The Education Reporter

January browser-tab dump

2012-01-29T13:13:00.001-05:00

Back to my recent habits of tabbing up by browser until I hit this point. Capital The Peterborough Examiner's continuing PCVS coverage-- the naming of facilitator Joan Green, the announcement of her public meeting, some pre-Green meeting advice, Green's meetings with the press (!!), coverage of the meeting itself and the approval of renovation funding for TASSS; The Hamilton Spectator on concern

Looking in both directions

2012-01-03T00:24:00.000-05:00

Here's to looking back at 2011 and looking ahead to 2012 in the world of K-12 education in this province, as well as a chance to reflect on what's been in this space in the last 12 months. As I wrote about for my employer, 2011 was a year of change from the fellowship back to my former job to a new post starting in August. In the past year this space has seen just over 3,800 visitors, a slight

New Year's browser-tab dump!

2012-01-02T23:31:00.001-05:00

How seasonal! Here's what I've been clicking on these last few weeks: Capital The Thorold News on a school-closure review involving the school there and a few more in St. Catharines; The Peterborough Examiner's continuing PCVS coverage on trustees voting not to delay closure, a response to the Kawartha Pine Ridge DSB's petition response and nabbing alum Serena Ryder to play the coming benefit, a

Not pretending GSAs are panaceas

2011-12-19T12:20:00.000-05:00

The introduction of Bill 13 by the government last month (along with the introduction of Bill 14 by PCPO education critic Elizabeth Witmer) has led to weeks of continuing discussion, angry opposition and name-calling by all those who have a stake in trying to reduce bullying in schools. The contentious clause in Bill 13 reads: 303.1 Every board shall support pupils who want to establish and

Holiday link dump

2011-12-14T16:44:00.003-05:00

Hey, I'm off work for a few days. So, um, here's a link dump to celebrate all my open browser tabs! Capital The Thorold Niagara News on the start of a school-closure review process; The Tillsonburg News on schools identified for a possible Thames Valley DSB school-closure review; The Peterborough Examiner's continuing PCVS coverage -- the filing of the Kawatha Pine Ridge DSB's response to the

Babysit me!

2011-12-04T23:00:00.001-05:00

With apologies to Arrested Development, who I stole that title from. It's a flippantly provocative choice, given what's been flying around and being thrown around in at least two areas of the province when it comes to the programs that wraparound the core portion of Ontario's full-day kindergarten program. I don't think FDK is babysitting, for the record. One model, reported on by the Ottawa

Browser tab roundup

2011-11-27T21:54:00.001-05:00

All the latest in my browser tabs. The Barrie Examiner on a new school-closure review for Catholic elementary schools in north Barrie; The Kincardine News on the Bluewater DSB and the Gideons' distribution of Bibles; The Sudbury Star on a Rainbow DSB decision to keep French immersion at a city school; The Brantford Expositor on pending school-closure review(s) in the Brant-Haldimand-Nofolk

Charts and more charts

2011-11-25T13:54:00.001-05:00

The Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational School folk forwarded me an interesting chart this week. It didn't convert well to GoogleDocs, but I've posted the .xlsx document there anyway. As the rallies continued before a board meeting Thursday, this document is being circulated. If I've interpreted its aim correctly -- and I didn't ask for clarification -- the idea here is to shift the closure of

It never happened unless it happens to me

2011-11-22T22:05:00.001-05:00

My heartstrings are being pulled by the rallying that is currently building and taking place in Peterborough. I've long held a soft spot for this city on the Otonabee, where I lived for just over eight months a decade ago. The city, particularly those interested in its downtown Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational School, is in the midst of a post-vote, pull-out-all-the-stops campaign to try

Getting social (with this guy)

2011-11-22T21:46:00.001-05:00

With apologies to QMI's Gina Phillips (who has a daily "Getting social with Gina" bit in QMI papers) for the title of this post, this blog's social-media profile has changed in the past few weeks. With Google+'s arrival earlier this year, I had initially created a profile for this blog using the Google account it was created under. Around the time that Google started telling me I had to be a real

