Technology

Reflections on Practice is a women’s leadership institute based on the concept of professional learning communities (PLCs). Forty female teachers from all over Ontario come together for four days in the summer and two days each in the fall and spring, to learn more about PLCs, to collaborate with each other, and to refine their teaching practices. Each participant is expected to complete an action research project on a topic of her choice.

For the last three years, Marietta (Mars) Bloch, B.Sc. (Hon), B.Ed., has co-ordinated the Toronto District School Board's science and technology programs, from grade 1 through secondary school.

Teaching science and technology is an outstanding way to provide experiences that are valid, testable and repeatable.

Critical thinking is a disciplined process that requires the learner to conceptualize, apply, analyze, synthesize and evaluate information gathered by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning or communication.

Four young faces, side by side, stare at the computer monitor. Occasionally, they point at the screen, jot notes, discuss new information and debate. This is the image of involved, interested and integrated learning for which we all strive.

In a world increasingly dependent on technology, technology is everybody’s business — or should be. Girls’ and women’s enrolment in math and science courses has improved over the last few decades.