An Exciting Time to Disrupt Education in BC
Blog Question: In your present educational/teaching circumstances, what level of problem is most urgent to solve and why? What type of team would you need in order to solve it? Who would you place on the team, and who would lead it?
The greatest challenge at this time is the impending full implementation of the new curriculum for grades K-9. The new curriculum brings about philosophical and pedagogical shifts that will impact how we deliver education to our students. There is a major shift towards personalized learning and the preparation of students for the demands of the world they are facing through the inclusion of the core competencies. The question every school, administrator and teacher is going to face is - how do we take this document and bring it to reality in the classroom?
At TLA Direct, our face-to-face division, we have been gearing our programs towards they changes under the leadership of our former principal. Three years ago, we started a project-based learning program that focused on the process from beginning to end of a project; the opportunity for student's to choose what they were going to learn, how they were going to learn it, and how they would demonstrate their work; collaboration through group projects. It is with this foresight, that we were able to work through and refine the delivery of a PBL program.
It is my hope that we can take what we have learned through this experience, and build in elements of the PBL process into our blended learning program. How the program takes shape will have to include the input of our whole team of teachers and administrators, as well as families and students. In my role, I am committed to providing a voice to the teachers and students who have ushered in this approach to relative success in our school community.
In the DL world, we have to show the ministry concrete evidence of how student learning and progress is being tracked and aligned to the core and curricular competencies. The document we design has to be capture and represent student learning, but it also has to be usable to our teachers/parents to ensure it becomes a living document. The template for this document needs to be developed and refined by our teachers, and not an administrator who is detached from the day-to-day grind.
TLA will also be collaborating with other independent DL schools to dialogue and come to some consensus as to how we will respond to the curriculum changes. I give credit to the ministry for emphasizing the sharing of stories and experiences as schools make sense of the new curriculum. Our schools will be meeting on a regular basis in the coming months to approach the changes collectivtely and continue to share ideas.
As for our blended learning program, our teachers will have to be trained in the PBL approach and familiarized with the new curriculum. This will also include the overhaul of course overviews and the nature of the learning activities. It is important that our teachers start planning for these changes, as of...yesterday.
These changes will require a full team approach under the leadership of school administration. Some may view this as an inconvenience, but I am looking at it as an opportunity to disrupt education. Our schools are doing a lot of things the right way already, and in the midst of this whirlwind I hope to be able to affirm and not lose sight of these.