Voting with their feet

2011-11-22T20:04:00.001-05:00

This is a question that's come to me a few times in recent weeks reading coverage of some ongoing school-closure reviews-- particularly the high school review being undertaken by the Grand Erie DSB for its secondary schools in Norfolk County. Port Dover Composite is under the gun as the candidate for closure at this stage of the review. To put things into some perspective from afar, the GEDSB

Random tab roundup

2011-11-15T12:14:00.001-05:00

Browser-tab dump! In the following groups: Capital / accommodation Owen Sound Sun Times on the MP and MPP getting involved in an accommodation review; The Sun Times on the vote to keep the school in question above open; The Hanover Post on another school-closure review in the Bluewater DSB; The Stratford Beacon Herald on Avon Maitland DSB's search for French immersion accommodation; The St.

Let's move from awareness to change

2011-11-15T11:45:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the second day of bullying awareness week. From statements from ministers to pledge drives, to twitter hastags we keep talking about bullying-- a term that is so overused it's lost some meaning as what it truly is: harassment. With schools often leading the way, boy have we taken on bullying. Well, awareness of this form of harassment. I think every kid in any of our school systems has

Latest capital roundup

2011-11-03T11:03:00.000-04:00

When I'm not as attentive to this space, the open tabs on my browser for items to mention here start to pile up. Here's a roundup of what's been crossing my desk in the past two or three weeks. The Orillia Packet and Times on rebuilding a school; The Niagara Advance on NOTL council's consideration of the former Virgin PS lands; The Kingston Whig-Standard on a needed reno at a high school; The

Look ma, I made the radio!

2011-11-03T10:34:00.000-04:00

It was a distinct honour to be interviewed by Barry Hennessey last week for Inside Education, a regular program broadcast on 102.3 Dublin City FM. Hennessey scoped me out via this blog and we spoke about the 2009 PISA results. The Irish and their recent coalition government are zeroing in on PISA results there, after a decline and some soul-searching on why that's happened and what could be done

Always plenty of fault to spread around

2011-10-27T16:44:00.000-04:00

{EAV_BLOG_VER:a265812c9c3c4476} I've been mulling what the appropriate post could be on the death of 15-year-old Ottawa teen Jamie Hubley and the reaction to this tragic event across various media. It's been inspiring to read things like the op-ed piece by Ottawa Citizen education reporter Matthew Pearson — who I had no idea was from Woodstock. He sent the piece to the Sentinel-Review on the

Could Peterborough break the mold?

2011-10-25T10:34:00.001-04:00

Doubtful. Very doubtful on this one, despite a strong connection to the City of Peterborough and its collegiate and vocational institute. For those who haven't met it, PCVS is the city's historic high school Built turn of the century ish, like many other schools across Ontario that have the CVS or CI to their names. In the heart of the city, surrounded by heritage buildings of a similar ilk. Home

Ontario's next education minister is...

2011-10-10T22:26:00.001-04:00

... a question that surely has been circulating through people's minds since the results came in on Oct. 6 showing Leona Dombrowsky had been defeated in her Belleville-area riding. I was somewhat shocked, to say the truth. Not being as connected as people in the region, I wasn't anticipating that her seat was under threat. Coverage from the night shows it might have come as a surprise to her as

On hiatus

2011-09-25T06:23:00.000-04:00

Not that I've been terribly wordy on here lately, but the blog is going on hiatus until Oct. 6 as I travel to do some more volunteer work. I did promise to do a platform-by-platform comparison, which I haven't done for here but I did do as part of our campaign coverage for the Expositor if you want to take a peek at it there. I'll return with some thoughts on election day and thereafter.

