Welcome to our New Teacher website to help orient you to what teaching and learning look like at ACDS. While it is the curriculum and how we collaborate to develop it that drives teaching and learning at ACDS, using technology and various literacies also are central to our learning community. We combine technology and literacies into our Information and Communication Literacies (ICL) program which helps provide our students with the skills to be life long learners in our information rich world. Here is a link to an overview of our ICL curriculum. You can also view a presentation that was shared with the staff. The ICL program also helps our students work to attain the attributes of our Portrait of a Graduate (Independent Learner, Communicator, Community Minded, Balanced).
Here is an unpacking of the term "Information and Communication Literacies">
Information> Students learn how to search for valid information, to then analyze and synthesize it.
Communication> Students learn how to communicate their understanding of the information.
Literacies> Students use information, visual, media, design, social media and technology literacies as they gather, process and create products to communicate their understanding.
In other words, our ICL focus isn't just about "technology integration". It really is about all the knowledge, skills and concepts our students need to learn to be effective 21st century learners. To help our students collaborate, create and demonstrate their learning, we also use project-based and inquiry-focused approaches to learning activities and assessment. To see examples of what teaching and learning look like at ACDS, please look to take some time to go through the posts at our Adaptive and Innovative Practices blog. There you will find two blog posts with links to podcast recordings of interviews with our 5th grade teachers who speak about the iPad Pilot program and the many other initiatives which accompanied it. Do look to listen to the podcasts as they will give you a lot of insight into how the iPads and initiatives will be part of the Middle School curriculum for the upcoming school year.
A place to get a feel for how the ICL curriculum is integrated into the learning at ACDS is through the Web Resources website. This site houses many of the teaching and learning resources used by teachers and students. A new Teacher section is just being developed to support the curriculum review process, UbD, ePortfolios, and other initiatives.
Look to contact our Director of Technology (Sherry Ward) or our Instructional Technologist (David Carpenter) for more information as you read through the information provided here.
This site is organized into topics listed in the navigation bar to the left. The teaching and learning starts with how we review and develop our curriculum so start your orientation there.