Thursday, May 4, 2023
9:00 am - 3:30 pm
Pre-Retreat Overview Workshop - Collaborative Response: Every Child Deserves a Team
- Kurtis and Lorna Hewson, Lead Learners and Co-Founders, Jigsaw Learning
- Feeling overwhelmed with the expectations being placed on teachers, leaders and educational systems to respond to the diverse needs of our learners? Ensuring success for all students is a moral imperative for all schools, but takes a highly coordinated framework of structures and processes within a school to maximize the collective capacity of the team. Come learn about Collaborative Response, an organizational mindset that involves some fundamental shifts for schools and districts, such as layering collaborative team structures, transforming how we talk about student needs, focusing on students close to meeting expectations through thoughtful organization of data and evidence and ensuring tiering of supports rather than students. Simple shifts that emerge through a focus on Collaborative Response and the good news is that some likely already exist in your building! Numerous school and district examples, as well as access to a large number of resources, will be provided for school leaders wishing to join hundreds of schools using Collaborative Response to ensure high levels of success for students and staff!
- All participants will receive a copy of the text Collaborative Response: Three Foundational Components That Transform How We Respond to the Needs of Learners (Corwin, 2022) included as part of the registration fee.
- This session is offered as a full day session prior to the annual Collaborative Response Retreat, happening May 5-6. Please visit http://jigsawlearning.ca/2023-retreat for registration options.
- Lunch will be provided, as well as beverages and snacks throughout the day.
Friday, May 5, 2023
8:00 - 9:00 am
Continental Breakfast and Registration
9:00 am
Welcome / Keynote Address
10:15 am
Break
10:30 - 11: 15 am
Learning Sessions - Collaborative Structures and Processes
- A1 - Five Essential Structures That Impact All Layers of Team
- We know that effective collaboration is not the product of putting the best people together to do something amazing. It is the product of establishing effective structures that contribute to the growth of teams over time. In this session, we will share five essential structures and considerations that should be in place for every level of team in your school, with numerous examples and resources to take away to support the work of your team.
- A2 - Every Child Deserves a Team: Breaking Down Four Layers of Team EVERY School Needs
- Regardless of the size or configuration of your school, four layers of team are essential when truly ensuring an impactful Collaborative Response. In this session, we will facilitate the examination of each layer and then help participants make connections to the types of meetings already established within your school.
- A3 - The Art and Science of Facilitating the Collaborative Team Meeting
- The collaborative team meeting is an integral meeting structure within Collaborative Response, ensuring the opportunity to staff to open and share their collective toolboxes to respond to the needs of students. However, it needs to be effectively facilitated for maximum impact. In this session, we will share a number of considerations for facilitators to ensure their collaborative team meetings are having optimal impact.
- A4 - There's Never Enough Time! Embedding Time for Collaboration
- Time is without a doubt the most valuable resource we have in schools. However, a common refrain is that we never have enough! In this session, we will share a number of considerations when attempting to embed time for collaboration in the master timetable. Numerous examples and further resources will be provided to inform a myriad of approaches when embedding time for teams.
- A5 - Going Beyond the Collaborative Team Meeting: Considerations and Best Practices for School Support and Case Consult Team Meetings
- Although we spend considerable time when establishing Collaborative Response in a school on the structures and processes connected to the collaborative team meeting, how we coordinate support beyond the classroom also matters! In this session, we will break down valuable considerations for schools when designing and refining their more intensive meeting structures, coordinating supports beyond the classroom through the School Support Team and the Case Consult Team meetings.
11:15 am - 12:00 pm
Focused Team Planning Time
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Lunch
1:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Panel Discussion
1:30 pm - 2:15 pm
Learning Sessions - Data and Evidence
- B1 - Teams Need to be Informed! Effective Use of Data to Guide Collaborative Planning Efforts
- Ensuring we have data available within our schools is typically not an issue. Often, it is the abundance of data available that can overwhelm teachers and collaborative planning teams. How can we ensure data and evidence is being put to best use when being used to inform our team planning efforts? In this session, we will share considerations when organizing and then utilizing data to guide the efforts of our collaborative planning teams.
