AQs Count for Four PLP Credits | Professional Learning Committee Approves Over 200 Courses | Information Sessions for Professional Learning Providers Well-Attended | PLP Approval Given to Popular Teachers’ Activities | Better Access for College Members as AQ Provider Base Broadened | Minister Highlights More Change for Teaching Profession in 2002 | De Quetteville to Chair Professional Learning Committee | Transition to Teaching | New Manager of Information Systems and Policy and Research | Discipline Panel Decisions



De Quetteville to Chair Professional Learning Committee


Jerry De Quetteville, a long-time elementary teacher and an experienced professional development presenter, is the Chair of the College’s new Professional Learning Committee.

He was elected by the members at the committee’s first meeting on November 13-14. The Professional Learning Committee approves courses and course providers for the Professional Learning Program.

"As teachers we believe strongly in professional learning," De Quetteville says. "The framework for the Professional Learning Program provided by the legislation allows for flexibility. It will be the role of the committee to ensure that the needs of the profession are met."

De Quetteville was elected to the College’s Council in the Southcentral Region. He has been active in the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, locally and provincially, and has presented workshops for the federation at the Ontario Teachers’ Federation summer institutes.

Elayne McDermid, an appointed public member, was named vice-chair of the nine-member committee. She worked for many years in the public school system as a teacher-librarian specialist, physical education specialist and Language Arts, French, Mathematics and Science teacher. She currently owns a computer service company.

"The committee’s real job is to frame the Professional Learning Program for the members so that it is accessible, meaningful and economically viable," said Rick Chambers, manager of the Professional Learning Program Unit. "That’s the big picture."

The committee will establish the application process for both providers and courses, consider all types of professional learning and create an audit process to ensure quality, he said.

A classroom teacher and a principal were appointed as the two College members-at-large on the committee. Martha Barrett, a teacher at the Walkerton Public School in the Bluewater District School Board, and Debi Homuth, a principal at Clark Road Secondary School in the Thames Valley District School Board, were appointed by the College Council at its meeting in November. The nominations committee received 105 applications for these two positions.

Minister of Education Janet Ecker has directly appointed three people to the committee. Robert Kennedy, a former director of the Nipissing Board of Education, Bridget Harrison, a former superintendent of the Peel District School Board, and Lynn Ziraldo, executive director of the Learning Disabilities Association of York Region, are the Minister’s appointments.

The ministerial appointments are for a one-year term effective November 15, 2001, while the other members continue to April 2003.

Kennedy was a teacher and principal in Halton County, and then a superintendent and director of education for nine years with the Nipissing board in North Bay. He served as president of the Ontario

Public Supervisory Officials Association and of the Canadian Association of School Administrators. He is a consultant with Apple Canada on technology issues facing education.

Harrison has been an educator for 35 years, including more than 30 with the Peel board. She was manager of the Secondary School Curriculum Project at the Ministry of Education and acting director of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Branch. Since retiring from the ministry, she has been a part-time adjunct lecturer at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto while continuing to work toward her doctorate in education.

Ziraldo has been involved with the Learning Disabilities Association for the last 20 years at the local, provincial and national levels. She has also been involved with the Council for Exceptional Children, from the local to the international scene.

The other two members of the committee are College Council members Bernard J. Adam, an Ottawa teacher and Patrick Daly, chair of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board.

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