We are back for another school year at Westside Montessori Academy. This 2016-2017 school year is a celebratory year for us as we have reached our goal of having preschool to grade seven. The teachers were very busy preparing their classrooms and new materials for the school year and I heard excitement in their voices. It should be an exciting year as we celebrate our first grade seven class and their graduation.
BC’s NEW CURRICULUM
This school year also marks the beginning of the new BC Curriculum. This new curriculum means a few changes for us, such as, what grade a concept may be taught in, and a few newer concepts. In its pedagogy, this new curriculum is closer to the Montessori method than it ever has been; focusing on the individual child, and placing an emphasis on critical and creative thinking as well as social and emotional development.
View New Curriculum Sample
Visit Ministry of Education Website
BIG IDEAS
The curriculum for each subject area lists what are called “Big Ideas”, which are the overall goals in the child’s learning to bring about the understanding of concepts and facts. This brings the emphasis away from just the learning of facts to being able to think, form opinions, and question concepts being taught. Of course the facts do still exist, but they are seen as a tool to be used to reach the final goal.
The new curriculum will not change the way we teach and we remain a Montessori school that follows the Montessori method using the BC curriculum. There will be a change to the report cards, in that there will not be a separation between the BC curriculum and what the student has done above and beyond that, since the new philosophy is also one of following the individual child. We can now just report on what each individual child has accomplished that term and of course ensuring that they are meeting all expectations in the three-year cycle.
- Ms. Pam
