District 2 teachers launch new collaborative approach to learning as new school year begins

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by dwayne tingley
times & transcript staff

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Karen Branscombe was an anxious home economics teacher at Riverview Junior High School when her career in education began in 1980.

Today, she's the steady and effective superintendent of District 2, which administers 38 English-language schools in southeastern New Brunswick, and when the bells ring it will be business as usual for her, the district's 1,100 teachers and 16,300 students.

Teachers will introduce themselves to their new students and new lessons will begin.

"It's an exciting time of year and a time for optimism," said Branscombe, who is beginning her sixth year as superintendent.

"It's been a busy summer, but we are prepared for another year and we believe it's going to be a great year for everyone."

While the routines are familiar, schools everywhere, including New Brunswick, are adopting a new teaching strategy.

The phrase "professional learning communities" may be new to most parents and students, but they should get used to it because it's a new approach now in effect.

In District 1, which administers 15 French-language schools in southern New Brunswick, professional learning communities (PLC), a concept which started in Virginia, are going to be used extensively.

PLCs will see teachers in the same grade level working together and learning from each other in order to provide the best instruction possible. The district's 539 teachers have agreed to trade their four annual professional development days in exchange for shortening classroom time by one hour every Wednesday so they can have PLC sessions.

District 1 superintendent Anne-Marie LeBlanc said studies prove PLCs work. Students in those situations have shown marked improvements in their grades and she expects many of 7,600 students in District 1 to benefit as well.

Educators Rick and Rebecca DuFour, who came up with the concept, were guest speakers at District 2 teachers' meetings last week.

Rick DuFour said the idea is resisted by some teachers, who claim their freedom and styles of teaching are compromised by the collaborative work.

"Soon after they try it, the evidence is in and we get positive feedback," he said. "Teachers learn from each other and they soon see the students are learning in a better way, too. If they see students struggle, they come up with a plan to intervene.

"The traditional method tells students if they are smart enough, they will succeed. In this method, success is based on hard work and effort-based results."

District 2 director of education Gregg Ingersoll said teachers in the English-language district are being introduced to the concept and it will soon be used extensively.

"We must find the right balance between the traditional methods and this new system, but we are encouraged with what we see so far," Ingersoll said.

While professional learning communities are being finetuned, other changes in the school system will be more evident.

After a series of consultations and some turmoil, Education Minister Kelly Lamrock introduced a new improved French second language problem for its English districts on Aug. 5, less than a month before the schools were scheduled to re-open for a new year.

The revised program will see all students in kindergarten to Grade 2 introduced to French language and culture through a program that will be integrated into the curriculum in Grade 1 in January 2009 and Grade 2 in September 2009.

Immersion will begin in Grade 3 and late immersion will begin in Grade 6. There will also be more options for French instruction in high school.

"We've had to work hard to make the necessary adjustments in terms of staff and the make-up of classes," Ingersoll said. "There's going to be a period of adjustment, but I think everyone is well-prepared."

Meanwhile, the province has also introduced new rules for physical education. Most schools offer Grade 1-4 students 80-100 minutes per week of gym time, but the province wants the district to aim for 150.

"We'll be looking to add an extra phys-ed class a week for each student so that could bring it up to 120 (minutes) with the goal of going even higher," Ingersoll said. "It's a challenge because most of the gyms are maxed out now. We have to look at using other classrooms, fields, wherever we can to get the kids more active."

District 2 is also introducing a new math curriculum in kindergarten and Grades 1, 4 and 7. Next year, Grades 2, 5 and 8 will get new math programs and students in Grade 3, 6, and 9 get the new curriculum in two years.

Ingersoll said New Brunswick has scored poorly by national and international standards in math so the province thought it was necessary to bring in a new curriculum.

Branscombe said the district will continue to work hard to land funding for the construction of new schools in the fast-growing areas of Moncton's north end, where Evergreen Park and Magnetic Hill Schools are already filled to capacity, and Riverview, where antiquated Gunningsville School should be replaced.

She's hoping the north end school will be up and ready for students in the fall of 2010 and the Riverview school should not be far behind.

"We're coming off a busy year and we were busy in June and August, but everything's ready for another big year," the superintendent said.

District 1 is also facing some challenges. Student enrolment has increased by more than 300 over last year.

Superintendent LeBlanc said the district has not had a problem attracting teachers to work with the new students, but there is an infrastructure problem.

"All of our schools are filled to capacity," LeBlanc said. In the Moncton and Dieppe area, we have to use 14 mobile classrooms for the K-5 students alone."

District 1 has added three mobiles at Ste-Bernadette School, two at St-Henri, two at Amirault and one at Champlain.

"It's a unique problem," LeBlanc said. "No district in the province has experienced the kind of growth we're going through. We've had to study and re-distribute the student population in Dieppe. The parents will be going through quite a transition for most of September."