School Name: Southlands

School District: SD#39 Vancouver

Inquiry Team Members:
Wendy Phung: wphung@vsb.bc.ca
Alexandra de Montigny: @demontigny@vsb.bc.ca
Sarah McKendy: smckendy@vsb.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: mpaxton@vsb.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: Numeracy & Literacy Project

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Intermediate (4-7)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Language Arts – Reading

Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), Flexible learning, Inclusion and inclusive instructional strategies

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Our focus was on creating flexible groupings for targeted reading instruction in grades 5, 6, 7.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: When we asked students the four questions, 97% could name two or more adults at the school who knew that they would be a success in life, but 65% struggled with the questions about learning, in that they could not be specific about what they were learning and why it was important. According to the Student Learning Survey, 26% of grade 7s believe they are not getting better at reading.

Focus: We selected this focus because we believe that reading is a foundational skill that impacts a student’s success across the curriculum as well as their self-esteem, dignity and identity as a learner. Due to a number of factors, including COVID 19, too many of our intermediate students are reading below grade level – 23%. We wanted to learn how to support these students without pulling them out of class for remedial instruction.

Hunch: Our hunch was that if we collaborated to assess and group students according to their DRA levels, then dedicated 40 minutes a day in the afternoons (time formerly used for individual silent reading) using resource teachers, the teacher-librarian, and support staff to make groups smaller, we could provide targeted, just right instruction.

New Professional Learning: We as intermediate teachers had to learn how to teach beginning readers. We used the Rime Magic program, as well as Heggerty and other resources such as Reading Power. We attended pro-d days with Robin Bright and Marian Small. We requested the support of the District Resource Teaching Team who met with us to help design classroom practices.

Taking Action: We divided 4 classes of intermediate students into 6 groups according to DRA results. The 10 students with the lowest scores were in one group with a teacher and an EA. Eight of the 10 are Indigenous. With small group and individual instruction, these students made many gains averaging an increase in 12 DRA levels. The students confidence and self-esteem improved – our evidence was engagement and smiles.

Checking:
– Increased confidence in reading
– Increased fluency and decoding
– Increased comprehension
– Decreased misbehaviour

We have not yet asked the Four Questions again, but we predict students will be able to be more specific about how they are learning to read.

Reflections/Advice: We were uncertain if this structure would work. We took a risk and tried it!

School Name: Level Up Educational Leadership Design

School District: SD#39 Vancouver

Inquiry Team Members: The 12 learners in this inquiry were 11 school leaders and one retired school leader. To safeguard psychological safety of the inquiry team members, anonymity has been maintained.

Inquiry Team Contact Email: rosa@leveluped.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Primary (K-3), Intermediate (4-7)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Other: Adult Learning, Psychological Safety, Trust, Distributed Leadership

Focus Addressed: Other: Building a more cohesive culture for school improvement while decreasing burnout of school-based leaders.

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? How can we build a more cohesive culture for school improvement, while decreasing the burn out of school-based leaders?

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: In the context of adult learners, the “can you name two adults” questions was posed as follows: Can you name two adults in your district who believe you will be a success in your school/who believe in you and who you can go to for help/who you can trust to receive the help you need?”.

The scan indicated that every school leader could name two horizontal connections within the association, proving to be a supportive network, but could not name two vertical connections within the district office that they felt believed in them and that they could trust to receive the help needed. In general, through this scan, the school leaders noted that there is both an efficiency aspect (timely responses) and professional safety aspect when reaching out vertically. This sets the context to why the horizontal connections are abundant, and the vertical are not.

The scan also indicates a belief that leaders need to know their people to honour their strengths and to understand what they need for areas of challenge, acknowledging that people need different things to succeed. Since everyone has the potential to burn out, we need to show compassion for each other, as well as elevate the amazing things occurring in schools.

Focus: During the Focusing Stage, there was a realization that school leaders can only do what is in our control — keeping in mind what we don’t want done onto us, to ensure we don’t do it onto our staff. Although the ideal is to have system symmetry top down, we can only control school symmetry.

Therefore, the focus became a building of common understandings about the importance of a relational and equity-centred distributed leadership approach that supports the unique differences, learning styles and leadership styles of individuals as essential to creating psychological safety.

