Click on the Inquiry Question links below to see the full survey response and learn what each PLC group is exploring.

2015-2016

  1. Will building a strong sense of school community improve the academic success of our students.

2014-2015

  1. How can we reduce anxiety and increase resiliency in our students in order for them to be able to focus on learning?
  2. How do we better meet the curricular needs of our modified students at Glacier View?
  3. Will a study package for a provincial standardized test increase student success on that exam?
  4. How can we use tool of technology to enhance student learning and communication with students and families?

2013-2014

Practical Interventions For Self-paced Alternate Students in Language Arts

One of the glaring learning challenges focused on the inherent struggles most Glacier View students have with reading and comprehension in their English coursework. Most of our students cannot read the stories themselves and yet all of our students are, or will be engaged in the English curriculum at one point or another while at Glacier View. How can a student be successful in their English curriculum if they cannot read and will not use audio software programs?

PLC Guiding Questions/Themes were forged based on this common student learning challenge:

  • How can we more appropriately meet the needs of non-readers who refuse to use software programs such as Kurzweil or who are growing tired of waiting for a staff member to read to them? 
  • Would hearing the voice of a well-known staff member reading a short story or novel, reduce the frustration and anxiety in students as they work through their short story unit?

The work of this PLC theme would be for staff to record their voices as they read short stories & novels required for the English curriculum. Recorded stories would be saved on a shared teacher/student computer drive so student access is readily available to any and all students when they need to listen to one of their assigned stories.

What strategies can we employ to help further our students’ understanding of time, the passage of time and daily time management?

The PLC group did some brainstorming and research and found out that the most students would benefit from a simple test or assessment to find out which parts of our PLC theme, our students were deficient in. This assessment tool will include a wide range of time themes and challenges such as telling time chronologically, being comfortable using a 24 hour clock, how to add up the time it takes to complete multiple tasks in order to determine the start and end time of a complex job.

Describe in relation to the work of the PLC teams in your building, how this work is having a real life impact on student achievement.

The developmental work continues with our reading PLC theme. At the moment staff members are currently recording their voices as they read short stories & novels using voice recording software. In conjunction with this, a questionnaire has been completed using Survey Monkey which will assess student satisfaction before and after the short story unit. As the developmental stage is still underway we’re hopeful that when implemented, this endeavor will increase student engagement and reduce frustration during their short story unit. It is the goal of our Time Management PLC group that once students complete their time assessment, inadequacies will be revealed which will help staff guide students through specific learning strategies designed to help enhance their skills. The construction of the pretest and various time learning strategies are currently underway.

“All too often we see students struggle with simple tasks that we as adults take for granted. Our shortcoming comes from a mindset that since a task such as telling and working with time is easy for us, our students should equally grasp this task. It’s exciting to not only understand this challenge but to take action and explore this topic fully on behalf of the needs of our students”. Glacier View Secondary Centre Teacher