The month of November is when plans are due in education which fits in with Habit 2 Begin with the End in Mind – Have a Plan. In the Alberta Education Ministry Business Plan for Education for 2021 – 2024, the Minister articulates goals for the province and then our Holy Spirit Board sets Strategic Priorities that align with the Business Plan. One of the key elements of this habit is to define outcomes before you act. All things are created twice: first mentally and then physically. By defining outcomes before we act, we ensure our efforts are truly effective. We have been working on mentally and physically creating plans for the school year with staff during our learning team time and at our Professional Development Day on October 12th. We have been using The 4 Disciplines of Execution for Educators to guide us in achieving our Wildly Important Goals. The following areas are the four pillars of our school’s improvement plan:
- Faith: Staff & students will grow in their faith and experience the richness of Catholic Education
- Our focus is on spiritually growth for our school community through prayer leadership. Through leading prayer or rosary; participating in liturgy ministry; creating prayers for announcements. Chalice or Legacy Lodge; and creating prayer cards, we are aiming to hit 2000 leadership activities for the entire school by the end of the year.
- Learning: High quality instruction rooted in sound research & effective assessment practices to support growth for all learners
- In this area we are focusing on finding and filling any gaps in numeracy and literacy skills. For numeracy we have determined that basic number sense will be our focus. Number sense is understanding the value of a number and how they relate to each other. We are going to look at how student progress in number sense and devise common interventions for those concepts.
- With literacy we are going to be looking at the key skills needed for reading and how the progression that students make. We will be using Words Their Way to assess and then individualize instruction and interventions.
- First Nations, Metis & Inuit: First Nations, Metis and Inuit education for all
- Our focus here is to ensure that staff and students learn about and understand five aspects of indigenous culture, history and/or traditions. We started the year with the Legacy of Hope display to allow a better understanding of residential schools. Working with our First Nations, Metis and Inuit support worker, our teachers will be able to better understand and infuse content into their lessons.
- Wellness: Foster a culture of wellness that is foundational to support learning
- Our goal for this area is to have our students develop the skills to independently solve their problems. Our grades 1-6 students have all been taught about Kelso’s Choices and are using this process to solve their small problems. We will continue to develop skills and track the progress of the different choices being used by students.
We have school goals and classes will make their own goals that we will track and celebrate throughout the year. The next step is for our students to set their own Wildly Important Goals (WIG). For this we will be using the SPACES portfolio platform. Later on in the newsletter you will see our graphic for the implementation plan. Look for your email invite to come out the week of the 15th. We will have a parent information night on the 18th and will have our goal-setting evenings on the 23 and 25 of November. Teachers will be working with students during the month to create their goals both mentally and physically. We look forward to celebrating our goal and the learning we make throughout the year.
God doesn’t require us to succeed. he only requires that you try.
St. Teresa of Calcutta
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