Education Onward Council
By Martha Jez
Here’s the thing,
March 13th hit, and I like many felt the world shifting. I spent days watching the news, cancellations of sports, closures of schools, and businesses moving to work from home situations. My mantra with our family, was Calm, Helpful, Organized. Then we heard the children in Ontario would return to learning March 30th. I have told many that I observed a back to school energy of our kids that Sunday night, looking forward to some sense of normalcy, routine and scheduled learning. What unfolded for our family that week was the realization that this was not normal, there was no clear plan to build from and we were all in this together. I told my kids that this is a level setting moment for all of us, as none of us have navigated something like this before.
That week and over the course of the month of April I saw students’ enthusiasm turn to frustration, I saw the energy that educators were pouring into learning and adapting of their lessons turn into anxiety and fatigue.
I knew that the Directors and Superintendents of our publicly funded education system were working hard to plan, organize and respond to the students, teachers and families they served. I knew that Fair Chance Learning had a role to play in the knowledge mobilization and hyper collaboration that would be required to rethink schooling. With that in mind, I set out to form a cross sectorial council. We know that Industry and Community Organizations play an important role in supporting and informing the education systems. I interact with wickedly smart people every day, through our EdTech partnerships, our community not for profit partners, and the different panels within K-Higher Ed, and I know there is so much to learn from one another. With this idea of a place to gather and share, I worked with my colleague Jeff Hainbuch to bring together people with no egos, and a passion for the communities they serve. Hearing Rob Policicchio in our ear, we knew the conversations had to be meaningful and measurable, so we asked Rob Gorbet, and his research team at Waterloo University to join us in this council work. We then sent invites to those we knew who were leading their organizations with bravery, empathy, passion and hope, for the future of our students and their learning. That is the work of the Education Onward Council, to meet, reflect, share successful practice and support one another on this journey and to ensure that we document the learnings so that we may share with the wider education community. It is a special place to be and it is an honour to learn alongside:
Stephen Abouldahab, Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC)
Diana Barbosa, Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC)
Tiffany Bastin, Gov’t of New Brunswick, Education and Early Childhood Development
Howie Bender, Desire 2 Learn
Camille Rutherford, Brock University Faculty of Education
Christine Corso, People For Education
Manny Figueiredo, Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board
Michael Furdyk, Taking It Global
Manon Gardner, Toronto District School Board
Larry Hope, Education Consultant, formerly with Trillium Lakes DSB
Kassia Kukurudza, Desire 2 Learn
Elwin LeRoux, Halifax Regional Centre for Education
Marianne Mazzorato, Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board
Loretta Notten, Waterloo Catholic District School Board
Michael Owen, Brock University Faculty of Education
Rob Policicchio, Apple
Marc Seaman, Microsoft
Wayne Toms, Educational Computing Network of Ontario
Christopher Usih, Calgary Board of Education
Camille Williams -Taylor, Ottawa Carleton District School Board
Please find a link to the phase one report of the council work here