Written by This morning I will be making a presentation to my colleagues about my time with Cohort 21. What a great time to sharpen my ‘How do we…?” question and figure out how I am getting there.
At this point my question looks like this:
How do we create a model that departments can use to create cross-subject projects?
Leading into the holidays, I am meeting with administrators and teachers to get feedback. At this point I am comfortable creating cross-department projects with my own teaching subjects; however, I have not yet explored strategies that will help other departments find overlaps in ministry expectations, concepts covered and calendar dates.
I have the huge benefit of working in a school with @lbettencourt, who is an idea factory, and I can’t wait to see how for this project will spread.
Mike
Hi Michael,
Great question! There are so many factors to consider, as you’ve mentioned. At Future Design School, we do a ton of work supporting teachers to develop interdisciplinary units. I’ve found that the two key factors are time to plan and finding a common, real world challenge that will required multiple disciplines to solve. We provide the time to plan during a full day PD workshop where they go about creating a question and then walk them through a highly scaffolded planning process. It’s amazing what can happen when you dedicate a day to something like this and give people the structure to brainstorm and design learning experiences with intention!
Looking forward to seeing what ideas come out of our brainstorming sessions at the next F2F.
Happy Holidays!
Les
Hey Michael, this is an AWESOME question and one that @ljensen is also grappling with over at UCC. You both should totally connect at the next F2F this month and put your heads together in terms of how you are trying to answer this very worthy question!
This is a great topic, Mike! Teachers who engage in collaborative work such as cross-curricular planning and project work tend to lead their own learning. Also, schools that embrace cross-curricular opportunities place equal emphasis on the development of their students and their teachers, which increases learning for all stakeholders. Have you considered how project based learning might help guide some project design? You might consider an over-arching question that can be approached from multiple perspectives. Through some planning and collaboration, each teacher may have some ideas about how they could support student learning within their subject area. Happy to share some specific examples at the face-to-face! See you soon!
An idea factory! Mike, that’s awesome. Thank you for the endorsement, it’s been wonderful working with you. I look forward to hearing more about your project on the drive to Hamilton tomorrow.
Thank you for being willing to take risks and go with an idea.