Catholic Central's Flexible Learning Time page

What is it?

Flexible Learning Time allows students to choose learning opportunities to meet their particular interests and needs. A student may choose any of the following activities during this time:

• Meet with a teacher in a small group or on a 1:1 basis for additional help.
• Meet with a teacher in a small group for enrichment or enhancement activities.
• Pursue personal fitness goals in the Fitness Centre
• Take part in supervised athletic activities in the gym
• Attend a scheduled meeting with a teacher to complete missed work, take tests or receive additional help.
• Work on assigned projects with other students.
• Attend club meetings and activities.

Students may be assigned or directed to a particular activity during Flexible Time by administration or teachers. Students are expected to choose some component of flexible time to eat their lunch.

What are the advantages to this change?

1. (1) Allowing students to have more access to teachers as needed - in small groups or even 1:1 - this is an area of need identified by students in the Round Table discussions.
2. Allowing students to make personal choices about their own learning - an essential 21st century learning skill.
3. Allowing teachers to have access to cross-curricular instruction or to meet as Professional Learning Communities.
4. Allowing more opportunities for students to pursue enrichment learning.
5. Specific to the dual campus - allows time for students to move between campuses if necessary.

Additional Thoughts:

The April edition of Educational Leadership focused on the topic of restructuring schools for 21st century learners and for student success. The following excerpts relate to this initiative:

-from "A Visionary Look at New Schools for a New Century' by Patricia Kokinos

We must vastly reinvent schooling by creating a paradigm that includes:

• Moving schools away from mechanical models toward human-friendly models of working and interacting.
• Creating small, personalized, supportive learning environments...
• Allowing flexibility of space and time for collaborative teams of teachers to work with teams of students.
• Making use of new approaches to learning that build on higher order thinking skills, creativity, collaboration and entrepreneurship for students and teachers.