School District #53’s February Education Forum was hosted by Terry Collis and members of his special education team: Jenafor Lausel, and Danielle Scherz – Speech and Language Pathologists; Melissa Visser – Speech and Language Assistant; Paulina Tin and Tina Lovett – District Counsellors; and Arnold Moeliker – Hearing Resource Teacher.

The forum was attended by district staff, administrators, and school trustees. Although the presentation was extremely informative for those present, only a couple of members of the public were present. This was an opportunity for parents to become more informed about their children’s education and to learn how lessons from the classroom can be reinforced in the home.

The topic of the forum was RTI – Response to Intervention and Instruction: a practical philosophy to meet the needs of all students in the classroom. Non-enrolling teachers, (i.e. counselors, resource teachers, speech and language pathologists) cannot address the increasing caseloads of students in need. RTI introduces skills to the classroom teacher that are effective, not only in helping those students receiving targeted or intensive instruction, but are also beneficial to the 80 – 90% of the general school population.

RTI features are researched based. Data on each child is gathered 2 or 3 times a year. Further instruction is geared to each child’s level and rate of performance. This first year, in-service is being provided for all teachers in the district. They are learning how to collect a profile of each student’s learning style, how to detect which students are having trouble with specific skills, what may have led to that trouble, and what to do next to overcome learning difficulties. Teachers are sharing ideas and strategies in common practices, teaching self-management, and collaborative learning.

On going support will be given to teachers and parents to support interventions, to determine at risk students early in a student’s educational adventure, and to acknowledge what is working.

Submitted by Myrna Coates – School District 53 Trustee