Changes Ahead...

Back in June, I applied and successful acquired a new job.

Here was the job posting...

(Click on it to make it larger)

What appealed  to me most about the job was that is was a position that supports my vision of education and it was housed in a building being run by an administrator I highly respect. While I wasn't looking to move schools, it was a job opportunity I couldn't let pass me by.

This new job means that I ...

• have a multi aged classroom ( a possible k-3 class although at the moment I have students in grade one and grade three)
• will continue to support inquiry learning
• have students who are not in the building every day as there is distributed learning piece where children are learning from home 
• have the responsibility to plan appropriate/meaningful learning tasks for the home learning piece
• am available to meet with parents to help support home learning
• keep a focus on STEAM learning and integrate seamlessly
• foster and support wonder and inquiry
• embrace the maker movement as a way of learning
• have my students look for and solve real world problems
• continue to have my students learn with the world
• teach the new BC curriculum and find meaningful ways to go deeper with it 
• have on-going communication with families
• OF COURSE honour my students as who they are and support them as passionate learners

Much of this is not new to me, or my way of teaching but it's in an environment that completely supports what I believe is best for kids.  To no surprise I have some pretty big dreams for my new adventure but first and foremost I am listening and learning from my students.  Within this first week I have learned that I am working with a capable curious bunch of learners.  I have a train expert and a dinosaur expert, and I have a group of students who need to move to learn.  The class magnifying glasses have been a hit for many, and our adventures in coding taught me a lot more about my students and their ability to persevere when things got tough.  I have also learned that I have some compassionate people, willing to use "I messages" to let their classmates know how they are feeling.  It's been a really great first week, and I can't wait to see where our year together takes us.

I am super excited to work with these children who are looking at a new approach to learning. And yes, my class is technically a k-3 class, but in my mind my class is a group of learners, who together will create, inspire, and support one another on each of their personal learning journals. Yes, there is curriculum that needs to be embedded into our learning, but student centered learning will be what we focus on most.

The program is available to most  students in the province, but the reality is you need to be face to face  in the classroom at least 3 days a week.  If you're curious to learn more about this new school be sure to check out the website at sailacademy.ca.  Exciting times are upon us.