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GEOMETRY x ANCIENT GREECE

This is the seventh (and penultimate!) in a series of posts in which I will attempt to demonstrate critical reflection with respect to different aspects of life as a teacher.  This post aims to explore how I might leverage my current and potential interdisciplinary professional connections to provide interdisciplinary learning opportunities for my students.

I made this (link to full-size original):
The above map shows the interdisciplanary professional contacts with whom I could potentially engage for an interdisciplinary purpose.  I can't say that I'm currently engaging any of these contacts for that purpose, although I regularly engage with many on professional and/or social levels!

I am really interested in the potential for e-learning to facilitate interdisciplinary learning, and being in a high school I have fantastic contacts in the form of teachers in other departments, teaching the same BYOD class.  I'd love to be engaging with contacts in other schools and industries, but I feel that to begin with it is wise to keep it small and local.  Plus, the ease of regular communication, common goals (student achievement), and physical space fit well with ACRLog's model (2015).

For now, I have outlined a hypothetical plan for collaborating with a social studies teacher to deliver a combined maths/social studies unit such as 'GEOMETRY x ANCIENT GREECE'.

Who
Annie (Social Sciences)
How
We have a few common non-contacts, and we’re both usually at school about an hour early, so this time could be used to plan, make decisions, and set goals.  It would also require the buy-in and endorsement of our respective HODs, with allowances for some flexibility in time and content.
Possible common goals
         Engage students in meaningful learning
         Offer opportunity for enrichment (shared class is top stream)
         Contribute to individual inquiry projects (e-learning and enrichment, respectively)

Potential Challenges:
  • misalignment of unit scheduling between departments
  • difficulties establishing meaningful links between curricula in the two learning areas
  • maintaining integrity of teaching and learning with relation to respective curricula
  • convincing our superiors that the hassle is worthwhile!
Potential Benefits:
  • rich learning experience for students (ThomasMcDonaghGroup, 2011)
  • bountiful opportunities for students to be the creators of resources - challenging deep thinking
  • charting a path for more inter-department collaboration in the future
Ultimately, I'm concerned that connections between curricula in a combined endeavour such as this would be contrived and shallow (Hardre, et al, 2013).  Further, I'm intimidated by the amount out work that would be required!  However, I genuinely believe in the potential benefits, and I know that early stages [of the BYOD programme] can be the best time to introduce new ways of doing things.

References


ACRLog. (2015). A Conceptual Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration. Retrieved from http://acrlog.org/2015/05/14/a-conceptual-model-for-interdisciplinary-collaboration

Hardré, P. L., Ling, C., Shehab, R. L., Nanny, M. A., Nollert, M. U., Refai, H., ... & Wollega, E. D. (2013). Teachers in an Interdisciplinary Learning Community Engaging, Integrating, and Strengthening K-12 Education. Journal of Teacher Education, 64(5), 409-425.

ThomasMcDonaghGroup. (2011, May 13). Interdisciplinarity and Innovation Education. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDdNzftkIpA

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