Reaching minds. Touching hearts. - Rainbow District School Board

Build learning communities
Professional learning highlights
The school year
kicked off with a
professional learning
session focused on
Quality Schools Where
Character Counts:
Building Community
Together. Dynamic
speakers Barbara
Coloroso and Dick
O’Brien inspired
teachers to make Rainbow Schools even greater places to learn.
An Evening with Barbara Coloroso, hosted by the Rainbow
District School Board at the Sheridan Auditorium, attracted
hundreds of parents/guardians from the community.
Quality Schools Where Character Counts: Community
Connections linked learning and life through community
panel presentations, career carousels and on site visits to local
companies.
Quality Schools Where Character Counts: Developing Character
Together focused on the important role that educators play as
models of character.
Board pilots body image project
Reflections of Me, a unique body image project developed
by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO),
was piloted at Wanup Public School and Copper Cliff Public
School. The Rainbow District School Board was one of five
boards in Ontario to pilot the program during the 2004-2005
school year and the first board to receive training.
Student Success Initiative
Barry O’Connor, the Ministry of Education’s Senior Advisor for
the Student Success Initiative, was in Sudbury on January 12,
2005 to lead a professional learning session for elementary and
secondary school Principals in Rainbow Schools. The Student
Success Initiative has a foundation built on discovering and
improving the individual strengths of each person and valuing
all pathways – independent living, work, apprenticeship,
college, and university.
Professional learning community
A professional learning community project was launched at
Sudbury Secondary School in September 2004. Teachers in
learning community schools engage in collaborative activities
that are directed toward helping them to improve their
instructional practices, all year long.
Lead board in literacy and numeracy
Educators from
school boards
across the North
were in Sudbury
to participate
in literacy and
numeracy
initiatives as part
of the Ministry
of Education’s
Education
Foundations
Program: Province-wide Literacy and Numeracy Initiative.
Rainbow District School Board was a lead board in providing
intensive teacher development and ongoing support to improve
reading, writing and math in JK to Grade 6.
Teachers in Grades 7 to 12 were introduced to the Think
Literacy, Cross-Curricular Approaches resource document.
The focus was on reading, writing and the establishment of
cross-panel literacy teams.
Principals were engaged in Leading Math Success, one of
the primary pillars of the Student Success Initiative. Rainbow
District School Board played a major role in developing
resources to enhance numeracy across Ontario.
The Board continued to implement the Ministry’s TIPS
document – Targeted Implementation and Planning Supports
for Grades 7, 8 and 9 Applied Mathematics. This document
contained a wealth of resources for teachers to further foster
success in math.
Rainbow District School Board launched a special
lighthouse project in Grade 7 math to illustrate the role of
technology, literacy and hands-on learning to fostering math
success.
Reaching minds. Touching hearts. 25 www.rainbowschools.ca