New Year at TMSS page 4

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Today teachers spend the day in a long staff meeting sorting out the nuts and bolts of a new school year. All the details that make the organisation work in concert have to be worked out and that is the task for today.

The enrollment is pretty much what was expected with Ridgedale having closed its doors in June for the last time and still some families who are moving into town yet to arrive.

The principal (left) explained that everyone is more settiled this year and his is looking forward to the challenge of

getting back into the swing of things. He said that one of the major concerns for this year is to get the new high school English programme to fit and help students adjust to the reduction from six required English credits in ten, eleven and twelve to five with two required in grade ten, one in eleven and two in grade twelve.

Lorna Manson (right) spend some of her summer at the Department of Education English accreditation seminar this summer and she went over the changes as she sees them in the new curriculium. She explained that there is a shift in emphasis to competency and far more group work then most teacher are used to. She says it will be a lot of work for teachers to make sure that they cover the course expectations as there is a lot of content and she was concerned that there is less writing in the new course and more of a focus on spoken and oral English. Ms. Manson also handles accounting and some of the business course now called "computer applications"

It was past four Monday afternoon when I dropped into her room and she was busy working through planning her various courses and getting her room in order.

Wednesday the teachers plan to have most of the day to spend on tasks like that, checking on supplies, and all those things that have to be done before the fresh summer faces arrive.

	Today teachers spend the day in a long staff meeting sorting out the nuts and bolts of a new school year. All the details that make the organisation work in concert have to be worked out and that is the task for today. The enrollment is pretty much what was expected with Ridgedale having closed its doors in June for the last time and still some families who are moving into town yet to arrive. The principal (left) explained that everyone is more settiled this year and his is looking forward to the challenge of

getting back into the swing of things. He said that one of the major concerns for this year is to get the new high school English programme to fit and help students adjust to the reduction from six required English credits in ten, eleven and twelve to five with two required in grade ten, one in eleven and two in grade twelve. Lorna Manson (right) spend some of her summer at the Department of Education English accreditation seminar this summer and she went over the changes as she sees them in the new curriculium. She explained that there is a shift in emphasis to competency and far more group work then most teacher are used to. She says it will be a lot of work for teachers to make sure that they cover the course expectations as there is a lot of content and she was concerned that there is less writing in the new course and more of a focus on spoken and oral English. Ms. Manson also handles accounting and some of the business course now called "computer applications" It was past four Monday afternoon when I dropped into her room and she was busy working through planning her various courses and getting her room in order. Wednesday the teachers plan to have most of the day to spend on tasks like that, checking on supplies, and all those things that have to be done before the fresh summer faces arrive.