Our Work
Since 2010, we have created a unique collaborative model amongst BC K-12 teachers who are trying to get the most out our students and our own professional development. Our approach to teaching and guiding focus centres on creating thinking classrooms that provide authentic connections between curriculum, identity, and place, primarily in the context of Social Studies.
Professional Development Model
We believe that professional development should, as often as possible, involve something to do with fire, good food, strong conversation, and an inspiring location. There should be as much laughter as learning taking place, and while serious things should be discussed, no one is allowed to take themselves too seriously. Essentially, we have developed our Code for Pro-D along the lines of the Order of Good Cheer, the attempt by early French-Canadian settlers to survive the winter and "land-disease" through mutual contributions to the mind and body of companions.
For others looking to replicate, imitate, or interrogate this model, start with the idea of authorship. Aim to be "people who are peceived as 'authoring' their own words, their own actions, their own lives, rather than playing a scripted role at great remove from their own hearts." (Parker Palmer, The Heart of a Teacher, https://biochem.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/labs/attie/publications/Heart_of_a_Teacher.pdf). Find a group of educators that you can get along with -- you don't have to be the same or think the same but you need to be able to laugh and work together. Find areas of common interest that might produce some inquiry -- a learning problem, an educational goal, a body of work that needs renewal. The more vaguely ambitious, the better. Don't shy away from subversive goals -- most educational problems are solved in the same cliched manner or a fabricated belief in "disruption" -- what is needed is some real creativity and divergent thinking. Look to the places and spaces around you, to traditional practices and aesthetics, for the wells from which you will draw. Find times and places to meet that allow you to really breathe, and are themselves a source of divergence, e.g. reclaiming professional development days. Build in time to eat, drink, play games, build a fire, and so on. These scenarios will allow the conversation to guide the agenda rather than the other way around. It follows, then that you shouldn't overplan the sessions; in tact, allow some confusion about who is in charge and what you are supposed to be doing.
For others looking to replicate, imitate, or interrogate this model, start with the idea of authorship. Aim to be "people who are peceived as 'authoring' their own words, their own actions, their own lives, rather than playing a scripted role at great remove from their own hearts." (Parker Palmer, The Heart of a Teacher, https://biochem.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/labs/attie/publications/Heart_of_a_Teacher.pdf). Find a group of educators that you can get along with -- you don't have to be the same or think the same but you need to be able to laugh and work together. Find areas of common interest that might produce some inquiry -- a learning problem, an educational goal, a body of work that needs renewal. The more vaguely ambitious, the better. Don't shy away from subversive goals -- most educational problems are solved in the same cliched manner or a fabricated belief in "disruption" -- what is needed is some real creativity and divergent thinking. Look to the places and spaces around you, to traditional practices and aesthetics, for the wells from which you will draw. Find times and places to meet that allow you to really breathe, and are themselves a source of divergence, e.g. reclaiming professional development days. Build in time to eat, drink, play games, build a fire, and so on. These scenarios will allow the conversation to guide the agenda rather than the other way around. It follows, then that you shouldn't overplan the sessions; in tact, allow some confusion about who is in charge and what you are supposed to be doing.
Thinking It Through: A Social Studies Sourcebook
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This Sourcebook, our latest (and only) publication, will help students develop their critical thinking skills as they explore selected topics from the revised BC Social Studies 9 Curriculum.
Thinking it Through is organized according to CONTENT STANDARDS, each with four case studies in critical thinking: Revolution and Change, Imperialism and Colonialism, Migration and Shifting Population, Nationalism and Nation-Building, Regional and Global Conflict, Injustices and Rights, Land and People. We have selected primary and secondary sources, all kinds of questions, and suggested extension activities for 28 topics or case studies. Each one is a sandbox for teachers and students to explore CURRICULAR COMPETENCIES and apply historical (and geographic) thinking concepts. Students will push their thinking about what they can learn from evidence, and realize how the account changes depending on the evidence they use. Finally, by developing the ability to think through historical, social, or geographic evidence, students will learn how BIG IDEAS have shaped the past and the present. This resource began as a project of the Pacific Slope Consortium and has been published by Pearson Education Canada. Product link here. |
The TTSP Project:
A collaborative model for creative and grounded classrooms
This multi-year project by members of the Pacific Slope Consortium is an experimentation in collaboration. What happens when educators commit to some core beliefs about student learning and then support each other in the authoring of authentic projects and pursuits for BC K-12 Social Studies students grounded in creating (Tinker), critical thinking (Thinker), exploration of self through narrative (Storyteller), and embedding Place in Education (PIE)?
We have centred our collaborative model around beliefs about our students and how we can impact BC classrooms, contribute to the long-term improvement of teacher practice, and ensure the inclusion and success of all students in BC.
We have centred our collaborative model around beliefs about our students and how we can impact BC classrooms, contribute to the long-term improvement of teacher practice, and ensure the inclusion and success of all students in BC.
