This section provides updates on licensing and qualification requirements, notification of Council resolutions and reports from various Council committees, including reports on accreditation and discipline matters.
Teachers and parents are on the same page: the quality of teaching and the preparation of teachers are their top factors in determining future strategic priorities for the College.
That is what they told the College during focus group sessions we held last summer. The College conducted these sessions with teachers and the public to gauge their opinions on a number of initiatives and communication products. This included preferred topics for future professional advisories. A professional advisory is advice offered by the College to its members to help guide a teacher's practice.
Participants said advice on how to accommodate students with special needs, how to deliver lessons that resonate with a diverse classroom and how to integrate technology in the classroom are topics for the College to consider.
The feedback helps the College's staff and governing Council act with increased efficiency. The College works in the public interest to set the standard for teaching in Ontario.
By better anticipating arising needs and forthcoming changes on the horizon, Ontario Certified Teachers and the public can both be better served.
The College led focus groups in Kingston, Ottawa, Kitchener, London, Timmins and Toronto. These cities were chosen to reflect different geographical regions, demographics and languages.
Each focus group session brought together nine to 16 participants, randomly selected, from among College members in good standing and parents with children in the public education system.
Half the participants in Timmins and Ottawa were francophones.
The Council welcomes new Council member Mary Ellen Gucciardi, OCT, who was appointed as of September 27, 2018, to fill a vacancy in the English- Language Roman Catholic Board Secondary category.
Gucciardi is a secondary school teacher at the School Within a College dual credit program offered by the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board at Humber College.
A champion of marginalized students, Gucciardi has co-designed and delivered professional development about Indigenous perspectives for educators in collaboration with three school boards.
Gucciardi has served as an English, English as a Second Language, and alternative education teacher, a guidance counsellor and an academic consultant since starting with the board in 1995.
In addition, she has served as a project lead for curriculum resource development writing projects, a documentary producer, a Summer Institute facilitator, and has led experiential learning excursions to the Arctic.
Certified to teach in Ontario in 1996, Gucciardi holds a BA and a M.Sc. in education.
The Council welcomes new Council member Gerry O'Reilly, OCT, who was appointed as of September 27, 2018, to fill a vacancy in the Supervisory Officer category. O'Reilly is a superintendent of education with the Durham Catholic District School Board.
During his 30-year career, he has a served as an elementary classroom teacher, vice-principal, principal, and, for the last five years, as a superintendent. At the board, O'Reilly oversees portfolios for Education Quality and Accountability Office testing, Managing Information for Student Achievement, School Effectiveness, Summer Learning Program and Tutors in the Classroom. He is also responsible for the board's Sharing of Excellence series, Leadership Development Framework, mentoring Aspiring Leaders and the New Teachers Induction Program.
In addition, O'Reilly has helped to lead board improvement planning, district review and support, and helped to introduce and implement the board's School Effectiveness Framework. He has been a Principal's Qualification Program instructor, a volunteer with St. Vincent's Kitchen and a soccer coach in Oshawa.
Certified to teach in Ontario in 1987, O'Reilly holds a BA, B.Ed. and M.Ed.