Final Reflection

It is a daunting task for any new administrator to change curriculum. Strategies for Curriculum Change correctly assumes that curriculum needs to change. We have learned this semester that curriculum must be continuously updated to reflect the needs and learning styles of students. This is not to ignore the basics or the classics. Writers such as Hirsch strongly promote cultural literacy as a means of creating a platform for future learning. But we should continue to rethink what education is. Thinking of SabreTooth, It is not always practical/beneficial to teach students as they were in the past. Curriculum should be revised in zero-base format; all aspects should be questioned for relevance. Riding this find line can be challenging; but the challenge becomes less daunting when we attach our curriculum change to a specific shared vision for the school.

This class fully embraces the spirit of change. The use of Blackboard, blogs, and YouTube as learning tools did not compromise our learning in any way. Moreover, it specifically meets the needs of graduate students with full-time jobs. Students were accountable for their own learning, yet given the flexibility to work on their own schedule.

Leaving this class, I will better grasp the role of administrators in leading curriculum change. We must evaluate the needs and wants of all stakeholders. We must create specific planning committees and communication chains. Rationale and time-frame for the change must always be linked to the vision for our school. These processes will not create the perfect, end-all curriculum; they will continually function to create a learning program that best benefits kids.

Orange Middle School Response

Administration should be praised for placing common planning time at a premium.
Teachers should be commended for using this time effectively to diagnose problems and collaborate on solutions. Because of the small learning communities, teachers are better able to serve students.

Teachers should also be praised for having the courage to teach a technique like ROPE-W. For most English teachers, the last thing they want to do is make writing a soulless, formulaic exercise. And while it might not be what they envisioned when they signed their contracts, these teachers are developing a foundation for growth. Middle school teachers, especially in failing districts, must not seek tangible rewards in the form of seeing students flourish. They should rest confidently in the knowledge that they have set the student on a solid path going forward.

Two recommendations would involve the weekly meetings and the uniforms. Both of these issues can seem like window dressing to outsiders. It is therefore important that the principal demonstrates action in response to student feedback. A principal willing to have such meetings must be willing to handle the radical issues and ideas that might be brought up. More harmful to student morale than administrative dictatorship is the illusion of democracy. I would also recommend a stated rationale for the uniforms to students. In an environment where we are trying to build relationships and personal understanding, it can be trying to have everyone dressed the same. I feel the same sense of continuity and shared purpose can be conveyed to students [and accepted by them] in other ways. To build this climate we have to foster the core belief that all are equal...through curriculum design, extracurricular programs, even student awards/recognition. Uniforms look the part but without student buy-in...they are all sizzle and no steak.

Curriculum Mapping

Curriculum mapping allows the educational program to more directly meet the needs of students, teachers, and the surrounding community. It calls into question established framework and refines/replaces it to create "horizontal consistency across schools and vertical continuity within schools". The mapping process creates curriculum that is interwoven, age-appropriate, and congruent with larger learning goals. There is a proportionality that allows students and teachers to understand the value of units and lessons as they relate to these larger goals. The expectations for students remain the same from school to school, grade to grade, teacher to teacher. This does not shackle the classroom teacher, it actually provides them with a sense of professionalism in that they are able to present a united front over what's expected.

To the best of my knowledge, my school does not map its curriculum. Though they may claim to do so, the fact that I don't know is sound evidence that our curriculum has not been mapped. Our district generally pays an individual or pair of teachers to write curriculum over the summer. Teachers can also use this as an opportunity to log professional development hours. Because the process is not collaborative, other teachers are unlikely to buy in. In fact, the singular nature of the writing process prevents departments or grade levels from meeting to discuss commallity. There is no sound process for leading or assessing genuine change.

