Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Blogging space for #SAVMP

I've made a comittment to actually blog on a regular basis this upcoming school year.
This has been pushed along by a project I'm part of (The School Administrator virtual mentor program)
follow along at hastag #savmp
being organized by George Couros @gcouros
right now I'm thinking about “Why do I lead?”, or “Why I am an educator?”
post coming soon....

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

What is Essential? Essential learning unravelled!

Hi and welcome to my first post. I've been lurking long enough and its time to not just sip, but chug the 'electric koolaid'. My intention(s) for this blog is to provide a space for us to share our collective, evolving understandings, knowing that our collective knowledge will always be richer and deeper than that of a few.
Well here goes.... glug,glug, glug, ahhh.... Soarin' strawberry lemonade!

For some time now my colleagues and I have been discussing the concept of Essential learning. It's time to take the discussion to a wider audience.



By Essential Learning, I mean the higher purpose or the ‘thing’ we are trying to help our students learn and understand, or do/act, by teaching the specific outcomes that we do in our classrooms. If we were thinking about grade 7 students, an Essential learning would be something that students would have, way after the grade 7 experience is completed. Ie. it would not be a specific knowledge fact from grade 7 but something that is enduring, something larger, something more significant.


For more background information see this brief presentation I recently did


Could you please comment what you think are 4 or 5 possible Essential learning(s) (or Big ideas) in your area of expertise, or any of the areas of curriculum you have an opinion about.

Aboriginal perspectives, career development, diversity and equity, literacy with ICT, multiculturalism, and sustainability are possible areas to comment about, but I’m also interested in your thoughts about other subject areas as well. I know our backgrounds vary significantly, but are rich in depth that also include core subjects like Math, English Language Arts, Social studies, Science, The Arts and Physical/Health Education. .

The number of EL’s I am asking for is arbitrary. If there are more than 5 in an area of interest give me that, or if you just have one or two ideas for an interest area that you would like to add, do that. Also if there is 1 overarching idea that your other EL’s are subsidiary too let me know what that one thing is (if that is even possible).

Thanks for beginning this journey together.