About Us - Past Presidents
 Maurice
Di Giuseppe 2003-2004
It’s
about 10 am on a Tuesday morning in May, and I’m sitting in a very
large room with several hundred fellow citizens on a five-day round of
jury duty. As I look around, I’m surprised at how many of us have
brought our computers and set up little workstations here and there. Boy,
have times ever changed! Only six years ago when I did this last, there
wasn’t a laptop in sight. These days we can sit almost anywhere
in the world and tap away on a keyboard as though our lives depend on
it. But with this issue of Crucible in development and an anxious editor
on my tail I thought I’d better get at it or miss yet another “drop-dead”
deadline. Nothing gets in the way of STAO business! Such has been my year
as president of STAO. It’s been busy, demanding, hectic, tiring,
challenging, lively, inspiring, but most of all, exciting. Just the way
I like it!
As many of you may know, STAO has a long and respected history as one
of the oldest science teachers’ associations in North America. However,
its age has in no way diminished its organizational strength and vitality.
STAO remains a current and vibrant association that is deeply committed
to advancing the interests of science education in Ontario. Its strength
lies in its people. This year, our hard working committees produced many
useful classroom resources that will assist teachers in program delivery,
and enhance students’ learning experiences. Internally, committee
members have worked tirelessly to implement more effective resource development
protocols and communication systems upgrades. As many of you already know,
a new STAO Website has been launched, and Crucible has been placed online
on a trial basis. If you haven’t already done so, please visit the
site and let us know what you think.
As usual, we continue to provide high¬quality professional development
workshops through ScienceWorks, both at our annual conference and at regional
mini-conferences throughout the province. I hope that you were able to
attend last year’s STAO conference. It was an exemplary showcase
of trends and innovations in science and technology, and best practices
in science and technology education. If you didn’t get a chance
to go in 2003, make sure you mark November 11-13 on your calendar for
STAO 2004. Early plans point to another fantastic conference.
We at STAO are proud of the high quality professional services we provide
for our members. However, STAO is increasingly being called on to advocate
for science and technology education, especially during this period of
curriculum fine-tuning. For example, we recently joined forces with school
boards and other subject associations, including SCCAO and OAJE, to help
in the development of a much-needed elementary Assessment and Evaluation
resource similar to the secondary Policy to Practice document. STAO also
played a key role in revising the provincial science and science/technology
achievement charts – a first step in the Ministry’s Sustaining
Quality Curriculum (SQC) initiative. Our participation in this particular
project helped ensure that important aspects of science and science/technology
education were preserved as the province moved to standardize the form
and content of all provincial achievement charts. Our participation in
these and other such activities requires us to advance a position and/or
take a stand on important curriculum-related issues. Consequently, we
are in the process of formulating two position papers, jointly with SCCAO,
to better articulate our views and assist our representatives in these
important decision-making activities. One of the position papers is on
Literacy in Science and Technology Education, and the other on The Nature
of Science in Science and Technology Education. These two publications
will go a long way in guiding us as we embark on the SQC review of the
science and science/technology curricula beginning in September 2005.
Look for both papers on the STAO and SCCAO Websites in the new year.
A serious issue of critical importance to all of us, including STAO,
involves the unacceptably large number of students who, for reasons of
inadequate literacy skill development, are at risk of failing a science
course, failing the grade 10 literacy test, or dropping out of school
altogether. These students are in desperate need of our assistance well
before failing grades are achieved. To this end, STAO will be participating
in the development of subject specific resources for at-risk students
through the province’s Think Literacy project, and will make the
development of additional resources a thrust in its 2004-2005 programs
and priorities.
At our annual planning meeting last July, we made Outreach the theme
for this year’s activities. As a result, we have reached out to
our members by enhancing and extending our channels of communication,
and by developing position papers that articulate our viewsfellow subject
associations. We have reached out to needy students by our participation
in the development of resources to help at-risk students. And finally,
we are in the process of reaching out to the country as a whole by spearheading
the development of a federation of all provincial science teachers’
associations. All of these activities are ongoing, and we look forward
to their further development in the coming year.
As this school year comes to a close and my tenure as STAO president comes
to an end, I wish you all the best in your personal and professional endeavours,
and hope that you too will some day consider serving as an officer in
this wonderful and very important association. My year as president has
been immensely rewarding, and I look forward to many more years of participation
and collaboration with STAO.
Regards, Maurice
|
