CAIS in Point

Happy New Year to all and best wishes to Jim Christopher who is getting settled at Somersfield Academy in Bermuda while I get organized in the CAIS office as Interim Executive Director through July 31, 2009. The office is currently working to ensure that the upcoming conferences:  CAISAP, Leadership Institute, Junior and Middle School Heads, Student Leadership, Assistant Heads, Best Practices, Business Managers, and Heads and Chairs are dynamic and meet the needs of the membership.  We are hopeful that despite the financial climate, schools will continue to support these important professional development opportunities.  I am looking forward to the next seven months in what is a very different role for me.  I am hopeful of visiting, or at least being in touch with, as many schools as possible.  If you have concerns or advice, please don’t hesitate to be in touch.  If you have events which you think I might benefit from attending for some period, please let me know.  I would be pleased to see the great work going on in CAIS schools, so that I can promote the association with some specificity. All the best for success with the remainder of the school year. Will William Mitchell, Interim Executive Director

CAIS February 2009 Leadership Institute

St. Clement's School, Toronto, Ontario is hosting the February 2009 CAIS Leadership Institute (LI) from Saturday February 21- Sunday February 22, 2009. The program will run from 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. on Saturday and 9:00 a.m. - noon on Sunday.

Two modules are being offered:

• Academic Administration led by Kevin McHenry (St. Andrew's College) and Katherine Nikidis (Miss Edgar's and Miss Cramp's School)
• Teaching and Learning led by Angela Terpstra (The Bishop Strachan School)

To register please visit this page.

To learn more about the LI please visit this page. 

Accomodations: CAIS has secured a block of rooms at the Intercontinental Hotel (Yorkville location) at a group rate of $160 / per night. When booking please ask for the "CAIS" rate, and book by Friday January 30, 2009. The hotel telephone number is 416-960-5200.

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Environment Conference: “Green vs. Greed: Poverty in a Perishing Planet”

For Students, By Students

On April 3 and 4, 2009, The Study is hosting an environmentally themed conference: “Green vs. Greed: Poverty in a Perishing Planet”

The confirmed keynote speakers are:

• Mark Kielburger, Humanitarian (Free the Children)
• Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada

Location: The Study, 3233 The Boulevard, Westmount, Quebec, www.thestudy.qc.ca

Registration fee: $50 per person, lunch and afternoon snacks are included in the fee, as are all handouts and post conference proceedings (on-site registration is $70).

Who should attend: High school students (grade 7 and up) with a keen interest in environmental issues/activism; a total of 200 delegates from across Canada are expected.

Program: The dynamic program includes moderated panel discussions, workshops, planning and development sessions as well as several featured speakers.

Conference organizers: Co-chairs Jessica Magonet and Corrine Bertoia (grade 11 Study students) and faculty advisor Ms. Liogas.

For more information, see the conference website: http://greenconference.edublogs.org/ and to register please e-mail conference@thestudy.qc.ca.

The conference flyer is below, and this information can also be viewed at http://www.cais.ca/miscellaneous.

Invitation_Environment_Conference.pdf

CAIS Conference Registration Updates

We are now moving full steam ahead into the CAIS Conference season, and the registrations have begun! Please visit the CAIS website Registration Page to register, and see conference details for the following events:

January 28-31, 2009 - CAIS Advancement Professionals Conference. CAISAP Conference is at the Banff Centre, Alberta. Registration is now full. To be considered for the wait list please contact info@caisap.ca

February 21-22, 2009 - CAIS Leadership Institute. Please see above for details.

April 15-18, 2009 - CAIS Junior and Middle School Heads (CIJSHA) Conference is being hosted by St. George's School in Vancouver, B.C. Book your hotel early! Call the Sheraton at 604-331-1000 and ask for Reservations. Register today!

April 15-18, 2009 - CAIS Student Leadership Conference is being hosted by Hillfield Strathallan College in Hamilton, Ontario. See the conference welcome letters, and register on line now.

April 22-25, 2009 -CAIS Assistant Head's Conference is being hosted by Southridge School in Surrey, British Columbia.To book your hotel room please contact the Pan Pacific Hotel Vancouver at 1-800-663-1515. Visit the CAIS website to register today.

May 1, 2009 - Best Practices Conference 2009 is being hosted by Lower Canada College in Montreal, Quebec, with Alan November as the keynote speaker. More details and registration will be posted next month.

May 2-6, 2009 - CAIS Business Manager's Conference is being hosted by Ashbury College and Elmwood School in Ottawa, Ontario. Book your hotel room by calling the Lord Elgin Hotel at: 1-800-267-4298 and asking for the "CAIS" rate. Registration will be posted on line by January 21.

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The Science of Learning

How do you like to tackle your chores, jobs, or assignments? Do you start with the simple stuff and work up to the more difficult? Or do you like to ease into things with the less challenging jobs and save the harder items for last?  Personally and professionally, I often arrange my tasks from hardest to easiest to “get the hard stuff over with” while my mind is fresh, and/or to  keep the less challenging jobs as a reward for accomplishing the tougher jobs. 

According to an on line article in Science Daily this can also be an effective format to learn new tasks. While conventional teaching methods often start with easy ideas and develop to more difficult concepts, this may not necessarily be the optimum way to learn all concepts. For more challenging learning tasks, and depending on the material being taught, tackling more difficult ideas first can open the mind to more abstract thinking and learning that is then later applied to the easier tasks if necessary.  But, if the student is first presented with simple problems and is then given more complicated questions to solve, the pathways to abstract thinking don’t seem to always be as readily available. When the problems being solved were all considered relatively simple, the order in which they were learned was not found to be relevant.

Science Daily also looked at non-verbal learning in the context of imitation. Does practice make perfect? Or can we learn well from just watching? A study by Robert Sekuler, a neuroscientist at Brandeis' Volen Center for Complex Systems, suggests that learning a complex sequence of movements can be done as effectively by carefully watching as by physically imitating the movement once. Results didn’t report on whether these results are altered if the subject imitates the movements a number of times as opposed to watching it the same number of times.

Reportedly small children (ages three to five years old) are able to learn well from imitating adults, but their lack of discernment can be an issue when filtering out erroneous or unnecessary actions. Even when they are told about the mistakes made by an adult, their instinct is to copy tasks in their entirety; although when asked, they exhibit the knowledge of what is needed and what is not. This, unfortunately, can lead to imitation that is unproductive.

Looking at the brain’s capacity to learn various new tasks via imitation, or the order in which they are taught, are interesting endeavours because of the many methods of learning we have to choose from.  As research progresses in these fields, many findings may potentially impact teaching methods in the classroom.

Lindsay Ireland, CAIS

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