This is a copy of the second in a series of ads that we have placed in our two local newspapers, The Saanich News and the Peninsula News Review. Sorry that it's not very readable here, but you can see that our focus is "Teach Life" with five ads speaking of trades, academics, global citizenship, athletics/health and the arts. Our Board of Education undertook this ad campaign as a way to inform our public about the successes and challenges of public education in the 21st century. The successes include the ways in which we are supporting every child, right from our most vulnerable learners to those who are graduating with every tool that they need to thrive in our complex society. Our challenges include being able to manage our rising costs, not only of things like fuel and materials, but of the innovations required for teaching and learning in today's technology driven world. Our hope is that these ads will generate interest and dialogue in our communities. We want people to inquire as to what is happening in today's schools and to develop levels of awareness that will create advocacy for a strong public education system. I look forward to your thoughts and input.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Ad Campaign
This is a copy of the second in a series of ads that we have placed in our two local newspapers, The Saanich News and the Peninsula News Review. Sorry that it's not very readable here, but you can see that our focus is "Teach Life" with five ads speaking of trades, academics, global citizenship, athletics/health and the arts. Our Board of Education undertook this ad campaign as a way to inform our public about the successes and challenges of public education in the 21st century. The successes include the ways in which we are supporting every child, right from our most vulnerable learners to those who are graduating with every tool that they need to thrive in our complex society. Our challenges include being able to manage our rising costs, not only of things like fuel and materials, but of the innovations required for teaching and learning in today's technology driven world. Our hope is that these ads will generate interest and dialogue in our communities. We want people to inquire as to what is happening in today's schools and to develop levels of awareness that will create advocacy for a strong public education system. I look forward to your thoughts and input.
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6 comments:
Dr. Elder, I sent you an email to the address mentioned in the blog header, but it was returned with the following comment:
Sorry. Your message could not be delivered to:
super (Multiple names were found at the remote site. Please be more specific.)
The email requests additional information regarding the global citizenship reference in this blog post. Is the email address mentioned at the top incorrect? Or is there a second email address?
Alternatively, would you be able to give more information about the global citizenship aspect of the campaign as mentioned in this post?
Thanks for this. I will check the status of the email address. As for our commitment to global citizenship, that reflects our commitment to have our students learn about and take responsibility for community connections and involvement in issues that improve conditions on our planet. One example is our Global Perspectives programs, locally developed courses in our secondary schools. For an example, check this site - http://www.macleans.ca/education/universities/article.jsp?content=20050829_110980_110980. Another example comes from one of our elementary schools, McTavish Elementary (now KELSET, pronounced Kwolsit) whose green team won a $50,000 Quantum Shift North American "make a difference" contest last year. See - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeLxKUuAxNI.
We also have strong social responsibility programs K-12 based on our province's Social Responsibility Performance Standards. Everything we do is designed to support active positive involvement locally and beyond.
Let me know if these URLs don't work for you. I'm not sure if they'll come up as active links or if you cut and paste whether or not they'll work. This is the rookie blogger in me showing.
Keven
I was very very excited about McTavish winning the contest. What an excellent achievement for the school, and we make use of and have spread the word about the recycling program at the Central Saanich municipal hall on the last Saturday of every month.
I am very interested in the Global Perspectives program at Stellys. I will be contacting them about their program as soon as possible. Thank you for taking the time to reply, and from an experienced blogger to one who claims to be a rookie, I'd say you're doing just fine and then some!
Re super@sd63.bc.ca . . . we are back up and receiving email on that account. Sorry for the delay and thanks for the tip.
How do teaches 'teach life' when they face provincial exams which hem them in form exploring the bigger ideas which are not on the test?
Good point. While I understand the need for rigour, and believe that we need standards and accountability, the provincial exams do limit teachers' ability to explore issues in depth and to take students into places of deeper learning, particularly in grade 10. I am equally concerned about the amount of curricular content that needs to be covered in the senior grades. I believe that we could create more moments of true engagement for learners if teachers were expected to cover less ground and to go more deeply into topics of interest and importance. Of course teachers do have a fair amount of discretion in that regard, but that discretion is harder to exercise in subjects with provincial exams.
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