Safer schools

New law makes violence reporting mandatory

This fall, teachers will begin receiving training on maintaining safety in the schools. “The Ministry will give teachers intervention training and support to help them provide appropriate responses to support a positive school climate,” says Ministry spokesperson Patricia MacNeil.

The new Keeping Our Kids Safe in School amendment to the Education Act, which takes effect in February 2010, requires teachers to report student-on-student violence such as bullying. As well, principals must now contact the parents of the victims. Previously, only the aggressor’s parents had to be contacted.

The legislation responds to the province’s Safe Schools Action Team, which recommended action to address gender-based violence, homophobia, sexual harassment and inappropriate sexual behaviour among students.

However, Ontario Teachers’ Federation president Joe Lamoureux, OCT, says, “Teachers are already fulfilling the reporting requirements under the Child and Family Services Act. We’re also bound by our professional obligations under the Education Act, the Teaching Profession Act and the College’s standards of practice.”

“This is not a significant change for us,” says Tony Pontes, OCT, Superintendent of Staff Development and School Support Services with the Peel DSB. “Teachers and other staff are already providing principals with good information, and principals and parents are already communicating about all serious incidents.”

Education Minister Kathleen Wynne says that the change addresses a gap in the Education Act, which will now require that teachers report any serious incident to principals. But, she points out, “There was no gap around the disciplining of principals and teachers. That’s already available to the Ontario College of Teachers.”

In addition to the new law, the government said it will work with education partners to revise curriculum so that the other recommendations from the Safe Schools Action Team can become part of classroom discussions. It also promises to expand surveys to assess safety in schools and to create a manual to help staff respond to incidents of sexual assault.

In 2008 the government amended the Safe Schools Act to treat bullying as an infraction punishable by possible suspension.

To view the amendment go to www.e-laws.gov.on.ca.

consultation

College staff met in June with Supervisory Officer’s Qualification Program (SOQP) providers and representatives from the Ministry of Education and from directors of education and supervisory officer organizations to review aspects of the SOQP, including guidelines and regulations.

IT Mentors

High school kids turning on to high-tech careers

High schools could provide the solution to a massive labour shortage in high-tech skills due to plummeting university and college enrolment in information technology (IT) programs.

“The IT sector will need to fill 90,000 jobs within the next three years, but kids have been discouraged from studying in this area,” says Claude Haw, president and CEO of the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI). “We tell them that those scare headlines about job losses are isolated, even in the high-tech field.

“We want to turn them on to opportunities in the field. The need for IT specialists cuts across all industries.”

The Conference Board of Canada estimates that the high-tech job gap could cost the Canadian economy more than $10 billion.

Last year, OCRI teamed up with high schools and industry leaders to launch the Ottawa High School Technology Program aimed at promoting high-tech career opportunities.

Some 50 Grade 10 and 11 students from Ottawa-area schools met weekly with mentors from high-tech companies in the area. Among the participants were IBM, Nortel and Macadamian Technologies.

Experts from these firms typically provide small groups of volunteer students from technology classes with tours of their facilities. Later, they work with them for a few hours weekly to help them develop software that can be part of the Open Source Initiative. Students are provided with laptops for the program.

This year, Haw hopes to double program participation in the Ottawa area and see the program spread to other parts of the province. “There’s no reason why places with a willing IT sector could not put together a similar initiative,” says Haw. “We’re happy to share what we have learned and how to make it work.”

For more information visit www.ottawatechstudents.com or contact OCRI manager Kelly Daize at 613-828-6274, ext 286.

Winning publication

College magazine garners multiple awards

Professionally Speaking emerged a winner for the third year in a row at the annual international TABBIE awards announced in mid-July.

Raising Cognitive Capacity by Leanne Miller (September 2008) took gold in the profile article category, while Le français Tidied Up (March 2008) won bronze for its opening spread by the design team at Radonic Rodgers and illustration by Marie-Eve Tremblay.

Judges remarked that Miller’s article “skillfully combined human interest with some quite complex medical, sociological and educational information into an easily understood and interesting read” and that Tremblay’s eye-catching illustrations added humour to a very creative layout.

