Tiverton Campus Report

Curriculum

Listen up ‘auditories’, look out ‘visuals’ and get moving ‘kinesthetics’, De La Teaching and Learning is moving with the times. Our focus this year has been in the three major learning styles of Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic. Our teaching staff has been encouraged to attend a number of professional development sessions based on teaching and learning strategies using the different modes of learning. The boys have also been versed on the theory of learning and along with the parents were encouraged to get on line and find out which learning style they preferred. Ask any Year 7 or 8 boy what their preferred style is and they are most likely to give you examples of best practice. Let me go through a few, just so we get the idea… Some bright Italian student, while studying a map of Italy to decide which soccer teams belonged to which cities, piped up and said “So, Miss, which learning style are you catering to with this task?” “Well Joe”, I said after I got up off the ground, “Let’s break it down into sections and analyze it for a minute. Firstly Joe, the task of looking in the atlas and transferring the information from it to your simple map, along with the representations of each teams’ logos is the visual side of learning. Then having to listen to instruction and converse and analyze your findings with your peers, becomes the auditory part and, lastly, having to move around the room to find the visuals on the walls and the cutting and pasting onto your own map, assists the kinesthetics to stay on task…there you have it.” The Year 7s also have a growing understanding of the way they learn best. Most rooms are set up so that students have opportunities to use a variety of skills to demonstrate their learning. Access to computer pods on every level allows students to work at their own pace and extend or refine their work using information technology. The ongoing development of the College intranet has allowed teachers to post interactive and audio components for their classes. SOSE students can find themselves in Gallipoli, or in the peaceful surrounds of a Gothic cathedral, PE boys can watch their game and analyze their play, they can log on and view photos and watch snippets of video taken while on Outdoor Ed camps. They can even catch up on work missed, or check the criteria for the up coming assignment. The Arts areas have always been lucky in that the demands of designing, making and analyzing works have automatically involved the different learning styles. Boys must coordinate their movements around these areas, making sure that they are careful not to move too abruptly, especially with loaded paint brushes and wet paintings, not to mention the giant insects and ceramic busts and comical dogs made from sculptamould. Drama teachers have no problem in engaging all the learning styles either. The boys are always enchanted with their acting, voice projection and animated performances, especially since the room was extended in order to allow the boys space in which to truly perform to their heart’s content. The banging of hammers and the screeching drills and saws, along with the tap, tap, tap of the computer keys is a buzz in the Technology wing. We were even fortunate to hear the click, click, click of digital cameras, and slurp of plasticine as the boys meticulously moved their characters a millimeter this way and that in order to complete a 5 second animation. Literacy and numeracy also play a major role in the life of the College. Many boys take advantage of the resources available and Tiverton students enjoy reading sessions in the library on a weekly basis. They have had the opportunity to meet famous authors and have discussions with them over morning teas. Our Mathematics department has encouraged problem-solving and technology based activities. Science labs