A New School and New Goals

Posted on February 7, 2009
Filed under Digital Portfolio, Goals & Resolutions and tagged coburgsenior, goals, portfolio

This year I started at Coburg Senior High School as a History and Politics Teacher, a far cry from Hawkesdale P12 College in South West Victoria where I spent the last three years teaching Chinese. Hawkesdale is a very small predominantly Anglo-Saxon farming community. There are around 240 students at the school from Prep to 12 and I taught all year levels. At Coburg, there are about 220 kids, but only from Years 10-12. I’m not teaching any Chinese, and the students come from an amazing range of ethnic backgrounds. Coburg Senior has been open for two years and is really trying to make a different approach to learning work. Some great things about Coburg:

open plan learning spaces
each learning space has a data projector installed – no need to borrow one
there are several road cases of Mac laptops for classes to use
students are encouraged to purchase their own MacBook
Almost NOTHING is blocked – we can use Youtube easily, Facebook, ning networks etc. If something does appear to be blocked (there was a problem with hotmail the other day) it won’t stay that way for long.
There is freedom and encouragement for staff to take risks all the time
Staff are encouraged to podcast their lessons for the students
There is a theatrette where we can show kids movies, present their work etc
75 minute class which I love!
no bells
no uniforms

The staff and students are also highly respectful of each other and the students love that they are treated like adults. The Year 10s, who are new this year, might take a little while to settle in to how things are done but they are a good bunch and will ‘get it’ soon enough.

Both staff and students are expected to keep a digital portfolio of the development of their learning. I intend to use this blog as a basis for that so hopefully I can get some external thoughts and comments helping me along my way.

I haven’t really thought about it enough to set them in stone, but my goals for this year are (apart from getting my kids through their VCE courses which are brand new to me too!):

to ensure that tasks I set for students encourage them to really think deeply.
to ensure that the way I assess students is really giving them the opportunity to show what they know to the best of their abilities.
to make sure that students truly are given choice in my classes, which is so easy to say, but the reality of it does not always shape up.
to encourage my students to really self-direct their learning and take risks.

The subjects I’m teaching are:

Year 10 Race Around The World
Year 11 Twentieth Century History
Year 12 Revolutions History
Year 12 International Studies

So, assessment, thinking, choice, independent learning and self-directed learning are what I want to make sure I’ve got sorted. Of course I have many other technology realted goals such as learning how to use GarageBand properly as well as a whole host of other Mac programs, but I’ll manage them fine.

If you know any classes doing the same or similar things I would really like to get in touch with them. Please pass on my details!

What are your teaching and learning goals for this year? How will you go about achieving them? Advice, suggestions and resources to help me with mine are very welcome

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2 Responses to “A New School and New Goals”

Tony Searl on February 7th, 2009 10:15 pm

Hi Jess
An exciting new start.
We might have to see if our seniors can collaborate on something historical!

The dreaded HSC though really limits time to do what I’d love to teach them.

I’m a history boffin too and your goals sound ace. “Race Around the World” covers what exactly? Sounds like it too could be an interesting course an I have 2 year 10 classes this year.
regards
Tony
Anne Mirtschin on February 15th, 2009 4:31 am

Hey Jess, what a big change in teaching environments. I have loved teaching with you at Hawkesdale P12 College and hope that we can continue the partnership that used to enjoy, working face to face in the same school, into the virtual environment. The connections we made and experiences that we shared were nothing short of amazing at times, especially for me. I wish you all the best at your new school and am sure that you will enjoy the new challenges.