Students at W.G. Murdoch School in Crossfield will notice some changes next year as the school prepares to implement their new high school redesign plan in the fall.
“The world is changing,” Principal Garry Bell told parents during a high school redesign information session at the school on May 28, attended by about 15 parents. “When you look at the pace of our society, the jobs of our society and of course the technology, the way we need to educate is changing.”
Starting in September, the Grade 6 to 12 school will implement changes to student timetables, how learning is presented, and will be incorporating some new technologies to help students better plan for their future.
“In order to engage students, I think it’s important for students to see a connection as to how (the learning) applies to the real world,” Bell said.
He said in the past, teachers acted as gatekeepers of knowledge and there was a large focus on individual work.
In contrast, the new high school design focuses more on allowing students freedom to explore their learning, no longer having to rely on only a teacher to obtain knowledge.
He said the new way of teaching incorporates a mix of collaborative and individual work, along with access to the right technology at the right time.
He said teachers will help students develop critical thinking skills as students use online technology to uncover answers and will help students realize, “not everything you read on the internet is true.”
Math teacher Karolina Munoz is already incorporating more experiential and project-based learning into her class and shared some of the things students had accomplished this year.
“Kids in math always ask, ‘When are we going to use this?’ and ‘Why do we need (to know) this?’” she said.
To help illustrate how math has real-world possibilities she tasked students to design, and build a Ferris wheel using math concepts they’d learned in class.
“They had to plan it, design it, do it to scale and figure out how it applied to all the math concepts,” Munoz said.
Another key aspect to the redesign is the incorporation of a 52-minute Personalized Learning and Organization Time (PLOT) period.
These daily periods will be mandatory times where students, under the supervision of teachers, catch up on homework, get together with classmates to work on a project, get help from teachers or study.
The incorporation of these PLOT periods will result in all other periods shifting from 88-minutes to 75-minutes classes.
“Almost an hour-and-a-half is a long time to focus on anything,” Bell said of the 88-minute periods.
He added the shortened periods will still result in the full curriculum being covered because students will be more engaged and focused.
“There will be expectations (in PLOT periods),” Bell said.
“This is very purposeful learning time that will allow students to work on homework, get extra support or wrap up that project.”
In addition to PLOT periods, students and parents can expect to see more technology in the school with programs that allow parents to see their student’s progress and grades online, online portfolios, online lessons and access to assignments and applications to help students plan for the future.
Teacher Dan New said technology is a huge driving force for today’s learner and “we need to embrace that.”
One program he uses with his students is Marhara, an online portfolio students will start creating when they enter the school in Grade 6 and will continue to add to until they graduate.
“We see the switch where students go, ‘Oh, well I better make sure it’s good,’” he said of the work they put into their portfolio.
“There’s a sense of pride.”
A new introduction to the school in September will be MyBluePrint, an online program that maps out the path from high school to post high school, helps students see the steps to get there and share their milestones along the way.
The program updates its database every year to include prerequisites for post-secondary schools across Canada.
“Everything the student does on MyBluePrint is also visible to parents,” New said, however, he added it is also secure from viewers outside Rocky View Schools.
Parents will continue to have access to Power School, an online portal that gives parents and students access to real-time information including attendance, grades and detailed assignment descriptions. Something parent Joan Noonan is grateful for.
“I know as a high school parent with kids that are so technology inclined they are so independent that they don’t want questions from me, so I use PowerSchool,” she said of how she keeps track of what her kids are working on.
The principal also said the May 28 presentation will soon be made available on the school’s website at murdoch.rockyview.ab.ca