In fact, the College’s magazine received an unprecedented number of accolades this summer. It was a big winner at the Kenneth R. Wilson (KRW) Awards presentation at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in June, taking one gold and two silvers:

• gold for Best Art Direction of an Opening Spread or Complete Feature for Le français dépoussiéré, the feature on changes to French spelling that appeared in the March 2008 issue of Pour parler profession, the French edition of the magazine


• silver for Best Illustration for Marie-Eve Tremblay’s work in the same article


• silver for Best Profile of a Person for the article on Plantagenet tech-ed teacher Marc Lalonde, OCT, written by Jean-François Dugas, which appeared in the December 2008 issue of Pour parler profession.

The KRW Awards were founded by the Canadian Business Press in 1954 to provide annual recognition for achievement in professional and business-to-business publications across Canada.

This was the first year that Professionally Speaking entered the KRW Awards competition.

“We were very gratified by the judges’ response,” says managing editor Joyce Mason. “Eight of our 12 entries were included among the top 10 in four different categories, and seven made it into the top five.”

Top-five entries were featured on the big screen at the awards presentation, attended by magazine-industry professionals and advertisers from across Canada. Among the honourees, Leata Lekushoff’s Remarkable Teacher profile of Elizabeth Hay (September 2008) placed third, while illustrations by Huan Tran and design by Radonic Rodgers for the member survey story in the same issue took fourth, and Le français Tidied Up, by Lyse Ward (March 2008) placed fifth.

Also in June at The Eco-Generation: Greening Your Business, an annual MagNet professional-development seminar for the magazine-industry, the College magazine was cited as an example of how to achieve high-quality printing on FSC or recycled paper.

Then, at the annual awards of the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors (CSME), Professionally Speaking received an honorary mention in the Best Trade Magazine category.

Said CSME president Bob Sexton, “These awards recognize the best of the best in Canadian magazines and the talented people who put them together.”

The Mouse that keeps on roaring

Short film picks up another honour

One month after winning a major award at Toronto’s ReelWorld Film Festival in April, the anti-gang Mouse captured a top prize at the Yorkton Film Festival – taking first in the Youth Productions category for films aimed at students in Grades 7 to 10.

The 23-minute Dufferin-Peel Catholic DSB production has been featured on CTV’s W-FIVE and a documentary about its making has been shown on the Catholic specialty channel, Salt and Light Television.

The film is reviewed in this issue.

Conference

From left: Raymond J. Martel, a Network of Translators in Education (NTE) member, talks with Registrar Michael Salvatori, OCT, during the first René-Sirois Commemorative Lecture and NTE regional meeting, held at the College in June.

visitors

Delegations regularly visit the College to share and gather information on a range of education issues, including accreditation, qualifications and standards of practice.

Teacher-educators from Bangladesh visited in July.

Rights and freedoms

Essay contest challenges students to think about civil liberties

Consider this. A high school principal denies pro- and anti-abortion student groups permission to hold meetings on school property because they might offend other students and staff.

Or the police, responding to public concern about young people committing crimes with knives, want the power to stop and search teenagers.

Are these positions fair and reasonable?

These situations were among the four offered last year in an annual essay contest designed to heighten awareness of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This year’s entrants must submit a 750- to 1,000-word essay on one of four questions before the March 31, 2010 deadline.

Managed by the Canadian Civil Liberties Education Trust, the Bernard Chernos Essay Competition is open to high school students across Canada. Chernos, who died in 2000, was a lawyer and great supporter of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

Winners receive $250 and a book on civil liberties by Alan Borovoy, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s former longtime general counsel. The department of the sponsoring teacher also receives $250.

“We want to engage students in thinking about their rights and freedoms, about the habits of democracy,” explains Danielle McLaughlin, director of education for both the civil liberties association and the trust. “Understanding our rights and freedoms is a tool for changing society for the better.”

Ontario students won both first and second prizes in 2008–09. Merissa Michell of Westlane SS in Niagara Falls won the competition along with her English teacher, Marita Bootsma, OCT. Two students shared second prize, Calvin Jury of East York Collegiate in Toronto and Lindsay McAllister of Mayfield SS in Caledon. Their teachers were Christina Rajabalan, OCT, and Joanne Thornton, OCT.

For 2009 essay questions and more about the contest, visit www.ccla.org and scroll down the left side of the page to find CCLET Bernard Chernos Essay Competition Information under the green banner For Students and Teachers.

For other international observances visit www.un.org, or try www.unac.org