I have been given two staff meetings to get the staff enthused about looking again at the curriculum, making it more relevant, exciting and effective for learners through creative cross curricular links. I made a pretty good start last week, especially as half of the meeting was hijacked by looking at maths monitoring. I got the staff involved in 2 exercises to get them thinking about what made learning most effective - an individual one, then a small group sorting, ordering and discussion one - both of which got people quite enlivened along the lines I had hoped.
This week I am leading the second meeting. Teachers are very tired and I need to make the meeting not too heavy or demanding - but useful. Ideas for methods of engaging them welcome!
Hello Kate, I have just found this posting as it was not where the others are, so I am sorry about the delay in replying. If you have not done the second meeting yet here are a couple of ideas you may be interested in...
ReplyDeleteAs you are trying to promote enthusiasm and creativity you could ask the staff individually or in teams to make a wish list of what they would like to see in the curriculum in terms of projects, appoaches, themes, resources etc.
I still believe that one of the best ways to plan cross curricular is massive sheets of paper to work around a theme. This may be how some staff wish to take it forward others may prefer pen to paper of PCs. The key is to allow staff to follow their preferred methods on a timescale and to share ideas and thoughts with colleagues. I hope this provides some help.