We had an AWESOME professional development (PD) day today!! Granted I couldn't start my classroom until 4.00 so had to stay until 6.00 to get it ready after the holiday cleaning (there was stuff everywhere!) but the day was so interesting and I was so enthused that staying late was perfectly ok.
So what was so great about it?
Well, our school is beginning an accreditation process so we are looking very carefully at curriculum, vertical alignment, horizontal alignment, subject philosophies, aims, learning outcomes etc. Today we spent the whole morning creating a philosophy, aims and learning outcomes for each subject. I was on the Math team and it was fascinating!
Obviously we've done all this in the past but somehow I missed out. Why have I never realized how exciting curriculum development is? I have a new resolution: learn more about this area of education! I already have a list of book titles and am going to immerse myself in this very interesting topic!
(If anyone reading this has any suggestions about reading material, workshops, PD opportunities etc. I would LOVE to know about them!)
In the afternoon we worked in small groups to create unit plans with learning outcomes, subject objectives, assessments and learning skills - it took us an hour to do 1/21 of our part so I'm thinking this will take the rest of the year to complete properly :) But what a GREAT process to be a part of!! I feel totally energized having spent a day looking at all the ways we can improve our learning environment and can't wait until tomorrow to begin (in a small way) in the classroom.
Since it's only going to be a 2-day week we're going to focus on classroom community (what it means to be a good citizen), our new cool Math posters (more of which later!!) housecleaning stuff (homework books etc.) and review. I know I'm going to be missing a few children (who are still on holiday and won't be back until Monday) so we'll keep it simple for the first two days :)
Looking forward to tomorrow and a brand new term!!
Love your blog! I'd like to nominate you for the Liebster BLOG award. It's a great way to drive more followers to your blog and hook up with some great bloggy-friends! Hop on over to my blog to pick up the details!
ReplyDeleteThank you :) Will do!
DeleteI hope that your first day back was a good one! I am a new follower and am happy to have found your blog.
ReplyDeleteSmiles,
Laura
TIPS: Teach, Inspire, and Prepare Students
Nice to meet you too, Laura :) I love your blog name - it's clever! And it's a great blog too (I just visited :) )
DeleteLynn
So glad you had such a great day! Are you familiar with the math resources by John Van De Walle? They are FANTASTIC...best math "course" I ever took used it as the main resource--very constructivist in nature!
ReplyDelete