The Quebec Ministry of Education is proposing to allow four-year-old children from underprivileged families to attend elementary school full-time as part of a campaign to curb the province’s disturbingly high dropout rate.
More than one in three students in the province – 36 per cent – leave school without graduating. And studies showed that most of them come from poor families. For instance, a study conducted in 2008 by the Montreal Health and Social Services Agency concluded that 35 per cent of 5-year-old kindergarten students on the Island of Montreal were from needy families, showed signs of neglect and had learning disabilities that would likely impede their academic progress.
Edmonton School Board to Offer Yoga Courses
“The program is designed to allow students to experience the benefits of increased flexibility, strength, focus and concentration,” the course description says. “Students will learn to be non-judgmental about their own and others’ yoga practice. Through continued practice, students will relieve stress, learn to relax and experience the health benefits of yoga practice.”
[EDMONTON, CANADA] A promising new program that teaches students to pause before reacting to turbulent emotions and conflict is being tested at a west-end elementary school, mental health and school officials said Tuesday.
The change in the students’ behaviour at Our Lady of the Prairies Catholic School was almost immediate when educators introduced the PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies) program in October, said Tom Shand, executive director of the Alberta division of the Canadian Mental Health Association.
Schoolchildren used business school skills to build a better trebuchet
This problem-solving technique, which was developed at one of Canada’s most competitive business schools, is being introduced for the first time to students in kindergarten through Grade 8 at Ledbury Park Elementary and Middle School in North York. Five Toronto private schools, including Branksome Hall and Upper Canada College, began integrating the Rotman School of Management’s I-Think program into secondary and middle-school classes in recent years, but the Toronto District School Board is the first to integrate it at the elementary level.
OTTAWA — There are no computers at the Ottawa Waldorf School. No iPads, interactive whiteboards or flat-screen televisions either. Headphone wires don’t dangle from ears and pockets aren’t stuffed with smartphones. Students here don’t even have calculators.
The only apples and blackberries used at this small private school are baked into pies that are cut into pieces as part of a lesson on fractions.
As public schools race to equip classrooms with the latest in technological gadgetry, teachers of the century-old Waldorf model take a different approach. Here, technology is seen as a distraction — something that gets in the way of creativity and saps attention spans. The focus here is on human interaction and on equipping students with analytical and imaginative skills by using basic tools, such as pencils, pens and knitting needles. (via Teaching without distraction (with video))
How Canada Is Closing the Achievement Gap (Education Everywhere Series) (by edutopia)
Teacher training in Ontario will be bumped up to two years starting in 2014, says the provincial government.
The Liberals, who promised the move during the 2011 election campaign, began consultations with education groups on Wednesday about the change.
Three to four additional sessions are planned for April and May.
Teachers typically earn a four-year undergraduate degree and then spend another year at university completing their bachelor of education. (Ten of the 13 universities with education programs also offer the degrees concurrently so students can complete the two at the same time.)
The Liberals have said more training is needed given the challenges and increasing demands teachers face. The expanded program, the details of which have yet to be finalized, will include more practical, in-class training for new teachers.
Five Things US Schools Can Learn From the Rest of the World | Asia Society
Hundreds of reforms are introduced into American school systems every year. Unfortunately, most fail to achieve the substantial improvements that their advocates hoped for and, overall, U.S. educational performance has been flat for the past 20 years.
We now know that a number of other countries — primarily Asian nations — have gotten a lot better than the U.S., accelerating educational improvement in a short time and on a large scale. Their success in improving hundreds of schools is inspiring. But what exactly has enabled them to raise their game and become global high performers? And are there lessons for U.S. schools?
![[ONTARIO, CANADA] Ontario shows us we should support our teachers, not shame them. The Canadian province improved its education system by being supportive rather than dismissive of state schools (via Ontario shows us we should support our teachers, not shame them | Education | The Guardian)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m14vg8Sn1l1qb8rnio1_500.jpg)
[ONTARIO, CANADA] Ontario shows us we should support our teachers, not shame them. The Canadian province improved its education system by being supportive rather than dismissive of state schools (via Ontario shows us we should support our teachers, not shame them | Education | The Guardian)
Researchers in the University of Toronto’s neuroscience department are planning to launch a website that will make information about neuroscience and its implications for instruction available to educators this fall.
The website is part of a project called “The Adolescent Brain: Implications for Instruction,” which will also include a quarterly newsletter and professional development courses. Hazel McBride and Michael Ferrari, both researchers with the University’s well-known Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, say they’re responding to teachers’ interest in using research in neuroscience to inform classroom practices.
