Our Can Do Spirit

Despite the fact that we were spread across the expanse of our district, I managed to check in on most of our curriculum implementation sites on February 5th (sorry that I could not get to Abby). I started the morning with the Social Studies and grade six teachers at Abby Traditional, stopped in on the Learning Services staff at WJ Mouat, and wound my way eastward until I ended with our grade seven teachers at ASIA Sumas Mountain, just at the close of the day.

Each site I visited confirmed just how dedicated our teachers, leaders and support staff are. Whether you were visiting the district's curriculum website for the first time, or have long been heavily invested in inquiry based approaches which are foundational to the redesigned curriculum, you were engaged in learning and sharing. It was a very successful day. What was perhaps most impressive was the fact that our Implementation Team was able to design and establish such coherent and high quality sessions at ten different sites across the district in the space of a month. It was an amazing team effort, from our host school staffs to our STaRT staff and Facilities Department. It was an amazing demonstration of the indomitable can-do spirit in our district. In particular, I wish to extend a big thank you to our Director of Instruction and VP of the Abbotsford District Teachers Association for their stellar leadership in making this so successful. The task was not without its challenges, but your leadership ultimately proved that we can do so much more when we work together.

Granted, many of us still have questions to be answered in the weeks and months ahead:

• What will assessment and reporting look like?
• How will the grade 10-12 curriculum align with the K-9?
• How do we gain access to high quality resources?
• How will we engage parents and students in the language of the curriculum ?

However, if the spirit and manner with which we started our journey is any indication of how we will complete it, I would say our students are in good hands.

~ Kevin
Kevin Godden
Superintendent of Schools/CEO
Abbotsford School District