Ms Fortier - Aspiring Leader

Ms Fortier is kind to share with us her Aspiring Leader portfolio. Read about her perspective of fostering Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and it'scorrelation to Deep Learning through various classroom/school-wide initiatives, strategies and activities.

Setting Directions

Part 1: Building Relationships and Developing People: Indigenous Education
Read about the Gr 6 Indigenous Education initiative that fostered SEL (through Community Circles, Restorative Circles - building community and relationships), Communication and Collaboration (e.g., building partnerships) and Cross-Curricular projects (e.g., Language Arts, FSL Social Studies/Arts) to deepen student learning.

Part 2: Building Relationships and Developing People: Mindfulness/Mindest Mondays
Read about how to build capacity within your classroom and within the school community

Learning Environments

"My classroom is my students' classroom"

A great way to establish a culture of student voice is to have students design their classroom from the beginning of the year. My Gr 5 and 6 students have had ownership of their classroom design and have created spaces within it to meet their learning needs and styles. Not only was there a culture of student voice established but student choice too! After designing the classroom, students wanted to create different "zones" within their classroom after being introduced to "zones" within their open concept Gr 6 classroom (Mrs Silva and Mrs Fortier). We created a list of "zones" and "needs updating" in and around our classroom. Student then chose what they wanted to work on. This list consisted of lighting, plants, decorating classroom door and others!

"As a teacher, I am passionate about listening to my students and making sure their voices are being heard and considered. Their ideas have initiated the collaborative plans for our room, where we then worked together to create physical learning spaces. Learning opportunities such as these are valuable because the students are being invested in their learning." -Yolanta
Here are resources that I used when researching how to have students design my classroom: Stuart Shanker's Self-Reg Classroom Environment Reflection Tool and Stuart Shanker's Self-Reg Classroom Environment Reflection Tool Checklist from The Mehrit Centre.
Here is a documented process of how we transformed our classroom:

After the spaces were created, they became modified throughout the year based on feedback by the students. Students have become familiar with the spaces and the flexibility to work in the different areas. The spaces are set up for different learning styles or for different learning tasks (e.g., collaborative or independent work, calm, active). By providing these spaces in the classroom and giving students the opportunity to use them, they become more aware of  their personal learning styles and learning needs. Students begin to develop self-regulation skills, which is an important part of the equation that enables the deep learning. Deep learning will only happen if students feel safe, confident and comfortable within their learning environment. Students become more active and willing to take risks in their learning when their environment enable them to do so.  

My class was lucky to have our school board film them working in their learning environments as part of a Deep Learning serie:

A story of Resilience, Strength and Passion

Chris Nihmey; Author, Teacher, Mental Illness Advocate, Survivor, and Public Speaker!

On Feb 27th, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton's grade 3-6 students were very fortunate to listen to Chris present a heartwarming story about his friend Michael's struggle with mental illness. Chris' connection with the students, his humour, his strength, his emotion and his passion drew every single student in. With amazement they listened to his every word and he had them all eating from the palm of his hand. The look of shock and surprise on their faces was unbelievable, when one of his last slides was a picture of his friend Michael, Chris Michael Nihmey.

Chris is one of the faces for CAMIMH (Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health). As one of the ambassadors Chris is joining in on the fight and is hoping to destroy the stigma of mental illness. His focus is to educate, increase awareness and understanding of this illness. His hope is that when this is achieved, there can be compassion and acceptance.