Anold Mwanri 1

Lifes too short for bad government

My name is Anold and I want to be your Student Trustee. Included in this document is my complete campaign platform for the 2013 2014 Super Council election. If you have any questions, comments or concerns about my platform or my campaign please feel free to contact me on Facebook or directly at anold.mwanri@gmail.com. Together we can make the TDSB a better place for students, staff and parents. Thank You,

Anold Mwanri

The Issues
1. 2. 3. 4. Changes to regulations regarding cafeteria food. Underuse of technology in schools. Super Council reach (and lack thereof). Student Feedback on teachers.

Anold Mwanri 2

Food in cafeterias
Background Issues My vision The Ontario government introduced guidelines that restrict the food that can be sold in high school cafeterias. Deep fried foods are no longer available in schools across Ontario. 80% of food sold in school cafeterias must be healthy. The TDSB loses $600,000 in revenue. 32 School cafeterias losing money or barely breaking even have been closed in the TDSB. Money is not an issue but access to cafeterias for all students is important especially during the winter months when it is harder for students to go off site for lunch. I want to protect the closing of any more cafeterias in our school board. My proposal is that we follow the legislative intent of the bill. It was introduced in hope that cafeterias would become revitalised with healthier food choices. I suggest that we find foods that are healthy and appealing to students. Priced effectively it would draw students back into cafeterias increasing revenues. More importantly students will go off site less to locations that have less healthy options. Specific examples of foods that can appeal to students and be easily approved as healthy salads, sandwiches, dairy products especially milk and yogurt, dark chocolate, whole grain pasta, wraps. We can easily work together to find a compromise that leaves everybody with a smile on their face. As your Student Trustee I will work hard to provide ideas that make our cafeterias more interesting for students and more profitable for governments. This can become a Win Win situation.

My Solution

Conclusion

Underuse of technology
Background Issues The TDSB has invested millions into hardware and software for students and staff to use in Schools. Students and staff are not aware about many of tools and resources available to them. Issue1: My school has 5 smart boards (Interactive white boards). Except for a few times a year, all they do is collect dust. Very few teachers know how to use them and therefore dont want to use them. Issue2: The TDSB has invested a serious amount of money developing Academic Workspace 3.0 (AW) which has many features. Students can access their home drive as well as pickup and drop off folders at home or anywhere with an internet connection for that matter. Few students know that AW exists. The TDSB also countless resources and tools for online research available freely to students with passwords obtained in school libraries. Students make little use of these resources. I want our teachers to know how to better use the equipment available to them. I want students to know how to better use the resources available to them

My vision

Anold Mwanri 3 My Solution My proposal is that we teach students and staff about the technology that the TDSB has invested in for their benefit. Professional development (PD) days provide a great opportunity for staff to learn about how to more effectively use the electronic tools especially smart boards. Problem: The board is looking to cut costs by limiting the amount of outside speakers available during PD Days. Solution: Teachers could teach each other. Some teachers are extremely knowledgeable about using electronic tools in classes and could share their knowledge with colleagues in their school as well as others in different schools. Issue2: Students could be taught about AW and other resources. In other school boards all students must attend a 30 minute orientation at the beginning of the school year where they are taught about all the resources and tools provided to them by their board both online and in the library. Conclusion The cost of both these solutions would be relatively low. All this requires is an investment of time. Thirty minutes on the part of students. One PD day on the part of teachers.

Super Council Reach

Background Issues Super council is the voice of TDSB Students. It is a very limited voice. The same faces show up to all the super council meetings. Not all students can attend super council meetings. Meetings deal mostly with hypothetical questions and issues that have been are not current issues. I want more ideas and more student awareness for super council. We should also move away from discussing the same topics i.e. (Cell phones/ technology in class) and talk about current TDSB issues. During the fiscal crisis many of our programs, cafeterias and teachers are being considered as items to be cut in order to balance the TDSB budget. I hope that some student opinions will factor into the decisions made by trustees. My proposal is that we update our (Super Council) Face book and Twitter pages more often. Make our minutes available to the entire public not just those who attend super council meetings. Ask the students about matters coming before the board of trustees that. Ask for opinions online in order to reach students who cannot attend super council meetings. Super council is a great organization filled with great students. However, we often echo each others ideas and therefore we require more diversity. We represent 250,000 students but we rarely interact and get feedback from more than a couple hundred.

My vision

My Solution

Conclusion

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Student Feedback on Educators

Background Issues Teachers are evaluated by principals once every five years. Five years is a long time. Evaluations are take place in one period only. Teachers have ample opportunity to prepare for evaluation. If youre a student who has been in class during a teacher evaluation you know that what happens during in evaluation is more coordinated than what happens during other days of the year. My hope is that a system will be created that allows students to confidentially provide feedback on their teachers. In a recent survey 87% of students, 86% of parents and 63% of teachers said they would be in favour of creating a system to provide feedback about teachers from students. Read more at http://studentsurvey.ca/osta_media/presentations/2012_results_release.pdf Students answer open ended questions designed to determine areas where teachers can improve in order to become better educators. Problem: Student Bias Solution: Focus on constructive criticism only. Constructive Criticism would be criticism that focuses on how the teacher can improve. There is nothing to lose from seeing student responses. If you get a non constructive answer, throw the answer out. If you get a constructive answer, learn from it. I am not suggesting that we rate our teachers on a scale of a 1 to 5; you can already do that online. I am suggesting that students play an active role in making our education system better by making our teachers better.

My vision

My Solution

Conclusion