What next?
Malcolm is teaching the Year 11 course in 2008 with several refinements.
"...it's just ongoing incremental improvement. We've added a skills module on Javascript. We now use the Natcoll manuals rather than our own worksheets. We don't use AS 1.7. And we're introducing the project a lot earlier; we don't do only skills in term one any more. I've done some skills in term one then started them on their project. I'll bring in some more skills in term two."
Malcolm is also using the revised alternative schedules for the version 3 and 4 achievement standards.
"These will provide greater opportunity for ongoing teacher-student interaction, streamlining and simplifying the assessment process."
Malcolm: "Once we move out of the skill development phase and into the early stages of the project we want to have this ongoing interaction, to actually record evidence from our discussions with students on the schedule."
Even before the Year 11 unit was first designed and delivered, the ICT department had been moving from providing paper-based resources for students to intranet-based delivery. This process is ongoing. The department is also moving to 'bite size' resources rather than trying to cover too much in any one resource. For example, a planning resource covering milestones and key stages is now accompanied by other resources focussing on different aspects of planning. These small resources are posted on the school intranet in a variety of formats.
