Friday, June 22, 2012

Summer, now with sunshine!

After a rather cold and dreary West Coast spring, Summer arrived with a teaser of sunshine. More rain in the forecast. Such is life in the temperate rain forest. I like the rain, actually. I love the soft rains we get and the smell of the wet city when it hasn't rained for awhile. I like that the colours around my neighbourhood intensify in the rain, and that the hustle and bustle of the city gets muted and blurry.

Some good news for the District Network - we are well represented in the PSA (EEPSA). Kerri and I have both joined the PSA Executive (check your email if you don't know what I mean). There will probably be another General Meeting of the PSA in the fall, so add that to your calendar so that you can check it out.

I think a lot of us are in limbo, waiting to see what the political climate delivers, and yet, we don't want our projects held hostage by politics. Is your project EXTRA-CURRICULAR? Well, are there learning outcomes to your project? Do you assess your students using your projects? Could you?

Still not sure? There is a Curriculum Framework (on the Ministry's own web page, as well as many other places). It's called "Environmental Learning and Experience", and it contains Curriculum Maps that easily enable you to make connections between your teaching and the PLOs.

Job Action does eliminate "clubs" outside of class-time, but that doesn't mean we can't find a new way (a better way?) to connect your students to the natural world.

Survey Question: Even though we ALL teach about "the environment" in one way or a million others, the concept of "environmental education" seems to exclude a lot of educators. How would you "brand" teaching about the environment as part of your whole curriculum? Our primary teachers are working on "Nature-Based Play"... thoughts?

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