About Us - Past Presidents

Ross Haley 1999-2000
Another school year is ending, but the STAO Board and Executive members are still very busy on your behalf. The Regional Councillors hope that each and every school uses the STAO Bulletin Board Banner to highlight science and technology information. The Board of Directors meets again in the summer to give the incoming President Greg Finn, some further direction for his year. Have you visited the Website http://www.stao.org/  to add your ideas? Our Professional Development activities include the Science Works workshops for teachers of grades 7, 8 and 9, as well as some implementation sessions for grade 10 teachers. We have been very busy developing a partnership with Texas Instruments to provide workshops to teachers at any time required as well as at the annual STAO 2000 Conference. Our Safety Committee has created through a partnership the Be Safe document, which all elementary schools should have to guide their science programs. Workshops to support this new document are also being planned.

The Curriculum Committee offered an incentive to create teacher materials under the name Curriculum Initiatives. We had much less response than expected. We would like to create and share many exemplary units to assist teachers in developing the best science and technology they can in each class. Watch for further opportunities for you to get reimbursed for contributing in this way.

The Elementary Committee has been very busy promoting new membership. Many teachers took advantage of the membership offer. Implementation in the elementary level is just beginning to become embedded in the daily activities of each classroom. Let us know what you still need to further develop your skills and lessons. With our connections to the Ministry, many teachers will have benefited from the writing, reviewing, field-testing and guidance done by STAO members. Much more work needs to be done to continue effective change in the classrooms, but we will continue to represent you effectively where necessary. This summer there will be opportunities to take part in some Summer Institutes. STAO had a large role in the Secondary workshops but not the Elementary ones. We and other subject associations are concerned that we 

were not consulted by EFTO in planning the summer science and technology sessions for elementary teachers. By now you should have received some information regarding the best P.D. opportunity available in this province STAO 2000 A Millennium Celebration. Excellent keynote speakers, featured speakers, workshops and commercial presentations are already programmed in. We will have off-site opportunities which you will need to respond to much earlier to book a place. I wish to thank the membership for supporting STAO so well in my year as President. I have enjoyed the professional growth opportunity and hope that many of the new teachers will take the volunteer plunge with STAO in the future. I look forward to meeting many of you who will come to the Regal Constellation in Toronto November 2?4, 2000 to celebrate this millennium.

I will continue to contribute to science teachers in my retirement years, which begin shortly.