Instructional Leadership Includes:

A Focus on the Teaching and Learning Process

• The London Region promotes an in-school focus for professional learning. This focus includes: learning embedded in the Professional Learning Communities; job-embedded professional learning with follow-up; a combination of large group PD followed by job-embedded coaching; collaborative learning processes with an inquiry approach; division and grade meetings; demonstration classes on differentiated instruction; dialogues between classroom, special education, and literacy teachers; and curriculum and special education joint sessions. [London Region Final Report]
• Structured professional learning sessions with teachers in Toronto District School Board promoted discussion of key project findings and the use of video documentation as an effective tool for capturing student learning and student/teacher interactions. Teacher sharing of "lessons learned" through a reflective process helped other teachers understand the learning process that the teachers went through in the project. [Toronto and Area Region Final Report]
• Avon Maitland District School Board provided training in the use of the Web Based Teaching Tool, and this assessment and intervention tool was piloted in several schools. In addition, speech and language pathologists implemented a new screening tool with junior kindergarten teachers in four selected schools. Based on the screening results, focussed interventions were implemented and student results tracked. Speech and language pathologists also piloted the use of iPod technology with children who are non-verbal. The board also placed play-based literacy activities into each early years classroom. [Avon Maitland District School Board Final Report]