At the most recent Teaching and Learning Dialogue, which was held for the parents of children in Nursery and Pre-K, a variety of interesting topics came to light.  While I had prepared two main talking points, parents had the opportunity to raise different questions that provided an opportunity to share further details about different aspects of BFIS.

The first item that I chose to share with the parents was my excitement over finally establishing a consistent framework of two classes per grade throughout the elementary school.  I spoke about the fact that this has been part of the strategic plan in the elementary for many years and that finally we have been able to turn this hope into reality.  One of the primary benefits of having this structure is that it enhances the level of collaboration amongst teachers because there is a natural counterpart for every classroom.  Consequently, it helps us ensure that teachers are never working in isolation and constantly have opportunities to share ideas as well as learn from others.

Additionally, I spoke briefly about the fact that we will have an educator by the name of Chrissy Bruce spending some time each week working with teachers in Nursery and Pre-K.  Her role will be to work with our team of teachers to help support the implementation of an early intervention advocacy program.  The objective of this program is to ensure that our children are working toward meeting appropriate developmental benchmarks in speech and language development as well as with fine and gross motor skills.  While we always aim to make the best use of our instructional time each day, it is equally important to communicate with parents if support outside the school is necessary.  We believe this is critical as early intervention is extremely beneficial for children with specific developmental challenges.

Overall, I was extremely appreciative of the parents who took the time to attend the Dialogue.  My hope is that it was both informative and interesting for those who were present and that we have an even greater number of parents for the second round in the spring.