My colleague Daphnée Dion-Viens recently told us that a hundred elementary schools would participate in a pilot project that will allow daycare educators to lend a hand to teachers in class.
On this subject, I discussed with Carine Dubé, director of the Château-d’Eau school. Three years ago, she decided to form working dyads with her preschool teachers and educators from her daycare service.
A precursor project
At the end of the line, this dynamic director is on fire when she talks about her initiative: “We have been implementing this project in my school since 2019 and the impacts are positive on all fronts.”
The project developed over the years aims first and foremost to promote the development of student autonomy, from the start of the school year, in order to make them more willing to learn. Greater teacher confidence in their skills and increased retention of daycare staff are also objectives pursued by the project.
The impacts
Since its establishment, the school team has been able to observe many positive impacts:
Team working
The benefits are so positive that the project has grown over the years. After preschool, it was the turn of the 1st year classes (year 2), then that of the 2nd year classes (year 3). In anticipation of the next school year, Ms. Dubé will extend the service to 3rd grade students… and if the funding from the Ministry of Education is there, to the entire school.
However, this success is no accident. It was necessary to clearly define the roles of each: teachers, educators, TES and remedial teachers. According to the director, “for it to work, we have to work together. We must believe in learning, in pedagogy and in our staff. You have to use everyone’s strengths.”
In my opinion, because of her humility, she “forgot” an essential ingredient for success: the presence of a pedagogical leader to ensure team cohesion and progress.
