| |
About Us / Contact Us
What is the Social Studies Project? How can it help Zone 4 educators?
Sharon Lampard is the Central Alberta Regional Consortium's Social Studies (Implementation) Project Coordinator for 2006-2007. As such, she will help to coordinate Social Studies professional development opportunities throughout Zone Four. The focus for 2006-2007 is on grades 5. 8 and 10, as implementation for these grades begins September 2007. Support for Grades K-4 and 7, grades currently implementing the new program, will be ongoing as many professional development opportunities and initiatives are applicable to all grades.
The position of Social Studies Project Coordinator is funded by Alberta Education. Each of the six Professional Development consortia in Alberta has a Social Studies Project Coordinator.
What is planned for 2006-2007?
- Provincial Summer Institute: August 2006 – Grades 5, 8, 10 focus. Approximately 35 Zone IV delegates, representing grades 5, 8, 10 and Curriculum Coordinators, attended this four day Institute.
- Zone Summer Institute: Professional Development at the Zone level for 5, 8, 10
- Zone-wide Learning Opportunities: PD organized by the Central Alberta Regional Consortium (CARC)
- Curriculum Facilitators: Grades 5, 8, and 10 representation will be from each district as well as private and band schools. Delegates will have opportunities to further their expertise regarding the Social Studies Program and its implementation and to share their expertise within their districts and Zone 4.
- District Learning Opportunities: PD organized by each district or other groups (private schools, band schools, Social Studies Council, ATA) and funded through this grant.
- School or Location-based Initiatives: Opportunities for projects to meet school-based professional development needs - information available through Curriculum Coordinators.
- Collaborative Projects: Opportunities for each district and representatives from band and private schools to create projects which will aid in the implementation of the new Social Studies program - information and applications available through Curriculum Coordinators.
- Collaboration with Post-Secondary Institutions: Opportunities for sharing resources created by Education students, as well as collaboration with current Zone 4 educators in graduate programs - information and applications are available through Sharon Lampard, Project Coordinator.
- Zone-wide Collaborative Opportunities: There will be many opportunities for teacher to participate in zone-wide opportunities such as performance assessment in social studies, developing grade level critical challenges, developing grade specific Webquests, searching out grade specific supplemental resources - web and otherwise. Please check this website for updates, or ask your district curriculum coordinator and grade level curriculum facilitators for more information.
Other ideas? Please contact Sharon at slampard@rdpsd.ab.ca
What are some sample professional development topics for 2006-2007?
- Orientation/Understanding of New Program of Studies.; *Target audience- ALL 5, 8 and 10 teachers
- Assessment for Learning in Social Studies
- Inquiry Based Learning - Focus on Inquiry document (Alberta Education)
- On-line Guide to Implementation
- Multiple Perspectives in Social Studies (including pluralism, Francophone and Aboriginal perspectives)
- Use of Technology
- Designing Webquests
- Dinner Speaker Series
- Administrator Sessions
- Geographic Thinking
- Critical Thinking
- Historical Thinking
- Constructivism
- Combined Classes/Differentiated Instruction
- Literature Complements to the New Program of Studies
- Planning for Instruction
- Collaboration with Red Deer and District Museum
- Sharing from RDC Middle Years Students
- Year end sharing session from Local and Regional Grant project participants
What happened in 2005/06?
- Summer professional development opportunities: three days at the zone level for; with activities for k-grade 10 teachers.
- Zone-wide learning opportunities: (PD organized by the Central Alberta Regional Consortium) Included combined grade teaching, inquiry based learning, critical thinking , administrator sessions, assessment, planning for instruction and; several projects which will be shared amongst zone teachers.
- Curriculum facilitators: opportunities were made available; for each district and representatives from private and band schools to further their expertise regarding the Social Studies program and its implementation and to share their expertise within Zone 4; In total, 17 CIFS were trained through CARC, and they provided many PD opportunities throughout our zone.
- District learning opportunities: (PD organized by your district or other groups; (private schools, band schools, Social Studies Council, ATA); and funded through this grant); All districts offered local level PD, supported both at the district and CARC levels.
- School or location-based initiatives: (Opportunities for; projects to meet a particular professional development need- information were available through Curriculum Coordinators)
- Collaborative projects: (Opportunities for each district and representatives from band and private schools existed to create projects which will aid in the implementation of the new Social Studies program.
- Collaboration with Post-Secondary institutions: A cooperative PD session was offered where University of Alberta/Red Deer College students shared the planning and resources they developed as part of their 4th year social studies course with Dr. Amy von Heyking; A graduate student grant was also made available for grad students wishing to undertake projects related to Social Studies implementation.
|
 |
|
