I’m at a great day with Ewan McIntosh in Moose Jaw and educators from Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Moose Jaw. At our table discussion about a key challenge facing our district we came up with the following:
Challenge: How do you avoid having teachers with one year of experience 29 times? In other words, how do we shake up our system to think divergently?
Possible Resolutions:
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- all teachers must teach outside of specialty to maintain certification
- every teacher must be a substitute teacher every 7 years
- time to observe other teachers
- time to team-teach with other teachers so that you can replicate in your own classroom
- community-based folk to be in charge for a day – teacher is just assistant. Parents, guy that runs the hardware store – what would they do that day? See what happens. De-instructionalize it.
- One year in seven do a completely different job.
- One day a week, or one week a semester, or for some time period, turn the classroom over to the students. It must be about learning, but they design it, run it, assess the learning. True learner empowerment – beyond learner-centred.
- Take the learning outside the classroom – physically and virtually
1 response so far ↓
1 Morag // Sep 2, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Firstly, I’m jealous of your day at the conference. I wanted to go but couldn’t get away from the start of school stuff. I’m hoping someone from my SD made it.
Secondly, in response to the above, so many of your suggestions are great. I especially like the 6th one, a sabbatical. I think removing yourself from our profession for a year would really give you new insights into yourself and your students.
Cheers!
Morag
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