As educators, we work to help students make personal connections between their understandings within the Programs of Study and their lives outside of school. This is a goal all CBE staff work toward - helping students personalize their learning, in turn, increasing student engagement to ensure that our students acquire a foundation of learning to function effectively in life, work and continued learning.

This article focuses on the Calgary Board of Education Board of Trustee Ends. Our Board’s values are observed within each of the five Ends policies: Ends 2 focuses on Academic Success, Ends 3: Citizenship, Ends 4: Personal Development, and Ends 5: Character.

These four Ends culminate in the Mega End or Ends 1. Each of the Ends contains a series of outcomes with measures to be monitored on an ongoing basis. These measures help to ensure our jurisdiction is continuing to work effectively to best meet student learning needs. To read all of the Ends policy statements, go to
www.cbe.ab.ca/aboutus/ends.asp.

A previous article published in Calgary's Child discussed the jurisdiction’s work toward meeting the outcomes in Ends 5: Character, recognizing that this End describes how we at the CBE believe we should interact with others, as well as how we should act when no one is looking. Character development forms a foundation for our work in schools, as a student’s character helps provide them with a solid base for learning.

This article provides some discussion on Ends 3: Citizenship; another Ends policy that affects our work with students. Ends 3: Citizenship states:

Each student will be a responsible citizen by being an informed and involved member in his or her local, national and global communities.

Accordingly, each student will:

1.    Participate in developing and maintaining our Canadian civil, democratic society;
2.    Understand the responsibilities of citizenship in local, national and international contexts;
3.    Respect and embrace cultural diversity;
4.    Develop the skills necessary to work and communicate effectively with others;
5.    Actively contribute to creating a better local and global community.

Developing responsible citizens is a primary responsibility of public education; therefore, citizenship education is embedded throughout all areas of the Alberta Education Program of Studies. As educators, we work to help students make personal connections between their understandings within the Programs of Study and their lives outside of school. This is a goal all CBE staff work toward – helping students personalize their learning, in turn, increasing student engagement to ensure that our students acquire a foundation of learning to function effectively in life, work and continued learning. Initiatives are underway in the CBE to increasingly personalize learning for students in all areas of the Program of Studies. This article describes one initiative that specifically addresses Ends 3: Citizenship, and how we are supporting students as they are developing the attributes of responsible citizens in a community-based, personalized learning environment.

Empowering Student Voice is the name of one innovative strategy for personalizing student citizenship development. Empowering Student Voice is the name of a Calgary Board of Education student leadership course that has been developed with the generous support of the Werklund Foundation’s Empowering Minds™ initiative. Empowering Student Voice allows students to earn high school credits for work completed outside the traditional school day and traditional high school setting, supporting the notion of anytime, anyplace, personalized learning.

One component of the Empowering Student Voice course is the formation of a Chief Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council. This Council will afford CBE high school students opportunities to communicate directly with me on educational issues of interest to students across our system. As Council members, students will develop leadership skills with practical, relevant applications to life outside of school. They will also be serving as valuable members of the larger CBE team by providing me with advice, guidance and feedback on behalf of students across our system.

This leadership opportunity is being offered within the framework of a formal cluster of courses in the Career and Technology Program of Studies. The 5 credit cluster includes the Empowering Student Voice project course, Leadership Fundamentals 1, Community Volunteerism 1, Introduction to Mentorship and E-Learn. To learn more about these courses, visit
http://education.alberta.ca/teachers/program/cts/program-of-studies.aspx.

Bringing students together from across our city to complete project course work after regular school hours is a new way of looking at schooling. Developing this course has required the collaborative efforts of many staff within the CBE, as there were a myriad of factors to consider, including creative scheduling, curriculum design, mark entry and awarding, of course, credits. All staff were in agreement that the effort expended is worth the results – a unique community-based, personalized learning experience for students.

Our work toward each of the Ends will continue with personalization of student learning as our focus. Please watch for future articles describing our work. As you read more on various initiatives, I hope you will continue to see the demonstration of a CBE core value - Students Come First.

Naomi is the Chief Superintendent of Schools for the Calgary Board of Education. For more information, visit www.cbe.ab.ca.