Coming off of PD last weekend, it was put on by our school, and honestly probably the best our school has put on. The main take away for me is that we always need to be practicing to get better for our kids.
But, I guess, practice can get boring. I’ve been doing iTime for a year or so now, before when I was a classroom teacher I did it every week. For me, I guess it’s more routine than practice now, so I don’t really see teaching life without it. I was talking to a colleague about iTime being a good practice session for the Exhibition. Students have a chance to practice being independent, setting their own assessment criteria, guiding their own learning, and following a passion. However my colleague was worried about time, more specifically how long and boring the “practice time” could be.
It’s great to see different perspectives, we had a good conversation and I think we both learned a lot. The plus side for me is that with that conversation and the PD, over half my grade six team is now keen to do iTime.
Joe Teft 