Mel

== = = =Day 3= A long day but also a productive one. Our unit plan is coming on nicely and it was very satisfying to create some student samples using the tools. Some of the concepts in our unit plan are fairly complex but I feel that we've included a wide range of learning activities to prepare students for the rather tricky things that we're expecting of them. Am again enjoying the opportunity to work with a fantastic group of people and it's been a pleasure to participate in sessions so ably facilitated by Anne and Trudy. Looking forward to the rest of the program.

=Day 4= Another very full day. It was great to play with the Seeing Reason tool and create a sample for our unit plan. I found the Showing Evidence tool a little tricky to get used to but I'm sure it'll become clearer when we set about constructing our sample today.

How have you found the course in general?** The course is very intensive so it was great to have the weekend to break up the five days. It's been a challenging course and a very rewarding one. It has reiterated and built upon my understandings of current pedagogical thought and approaches and I've enjoyed the opportunity to work with the online tools (which I think have enormous potential for the classroom). The opportunity to work with a great group of people (including clustor educators, an assistant principal, primary and secondary teachers and some Essentials Senior Trainers) has been fantastic. Not really. This is perhaps because I was familiar with the main concepts of Essentials (although I haven't actually undertaken the training). I think the experience was also made much easier by the fact that I constructed a unit plan with Rita, who had already done a lot of background work and obviously has a solid understanding of Essentials. If I were starting from scratch and working alone, it would have been much more difficult. I think that it is fine and necessary for non-Essentials people to undertake TWT but they'd need to come weel prepared and the value of working with someone else cannot be understated. A greater emphasis on the **curriculum framing questions** and a clear explanation of how the program works, what is produced at the end and **the obligations for MTs** etc would probably be necessary if conducting the course with a group where nobody (or few participants) had undertaken Essentials. N/A
 * If you have not done the Essentials course:
 * Have you felt that you have been disadvantaged by not having done the Essentials course?**
 * Do you feel equipped to run the course back in your own school?**
 * What are the things you are wondering or still have questions about.**