The process of curriculum mapping is very similar to guidelines for curriculum change. The buzz words: collaboration, assessment plan, stakeholder involvement all ring true in mapping. It calls administrators and authors to launch a feasibility study to assess staff buy-in and community acceptance. It requires a timeline for the phase-in of the new curriculum. It is most important that this timeline have frequent and objectively assessable progress markers. Change leaders must work jointly with stakeholders to create goals and sub-goals for the change. The rationale must be clearly stated and accepted if parents, teachers and students are to invest/assist in the change. Change leaders must analyze a profile of building and community to determine the way change rationale and details might be best disseminated. Leaders must plan for contingencies and hurdles. Staff acceptance is not guaranteed and many teachers are resistant to change. There must be a specific plan in place for redirecting these teachers towards curriculum mapping. Part of their frustration might be a result of inadequate training. It is critical that all staff are presented with a plan for staff development that is paired with the unveiling of the new curricular agenda. A checklist such as that provided in the reading helps to keeping teachers on task and aware of the big picture. It is also useful to provide authentic examples of curriculum mapping in other districts. Lastly, it is unreasonable to expect curriculum mapping to be an overnight success. In its planning time must be allotted to assess its effectiveness throughout implementation. By hearing the input of stakeholders, school leaders will be able to tailor this new curriculum map to more effectively meet the needs of children.

Online Learning Review

So if I'm being honest, some days I wake up and i'm the biggest technophobe on the face of the planet. One of those guys who swears his kids will never get a cell phone, IPod, etc. But on other days I just think the stuff is so cool. And so I think online learning has its merits, namely its convenience, but I don't yet consider it to be an adequate substitute for class instruction. As technology improves, it still must deal with us. And I personally like to have a chance for rapport building with a professor and with classmates. I think our generation is still geared to learn best with face to face contact. But in future generations online learning would probably be an effective tool. Students will be better prepared to accept the interface.

As for how to improve the online environment, I really don't have a specific suggestion. I suppose in dealing with us it is important to have a certain degree of flexibility and understanding. It is also important for students to accept the challenge of using new technology. And that flexibility has been present, so I would consider these three lessons a success.

UbD Lesson--Thoughts on Practice

How it went?
To be truthful, students were not particularly motivated to learn about population distribution and density. But they did like the idea of having a specific goal for their learning. They understood how this lesson fit into the larger unit on populations of the world. They also understood how the skills would be employed on their upcoming project, not to mention future careers.
Students were excited to get out of their seats and move throughout the classroom. Several times while we did population density problems they commented..."we're like doing math right now". I'm amazed at how constrictive curriculum can be when it has a strong discipline focus. Kids are always surprised to find crossover skills or content. Students also appreciate the idea that there is a logical close to a lesson. We can always take 5 minutes to discuss if we have achieved our performance goal, and if we have used all specific learning tasks.

I remember having to run sprints in high school. My teammates and I would always work harder if we knew how many we would be running. And to a certain extent I feel that UbD has something to do with rewards schedules for students. It is important that we design lesson with the student perspective in mind. They must at all times understand why they are learning, how they can learn, and how they will know they have learned. Not only does this make the learner more effective, but it makes the teacher more available to handle individual student challenges.

UbD Lesson--Population

ssential Questions
-How do people and their environment influence one another? [content-based]
-How can we learn more about a group of people? [skills-based]

Unit goals
Students will understand how the environment affects the where people live.
Students will learn why people live in certain places and not in others.
Students will learn how to calculate population density...and why it is important to recognize that population density is an averaged statistic.

Key Questions
Why do people live in certain places...and not in others?
How can we quantify how "crowded" an area is?
How can statistics be misleading?

Lesson Goals
-Students will know that population throughout the world is not distributed evenly. People tend to live in areas of flat, fertile land near a water source. All ancient civilizations, and most U. S. cities, were developed according to such guidelines.
-Students will learn how to calculate population density.
-Students will use information about an area's population density and distribution to gain a more accurate understanding of its human geography.

Performance Tasks
-Students will physically act out instances of even and uneven population distribution
-Students will solve diagram problems of population density
-Students will create their own population density problems
-Students will discuss the misleading nature of statistics.