Quick thought on GoogleAds

2011-09-07T01:03:00.000-04:00

As longtime readers here would know, there's a GoogleAds sidebar on the right-hand side of this blog (scroll down a ways if this is currently the top post). As those who know GoogleAds would know, the ad(s) displayed are generated by an algorithm based on the content that appears in this blog. During the election campaign in Ontario, the content of this blog may result in political ads being

Clearing up my open browser tabs

2011-09-06T12:08:00.000-04:00

Time is fleeting, but did want to share some of the non-election campaign ed-related stuff that I've clicked on and read over the past several weeks until this morning. The Globe and Mail on the TOPS program staying put at a Toronto school; The Goderich Signal-Star (pre-tornado) on a pending school-closure review; QMI Agency (through the St. Catharines Standard) on the Canadian Teachers'

Rose and thorn for CBC's teachers

2011-09-06T11:50:00.002-04:00

Four days of the National last week included mini-docs on four teachers as part of a back-to-school package put on by the CBC. Called "The Real Lives of Canadian Teachers," the CBC has posted its four parts online through The National's website. First a rose. Sending out producers and crews to follow these four teachers earlier this year deserves some applause. As someone who routinely strives to

Double time in the instruction line

2011-09-01T01:23:00.003-04:00

I took to twitter Wednesday morning as soon as I started reading tweets about the Ontario Liberal Party's announcement that if reelected it would extend teacher-training programs from the current minimum of one academic year (eight months in reality) to two. Here's the OLP release. A lot of newsrooms got into this today-- here's The Star (which did two), The Globe and Mail, the CBC (which did a

Hudak's FDK change of mind

2011-08-24T21:34:00.001-04:00

Though I have a number of tabs open to blog about on the desktop, I'm hunkered down avoiding highway driving in torrential rain as this came across Twitter tonight. The Star's Queen's Park columnist Martin Regg Cohn posted this Wednesday evening with the details on Tim Hudak's change of heart on full-day kindergarten. But Hudak had reflexively opposed full-day K when Premier Dalton McGuinty

Treading softly into the writ drop

2011-08-20T17:52:00.001-04:00

It was an interesting week watching and reading coverage from the proceedings at the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario's annual meeting. I did so mostly through Twitter along with the various media outlets' coverage of the different speakers throughout the week. As usual, I was left in awe by Moira MacDonald's insightful analysis in a few columns throughout the week from the floor of the

A missed opportunity, maybe because you've got nothing to add

2011-08-16T11:18:00.000-04:00

Got an advisory at work Monday regarding Ontario PC Party Kitchener-Waterloo MPP Elizabeth Witmer's drive-through appearance in Brantford on Tuesday morning. As I type this post Witmer's appearance is about 10 minutes away from starting, but she's the latest in a line of PC MPPs to drive through the riding of Brant in support of candidate Mike St. Amant, who's facing incumbent Liberal Dave Levac.

Anyone else doing the math?

2011-08-13T16:02:00.001-04:00

This came to mind this week as I covered a pre-campaign event in Brantford, centred on energy bills. I was chatting with a staffer in the local PC candidate's campaign office and was mentioning how a former candidate for the Ontario Liberal Party nomination in my former coverage area (Oxford), a trustee, very quickly mentioned the government's investment in schools in the riding. A colleague at

Biting off one's nose to save one's faith?

2011-08-09T11:20:00.002-04:00

There was a delicious development in the Catholic schools vs. equity and inclusiveness policy saga Monday, as Coptic Christian families with children enrolled in Toronto Catholic DSB schools threatened to pull their kids from schools. Here's the Star's article. But (Fr. Jeremiah) Attaalla said the Coptic Church is vehemently opposed to any education about homosexuality. Attaalla wrote a letter

Second thoughts in Peterborough

2011-08-09T10:55:00.001-04:00

This hit the desk today from the Peterborough Examiner, regarding a recent high school school-closure review in the city. One of the participants in the committee, the city's appointed representative, is now stating the process was confusing and that committee members felt forced into making a decision to close a school. Beside the obvious error in logic (yet another report where the writer

More misunderstandings

2011-08-04T18:22:00.000-04:00

It's always interesting to read how different accommodation review processes are interpreted across the province. The latest example comes from the Orillia Packet & Times where the local trustee is adamant a review in the area conducted by the Simcoe County DSB should not go forward as planned. Peter Beacock, representing Oro-Medonte and Springwater townships with the Simcoe County District

One step backwards?