Hunch: If our staff feel seen, heard and valued, it will reduce burnout and collectively impact each school’s big idea. “I Can” statements were created by each school leader in response and listed as follows:
I can listen like my heart has ears.
I can be more mindfully present and intentional in my interactions.
I can make sure others have turns.
I can find new ways to bring people together to connect and collaborate.
I can be more intentional in highlighting the strengths of others.
I can foster a stronger sense of trust and belonging for staff.
I can connect with and help foster connections between staff.
I can encourage diverse, expansive thinking by uplifting all voices to the table.
I can be more intentional about what I invest my energy in and ensure that I acknowledge vulnerability and process as much as product.
I can create opportunities for connection, knowledge sharing, and collective problem-solving.
I can balance courageous conversations with empathic listening to build positive and effective relationships.

New Professional Learning: These are some of our new learnings:
– Circle Forward Protocol (used at three sites)
– Seek opportunities to engage groups on staff in circle
– Shining a light on promising and powerful informal leadership within school
– Reflecting on the narrative we are sharing
– Host a Listening Campaign
– Use liberating structures to elevate voices – use LS in every staff meeting
– Establish Teams – team-building games, building trust
– Opportunities for laughter using icebreaker games during meetings with larger staff; liberating structures during staff and collaborative times to ensure equal opportunity and voice
– Ask these questions to shift from a state of despair (a limiting narrative) to one of awareness and hope:

• What is the story about how hard it is, that I hear myself most often telling?
• What are the payoffs I receive from holding on to this story?
• What is your attachment to this story costing you and your site team?

– Be clear with your staff about the why (reference Simon Sinek’s work)
– Introducing the importance of collective efficacy – what we do matters
– Build an understanding of the why
– View collective efficacy through the lens of equity and excellence
– Establish systems to allow for teachers to work collaboratively
– Be a connector: find ways to build connections amongst different staff members
– A great article: Promoting Collaborative Learning Cultures: Putting the Promise Into Action https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hEcDOAZ2fSLe4ZqjBeDzAN3BeJzR5E3p/view
– Be intentional about team building https://www.innovativeteambuilding.co.uk/free-team-building-activities/
– Recommendations re. burnout: https://edst-educ.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2014/07/Understanding-School-Principals-Work-and-Well-Being-BC-Final-Report-August-6-2020.pdf (Recommendations on p.56-63)\

Taking Action: Several strategies were implemented to build a more cohesive culture and reduce burnout, including the Circle Forward Protocol, promoting informal leadership, and conducting listening campaigns using liberating structures. Some integrated team-building and trust exercises, emphasized mindfulness and intentionality, and fostered equity, inclusivity, collaboration, and connection among staff. The Wonder Child approach was particularly effective in enhancing collaboration and student engagement. Baseline evidence should have been developed to include initial staff surveys and feedback on engagement and trust levels and change evidence should have come from follow-up surveys, qualitative feedback, and observed improvements in staff morale and collaboration.

Checking: This team appreciated the networking opportunity and were elated to gather together in a civilized manner over breakfast to think together, gain perspective from others, and to be honest about their practice. We were not unified in our take action approach due to the various contexts, and did not develop a baseline if enough of a difference was made, because each leader had their own focus. In fact, asking staff the scanning question we asked ourselves would have provided the baseline needed. The inquiry itself led to positive feelings and sharing amongst the team. The network of learning was appreciated and needed to de-stress in a safe environment.

Reflections/Advice: This inquiry highlighted the critical role of relational and equity-centered leadership in creating a supportive school culture, the power of informal leadership, and the importance of trust and empathy. We learned that creative and flexible approaches are essential for addressing challenges and fostering innovation. Moving forward, we plan to expand collaborative practices by enhancing professional learning, pivoting the inquiry to focus on creative leadership to strengthen connections across the learning community. For other schools with similar interests, we advise focusing on relational leadership, empowering informal leaders, prioritizing trust-building and empathic communication, embracing creativity and flexibility, and engaging in continuous learning and reflective practices to drive sustained improvement.

School Name: χpey̓ Elementary

School District: SD#39 Vancouver

Inquiry Team Members: Bernadette Milton. bmilton@vsb.bc.ca
Jennifer Sebastian jsebastian@vsb.bc.ca
Mary Leman-Viggers. mlemanviggers@vsb.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: ddelorme@vsb.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Transitions Study

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Primary (K-3), Intermediate (4-7)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Arts Education, Language Arts – Literacy, Language Arts – Oral Language, Language Arts – Reading, Language Arts – Writing

Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), First Peoples Principles of Learning, Inclusion and inclusive instructional strategies, Indigenous pedagogy

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? How can we use Indigenous story as a tool to cultivate a sense of identity, place and belonging?

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning:

Wonders and questions…

• How to teach language, as we are an urban Indigenous school – do we teach only the local language or can we teach the language of other territories?
• Important to think about what we are doing on the territories that we work on – check in with Trudi Harris at the Indigenous Education department.

