For this section of the assignment, I have chosen to interview one of our Resource

Teachers who is a part of the Education Support Services Team Meeting (ESS). After our
conversation and later reflecting on the meeting minutes an ESS meeting is designed to help
support both teachers, educational assistants, and students by supporting the diverse needs of
students in the building. Within an ESS meeting, discussion revolve around positive student
behaviour/teacher success (things to celebrate), how to create and foster a positive learning and
working environment, upcoming/recent parent meetings, students who are on or being
considered for a plan (Behaviour Plan, Personalized Learning Plan, Individualized Learning
Plan, etc.), behaviour logs, provincial assessments, and overall updates or concerns about
individual students. From this list that I have compiled it is clear that within an ESS meeting
there is a lot of information to cover. Understandably, it is essential to keep this type of meeting
efficient and on task in order to be as productive as possible. One thing I noticed in the notes
section of our ESS meeting minutes is that a member of the team is responsible for timing
discussion topics (5-minutes maximum). This is to ensure each discussion is sufficient and if
more discussion is needed around a particular topic, then a sub-committee will be formed. It is
clear that being concise and straightforward is very important in an ESS meeting in order to
make the most of the limited time together each week.

Within these meeting minutes data was discussed in regard to the behaviour logs. This is
valuable data that is used at an ESS meeting to discuss students who have been flagged of having
a minimum of three separate behaviour incidences. The ESS team then considers if there has
been a change for this student or if they need to have a conversation with them regarding their
recent behaviours. Data was then mentioned in regard to the upcoming Provincial Assessments,
which will not act as current data to evaluate, but rather will be analyzed in the future. Data was
also used to pull student attendance. This was mentioned about one student in particular and how
attendance has been an issue for them. The final major aspect where data was mentioned was
with individual student behaviour plans. Based on personal experience our guidance counsellor
comes every Monday afternoon to retrieve the previous week’s data tracking forms and this is
then discussed for each student who is on a behaviour tracking form at the meeting. It is an
opportunity to discuss what is working and if changes need to be made to Behaviour Plans to
allow the student to be more successful.
 When reflecting on the ESS meeting, there was problem-solving around both students
and school-wide issues. For example, there was a problem of educational assistants using their
cellphones when working with students in the classroom, and it was noted that this would be
discussed at the staff meeting (EA’s were requested to stay afterschool for it). Another school-
wide issue was around tightening/reviewing the Policy 250 expectations, and this too would be
reviewed to all staff at the upcoming staff meeting that evening. In regard to problem-solving
around students, this was shown when three specific classrooms in the middle school were
dealing with bullying problems: name calling, body movements, cafeteria culture, and exclusion.
This was being dealt with by admin going into each of the classes during homeroom to discuss
the behaviours they were seeing and that they were being reported. Finally, within the specific
student section, there was problem-solving around students such as meeting with homeroom
teachers, setting up parent meetings, and requesting needs assessments.

An ESS meeting supports the school staff by addressing issues that are happening school-
wide (such as phone usage and reviewing policy 250) in order to foster a positive working
environment. It also helps the staff by focusing on student behaviour around the building
including all K-8 students. This is a large school to manage, and the goal of the ESS team is to
problem-solve and stay on top of student behaviour by providing strategies and intervention
plans to best support students’ success. When students are given the tools and support needed to
succeed it in turn supports the teachers.

When reflecting on this meeting there were a number of beneficial components. It is clear
all members were responsible for an equal number of actions and follow up tasks; by dividing
the work, students/teacher’s requests are being met more quickly. The meeting was succinct as
they were able to discuss 50+ students, behaviour logs, staff issues, provincial assessments,
character strong ambassadors, new/exiting students, the anti-bullying policy, etc. There was also
problem-solving and data reflection discussed at the meeting. Where I feel the meeting could be
improved is in finding a way to avoid having a 3+ hour meeting weekly plus an additional 1–2-
hour meeting as a follow up on the initial meeting. This is difficult in a school this size to have
all ESS members tied up at the same time. This can be challenging when requesting for support
causing an ESS member to be pulled out of their meeting. It also takes away significant time ESS
members could be co-teaching and collaborating with staff or working one-on-one with students.
As I am learning through course readings, ESS members who are at two different schools or are
not a full 1.0 may benefit from not always attending ESS meetings and could use their limited
time to pull students or work with staff members, and this could be one way to improve our ESS
meetings.