Turning Challenges to your advantage…

Challenge #1: Getting Started

Teachers are overloaded and don’t want to start something new.

Advantage: You are a TL with a Masters degree! You are the expert so act like it and take the lead. Sell collaboration to a teacher as a form of helping them to program, helping them to teach the overcrowded curriculum and helping with PD hours – everytime you meet to plan and learn how to use GI surely counts as PD.

Challenge #2: Teaching and Learning Time

The curriculum is overcrowded and GI units take time.

Advantage: You can show class teachers how to incorporate general capabilities and inquiry learning into a unit of work. Depending on your situation, you can possibly combine timetabled library classes with class time to give students the time they need to successfully complete the GI process.

Challenge #3: No time for collaboration and No time for GI

You are in a school where GI is not valued and neither is collaboration with the TL.

Advantage: Refer to challenge #1. Get started with just one teacher who is interested. Note, that you may have to be flexible with planning time until you can prove your worth to the executive – then request planning time during school hours. Remember that some subjects suit GI better than others. History and geography are highly recommended.

Challenge #4: GI is student centred and therefore can’t be assessed for impact.

Wrong.

Advantage: Academic research has been undertaken. You can use the SLIM toolkit to prove your worth. You can use rubrics to measure student achievement.