Ready or not, here they come into a whole new world of learning.
More than 1,000 kindergarten to grade nine students and their teachers across School District 47, along with every school district in the province, are entering uncharted territory wherein lie the mysteries of the new curriculum.
According to Jay Yule, superintendent of schools, teachers are as ready as they can be, and parents have been given as much information as possible about the implementation.
“We have provided a variety of workshops and professional development for teachers and parents regarding the new redesigned curriculum,” said Yule. “Feedback has been positive as new curriculum seems more relevant and embraces student engagement while giving teachers more latitude and flexibility.”
According to the Ministry of Education, the new model is based on a “Know-Do-Understand” concept, in which students will learn or understand what is being called “big ideas.”
They will understand the big idea through essential topics and knowledge, doing competencies that are subject specific learning standards, such as math and English, and apply those standards to what they will be able to do. Knowing content learning and doing curricular competencies will give them understanding of the big ideas, according to the ministry.
Some schools and teachers tested the new curriculum in kindergarten to grade nine classrooms last year, including at Kelly Creek Community School.
“One of the things we looked at was the lifecycle of the salmon,” said Kelly Creek principal Bill Rounis. “Rather than just looking at a picture of a salmon in a book, we head down to the Lang Bay hatchery. We also had salmon eggs in the school and students went out and released the salmon.”
According to Rounis, students wrote stories about salmon and talked about salmon counts in order to learn the science and math components.
“We looked at the environment and what factors would create a good environment for salmon,” said Rounis.
One of the concerns expressed by parents, the reporting of grades, has now been addressed by the ministry, according to Yule.
“The new reporting order allows teachers the opportunity to follow the standard reporting mechanisms or choose new reporting methods that better reflect the new redesigned curriculum,” he said.
Yule said the school district’s board of education dedicated an extra $200,000 above the regular professional development funding to support the implementation of the redesigned curriculum.
Teachers will continue to access those funds to support implementation of the redesigned curriculum and to develop new reporting and assessment processes.
As for the teachers, who are responsible for taking the new curriculum into classrooms, the reaction has been mixed, according to Brooks Secondary School principal Jamie Burt.
“It’s a combination of nervousness and enthusiasm, which is always the case at this time of year because teachers put a lot of pressure on themselves to do everything they can for the kids,” said Burt. “So when there is something new and we haven’t gone through it, I wouldn’t say anxiety, but there’s nervous excitement.”
