Why pick these two courses to combine?
- senior courses without provincial exams - good place to experiment
- both are common grad credit options, familiar to students yet don’t work for everybody
- both have common goals of increasing literacy and critical thinking through the examination of evidence
- highly complimentary goals: creative & intellectual expression, interpretation of text and context, deep understanding of important human and environmental themes
- bringing in PLOs from different discipline lends itself to project-based learning
- both curriculums are a natural fit for performance-based assessment
- having portions of a course with optional attendance or required tasks that are not synchronized with teacher-time... e.g. PGSS History 12 with 4 days per week in class/1 class voluntary drop-in, DPTS Leadership & Cafeteria w/ flexible attendance mixed with out-of-class committments
- mixing independent/online learning with regular instruction... e.g. CHSS & KRSS Moodle content in Science, PGSS CoolSchool pull-out cohorts, KRSS NLC, CLA DL Math w/ group, individual, and online sessions
- flexibility within the existing funding model (assigning DL funding for students in regular schools, spreading course funding across multiple sites, gaining full funding w/out requiring traditional attendance)... e.g. CLA using same funding model for diff. configurations, PGSS/McBride Lit 12, examples from previous bullet
- combining courses, with or without a collapsed timeline... e.g. Socials 90 (with), Humanities 8 (without)
- Tolkien’s work as a scholar of language and a creator of diverse literary landscapes provides an archetypal for the collection big ideas behind “English” and “Geography” disciplines
- examples from Tolkien’s fiction and non-fiction works are accessible (age-appropriate) for senior students and a lot of fun to read (not to mention film adaptations!)
- students have expressed an interest in bringing Tolkien into their learning; its the idea that something students find interesting should (if it can, if it is worthwhile) take a more central role in what and how they learn
- BA double major in Geography and English (UBC 1994)
- MEd in Curriculum, Instruction, and Leadership (SFU 2004)
- teaching in English/Language Arts: English 8 (x1), English 9 (x2), English 11 (x1), Communications 11 (x1)
- teaching in Geography: Geography 12 (x10)
- teaching in combined Eng/Socials courses: Humanities 8 (x13)
2010-2011 Designed a distributed learning course for Province of BC (Sustainable Resources 12), a combination of online and independent research, field study, and guided practice
2004-2006 TLITE mentor, guiding professional learning & curricular projects for teachers
2003-2005 Member of two committees in examining best practices in digital and blended learning (Tech for Learning Leadership Team, Quality Learning Globally consortium)
- provincially recommended direction for “21st Century Learning” -- fulfills major goals of the BCEd Plan including the five key elements (1. Personalized learning for every student, 2. Quality teaching and learning, 3. Flexibility and choice, 4. High standards, 5. Learning empowered by technology)
- simply offering a double classroom-based combined course could be alternately tedious and intense for students; a blended model allows for creative use of seminar time, independent/off-hours learning, and flexibility to match a student’s identity as a learner
- see the chart (above) -- it can use the best parts of distributed, online, and “flipped” learning to extend rather than replace what happens when a teacher and peers are present face-to-face
- rather than purchasing class sets of books, looking at a reading list with a few copies available in the Learning Commons, some hard, some E-texts, some free online
- ideally, a small set of e-readers or tablets would compliment this direction
- I fashion myself a Tolkien expert with a passion for language and environmental education
- disciplines and courses line up with my background, strengths, and aspirations -- “we teach we who we are”
- a foray into Geog/Language Arts is a great compliment to my history based Social Studies classes
- too often we teach “parts of things” and seldom get around to grand connections and overarching narratives
- I’m easily bored and looking to challenge myself, my students, and my colleagues -- this is unique without being unrealistic and fulfills a need in our school, district, and province
- I’ve been advocating blended learning, cross-curricular project-based learning, performance-based assessment, and close integration of technology one way or another for my entire career -- this would give me a chance to practice them all at the same time
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