explanation for each word is far more comprehensive than a dictionary as it includes the pitfalls of misuse and synonyms that might have slightly different shades of meaning. Elster writes in an engaging, chatty tone that appeals to me. He includes lots of quizzes, reviews and tests along the way.

While vocabulary-building is not a panacea, it is unequivocally a pretext for family time and an opportunity for your child to become a paragon of precision.

Each of us has a unique learning profile. We all have strengths and areas in need of strengthening. Understanding our learning profile can be extremely helpful maximizing our success.

Various educational scholars have identified these spheres of difference. Howard Gardner, Harvard psychologist, posited his now famous Theory of Multiple Intelligences in the book, Frames of Mind: Theory of Multiple Intelligence, first published in 1983. Gardner contended that individuals demonstrate their intelligence in different ways. In other words, being “smart” is not seen as one type of behaviour. Instead intelligence can be demonstrated in a variety of domains. For Gardner, there are currently eight different intelligences (See: http://www.howardgardner.com/)

• Linguistic Intelligence
• Musical Intelligence
• Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
• Spatial Intelligence
• Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence
• Interpersonal Intelligence
• Intrapersonal Intelligence
• Naturalist Intelligence

Other scholars have focused on different frameworks for understanding learning differences. The All Kinds of Minds program identifies areas of strength and difference including: Attention, Memory, Neuromotor Functions, Language, Spatial Ordering, Temporal Sequential Ordering, Social Cognition, and Higher Order Cognition.

(See: http://www.allkindsofminds.org/learning-framework )

The challenge for educators is to recognize the differences in all learners, and to ensure that students have opportunities to demonstrate their

strengths and also address their areas in need of strengthening.

This week, UTS hosted a panel entitled “Education: Beyond the Classroom”. The school welcomed five alumni involved in a variety of careers and personal pursuits which encompassed business, government, law, social justice, volunteerism, entrepreneurship, advocacy and philanthropy. The audience consisted of students, parents, staff and alumni.

Jim fleck ‘49 opened the evening with a speech in which he encouraged students to broaden their perspective at every opportunity, to welcome diversity and to appreciate the importance of the arts and travel. He urged students, while in university, to choose their courses wisely. “Include those that will make you a more interesting, broadly-informed person as well as those for a specific field. Take courses that will help you learn to think critically and to communicate clearly, key attributes of a successful life,” he said. In conclusion, Jim recommended that students consider the words of Martin Luther King who, in a sermon entitled, “Tough Mind; Tender Heart”, developed the theme that life at its best is a creative synthesis of opposites.

Following Jim, the audience heard from our other panelists: David Allan ‘78, Tariq Fancy ‘97, Oliver Jerschow ‘92, and Jennifer Orange ‘89. Each speaker shared apsects of his or her personal journey and throughout the evening common messages emerged. We heard of the importance of being open to the unexpected and of being able to remain flexible and to welcome change. We likewise heard the caution that there will always be challenges along the way, and when such challenges arise, acting according to one’s values can result in unanticipated opportunities.

We are so fortunate at UTS to be part of a community that includes individuals such as our panelists who are willing to share their stories and to encourage and mentor our students.