- B2 - Provide Support for Your Most-At Risk Learners...By NOT Focusing on Them in the Collaborative Team Meeting
- When data and evidence is effectively organized, it can be utilized to flag students that should be surfacing in the collaborative team meeting, often taking attention off the students that salways seem to dominate these conversations. In this meeting, we will share some tips for school leaders when it comes to organizing data and then using it to fundamentally shift conversations in the collaborative team meeting.
- B3 - Going Deeper With Data to Inform the School Support Team
- When we talk about organizing data and evidence, we typically focus on overall student cohorts and colour-coding our data. But what happens when deeper levels of data are required to inform our more individualized supports for students? We will share some considerations for school support teams when trying to use date to guide their more intensive supports for students requiring support beyond the classroom.
- B4 - Why How You Organize and Analyze Your Literacy Data Matters!
- Over the past number of years, we have certainly seen substantial growth in the amount of literacy screening data available to schools. But what do we do with that data to truly impact classroom practices and responses for students? In this session, we will share tips and considerations when organizing and analyzing your literacy data, with considerations that can certainly be applied to other types of data.
- B5 - Introducing WeCollab - the Powerful Software Tool to Support and Deepen Your Collaborative Response Efforts
- Designed by educators for educators, WeCollab is a powerful online system with intutive features to not only support your Collaborative Response efforts, but help to deepen processes as well as actions and supports across an entire district. In this session, we will provide an overview of the system, including new features introduced to coordinate and deepen your school and division's Collaborative Response work.
2:15 pm
Break
2:30 pm - 3:15 pm
Focused Team Planning Time
3:15 pm - 3:45 pm
Panel Discussion
3:45 pm
Closing remarks for the day
4:00 pm - 8:00
Team Activities - Explore Lacombe
8:00 pm
Social Gathering
Saturday, May 6, 2023
8:00 am
Breakfast
9:00 am
Keynote address
9:30 - 10: 15 am
Learning Sessions - Continuum of Supports
- C1 - Stop Tiering Your Students...Tier Your Supports: Creating a Continuum of Supports
- Every teacher has a toolbox they access when engaging in their classroom and supporting the needs of their students. But what happens when we bring our individual toolboxes together to create collective toolshed? In this session, we will share how to get started in developing a continuum of supports that impacts a fundamental mindshift in your school from tiering the students...to tiering the supports. Numerous examples and resources will be provided.
- C2 - Good News! Your Continuum of Supports is Never Done!
- The creation of a continuum of supports is never a one-time activity or something to be "checked off" when implementing Collaborative Response in your organization. The power of a continuum of supports comes from the ongoing refinement of a continuum, as well as its use as a document to deepen conversations about professional practice. we will share a number of considerations for your school when trying to determine next steps for refining your continuums of support.
- C3 - From Poster to Purpose: Strategies to Ensure the Effective Utilization of a Continuum of Supports
- A common refrain heard from schools is "we've invested so much time developing and refining our continuums...but they still are not being regularly used to inform supports and impact classroom practice!" Obviously, the effective utilization of a continuum is critical, but how do we do it? In this session, we will provide numerous considerations for school teams to address this important question.
- C4 - Getting to the Roots: Looking Beyond the Observable When Establishing a Behaviour Continuum of Supports
- When developing a behavioural continuum of supports, careful attention needs to be paid during the creation process to ensure that the continuum does not become a "triangle of consequences"! Getting to the roots of the observed behaviours is essential when truly refelcting upon and determining supports. We will share the why, as well as numerous resources, essential when constructing your school's continuum of supports.
- C5 - It's All About Tier 1! Establishing a Solid Foundation for Literacy School-Wide
- Clearly articulating the big rocks for classroom instruction in your school or school division is critical if truly hoping to impact student achievement over time. In this session, we will take time for the critical considerations that need to be in place when determine what Tier 1 looks like in your organization when it comes to learner success.
10:15 am
Break
10:30 am - 11:15 am
Focused Team Planning Time
11:15 - 11:45 am
Panel Discussion
11:45 am
Closing Remarks
12:15 pm
Lunch
1:15 pm - 3 pm
Individual Team Planning