Wholistic Indigenous Learning Framework:

• The framework was reviewed both the survey and the rubric.
• Agreed to continue to use it and submit the survey to the staff again at the end of June and throughout the year.

Include the 5 R’s – up to 9 R’s (article shared by David):

• Respect
• Relationship
• Relevance
• Reciprocity
• Responsible

Focus: This area was selected because we wanted students to know their story and to leave school with a connection to their history and family, in hopes of making it an easier transition.

Hunch: We have such a diverse population from all across Canada. We wanted our students to have connection to their heritage and be more familiar with their own stories.

New Professional Learning: We looked at using Indigenous literacy to engage our learners. Using the teachings from the medicine wheel, First Peoples Principles of Learning, and Indigenous ways of Knowing and Being.

Taking Action:

1) Survey staff seeking input on the rubric
2) Compile the results and share with staff last day of school June 30th, 2023
3) Meet with staff on first day of school in September to discuss new direction for Inquiry team
4) NOIIE committee meet early September to plan next two staff meetings to further discuss the article and the Wholistic Learning framework, which was created 11 years ago

Description of pictures: Top – Inquiry planning; Middle & Bottom – Activity shared by the grade 1/2 classroom, looking at Indigenous stories from their nation which were created by the students and shared with the rest of the school.

Checking:

• We will continue to broaden our scope and work next year on creating a plan starting in Kindergarten.
• We will plan out the years and expectations of each year.

Reflections/Advice: I learned that we do have a strong team with many ideas to share. I also learned that many of our students are eager to learn their stories and eager to share them with others. I look forward to next year.

School Name: Southlands Elementary

School District: SD#39 Vancouver

Inquiry Team Members: Alexandra De Montigny: ademontigny@vsb.bc.ca
Wendy Phung: wphung@vsb.bc.ca
Sarah McKendy: smckendy@vsb.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: mpaxton@vsb.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Intermediate (4-7)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Language Arts – Literacy, Language Arts – Reading

Focus Addressed: First Peoples Principles of Learning, Indigenous pedagogy, Social and emotional learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Our focus this year was on helping students, particularly Indigenous students, improve their reading skills and identity as a reader.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: When we asked students if there are adults in the building who believe in them and know they will be a success in life, they consistently listed more than two. When asked what they were learning, the majority said, “Math” with a few answering “body science.” When further probing questions were asked, many could not identify the relevance of the learning or their next steps. During empathy interviews, we noticed that students who were reading below grade level, also had low self-esteem. Assessment data showed that 52% of students K – 7 were reading below grade level and 92% of Indigenous students were reading below grade level. As an inquiry team. We looked at all of the nine First Peoples Principles of Learning, but especially “Learning involves patience and time” and “Learning requires exploration of one’s identity.”

Focus: We decided to focus on individual students to see if our support and 1:1 reading coach approach would be impactful. We were hoping to help students gain confidence and see themselves as readers.

Hunch: Our hunch was that as students progressed through the grades and fundamental literacy skills were missed or left undeveloped, students’ self-awareness of their own lagging skills increased. Many of the students have strong compensatory skills, such as listening, speaking, avoiding, and “fake reading” really hefty books. We built on one team member’s experience with Changing Results For Young Readers, in which primary teachers focused their attention on one or two learners, and those students’ reading skills improved.

New Professional Learning: The professional learning we undertook was around building relationships with students. We read “From Behaving to Belonging” by Causton and Macleod, Reclaiming Youth at Risk, by Bendtro, Brokenleg and Van Bockern. We also reviewed different approaches to literacy such as Reading Power (Gear), Fluency (Rasinski) and Reading 44 (SD44).

Taking Action: Each member of the team chose a student to work with, someone not in their class. During daily independent reading time, the adult worked 1:1 with their student. Improvements were celebrated with the classroom teacher and the principal. One student even went to his grade 3 teacher to proudly read to her. Student attendance and attitude improved noticeably for some students, and for some, peer to peer aggression decreased.

Checking: The results of our actions proved to us that reading is a relationship. We also learned that just a few minutes a day of 1:1 coaching can make a big difference. The three teachers involved in this inquiry project also saw the benefit of the literacy groups structure that the primary classes were involved in and are committed to a similar approach in the fall of 2023.

Reflections/Advice: Our advice to other schools is to start small, focusing on one student at a time. Next year we plan to continue with the 1:1 coaching, but with more students if possible, and also create some Reading Buddy partnerships with peer coaches.

