The first thing you may notice about my desk is that it has moved to the centre office with Gina. We did this to create a much needed resource room, where students can receive small group and one-on-one tutoring, or work with specialists. It’s also a space where teachers can bring groups of students to work out social issues. An added benefit of the move is that it brings me closer to the main office and a little more accessible to everyone.
We have been digging deep into literacy work with the teachers through the spring and summer and are excited to apply these new learnings in the classroom. In June, teachers participated in a specially-designed in service training by the Reading Foundation, which looked at building phonological awareness, segmenting, blending, decoding and encoding at different stages of literacy from preschool to Grade 8. The work begins with an oral approach, and so was very compatible with the Waldorf language arts focus. Ms. Elise and Ms. Burns attended the Roadmap to Literacy training in August, which focuses on all these same skills, specific to the Waldorf approach in the primary grades. Additionally, Meghan McCrone, who trained with the Reading Foundation, will be offering learning support to students three mornings a week.
I am looking forward to connecting with most of you in the coming weeks to see how your child’s transition to the new year is going. In the meantime, feel free to contact me with any questions.
– Gabriel