Today's top news stories for parents

There is lots of education news on the site today that you won't want to miss.

1. Our top story is on Ontario's plan to complete an overhaul of school curriculum. Education minister Kathleen Wynne says the move is a response to years of complaint from both educators and parents that the curriculum is bogged down with a staggering number of "expectations." The idea will be to take the focus off of cramming in "coverage" of these prescribed areas and onto deepening understanding and developing research and reasoning skills. That could mean fewer details on the War of 1812, and more context on how and why wars happen. There is a passionate discussion happening in the comments right now. Please read and add your thoughts.

2. Demonstrating what this sort of learning could look like, we've got a profile of a classroom where the teacher spends less time going through curriculum checklists and more on big-picture thinking. She also keeps keeps the students active and on their feet to keep them engaged.

3. We also have an update on all-day kindergarten. While the Toronto District School Board and Toronto Catholic District School Boards have asked for extra time to sort out which schools will offer full-day kindergarten in the fall of 2010, Sudbury is the furthest ahead when it comes to actually implementing the program. And attached we've got lists of schools tentatively slated to have all-day kindergarten in Halton Public, Peel Public and Peel Catholic boards. Remember you can be sure not to miss a story on the Pascal report and the implementation of all-day learning by bookmarking our Early Learning page.

4. And if you've got a teenager interested in a career in criminology or law enforcement (or even if you're simply a CSI fan), check out this story on Humber College's new forensic lab, dubbed the CSI classroom.

5. Also, a bill was passed Monday that formalizes school board's responsibility for student achievement, but critics say it should have done more to prevent conflict-of-interest violations, like those that have plagued the Toronto Catholic board in recent years.

Lots to keep up with. Have a great Tuesday!

Comments

[Michelle @ doudoubebe.com]

Phew... that's a lot of news for one day! Will be interesting to see how the curriculum turns out - certainly seems like a concept that makes sense in the age of google where facts abound, but the critical skill is assessing their accuracy/importance.

[GTA]

re : Bribing the motivation out of our kids is why they don't bother to really check out who & what they're voting for either

http://www.topix.net/forum/travel/canada/T216OT9FCTK4BJFQ7