School Name: Southlands

School District: SD#39 Vancouver

Inquiry Team Members: Margaret Paxton mpaxton@vsb.bc.ca
Joanna Wood jmwood@vsb.bc.ca
Alexandra De Montigny ademontigny@vsb.bc.ca
Wendy Phung wphung@vsb.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: mpaxton@vsb.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Primary (K-3), Intermediate (4-7)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Not applicable

Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), First Peoples Principles of Learning, Indigenous pedagogy, Social and emotional learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Our focus shifted from trying to bring in Indigenous language and culture to how to help our students feel more welcome and comfortable at school. How can we make school a more hospitable place for Indigenous (and all) students?

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: Our scanning told us that our students enjoyed being part of experiences that reflect their culture. Our scanning also told us that some Indigenous students (typically intermediates) did not feel connected to staff members, including teachers.

Focus: As it became challenging to always seek support/cultural experiences/speakers from outside the school, we asked ourselves what can we do, what do we have within us? Mid-year, we shifted the focus to be on relationships with individuals, to build trust and comfortability. We used the 2 x 10 strategy, empathy interviews, tea with the teachers, beading club, and pizza with the principal, for some examples, as ways to build relationships and increase the sense of belonging.

Hunch: Our hunch was that if students truly felt seen and cared for, that they would feel more comfortable at school and more able to take risks in their learning. We saw that when learning became more challenging, students shut down and did not have the confidence to persevere. We thought that if they felt more safe and supported, they could take more risks.

New Professional Learning: We attended the meetings of the VSB NOIIE teams and learned from each other. We read books such as The Listening Leader by Shane Safir. We accessed the staff of the Indigenous Department at VSB and learned about making drums and drumming protocols. We also attended the Indigenous Allies and Leads meetings to learn more about resources, opportunities and initiatives.

Taking Action:

• Small group “Tea with the Teacher”, in 2 classes weekly
• “Pizza with the Principal”, several times during the school year
• Empathy Interviews with 2 – 3 students/intermediate class
• 2 x 10 (2 minute conversation with a student 10 days in an row) with 1 – 2 students/class
• We learned the names of students’ pets
• We made phone calls and arranged face to face meetings with parents/guardians
• We submitted a Southlands Student Profile and photograph to the Musqueam Newsletter every other week
• In two classes we had weekly lessons on Mindfulness, Brain Science, the Science of Stress, Happy Hormones and How to Hack Them, circle games and community building activities
• In one class we had daily lessons in Self-Regulation (Shanker) and Emotional Literacy

Picture Description: Musqueam Strong (left), Kindness Matters Most (middle), Students with Musqueam Flag (right)

Checking: When we spoke about certain individual students, we noted increased eye contact with adults, smiles, verbal greetings reciprocated, sharing about home and family, and some improvement in academic engagement.

Reflections/Advice: We felt that the “lens to mirror” pivot made sense for our school: Looking to what we had control of and what capacities we had already, rather than looking for experts from outside the school to come in and educate us. We will continue this work, one student at a time.

In 2022 – 2023 we will read about and practice the other pivots as described by Shawn Ginwright: transactional to transformational relationships, problem fixing to possibility seeking, and hustle to flow.

School Name: Britannia Secondary

School District: SD#39 Vancouver

Inquiry Team Members: Simon Hayes: sshayes@vsb.bc.ca, Nekita Garcia Gravel: ngarciagravel@vsb.bc.ca, LawrenceDuong: lduong@vsb.bc.ca, Krista Ediger: kediger@vsb.bc.ca, Hubert Wong: htwong@vsb.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: Kailey Willetts/kwilletts@vsb.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Secondary (8-12)

Curricular Areas Addressed:

• Language Arts – Literacy
• Language Arts – Oral Language
• Language Arts – Reading
• Language Arts – Writing
• Mathematics / Numeracy

Focus Addressed:

• Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation)
• First Peoples Principles of Learning
• Indigenous pedagogy
• Inquiry-based learning
• Land, Nature or Place-based learning
• Transitions

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? The effect of place-based, non-Eurocentric outdoor education on students’ sense of belonging and confidence.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: We conducted student interviews to try and elicit deeper responses. In addition to asking the four key questions, we also asked questions about how students define success. We noticed many of our students defined success in terms of family and community. The First Peoples Principle of Learning about how learning is relational played a big role in our scanning process. To even begin getting our students to share honestly, we had to have pre-established relationships of trust. We decided to have non-enrolling team members conduct the interviews because they were able to establish relationships with students that weren’t mitigated by the classroom context of report cards, curriculum, etc.