2011-08-04T11:17:00.000-04:00

Paul Kokoski argued Aug. 2 in the Hamilton Spectator the Catholic school system in Ontario has lost its way. I've rarely written about these issues here, since my foundational belief is that if the province chooses to continue to fund Catholic schools, it shouldn't be surprised when the tenets of the faith conflict with provincial policy. As long as this dynamic exists, I don't react with rage,

Headline diverges

2011-08-04T10:58:00.000-04:00

I thought the headline on this column in the North Bay Nugget was disjointed from the tone of the text itself. The headline leaves one with the impression the column is going to be a missive about all that's wrong with the education system. The column is actually about the Toronto-based, Ministry of Education-funded, TVO-administered distance-learning centre, the Independent Learning Centre. The

Changing

2011-08-01T19:20:00.000-04:00

Friday, July 29, 2011 was my final day as a reporter working at the Sentinel-Review in Woodstock, Ont. After almost eight years (minus a fellowship) in that newsroom I will begin a new position at the Expositor in Brantford, Ont., starting tomorrow, Aug. 2, 2011. I am indebted to the colleagues and friends I've worked with since 2003 at the Sentinel-Review. I'm also indebted to the community,

Tory op-ed piece on education

2011-07-24T18:07:00.001-04:00

I have no idea if this is just one of many salvos the Ontario Progressive Conservatives are preparing to launch in the coming months on education, but it definitely caught my eye. In this case, it was Haldimand-Norfolk MPP Toby Barrett's name under the headline in the Tillsonburg News. While the education budget increased 35 per cent over the past eight years, salaries and benefits for Ministry

Capital priorities

2011-07-22T17:05:00.000-04:00

This article by Nathan Taylor at the Orillia Packet and Times (though the link is from the Barrie Examiner) does a good job of explaining the current fiscal and approval realities for capital construction in this day and age in Ontario. Boards are routinely submitting and updating their capital priorities 'template' where they make business cases for particular capital projects-- be they new

Tell us something we didn't know

2011-07-22T16:58:00.000-04:00

I some times wonder at what point an issue is newsworthy and when it's passed its prime. Take for example the current realities of the job market in southern Ontario for recent teacher-education graduates. It's been known for some time that the hiring spree ended long ago. Retirement bulges have mostly passed and with the exception of those areas continually searching for new talent (

Mapping out Full-day Kindergarten

2011-07-11T20:12:00.002-04:00

I finally get a great sense of accomplishment in being able to publish and embed this map. It's been somewhat of a labour of love since March. That was shortly after the year three school locations were announced by the Ontario Ministry of Education. Not knowing as much as I do now, I started, manually, mapping all the schools where FDK had been announced using Google Maps.That was a pain in my

A campaign briefly centred on education

2011-07-11T16:46:00.000-04:00

A week ago today, it seemed as though the front was opening for a 2011 Ontario campaign defined by education. Ministers Leona Dombrowsky (Education) and John Milloy (Training, Colleges and Universities), took to the podium at the legislature's media studio to tout progress in education over the past two terms of the Liberal government. This as the provincial government released the first in a

Finally tackling the Finland thing

2011-07-10T23:12:00.000-04:00

It's been three months since I was in Finland and this is a post I've been meaning to scribe since I arrived back in Canada after the trip. The fellowship ended, work resumed, and here I am now scribbling out some thoughts. The Grade 5 class (our third concert of the school visit) The Canadian Journalism Fellows had the opportunity (at my request and insistence) to visit