One of the activities that the Teaching Team is doing is having subject specific mornings for teachers to come and do some pro-d and learn new ideas that teachers here in Canada are applying in their teaching practice.
When we were in our schools last summer, we all noticed that the picture book was not used as a resource. Not surprising when there are so few books in a classroom but when we arrived and read to the students, the teaches were shocked that we would take time from our day to read out loud.
With the resource center full of wonderful picture books, we are going to share some teaching strategies that we use to help our kids read and learn. One new program that is in our schools is Reading Power by Adrienne Gear, a teacher from Vancouver. It is a simple program that is very effective in getting kids to think while they read. This seems evident to those of us who are readers but there are students who just read the words but get no meaning from what they have read. We anticipate having two workshops with 30 teachers at each one.
I contacted Ms. Gear to see if she would be willing to offer us a reduced price on her publication as we are taking 60 copies with us. Even a few donated copies would have been great so that teachers from the same school would be able to share the guide. I received a response this week and Ms Gear and her publisher have agreed to send us 60 copies to take with us.
WOW! How generous! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