Focus: We noticed that our students were often disengaged when doing curricular tasks, and that students didn’t always see what they were learning in school as relevant to themselves and their success. We hoped that by offering a new setting for learning, students would be able to both strengthen connections with their peers and be able to engage with learning in a new way. We also hoped they would be able to bring skills from areas outside of the classroom, where they felt confident in their learning. For us as educators, we hoped that seeing our students in a new context where they might feel more successful or comfortable, would help us shift away from deficit thinking.

Hunch: We suspected some of the more traditional, Eurocentric ways that learning was presented and curriculum was taught were not seen as relevant to the students and were causing disconnection and absenteeism. We also noticed a tendency to engage in deficit thinking related to students’ abilities with curriculum. We hoped by shifting the focus back on to us as educators, and looking at ways we were presenting curricular opportunities, we could shift our thinking. We also had a hunch that our energetic students who had trouble focusing in the classroom might thrive in a larger, outdoor setting.

New Professional Learning: We did not have the opportunity to explore as much new professional learning as we would have liked, and struggled to find opportunities to learn together. Some learning we did do included exploring the FNESC teacher resource guides, reading about the Walking Curriculum and Nature Journaling, connecting with and learning from a member of the Squamish Nation, and attending a professional development workshop on epistemic racism. We also explored new curricular resources for the students, including cross-curricular texts.

Next year, we hope to learn together and ground our learning in a book club reading of Wayi Wah! Indigenous Pedagogies by Jo Chrona, as well as connect with and learn from the three local nations.

Taking Action: We decided to try integrating place-based, experiential learning into our classrooms, as well as offer cross-curricular field studies opportunities. In English class, for example, we did a unit on nature journaling where students went outside to the community garden almost every day. The students were able to explore the garden thoroughly and make observations on a deeper level.

Due to COVID, we were only able to offer one cross-curricular field studies activity, where the students went snowshoeing with a guide from the Squamish Nation who talked to them about place and storytelling.

As suspected, students were more engaged when they were outside the classroom for the most part. In 2/3 English 8 classes, students showed enthusiasm for and engagement with nature journaling. In one class, the students rushed their work because they wanted to spend their time outside playing basketball. In the first two classes, the work the students submitted was thoughtful and fully reflective of their abilities. Students felt comfortable taking risks and exploring new vocabulary.

On the snowshoeing trip, engagement was high and students felt comfortable sharing their own stories and making connections to their own lives and experiences. However, they did not seem to connect this with the storytelling explored in the classroom. Students may need more support making cross-curricular connections.

We also explored having a grade-wide question or theme but that did not take root this year. We hope to try again next year.

Checking: While our students overall reported feeling a sense of belonging at the end of the year, and generally demonstrated increased engagement during outdoor, experiential learning, we think we have more work to do when it comes to rethinking traditional curricular structures. We did one-off units or lessons, but would like to work towards moving into grade-wide, cross-curricular integration of place-based learning and First Peoples Principles of Learning, instead of just dropping in units or lessons here and there. We hope this will help the students build connections between curricular areas as well as their lives outside school. We would like to narrow our focus moving forward to more easily be able to see the long-term changes in our students.

Reflections/Advice: We learned it’s challenging to tease out the impact of our specific inquiry action versus the natural shifts that happen from September to June. Next year, we will examine narrowing our focus to see if we can hone in on the specific impact of our inquiry. We also learned the importance of listening to our learners and being prepared to have our assumptions challenged; they don’t always say what you would expect!

School District: SD#39 Vancouver

Inquiry Team Members: Margaret Paxton mpaxton@vsb.bc.ca
Joanna Wood jmwood@vsb.bc.ca
Christopher Lee cjlee@vsb.bc.ca
Alexandra de Montigny ademontigy@vsb.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: mpaxton@vsb.bc.ca

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE

Grade Levels: Intermediate (4-7)

Curricular Area(s): Other: General student engagement in all curricular areas

Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), Community-based learning, Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Experiential learning, First Peoples Principles of Learning, Inclusion and inclusive instructional strategies, Indigenous pedagogy, Land, Nature or Place-based learning, Social and emotional learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Our focus is on engaging all of our learners (grade 6/7) in Indigenous Cultural learning experiences, thereby increasing our own knowledge and comfort with both content and the skill of weaving First Peoples Principles of Learning into the curriculum.

