The Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) and Alberta Education co-hosted the November 3^rd and 4^th Curriculum Symposium with the focus on creating guiding principles to inform the design of future Alberta curriculum.

Over 250 educators attended the Curriculum Symposium and participated in the discussions. I thought the two-day session was a good blend of learning from others (e.g. lessons from Finland) and group discussions. Each of the tables were asked to create three guiding principles to help Alberta Education develop a list of draft guiding principles to be released in March 2012. Alberta Education is also opening the dialogue through an online survey. Everyone is encouraged to complete the survey by December 1, 2011.

The room was full of passionate and excellent teachers such as Suzanna Wong and Bill Bagshaw. I enjoyed learning about the lessons from Finland in regard to their trust and respect for educators as well as their focus on Environmental Studies throughout their basic education years (K-9). It was also refreshing to see the emphasis on environment and nature studies for K-4. Bill Bagshaw spoke with Irmeli Halinen, Head of Curriculum Development, Finnish National Board of Education regarding the emphasis in K-4 and she stated, “We teach natural history from a young age so kids can identify the flora and fauna of Finland. We encourage teachers to get outside as much as they can.”

The panel of Alberta examples of challenges and opportunities really ignited the room with excitement.

• Barb James, Principal at Acadia School is not only an exceptional elementary school leader by removing obstacles so the teachers can focus on teaching but she is also a great stand-up comedian. For more details refer to Chapter 4 in Jim Parson’s book, “Instructional Leadership in Highly-effective Elementary Schools”.
• Kathy Olmstead, Associate Superintendent, Livingstone Range School Division provided some examples of guiding principles that are working well in their schools. One of their principles is: “All students can access curriculum within their strengths and interests.” This has led to a shift in focusing on the assets and positives not on disabilities or what is missing.
• Myranda Shepherd, Vice-Principal, William E Hay High School shared examples from their high school on flexible pacing and timing and a funding model not based on the Carnegie Unit. There are 16 Alberta high schools that are participating in this project and they will all be sharing their results. William E Hay High School is experimenting with teacher advisor cohorts, a project-week in each semester and student transition meetings.

Excitement was certainly in the air and I agree with Irmeli Halinen’s statement that patience and time are needed to see the results of education transformation.