Last Learning Team Meetings Part 1

Today the Year 9 Learning Teams met as a Learning Team Meeting for the year.
The SOSE/English/RE people met first and we did another success protocol. Graeme spoke about an integrated task on Antarctica that he and Emily did. It was a series of activities designed to prepare and research a trip to Antarctica as well as study the wildlife and minerals found on the continent. He reflected on the fact that a number of students did very well - but many did not do as well and was surprised by the lack of organisation that they showed.
It was great to hear some of the feedback from the other teachers. For example, there was a lot of discussion about the need to build independent learning skills in Year 9 students so that they are ready for when they need it in the senior years. They suggested things like checklists, verification forms like in Year 12, making mini due dates for each part of the task, giving choice i.e. do any 2 out of 3 tasks in this section and offering alternative ways of presenting work to those who struggle with writing.
Interestingly, the main presentation in the Science/Maths/ITC meeting was from Emily, Graeme's partner. She was pretty happy with what they had done and also received mostly positive feedback. It was suggested that perhaps students could make a learning plan for what they are going to achieve in each lesson/homework.
We also discussed the use of rubrics for our classes. We felt that we were at such a point that we could hone them a little and offer them for use by all Science and Maths teachers. Because of their generic nature, they could be used across the board with little modification. We decided to present them at the next Science meeting for other staff to use.
A review of these meetings suggested that they had been worthwhile and they would like them to go longer so more people can share their successes. Some other comments were baffling - let's leave it at that.