Scanning: In our scanning over the past two years, we looked for evidence that our grade 6/7 students are engaged and interested in what they are learning. When we asked, “What are you learning,” we were given very subject-oriented answers. When we asked, “How is it going?” we got, “Good.” When we asked, “Where to next?” most answered, “I don’t know.” We saw students wandering during class, taking many trips to the washroom, going outside and hiding from staff, and many seemed thoroughly disinterested in completing any school work. Many students had poor attendance. However, when we asked, “Are there two or more people who care about you and know that you will be a success in life?” the answers were positive. Students listed teachers, support staff, the office assistant, the librarian and the principal, as people who cared. In the 2020 – 2021 school year, many of our Indigenous students chose to stay home the entire school year. We believe that they were the most vulnerable to begin with. Those who did attend school were much more engaged than in the previous year, perhaps because of the smaller classes and some changes in staff. Our staff participated in professional development around the BCTF First Peoples Principals of Learning, and in the District’s Indigenous Focus Day. Both were well-received and generated much discussion about our context.

Focus: Our small committee felt that if we were to provide more opportunities for students to learn about the Musqueam language and culture, as well as other Indigenous cultures, we would see more interest and engagement in our Indigenous students, and in all students.

Hunch: Our hunch was that our Indigenous students found school to be boring and irrelevant. They came to school for the socialization.

New Professional Learning: We participated in the BCTF Workshop: https://bctf.ca/PD/WorkshopDetail.aspx?id=38696. It generated a lot of site and context specific dialogue among staff members, but the presented could not answer many of our questions. The VSB Indigenous Focus Days have been impactful, leading to greater staff commitment, but still leaving us wondering, “How?”

Taking Action: This is a list of specific actions we took this year:

• Orange Shirt Day, school-wide
• Drum making with the Grade 6/7 classes, coached by VSB Indigenous Department member
• Weaving, school-wide, with video instruction by a Squamish Elder
• We wrote a letter to the Musqueam Education Department, requesting more cultural support
• We met twice with Musqueam Language Dept. — once as a committee and then in a whole-staff meeting. We then purchased a set of hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ “alphabet cards and made a bulletin board display.
• Th’owxiya: The Hungry Feast Dish Axis Theatre online play was booked and viewed by all classes
• Ms Alexandra taught Métis beading to both classes. They all made poppy broaches for Remembrance Day (Alexandra is Métis)
• We added many Indigenous titles to the library collection and discarded books about Indigenous people written by non-Indigenous
• Grade 4/5 Classes Chose Reconciliation as a Unit of Inquiry
• Fatty Legs Author, Margaret-Olemaun Pokiak-Fenton, met with the classes by video
• Place-based stories about Chief Joe Capilano read by grade 6/7’s
• 215 ribbon, heart-shaped memorial on our fence created in response to the news about the children’s remains found in Kamloops at the site of the former residential school
• VSB Healing Ceremony was watched by all classes following that news
• Indigenous Allies and Leads – Margaret and Alexandra participated in monthly meetings
• Maintained ongoing relationship with Gail Sparrow, who spoke to classes via Teams, made a recorded greeting for our Grade 7 Leaving Ceremony

Checking: We felt that our actions made a difference for students who were in attendance. They seemed happier, more engaged, and we were able to meet more needs with smaller classes. This however was a tarnished silver lining as we thought constantly about the students who remained at home. We did what we could to maintain contact and communication with families, but it was not enough.

Reflections/Advice: We learned that all students are hungry for learning about Indigenous language and culture. Next year, we want to continue to offer as many experiences as possible and try to build a stronger relationship with the Musqueam Education Department. We plan to revamp our school’s Resource Model to address the needs of the students who have missed over a year of school: by creating and open-area and safe drop-in zone, ensuing that our support is “push-in” rather than pull-out, and using ALL staff members as efficiently and effectively as possible to support students. We will also continue to reach out to families and communicate regularly, individualizing support and differentiating instruction.

School District: SD#39 Vancouver

Inquiry Team Members: Mike Aird: maird@vsb.bc.ca
Shannon Boyland: sboyland@vsb.bc.ca
Caroline Cho: cwcho@vsb.bc.ca
Rosa Fazio: rfazio@vsb.bc.ca
Paul Hughes: pdhughes@vsb.bc.ca
Ken Kilback

Inquiry Team Contact Email: rfazio@vsb.bc.ca

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE

Grade Levels: Primary (K-3), Intermediate (4-7)

Curricular Area(s): Other: SEL

Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), Community-based learning, Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Growth mindset, Self-regulation, Social and emotional learning, Other: circle of courage, goal setting, collective efficacy, learning communities

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Through our collective efforts, how can we provide students with a self-regulation toolkit while honouring Indigenous ways?

