Like all my colleagues, I am looking forward to the term break.
Have we earned it? Darn right we have! Like all term breaks, there will still be plenty of work to do even when we’re not onsite, – we will be planning and preparing for the next term.
It has been an exciting beginning for our new college with an incredible amount of work undertaken and carried by all concerned. A real ‘leap of faith’ by everyone involved, pleasingly the fruits are already visible.
For me personally, the challenges presented through our approach to teaching at IFS, has meant a shift in how I now teach. Having said that, this approach feels so right. PBL, Project Based Learning, enables a real connection to every day life. Pedagogy based on abstract concepts and theories have always concerned me. I believe that we must endeavour to enable the students and young people of today to connect with their world in a real and meaningful way. I believe that there’s a danger of becoming more and more ‘disconnected’ and isolated from the wider world.
In the Science Modules for Stages 4 and 5 of our final Projects for this term, amongst other tasks, our students had the opportunity to examine in detail important issues that are currently facing our global environment – Pollution and Toxic Waste. We must look with a caring and enquiring eye at the world today, the world that our students are growing up in, and we must seek to find solutions to these issues. PBL enables us to undertake such studies in a genuine and meaningful way.
I would like to take this opportunity to wish our college families and friends a refreshing and safe term break, I sincerely look forward to returning after the break for another term of hard and rewarding work. I must apologise for not being present at Friday afternoon’s end-of-term BBQ. I fly out early Friday morning to New Zealand to join my best friend for his wedding celebrations.
Kind regards,
Rodney
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