The problem
In the early 2010s, it became apparent to teachers in BC that the tectonic plates of curriculum were about to shift, and that the future educational landscape would look different than it had in the past. For Social Studies teachers, the changes that have occurred since have been met with excitement, doubt, frustration, relief, or indifference, depending on one's point of view. What was clear was that the competency-based BC Education Plan would be a framework, not a complete plan, and that exemplars would have to come from teachers themselves, as would the self-organization required to work together. We needed concrete examples of competency-referenced student learning activities and values-based pedagogy to provide the lead for teachers who were looking for more certainty in the curriculum implementation process. We also needed high-functioning collaborative structures that would create some energy for Social Studies teachers and students in BC. So, when the plates started shifting, we got busy.
TTSP beliefs
- Tinker: All students can think and act critically and creatively; participating in embodied learning and using hands-on sources and artifacts provides multiple access points for students to do so, and suggests the way for broader community connections and applications of learning.
- Thinker: All students are capable of using the six historical and geographic thinking concepts to make sense of their worlds and express their understanding; when done together this forms the basis of learning communities rooted in thinking.
- Storyteller: All students have powerful stories to tell; this is developed through techniques such as heritage inquiry, and helps bring the First Peoples Principles of Learning from the abstract to the day-to-day.
- PIE: All learning is influenced strongly by context and deep connections to place, and is made more authentic when teachers and students work intentionally and experientially with notions of Place in Education.
The Plot to bring TTSP into our classrooms, and yours.
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Our Pacific Slope Consortium members have contributed to the TTSP project by identifying and practicing pedagogical beliefs that circle around the ideas of tinkering, thinking, storytelling, and place in education. This project has been focused on BC K-12 Social Studies contexts, leaning mostly into the secondary years but with some dynamic options for the earlier years. Our team, alongside everything else they do for students, have contributed to the TTSP project by creating manipulative sets, publishing a book of critical thinking case studies, conducting heritage-based storytelling cycles with students, examining place through songwriting and simulations, and coordinating experiential symposiums on the topic of place in education. Their impact on students of their guiding focus has been recognized by local innovation grants, provincial and national awards, and a demand amongst teacher professional development circles and teacher education programs.
The work of the Consortium is a response to the competency-driven redesigned BC curriculum and the First Peoples Principles of Learning -- both our collaborative model and the students projects we design are responsive to connected communities and the people, places, stories, and identities within. We've taken a long and slow view -- intergenerational, relational, and experiential, and feel that this work has had as much influence on teachers and pedagogy as it has had benefit for students. This is both an experiment in cathedral thinking and the application of ecosystem theory in education. BUT WHY? The Pacific Slope Consortium began in 2010 as an experiment in community solidarity -- what could we do together, with students, with parents, to influence local educational planning, programs, and policy? What could we do to engage our students' identity in their learning and reclaim the K-12 gradient for joy and curiosity? This slowly became a think-tank for student-centred curricular projects, mainly in Social Studies. Through the team's leadership, vision and effort, we have provided ideas, professional learning, and curriculum support for teachers across the province. Although each of also teach outside of Social Studies -- as of 2019, Glen at UNBC, Trina in elementary music, Joe in Learning Assistance, Ian in Outdoor Ed, Rob in a Sports School, and JP in Alternate Ed -- there are a few things that bind us together. We are all practitioners of TTSP, that is, we are always looking for ways that our students can create, move, think, connect with place, and tell their stories. And we all collaborate and support each other in this work -- this is why the Consortium exists. |
https://www.fnesc.ca
Photo by JP Martin 2016
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METHOD
Our collaboration takes the form of monthly meetings (over meals), weekend conferences once or twice a year at nearby lakeside retreat (We call these Mumbleypegs), regular visits to each others' classrooms, and the usual sit-downs on professional development days, plus ongoing digital communication. Our meetings are about sharing our work with each and cooking up new ideas, supportive and critical dialogue among friends. We use a modified "critical friends" approach, and usually come away from every meeting with a revision or addition to our collection of student projects and learning activities that activate one for our four beliefs. From this collaborative hearth we have created role-play simulations, sets of classroom manipulative, developed thinking classroom initiatives, written a sourcebook for students, expanded heritage inquiry programs, engaged in place-based songwriting, and staged biennial symposiums focused on place-responsive and experiential learning.
We aim to be "people who are perceived as 'authoring' their own words, their own actions, their own lives, rather than playing a scripted role at great remove from their own hearts." (Parker Palmer, The Heart of a Teacher, https://biochem.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/labs/attie/publications/Heart_of_a_Teacher.pdf)
This sense of authorship provides its own energy for ourselves, our students, and the educators we work with at home and abroad.
Our collaboration takes the form of monthly meetings (over meals), weekend conferences once or twice a year at nearby lakeside retreat (We call these Mumbleypegs), regular visits to each others' classrooms, and the usual sit-downs on professional development days, plus ongoing digital communication. Our meetings are about sharing our work with each and cooking up new ideas, supportive and critical dialogue among friends. We use a modified "critical friends" approach, and usually come away from every meeting with a revision or addition to our collection of student projects and learning activities that activate one for our four beliefs. From this collaborative hearth we have created role-play simulations, sets of classroom manipulative, developed thinking classroom initiatives, written a sourcebook for students, expanded heritage inquiry programs, engaged in place-based songwriting, and staged biennial symposiums focused on place-responsive and experiential learning.
