Note: Precisely zero paragraphs were written using ChatGPT this week! For those keeping score, the first paragraph last week was the one that was "written" using the chatbot from OpenAI.
Transfer of knowledge is our goal
The students at ISA are probably all-too aware of my love of the game of basketball. I have played and coached the sport for many years. Not only do I love it for its speed, dynamism and as an outlet for my competitive nature, it has taught me a critical thing about the nature of teaching and learning: if you can’t transfer knowledge beyond the practice court, you haven’t really developed or learned in a meaningful way. Or, to put it another way, there is no point in doing drills if a player or team can only react to an opponent if they line up and play exactly as rehearsed in practice. Or, to put it yet another way, a truly skilled basketball player isn’t one who only dazzles during specific drills; a truly skilled player is one who can transfer his or her skills to game situations in ways that help their team.
In education, we also value the ability of our students to apply their learning, especially to transfer their understanding of a concept or skill to novel situations. Grant Wiggins, an advocate for authentic education, described transfer as the aim of education: “The point of school is not to get good at school, but to effectively parlay what we learned in school in other learning and in life.”
In our class lessons, teachers are aware that transfer doesn’t occur just because content is covered. A perfect score on a worksheet about a particular topic doesn’t necessarily demonstrate understanding of a concept or its connections to other ideas or how to apply a skill in a novel setting.
Students can only prove their understanding of a topic (like classifying quadrilaterals as squares, or rectangles, or parallelograms, etc.), if they are given opportunities to use their learning in different and unfamiliar tasks. Classifying quadrilaterals is best understood, and indeed assessed, if learners have to complete assignments that challenge them to make sense of past learning in unfamiliar tasks or that stretch them by posing counter-examples.
As a best practice school, our goal is not to simply ask students to learn stuff and then be tested on that learning. Our goal is to develop a deep understanding of topics and concepts, which can then be transferred to new situations and unfamiliar contexts. As parents, when your child comes home to share a piece of individual learning, try to challenge him/her by creating new and unfamiliar scenarios/tasks to see if the learning has been transferred.
Common courtesy and safe driving, please
Our recent run of perilously icy mornings is a strong reminder of the importance of driving safely on our campus. There have been reports of some reckless driving and a lack of courtesy in our car parks. Please always take great care to observe our speed limits, take heed of crosswalks and speed bumps, and remember that our number one priority (no matter how rushed we might feel) is the safety of all members of our community.
After School Swimming
I’ve been asked to remind parents that when they come to collect their children from the after school swimming activities, they should always come inside the building. We do not want to open the external glass doors so that we can keep the children safe and warm. If you do come to the external doors, please note that we will kindly ask you to enter the building from the main entrance to collect the children from inside (near the climbing wall).
End of Q2; Report cards next week
Today is the final day of Quarter 2 in the Elementary School. Our teachers are putting the finishing touches on the Q2 report cards. These will be available next Friday (January 27) and will be accessible through PowerSchool. The Q2 report cards are narrative reports, giving you detailed information about your child’s progress across the range of subjects.
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