CBE 64 Days of Learning

The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) are piloting are project to encourage a diverse group of learner voices to respond to the question "What did you learn today?". The website can be found at
http://cbe182.weebly.com
I was invited to contribute and my 250 word response is attached below-

Bio: Jane Garrard (www.loxton2calgary.blogspot.com) teaches at Loxton High School, South Australia; recipient of $20,000 T&D Lifetime Achievement Award.

What did you learn today?

As an Aussie educator who had the opportunity to work intensively with the CBE and on observation in several schools throughout our 6 day visit I learned so much my head was spinning! The blog will give a detailed version.

The Learning Centre and ‘The Class’ were well established, caring places that gave students who needed extra support a place to call home. They were well resourced and ‘The Learning Strategies’ course is something we would like to implement. Wobbly stools and Living Walls were new, as was the concept of Learning Commons.

I thought our Technology implementation and resourcing was a ‘mish mash’ and difficult to maintain; no-one appears to have the perfect solution! The visibility and usage of student mobile phones was a contrast to home, where currently at Loxton there is a ‘No Mobile Phone’ policy in place. How long will we last?!

The tutorial system, before lessons officially started, was a progressive idea giving students responsibility for their follow up learning.

I would love to see our weekly staff meetings changed to the monthly Canadian style and the staff commitment to extra-curricular activities was impressive.

Other positive ideas were: the extensive use of whiteboard walls / desktops for student collaboration, use of a ‘Scantron’ to mark quizzes, food carts selling student made goods, the notion of ‘Wellness’ being incorporated across the curriculum and the various sporting logos that instil pride in school teams. The Loxton Leopards may soon be in existence!

Thanks for the camaraderie!