LAKELAND – Even though the 2024-25 school year is about to come to a close, many students may already be thinking about the courses they’re going to be participating in this fall.
In addition to taking the regular required courses, students can also choose from various locally-developed courses to expand their education.
According to Nicole Garner, the Communications and Public Relations Manager for Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS), locally-developed courses provide students with an opportunity to earn credits in areas where they might not otherwise be exposed to, or expand their knowledge in areas they are already interested in.
“Students get excited about a lot of these courses because they speak to specific interests that students might have, and that makes coming to school a little more engaging for them,” Garner said. “A good example of one that we’ve been offering for many years to students is Forensic Studies 2535.”
Other examples of locally-developed courses that are taught within the school division include Mental Health Literacy and Surviving Financially as an Adult.
Locally-developed courses were a topic of discussion at the May 28 meeting of the NLPS board of trustees. During that meeting, the board approved around 27 new courses, including dance and ballet, while several courses already in use by the school division were renewed.
A number of the new locally-developed courses that were recently approved, according to Garner, are focused on Indigenous learning, and teach topics such as beading, hide preparation and tanning, medicine wheel, and traditional teachings.
“A lot of that is enhancing the work that we’ve doing with Truth and Reconciliation, and offering students opportunities to learn more about Indigenous cultures, and to connect with Indigenous cultures,” she said.
Another locally-developed course that is now part of the learning in NLPS focuses on technical theatre work. This course is for students who are interested in earning credits by doing behind-the-scenes work in drama productions. Students work with costumes, props, stage design and decoration, along with sound and lighting.
“We know we have lots of students at our high schools working on the drama productions who are working behind the scenes, not necessarily in acting roles, so this is a way for them to actually earn some credits for that work that they’re doing and really dive into it and learn how to do it,” she said.
Garner explained that the kindergarten to Grade 12 curriculum is developed by Alberta Education. While school divisions can provide input when new curriculum is developed, officials do not approve it. However, she said, school divisions do have the opportunity to develop locally-developed courses.
At the high school level, school divisions develop the courses and then submit them to the government for review to make sure they meet the requirements. Locally-developed courses are then shared with other school jurisdictions so divisions across the province can access them if they want to.
“In the case of the ones being approved, those are ones that other school divisions have developed, and we go, ‘Oh, that looks really cool,’ and ‘Our students might be interested in that,’ or ‘That aligns with something that we’re doing in our school’,” she said, explaining that this gives local schools permission to access the courses that other school divisions have already created.
