Pedagogical Leadership

Pedagogical Leadership
Exploration Time / Building Multi-literacies through Partnerships
Project Proposal: To develop strong pedagogical leadership within K-2 teams as children transition from a play-based program to early primary learning environments supported by an overall and in-school pedagogistas. This resource will support emergent curriculum development, documentation, planning and in-school learning opportunities for staff, families and children.
Purpose: To develop and broaden a learning stance and dispositions to changing pedagogical concepts to reflect the children and community of each selected school for the pilot project.
Support gradual transitions from Family to Parent Family Literacy Centers, Family Center hubsto Kindergarten to Grade One/Two as a seamless process for children and families.
Develop a sense of belonging and well-being for young children and their families as they transition from community agencies to school.
Continue to develop partnerships between families, community agencies and school e.g., child care, Family Center hubs, OEYC and PFLC.
Continue to develop relationships with community agencies such as Child Reach, Child and Youth Network.
Support the acquisition of oral language as a foundation for literacy and numeracy development.
Support the acquisition of oral language through a variety of entry points in the curriculum including the arts, math, science and outdoor learning. Meaning making is multi-modal whereby written and oral texts interface with visual, audio, gestural, tactile and spatial play patterns of meaning making. For example: visual is the representations of another through text and images; audio is the representation of oneself or the representations of another’s work; gestural is similar to social emotional literacy of interpreting meaning through facial and gestural movements or expressions of thinking and may include dance, rituals, celebrations; spatial multi-modality reflects on interpersonal skills as well as block building or outdoor education building and gardening as an interpretation of thinking, community context and cultural influences.
Come to a deeper understanding of multi-literacies as a variability of meaning making representing a diverse population e.g., cultural, social-emotional, communicating in language and mathematics, health and well-being etc. as children and adults develop and respect different points of view and multiple voices. These meanings may be developed through communication supports of critically understandingcommunication in its various forms including media/digital technology to foster and transformmeaning making in various cultures and contexts.
Roles and Opportunities:
An overall pedagogistain partnership with a developmental researcher,will support the transition from current learning frameworks to emergent curriculum/ inquiry-based frameworks supported by a superintendent of student achievement and leadership team. The overall pedagogista will supportbi-monthly professional learning opportunities initially at voluntary lunch and learn opportunities supported by the administration of each school, in-school pedagogistas and education teams, family communication opportunities including observation and debrief days three times per year for groups of interested and registered parents, documentation and planning opportunities with staff and families. Current research e.g., constructivist theory and heutagogical practices (self-determined learning) for eightKindergarten and Grade One/Two school teams (schools)and their families in the Thames Valley District School Board.
NOTE:A team may consist of the full complement of Kindergarten and Early Primary divisions OR a team may consist of one Kindergarten ECE and teacher team, one Grade One teacher and one Grade Two teacher committed to transitioning through the five year plan.
In-school pedagogistas(teachers/ECEs) will be responsible for daily observations, co-documentation, daily co-planning with staff and communication with families during the school day. Each in-school pedagogista will support the transition from home to school/PFLC and from Kindergarten to Grade One/Two. This support system will be provided to families and staff including the administration of the school. The in-school pedagogista will work in all designated classrooms, PFLC centers, Family Center hubs and child care facilities to provide support with child development, instructional strategies, child- centered learning, emergent curriculum strategies, pedagogical documentation and planning for learning including reflection and student/family voice.
In-school teams will consist of: Early Childhood Educators, teachers and one in-school pedagogista for Kindergarten, Grade One/Two and families. A child care facility may be included to provide another perspective as children transition from child care and before and after school sessions. PFLC and Family Center hub facilitators will be directly aligned with their respective schools to support transitions of families and children from the center to Kindergarten. These educators will support the learning through deeper understanding of the Kindergarten and Grade One/Two curriculum as an emergent agent of learning and development/changes. The team will support emerging and early learning skills through co-planned thinking provocations in Kindergarten and Grade One/Two with the support of the team and pedagogistas (in-school and overall).
Year One: The Kindergarten teacher and Early Childhood Educator will remain with the children for the first year of the project and the Grade One/Two teacher will remain with the class for one year in the initial stages of the project (similar to their present placement). In year two of the project, the Kindergarten teacher will move with the children to Grade One and the Grade One teachers will move to Kindergarten to begin the process of professional development and pedagogical understandings with support. The ECE will remain in Kindergarten to support the newly minted role of the former Grade One teacher now Kindergarten and be part of the team to transition Kindergarten children. In effect, the Kindergarten teacher will be moving with the children for two years with support from the in-school, overall pedagogistas and families. The Grade Two teacher will move to Kindergarten in year four of the project. Each teacher will have an opportunity to be in each grade for two years in order to gain access and understanding of the curriculum and inquiry processes grown over a period of time.

