News

• The Value of Natural Play

  The little boy stood on the downslope of the wetted sands staring out at the vast, oblique ocean. He waited for the next wave to crash the shore, planning his escape from its watery grasp at the last possible moment in a game of cat-and-mouse.

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• Gender and Education – Part II

  In my previous post, I detailed the findings from the latest Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (PCAP) tests written by a broad cross-section of Grade 8 students. The results generally continue an upward trend in girls’ achievement and illustrate the growing achievement gap between girls and boys in reading and writing.

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• Gender and Education – Part I

  On November 28, 2011, the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) released the 2010 results of the Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (PCAP). The PCAP is administered to 13- and 16-year olds and is designed to assess students’ “abilities to use their learning skills to solve real-life situations” (www.cmec.ca). The assessments in science, math and reading incorporate cultural, linguistic and geographic differences that exist within Canada and test the commonly agreed-upon curriculum for all jurisdictions. The most recent round of PCAP tests was administered to 32,000 Grade 8 students from 1,600 schools across the country.

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• Caring to Make a Difference

  In the dusky throes of the quiet room, awash with the pale blue light of the dimming streetlamp, the little boy sat up in bed, and in a hushed, lilting voice whispered, “Mommy, you always take care of me and make me feel better.”

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• Are All Outcomes Created Equal?

  Recently, I took part in a discussion about the provincial math curriculum with some of our teachers. As a department, we discussed restructuring some aspects of the math curriculum to best prepare students in Grade 10 for success in the Diploma level math courses of the IB. The discussion was lively, passionate and filled with a variety of opinions, but at the heart of the debate was whether we would end up sacrificing topics that bring out the beauty and aesthetic appeal of math in favour of emphasising certain key concepts.

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