English teacher says these are ‘exciting times for Catholic schools’
The B.C. Catholic
It is now officially mandatory for all B.C. teachers in K-9 classrooms to use the Education Ministry’s new curriculum.
Some Catholic teachers who have already started making the transition say its flexibility makes it easier to bring creative elements and Church teaching into their classrooms.
“These are exciting times for Catholic schools, since we are basically given carte blanche to make learning personal, real, and relevant, yet concept based,” said Sandra Tobin-Careen, an English teacher at St. John Brebeuf Regional Secondary.
Her school started trying out the new curriculum last year, and said it has spawned new ways of teaching the same old lessons.
For example, it gave a math class the flexibility to work on a project that required going to Home Depot, calculating and comparing prices of certain items, and learning real-life math skills.
“The ministry is basically saying: ‘This is what we’d like you to focus on,’ and they’re not telling you how to focus on it.”
The new curriculum also has a focus on social responsibility, allowing teachers to take service projects from after school into the classroom, and to teach children about their faith and about helping others.
“It’s very complementary to the Catholic vision of Catholic schools” because of its holistic approach,” she said. “There is nothing contradictory.”
For teachers like Dante Luciani, the massive redesign presents countless opportunities.
Sneakers squeak on the floor of the gymnasium while weights groan and running shoes pound on the track outside. Luciani, a PE teacher at the Catholic all-boys Vancouver College, supervises them all as his class of 30 students participates in as many as 20 different activities at once during what he calls “power hour.”
“I’ll have them choose a goal that they want to accomplish under the fitness or physical activity umbrella,” and give them about an hour a week to practise.
Students can choose working on their 3-point shots or improving their running endurance. “It was the most engaged I’d seen my students, when I did that.”
Luciani is enthusiastic about initiatives he’s bringing into his classroom as the Ministry of Education’s new curriculum rolls in.
“It’s a step in the right direction. I think change is needed,” Luciani said before school ended for the summer. “I think a lot of people are worried about it, and I think that’s because they might be afraid of change.”
The old curriculum has been criticized as being too prescriptive, and trying to cover too much content without enough depth or student engagement.
The massive redesign gives teachers more flexibility, emphasizing the importance of helping students develop skills such as critical thinking and personal responsibility while allowing teachers to be more creative.
Learning should not be “limited to a textbook,” agreed Allison Wall, a language arts teacher at Archbishop Carney Regional Secondary School.
“Authentic learning occurs in the real world, rather than the segregation of a classroom.”
That does pose some difficulties for teachers.
“The challenge exists to structure learning so as to create these ideal environments. Traditional school day schedules, timetables, and infrastructures need to be re-evaluated and, perhaps, reinvented, which is no easy task.”
Fellow Archbishop Carney teacher Marisa Schille said the new curriculum is also a challenge for students who “are so used to being told what they need to learn.”
The science teacher recently gave students free rein in a project on electricity. They could give a presentation on any topic they wished as long as they could relate it to the lesson: “Electricity is the flow of electrons.”
Schille said they chose to research ultrasounds, 3D printers, and iPhones, but had trouble with time management and often asked how long the presentations had to be or how many slides their PowerPoint presentations should have.
“All I could say was: ‘However long it takes you to show me that you have covered the big idea,'” she said.
“They are so used to having their teachers tell them exactly how to do a project that once it was up to them, they had a hard time with the freedom they were given.”
The new curriculum will become mandatory for Grades 10 through 12 next year.
