Generally, there isn't a lot of good publicity for North American schools. Certainly, when I was at the ASCD conference in June, I wasn't impressed with some of the narrow-minded perspectives I heard. However, several months ago, I came across an article on charter schools in Alberta. Charter schools are government schools that offer innovative schooling with a unique focus, such as art, science, single sex or gifted learners. My ears pricked up when I heard that there was a charter school in Calgary that was open exclusively for gifted learners, which happens to be my specialisation for my Masters degree. After reading the article, I did a little more research and discovered Westmount Charter School. I was particularly excited to find that they offer an annual conference (which is part of the deal with charter schools - they learn about and try educational innovations and then share their learning with other teachers). So, today I'm off to check out the school. Today's pre-conference session involves classroom observations and chats to the school's teachers and adminstrators. The actual conference is on tomorrow (after the obligatory wine, cheese and mingle evening tonight, of course) offers sessions for teachers, adminstrators, parents and the gifted learners themselves. I'm hoping that I'll be able to find a glimmer of hope in the North American schooling system, wish me luck!
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