On Thursday, the Rocky View School Board shone a spotlight on Ralph McCall's Connections class.

Teacher Andrew Doyle is the driving force behind the class, which aims to engage students and get them to like school through meaningful learning opportunities.

Doyle said the idea was born after he commonly heard parents say their children were finally beginning to like school in third or fourth grade.

"This is something I'd heard from grade three and grade four. The big takeaway for me was how is it that a nine year old, who's only been in school for three or four years, dislike something so much that they don't want to go."

This prompted Doyle to launch the Connections class as a way to engage students so they learn in ways that go beyond the classroom. Doyle took the opportunity to combine the curriculum with the interest of his students to get them learning in new ways.

"It was always framed around how do we make it meaningful, and part of that is being active. Then how does it fit within what we need to learn about, that's the curriculum. And then what else can we bring in that can help us, so that might be experts or that might be an opportunity to come up with a mission on an app."

Last year was the first year of the Connections class, and the focus was on creating a more sustainable community. Students in Doyle's class learned about waste from the City of Airdrie, toured recycling facilities, and experienced riding on Airdrie Transit. The students also learned parts of their social studies curriculum by participating in a pilot project for Agents of Discovery, an app that helps take learning outside of the classroom. Doyle was accompanied in his presentation to school trustees by four of last year's students, who shared what they learned about sustainability through the project.

This year, Doyle says the focus will be on the engagement of active learners, specifically students with ADHD. He said the class will be the same as last year in so far as the curriculum remains the same, but the interests of students will give the class a different flavour.

Doyle said his class is just one of many ways teachers in Rocky View are helping students learn outside the traditional classroom.

"Everything that we did, we could have stayed within the classroom, we just chose to go elsewhere. That was the guiding inspiration, where we used whatever space and whatever tools were available and were most engaging for us."

 

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