Scanning: The 3 big-picture questions helped staff realize that there was an increase in excessive discipline issues, global unkind teasing behaviour, and students ill prepared to deal with emotions and unable to focus nor critically self-reflect. For two years, the school had explored the Seven Grandfather Teachings and Character Traits to contribute to helping students become well-balanced contributing members of the community. However, the transference of traits did not make a noticeable difference. The OECD principles of learning were not unpacked during the scanning phase, yet the SEL team noted a strong overlays with the FPPL and SEL.

Focus: The focus was for Fleming students and staff to work together to create a safe, caring and creative space for students to improve their social-emotional skills. Developing a school wide toolkit of strategies for students, with common language used K to 7 for consistency and continuity, was the original focus.

Hunch: Since there was no common practice, we proposed that if we use common language and strategies school wide, we will build greater capacity for success.

New Professional Learning: We explored Stuart Shanker and the Mehrit Centre Self-Regulation Toolkit for schools; Indigenous ways of being and the importance of belonging; the Circle of Courage framework, research and strategies; Growth Mindset; the Tribes resource for community building; Zones of Regulation; Core Competencies, and more.

As integrating Indigenous ways was important for staff, and the Circle of Courage resonated with us, we created a Google Doc to store links in the four spirits with two team members taking a lead with each spirit — belonging (I am loved); mastery (I can succeed); independence (I have the power to make decisions); and generosity (I have a purpose for my life). This Google Doc reflected our learning (with extensive links) and we are happy to share with anyone who wants to contact us. We brought our learning to a preliminary staff meeting where we shared the four spirits with some suggested resources to explore, and then held two subsequent staff meetings to determine an action plan.

As a staff, we chose one primary resource that everyone would commit to using, allowing people to use the supplemental resources as they saw fit. For the spirit of belonging, we created 5 teams (learning communities) for staff to belong to and explore the learning. Reaching All by Creating Tribes Learning Communities was the primary chosen resource, and a resident expert on the SEL team shared some learnings with staff around community circles, greetings at the door, and spirit buddies. For independence, the staff agreed on using the Zones of Regulation and another SEL team member led ProD for staff. Key visuals were also chosen by each team, printed and laminated for each community. For the 2019-20 school year, we were only able to tackle belonging and independence. Mastery and generosity will be introduced in 2020-21. Since Fleming Wolves (who we are) HOWL (what we do), we represented the WOLVES acronym through the core competencies through the creative genius of another SEL team member.

Taking Action: A community celebration assembly introduced the Circle of Courage to students, and our Indigenous Enhancement Worker shared her story. With the spirit of belonging, the teachers extended themselves to build a sense of belonging through community circles, welcoming students at the door, establishing team names, etc.

In March, grade 1/2 and grade 7 students did a musical performance on the theme of “Belonging and Being Yourself,” incorporating the entire school in a dance finale with a message of “you belong” and “we are a team.” The school was also introduced to the Cherokee legend of the two wolves living within us (the good wolf and the bad wolf) and how our actions feed the good wolf.

With the spirit of independence, staff began using the Zones of Regulation program. Our Community School Team staff who work with our students after school, also received training and the same set of posters (mindful breathing, size of problems, etc) to use within their programs.

To start the 2020-21 school year, we purchased a growth mindset resource and also incorporated goal setting for the Grade K-2 teams, Gr. 3-5 teams and Gr. 6-7 team. We will then extend into the spirit of generosity.

Checking: A Circle of Courage Student Survey was administered to our 225 grade 4 to 7 students using a Likert scale. This is to act as our baseline data as we will be administering the survey again February 2020. We also administered the four questions to one grade 5 class before schools went into Covid mode. Our essential question for belonging is: Can you name two adults at school who believe in you and think you can be successful? We look forward to continuing to gather some baseline data.

Reflections/Advice: This inquiry, through the lens of the Spiral, has allowed our school to embark on a deep learning experience. To begin with, we are all working towards a collective vision which is incredibly powerful. We are in the midst of learning what we need to do more of, and less of, for our students. The importance of various levels of data collection are fundamental to making any notable difference for learners.

We would recommend setting up a learning communities (pod) structure in your school, in order for one member of each team to be on the SEL team. This structure allows for committee members to gather input from pod members which incorporates voice and a richer discussion at the committee level. The success of the SEL team has prompted us to set up three other similar committees next year with the same format. One of our committees will be the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Team (EDIT) and we are excited to see where that inquiry leads that team and how it may contribute to our SEL inquiry.