We aim to be "people who are perceived as 'authoring' their own words, their own actions, their own lives, rather than playing a scripted role at great remove from their own hearts." (Parker Palmer, The Heart of a Teacher, https://biochem.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/labs/attie/publications/Heart_of_a_Teacher.pdf)
This sense of authorship provides its own energy for ourselves, our students, and the educators we work with at home and abroad.
Our TTSP Team
- Glen Thielmann: Project Lead. School District 57 - Itinerant teacher and curriculum/pro-d support, UNBC School of Education - sessional instructor
- Trina Chivilo: Harwin Elementary (School District 57) - K-7 Music Teacher & School Support
- Ian Leitch: D.P. Todd Secondary (School District 57) - Social Studies, Outdoor Ed
- Rob Lewis: Prince George Secondary School and Duchess Park Secondary (School District 57) - Social Studies & Soccer, Canadian Sports School - educational coordinator
- JP Martin: College Heights Secondary (School District 57) - Social Studies, Alternate Ed
- Joe Pereira: D.P. Todd Secondary (School District 57) - Social Studies, Learning Assistance
TTSP Project Details
Revised BC Social Studies Curriculum
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Check out the links at thielmann.ca
Human Geography 11/12Rob Lewis, a consortium director, has put together a gainful site with resources for this new course, offered to many Grade 11 students in BC this year and set to become one of the core Grade 12 Social Studies electives in 2018-19. Follow the ongoing development of the course here.
New BC Social Studies 8New BC Social Studies 9New BC Social Studies 10Assessment Framework
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Lejac Case StudyThis is a project under development. The idea here is to gather learning resources for teacher to use to build their own student study of Indigenous Residential Schools through a local case study -- the Lejac School that operated from 1922-1976 on Fraser Lake, BC. See more under the Truth and Reconciliation link in the Resources tab.
Resource ReviewPlease let us know if you'd like us to have a look at an educational resource you've developed and for which you'd like feedback or help sharing.
SNAPSHOTS IN TIME: Significant Events in Canadian History
Link: A review and suggested gameplay by the Pacific Slope. This is a set of 50 cards that form a visual timeline. It can be used as a learning game, teaching resource, or assessment tool. It is produced by The Critical Thinking Consortium <https://tc2.ca>. Social Studies curriculum and classroom activitiesWe create and collect resources related to performance-based assessment, role-play/simulations, critical thinking activities, heritage projects, and working with primary sources. Please contact us if you would like to access or contribute to our Dropbox -- this is a repository of lessons, assessments, resources, and lesson elements.
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Learning Design, Professional Communities, and Public Education Advocacy
If you would like to discuss a training session, professional development workshop, keynote presentations, or program evaluation, please contact us and we can go into more detail with you in person. The heart of our work relates to critical thinking in secondary Humanities and Social Studies classrooms, but we have some mad skills in other educational areas, too.
Design for New Curriculum
What elements of design should guide us as we put the new BC Social Studies curriculum through its paces? What kind of frameworks can we use to make sense of the swirling mass of competencies, skills, and content? Is it that easy to pick and choose from among the (vast) content areas (now even vaster with the curriculum re-org) in order to address competence, or is SS more like Math in that there is some core content that is necessary for students to encounter in sequence? What's the difference between history and SS? What if we used a geographic framework to understand our role as SS teachers, or sociological or anthropological for that matter? Our discussions at Mumbleypeg 2015 included a look at the "curricular juggernaut" presented by the new BC Social Studies 9 as well as the relatively straightforward new BC Social Studies 8. Here is the New SS8 Curriculum at a Glance. Here is the New SS9 Curriculum at a Glance.
UPDATE: Social Studies content shifting, curriculum overview, and ideas for new Social Studies course outlines: http://www.thielmann.ca/new-bc-curriculum.html
UPDATE: Social Studies content shifting, curriculum overview, and ideas for new Social Studies course outlines: http://www.thielmann.ca/new-bc-curriculum.html
Staff Meeting Assessment Tool
A well designed and executed staff meeting results in affirmation of diverse and successful practices, needed change or solutions to challenges, improved morale, greater unity of purpose, a reduction of problems among staff and students, more confidence in achieving academic and social goals -- does that sound like a good start? A poorly designed staff meeting erodes all of these accomplishments, and leaves staff feeling bored, cynical, reluctant, frustrated, or upset. We've all been there and got that t-shirt. A successful staff meeting has positive reverberations for students, sending teachers, administration, and support staff back into the halls with energy and resolve for improving the learning experiences of students. While it takes a whole staff to “win or lose” a staff meeting, there is a strong role for the administrative team who sees the meeting as their chance to make an impact and craft a memorable learning event for others. It is no coincidence that this is the same approach that a successful teacher takes in designing a lesson for students.
Check out a sample tool for assessing intention and design process in staff meetings.
Check out a sample tool for assessing intention and design process in staff meetings.