Full STEAM ahead in 2017!

With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season behind us, now was a good time for us to stop and reflect on our TLLP project. The fall offered us an opportunity to build a comfort level with the tools. Students were also engaged in building capacity individually and in small groups. So this now puts us at a new stage in our learning- to build capacity in our school community. 

Some important questions we asked ourselves:

• How much information should we share with our colleagues at one time? Will they feel overwhelmed?
• How do we best get them involved? How many people should we approach next?
• How do we transfer "gradual release of responsibility" model?
• How do we make it relevant to their teacher roles and curriculum?

We have established a plan to bring 3 colleagues in for the afternoon to observe the students engaging in technology and engineering challenges. They would then create a task in french or connected to the arts to try in their classrooms. This would be followed up with a meeting to discuss what's happened, next steps, and link to curriculum. 

In March, our school Genius Centre, run by students, will be inviting all teachers in the school to participate and explore available tech tools. Students will be responsible for running the learning centres, while the 3 lead teachers will be supporting teachers in answering questions about curriculum and implementation challenges or ideas.

We are very excited to move to this next stage in our journey. We look forward to seeing all the creativity and capacity building within our school community.

A. Porcari, A. Eaton, P, Roche