Education Library Blog

Stay up to date on news, events and special features.

Abbotsford school recognized for anti-bullying program

An Abbotsford school has been recognized for a program that allows students to report bullying anonymously.Rick Hansen secondary is the recipient of a 2011 Safe School Award from a Canada-wide anti-bullying program called Stop a Bully.

To read the full post from Janet Steffenhagen’s blog, click here.

Sir Ken Robinson’s Top 3 Tips for Teachers

In order to be successful, teachers need to embrace their freedom and creativity and be prepared to learn from their students. To read the full post on Janet Steffenhagen’s blog Report Card, click here.

Small progress in teacher bargaining

The B.C. Public School Employers’ Association (BCPSEA) and the B.C. Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) have agreed to seek the help of an arbitrator in resolving an important stumbling block — that is, which issues can be bargained locally and which ones must remain at the provincial table.

Click here to read the full post on Janet Steffenhagen’s blog.

Study shows- Grades improve when classes start later

A late start is a head start when it comes to first-period classes, according to a new study of more than 6,100 students over four consecutive school years.

Building on a decade of sleep research, the findings tread new ground in directly linking start times with academic performance. The cause-and-effect was so powerful, in fact, that delaying a student’s first class by just 50 minutes resulted in achievement improvements “equivalent to raising teacher quality by one standard deviation” — which is a common way of measuring teachers’ classroom performance.

The Vancouver Sun article can be found here.

B.C. drops optional grade 12 provincial exams

British Columbia is dropping optional Grade 12 provincial exams and changing its provincial scholarship program so that more students will be eligible.

The announcement was made this morning at a private meeting of B.C. school superintendents in Kelowna.

Optional exams are being discontinued because few students write them now that universities and other post-secondary schools no longer base admission decisions on marks from provincial exams.

The B.C. Education Ministry says about 80 per cent of Grade 12 students chose not to write the optional exams last year and that’s reduced eligibility for provincial scholarships, which have continued to be based on provincial exam results. An estimated $2.5 million in scholarships has not been claimed as a result.

To read the full story published in the Vancouver Sun, click here.