Teaching towards the future
What a great day! The majority of the day was spent learning about how our school works and how the curriculum is taught. The first part of the day wasn't as successful as hoped as none of us actually had permissions to access the programs that we are going to need to use, but I saw the potential and the opportunities in terms of both the student information system SIMS (like SISMonitor) and Knowledge Net (like Moodle/Uzoodle). I would have liked to have had more time to play with both, but I am sure that will come.
The rest of the day was spent in department meetings. The Humanities department is well, how do I say it? It...rocks! The two teachers who have been working for the last years have really created a well organized, well developed and well considered curriculum. The resources and organization are set up for us so that we can fully implement the curriculum upon the first days. Yeah, no recreating the wheel from the beginning, but developing and continuing to supplement as necessary.
The best part is that it really is an inquiry based program that works towards differentiating for all students. Our focus this year is to clearly ensure the various levels of differentiation. And amazingly all of it is done with technology as a tool to reach it. Most work is done utilizing the laptops all students and teachers have. We no longer have white boards, but interactive projectors, with which we will be able to manipulate information on our computers from the wall. We can project work from four computers at a time, and compare the work next to each other. The trick will be to see how we can also incorporate writing by hand often enough to ensure that students will be prepared for written exams that they will also have to take.
I am very excited about beginning work, and am ready to have a great year. :-)
The rest of the day was spent in department meetings. The Humanities department is well, how do I say it? It...rocks! The two teachers who have been working for the last years have really created a well organized, well developed and well considered curriculum. The resources and organization are set up for us so that we can fully implement the curriculum upon the first days. Yeah, no recreating the wheel from the beginning, but developing and continuing to supplement as necessary.
The best part is that it really is an inquiry based program that works towards differentiating for all students. Our focus this year is to clearly ensure the various levels of differentiation. And amazingly all of it is done with technology as a tool to reach it. Most work is done utilizing the laptops all students and teachers have. We no longer have white boards, but interactive projectors, with which we will be able to manipulate information on our computers from the wall. We can project work from four computers at a time, and compare the work next to each other. The trick will be to see how we can also incorporate writing by hand often enough to ensure that students will be prepared for written exams that they will also have to take.
I am very excited about beginning work, and am ready to have a great year. :-)
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