Sonja Friesl's Page
Profile Information
- City
- Toronto
- Province
- Ontario
- Is there anything else you'd like to tell us about yourself?
- I have attended schools in Santa Fe, New Mexico (undergrad) and Brussels, Belgium (grad). I am currently working towards a professional masters in public policy at the University of Toronto where I hope to combine my theoretical knowledge with practical skills (so far, so good). The combination of my unique experience in various education systems and my interest in public policy is what has drawn me to People for Education.
About
Video Interviews!
TVO recorded great interviews / discussions at our conference!
Watch them now, or share them at your next school council meeting!!!!
Presentations and notes from all sessions are being posted to our main website, as we receive them.
Interviews with:
Minister of Education
Annie Kidder
Charles Pascal (Early Learning)
Testing the Pros and the Cons (Panel Discussion)
Watch them now, or share them at your next school council meeting!!!!
Presentations and notes from all sessions are being posted to our main website, as we receive them.
Interviews with:
Minister of Education
Annie Kidder
Charles Pascal (Early Learning)
Testing the Pros and the Cons (Panel Discussion)
Groups
-
Ontario Needs a Coalitio…
2 members
-
Tech communication help…
9 members
-
21st Century Schools @ t…
75 members
-
Less Testing: Education…
17 members
-
Special Education
16 members
Schools are closing...
More school boards across the province are exploring the option of closing schools in the face of enrolment declines and budget pressures.
172 schools are slated or recommended to close in Ontario between 2009 and 2012, and a further 163 reviews are in progress.
→ Read our 2009 School Closings Report.
→ Read the detailed inventory of schools closing in each board.
→ Read the press release.
172 schools are slated or recommended to close in Ontario between 2009 and 2012, and a further 163 reviews are in progress.
→ Read our 2009 School Closings Report.
→ Read the detailed inventory of schools closing in each board.
→ Read the press release.
Latest Activity
Parents often have questions about special education. Here's a place where we can ask questions, share ideas and information and help one another...
Our school is small, at 281 elementary students. It is Early French Immersion, which is not uncommon in Ottawa. I believe there are enough elementary-aged children within walking distance to fill the school twice. However, with the public/catholic s…
Briony before rushing to ideas I always like to take a deep breath and outline the goal and then priority for Parent Engagement/Involvement. Without that you will just try different things but perhaps achieve few results. Our PIC believes in giving…
Hi Briony,
There are also some great examples of what other people have done in our Parent Engagement Manual.
Hopefully you'll get lots of responses from parents here in our online community who have tried a bunch of different things.
It's also i…
Help us to design a broader vision for education in the 21st century!
Hi Briony,
It is always hard to know how to start from zero when it comes to parent involvement. When I went to my first high school council meeting, the staff outnumbered the parents! There were only two of us, and the other mum showed up because h…
Thank you for sharing these photos and this project with us. It is wonderful to see those beautiful children learning together in a community school. Congratulations to the organizers of this initiative. To be able to offer this opportunity to 300 s…
I am the PIAC rep for Ward 10 of the TDSB.
PIAC is trying to offer more concentrated and targeted School council and parent engagement support this year and to that end we sent out a questionnaire asking schools what the state of things are at prese…
Beth: About the article in the Globe... unfortunately links to that newspaper only work for about 7 days, and then you must pay for the articles :( It's different from the Star which allows you to view them for free as long as you have the link addr…
Great article, Deborah (Playing the Game). I skimmed through and will read it again. Thanks! Looks like some good insight and food for thought from down under......!
Your link worked - yay Deb! It looks really good - I will read it this weekend :)
The next newsletter writing deadline is March 1st, which seems to work well with your research deadlines. All the best with your next steps in January!
Badge
© 2009 Created by People for Education on Ning. Create a Ning Network!
Comment Wall (8 comments)
You need to be a member of People for Education Online Community to add comments!
Join this Ning Network
Another example, in the TDSB the system are as follows some schools are:
jk to gr 4
jk to gr 5
jk to gr 6 or
jk to gr 8
gr 7 to gr 12
gr 8 to gr 12
gr 9 to gr 12
this is very disorganized
There are alot of politics in the TDSB, and its the children that are suffering because they are not teaching the children to do their best
However, the TCSB all the schools are jk to gr 8
How is the PGI initiative coming along?
At this point, there is a Community Use of Schools provision that I believe all boards must implement. Usually it involves the use of the gymnasium for community activities, kind of like a community centre in some cases, if the community doesn't have one. Boards have policies in place for what is allowable and you should be able to get copies of these policies on board websites. Depending on how in depth you want to go, you might canvass the board websites for information on what is offered in each jurisdiction. You might also ask to speak to individuals at board offices who oversee the community component of their programming.
As for Best Start, the initiative is at least partially politically driven as a marketing tool. The idea is that parents would tend to enrol their wee ones in the school /system where they have attended the Best Start program when they are of age to start Kindergarten. And in a climate of declining enrolment, there is added interest in attracting as many new students as possible.
Best Start is an alternative to costly day care. It should not be confused with an academic program. There are concerns that in schools where Best Start is operational, it may encroach on JK/SK program and that means possible loss of teaching jobs.
I believe it is still Charles Pascal, at the ministry who has been overseeing this and as far as I know has not made a commitment as to who should be doing these jobs (ECE workers or teachers).
So, from my completely biased perspective, Best Start programs would be best served by ECE workers as they do the social skills development and play activities. Once a child is of kindergarten age, there is an opportunity for these kids to have both Best Start and Kindergarten because for now at least, Kindergarten is usually half time. I have concerns that the Best Start program would start to "borrow" from kindergarten teachers and the result would then be redundant programming. . .presumably the teacher portion.
There are numerous concerns that education may be getting contracted out at both ends: Best Start at the front and High Skills Majors at the end, where credit may be given to students by non teachers.
After you check out the board websites, you might want to contact the teacher unions to get their perspectives on this as well. . . you would have both sides of the discussion: www.oecta.on.ca, www.etfo.on.ca, and www.aefo.on.ca for more information.
Good luck with your research.
I am a second year elementary school teacher with TDSB. Currently I am waiting to hear from OISE regarding my MEd application. I am very interested in research in the area of education policy and how it might guide my teaching practice both inside and outside the classroom.
How is your masters program going?
Gay told us you are "Masters’ students at U of T, studying how public policy is developed and implemented. Perhaps you could share a little more about the program you are in and precisely what you are looking at.
Good luck with you studies and welcome.