Pedagogical Leadership

Building Multi-literacies through Partnerships

Proposed Pedagogical Leadership Candidates and Teams

Schools representing the wonderful diverse tapestry of Thames Valley.

Time Line Proposal

Years / Kindergarten Teacher / Grade One / Grade Two
One / K / 1 / 2
Two / 1 / K / 2
Three / 1 / K / 2
Four / 2 / 1 / K
Five / 2 / 1 / K

The team is supported by the in-school pedagogista as well as the system pedagogista.

Parent Family Literacy Center Facilitators, Family Center Facilitators - supports planning with parents on a weekly basis with the pedagogista.

YEAR ONETerm In-school Support and Pedagogical Exploration with Families

Term In-school Support for Families and Collaborative Learning
K-2 / In-school and overall pedagogistas to support the implementation and maintenance of families in 3 smaller groups at a designated time to attend observation sessions three times per year (one session per term) followed by a debriefing and planning session for one half day with the classroom team members and families (3 half day sessions x 3 terms)
Set up for this will be in collaboration with the school team.
Example:
9-10:00 observation session with families ABCDEF(day 1 followed by 2 other half day sessions) who will be provided with a template to observe their own child and record their observations to share with the small group.
10:00 – 10:45 debrief observations
11:00-11:30 planning forward with families
Term In-school Support for Teams and Collaborative Learning
K-2 / In-school and overall pedagogistas to support the implementation and maintenance of family debrief and planning with teams in the school K-2 at a designated time following all the observation sessions for the term (one half day session per term) with the classroom team members (1 half day following all three observation days)
Example:
1:00-3:00 Revisit family observations and consider perspectives
Planning and assessment strategy meeting with K-2 team as a whole group
3:00-3:30 Family Feedback written and posted on a secure website for just those families who attended this day
Proposed Cost for Term / The overall cost will be dependent upon the number of members in each team
Full day coverage for teacher $226 x 6 full days per year
Full day coverage for ECE including 2 from PFLC $149. 39 x 6 days/year

YEAR ONE In-school Professional Learning Proposal

Bi-monthly In-school Support and Collaborative Learning
K-2 / Voluntary format supported by teams and administration setting up supervision/release schedules to reflect bi-monthly in-school meetings for all team members to meet and discuss documentation of learning or other time designated and determined by the teams
  • Assessment as/for learning – writing bi-monthly pedagogical communication for families
  • Understanding and learning about child development and curriculum
  • Planning forward from documentation

Monthly Professional Learning Focus for K-2 Teams and Funding Considerations
September / Full-day –Building a team; Observation, assessment for and as learning, pedagogical documentation; supporting learning
  • Child development and Research literature
  • Pedagogy of documentation – interpretation/analysis of demonstrated learning behaviours; implications
  • Dynamic (living) portfolios of learning for children and professionals e.g., children, families and educators will be building portfolios together; pedagogistas will be building a monthly professional dynamic portfolio of learning stories for each classroom about the journey of learning in a K-2 environment

October / Full day – Pedagogical documentation
  • Sharing observations with parents and modeling child led conferences
  • Engaging and supportingfamilies
  • Recording and sharing/reporting WITH parents/families
  • Planning from observations using concepts of understanding framework

December / Full day – Continuum of learning using pedagogical documentation
  • What structures are evident in the framework of conceptual understandings?
  • What is the four-frame and how might this inform our documentation FOR and AS learning?
  • How do we provoke thinking?
  • How do we integrate curriculum to become a question for the children to explore and investigate (inquiry)?

May / Two half days – Continuum of learning using pedagogical documentation
  • How do we support deeper thinking and conceptual understandings?
  • Visiting future classroom site and debrief with guiding questions (half day)

Monthly Professional Learning Focus for K-2 Teams and Funding Considerations / Four full days of professional learning K-2 teams per school including ECEs from PFLCs and Family Centers
The overall cost will be dependent upon the number of members in each team
Full day coverage for teacher $226 x 4 full days per year
Full day coverage for ECE including 2 ECEs from PFLC $149.39 x 4 days/year
Could we consider using network funds for a portion of this work?
Release time for administration on a voluntary basis with possible coverage where applicable

Overall Estimated Cost

10 full days of professional learning and collaboration with colleagues and families per teacher and ECE

Teacher Funding Request (per OCT teacher) 10 x $226 = $2260.00

Early Childhood Educator (per CECE) 10 x $149.39 = $1493.90

Professional Resources

Visible Learners –Mara Krechevsky, Ben Mardell, Melissa Rivard, Daniel Wilson

$22.53 each

iPads for all Pedagogistas–LB 172417 Apple ipad air 2 wifi 64gb space grey – instructional

$639.00 each

Laptops for all pedagogistas

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