We believe that through collective efficacy, we can indeed make a difference to the social and emotional well-being of the students (which ultimately results in the well-being of staff). We look forward to continuing this inquiry next year.

School District: SD#39 Vancouver

Inquiry Team Members: Lorena Duran: lduran@setbc.org
Adam Rattray: arattray@setbc.org
Nona Navin :nnavin@setbc.org
Lillian Quon: lquon@setbc.org
Carly Herman: cherman@vsb.bc.ca
Kamelia Dousti: kdousti@setbc.org
Monica Lee: mlee@setbc.org

Inquiry Team Contact Email: lduran@setbc.org

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE

Grade Levels: Primary (K-3), Intermediate (4-7), Secondary (8-12)

Curricular Area(s): Other: Inclusive education

Focus Addressed: Other: consultation, collaboration, leadership.

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Developing standards and a framework for successful collaboration and consultation, in order to enhance our inclusion supports to schools.

Scanning: Next year, SET-BC will reorganize its delivery model for supporting students with complex learning needs across the province. This shift means working more collaboratively as a staff than was done previously. As we scan, we wonder the ways in which we can transition to a new model, bringing the best of previous practice, while also forging a new path through stronger collaboration. We also wonder how we will know we are having success in our collaboration efforts. In which ways does stronger collaboration benefit students with complex learning needs?

Question: What is successful collaboration? What do collaborative teams look, sound, and feel like?

Focus: We wanted to improve our collaborative capacity, both in the ways we collaborate as a staff and also how we collaborate with our school teams. While the benefits of a collaborative culture would seem self-evident, collaboration is actually quite challenging given the relatively short time frame of our interaction with teams, typically only one school year. If we want to enhance the collaboration and consultation process, we need to be intentional in our goals for collaboration. This intentionality and understanding of collaboration will benefit our learners.

Hunch: Our hunch is that establishing productive collaboration amongst ourselves shares the burden of improving learning for all the students in the province. While we recognize that every member of our team has a unique skillset and strength, we have not formalized processes that allow teams to work effectively during collaboration. We have a hunch that in order to improve student learning, we need to refine the skills required for successful conversation, collaboration and consultation.

New Professional Learning: We enlisted Bruce Beairsto, a former Superintendent and professor at SFU, to facilitate structured cross-tier conversations about our goals of improved collaboration and consultation. Often in education, the demands of the day-to-day lead to us working primarily as individuals. At SET-BC we are uniquely positioned to work collaboratively, and to model for teams what this could look like in their context. To this end, the notion of social capital really resonates – how can we truly work together and leverage everyone’s strength? How can we show the teams we support that this is more impactful that working alone, and that they have strength to bring to the team? If we are truly collaborating with our teams they must also be active contributors, so how do we support this level of engagement and shift away from SET-BC educators being seen as ‘experts’, but instead as ‘collaborators’?

As a group, we came to call “Collaborative Consultation” the process that empowers us and school-based teams, by acknowledging that success is possible with committed effort and assistance. It involves doing things with, not for, our students and team, foregoing authority in favour of influence. Collaborative Consultation succeeds or fails on three fronts: Process, Relationship and Substance.

Taking Action: One of the takeaways of our inquiry has been to understand that no one person is solely responsible for a successful collaboration – distributed leadership is important and leads to success. With current Tier 1 and 2 educators working with complex students next year, they will need support from current Tier 3 educators. The value of our inquiry was to frame our own responsibilities to the collaborative framework. Establishing group norms requires fulsome participation and adherence to these as one entry point to successful collaboration. Successful collaboration will require ongoing conversations between administration and teachers to reflect on successes and respond to challenges.

While the learning sessions and discussions were very valuable, we also ended up with a project summary of our work at the end of the school year. It was important to chronicle our progress and to use it next school year as a new milepost in our journey of continuous improvement.

Checking: We think that this year is our first step to see the difference collaboration can make for student success. Our feeling is that our ability to collaborate will develop over time, as we become more comfortable with moving from three tiers to one tier. Our combined strengths amplify the quality of the consultation that we provide to our school teams, but we still need to find a mechanism to self-evaluate and confirm our hunches.

Reflections/Advice: Learning together through a facilitated process with an inquiry-like structure allowed us to lower our defenses and examine our practices. Gaining more clarity about how collaboration should look and feel like will help us to improve our support to schools and be professionally fulfilled by our work. It is valuable to examine our practices and make visible the elements that go behind collaboration. It is a vulnerable process and we are better as an organization for having taken this risk together.