WELCOME: to
the Workshop Learning Program. The name “workshop” comes about from
the fact that the classroom often takes on the atmosphere of a busy and
productive workshop where many different aspects of learning are
happening at the one time. I think it is the
best way to develop students who can cope with today’s society &
world of work because they are able to navigate change & diversity,
learn as they go, solve problems, collaborate & be flexible &
creative. It is an ongoing transition education program for
students approaching high school. It is a child-centred approach where
students learn responsibility and can have some control over their
learning program.
There
are two distinct parts:
¨
BASICS - the fundamental areas of learning, but also skill
building in the 3 Ls, [learning life skills, learning how to learn and
developing a love of learning.]
¨
ACTIVITIES - active type learning which stems from such areas as
the arts, technology, maths, computing, enterprise ed, negotiated
interests and school community service.
SET
WORK: the above is organised around what we call set work, which is
learning over a three week period, three per term, 12 per year and these
form the basis for reporting.
DAY
BOOK: an important work
book which contains some everyday work for you to view as the set works
progress through the year. This book must be signed by you after
completion of each set work and acts as a mini report for you on how
your child is progressing through the learning program. Expect it about
every three weeks. Diaries are used on a daily basis for communication
between school and home and should be signed each week.
COLOUR RATINGS: the classroom operates on four colours for both the
areas of learning and personal development effort including the
school’s values of
respect, responsibility and honesty.
- Green
(A) excellent,
well above average achievement, high quality level of operation.
- Blue
(B) very good, above average achievement, a quality level of
operation.
- Black
(C) satisfactory achievement, okay
- Black down (D) late pass/partial achievement
- Red
(E) minimal achievement set work
unseen or incomplete, very unsatisfactory.
Note: Students can redo work to
improve colour rating within a set work if time permits.
THIS
YEAR: we have 30 students, 20 year 7 &
10 year 6. I run an odd/even year learning program & this year it is
based on a futures theme ranging from the year 1901 up to 2100.
Main
features of the odd year program will be the Titanic, environment
issues-camp and Colonisation of Moon/Mars and will mainly involve the
study areas of technology, science and society and the environment.
Homework
is expected to be done regularly and every night if it means keeping up
to date, this promotes time management skills & enables students to
take advantage of workshop activities. If your child is doing excessive
homework please see me.
We
have a student teacher this year in her final year, Ms Stephanie
Ambrozek. Stephanie will also be working with Helen Ayliffe in the
French program.
With the redevelopment my workshop style learning program will be somewhat limited as we have temporarily moved to the transportable behind the unit but the classroom door is always open, so please feel free to drop in and say hello, get an update on your child’s progress or talk to me about any of your concerns. I will however be on 3 weeks long service leave in weeks 2, 3 & 4 of term 1 but the students will be in the very capable hands of Mrs Peggy Hirsch for this short time.
FORWARD
PLANNING:
To assist you with approx. costs that are likely to occur this
year…
T1
Week 2 Aquatics……………………………
$30
T2
Week 3 Camp
………………………..…….$120
[Arbury Park Outdoor School –Bridgewater]
T3
Possibily an excursion ?
……………...……...$25
T4
Dance Tuition/Graduation ……………..…..
$35
Some
other school performances/events…………$20
LASTLY:
a little bit about me, my first name is Jeff & I live at West Beach,
married with 3 children & have 2 grandsons. My 2 sons have both left
home, 1 now living in Sydney and my daughter is starting her preferred
Uni SA course of medical radiation. I enjoy walking my 2 Golden
Retrievers, Bonnie and Harvey, woodwork, computing, listening to music,
watching films and reading adventure action stories. Before teaching I
was a planning technician at Chrysler [Mitsubishi] for 5 years. For
more information about my teaching programs you can visit my web site
at…
http://home.iprimus.com.au/jeffrosewall
Thanking
you for your support,