Lesson
Students will first listen to teacher example of spreading peanut butter on bread evenly vs. unevenly [population distribution]. Students will then work together to spread themselves evenly or unevenly throughout the classroom. Teacher will prompt students to respond regarding the "crowdedness" or "even-ness" of the population distribution.
Students will then work on a sample population density problem with teacher. Students will then work on similar problems individually. Students will create their own population density problems and share their problems with classmates in jigsaw fashion. Students will receive peer feedback on their problem setup and response. For homework students will create a sample town and create a gridded diagram of its population distribution/density. Students will respond to the prompt...How can population density be misunderstood when we don't know the population distribution?

This lesson is meaningful to student's in that it helps us to answer our larger year-long class questions such as "How do people and their environments influence one another?" and "How can we learn more about a group of people?". Students will be able to use the skills gained from this lesson on an upcoming project involving analysis of the 2000 US Census. At the close of this unit, students will brainstorm and explore careers where it is important to use demographic data.

In creating this lesson, it is difficult to generate student interest amongst the entire class. The best I've been able to do to make learning meaningful is to let students work with me to create essential questions and unit goals [though they are usually steered towards an intended goal]. I also try to include lots of information about relevant careers so that students might connect learning to their future. I suppose in the future I could have them learn about potential careers before the unit as a means of generating more interest.

Schmoker

A collaborative environment would be optimal for educators. Such
collaboration stimulates creativity, and allows teachers to pursue
“best practice” with many minds working in synergetic fashion.
Unfortunately this is not a reality. In many schools, systemic
isolation prevents cross-curricular or longitudinal dialogue from
every occurring. There is no incentive structure for classroom
teachers to learn from there colleagues. Even the tenets of game
theory would indicate that teachers working in isolation would be
compelled to improve for fears of other teachers’ performance. Yet
there is no positive competition because there is no uniformly
accepted assessment in place to evaluate student progress or
teacher performance. Then why do we so willingly accept the
status quo?

In short, teachers don’t want to be told how to teach. There is an
inconvenient divide between the educational research community
and practitioners. University Ph.D.’s have rarely taught a 3rd grade
class; teachers have not performed regression analysis. Both
parties are quick to wave these ideas in the oppositions face.
Teachers who are “in the trenches” are hardened to believe they
know what is best for “their kids”. To them, educational research
varies or oscillates to the extent that there is no motivation to
adhere to one particular movement. Moreso, educators who have
accepted a certain philosophy or instructional style are reluctant to
leave it for another. It is because of a communication breach that
neither researcher nor teacher will be forced to deal with this
discord.

The relationships between administration, staff, and parents are
slightly different. These parties are often co-enabling; they ignore
school shortcomings for fear of igniting a powderkeg. School
leaders who are able to retain their jobs are often those who best
project an image of improvement/success amongst staff, parents
staff and students. . . all stakeholders willing to accept positive
assessment. Parents can leverage school districts into unhealthy
competitions for change. These changes rarely set up assessment
structure for evaluating the improvement yield…it is modern-day
keeping up with the Joneses. Inside of schools, supervisors are
taught to find positives in lessons, and incentive structures compel
them to focus on these positives. Acknowledging a shortcoming of
a school or staff member rewards an administrator with a mountain
of paperwork and long-term accountability for improvement.
Teachers are similarly motivated to accentuate the positive.
Educators who diagnose failing students are obligated to correct,
or “catch up” a student who has been neglected for years.

For those brave enough to cut through buffer and acknowledge
school deficits, the challenge looms large. Many well-intentioned
school leaders have found their ideas stifled by staff, past
precedent, or a skeptical community. I believe that real
educational change must come in systemic form, by those agents
capable of changing the incentive structures for educators,
administrators, parents, and students.

Flat Video

I didn't know...

Most every single day I fix a computer problem. Though, it isn't a computer problem really. It's a veteran faculty member who can't check their e-mail, wants to know how to use our grade spreadsheet program, who doesn't understand why their computer doesn't get "The Internet." And this, not the computer is the problem. We are in the midst of a dramatic technological advance, one unprecedented in human history. As agents of human development educators are unsure, if not unprepared, how to manage such wholesale change.

It starts in any classroom. A student brings in a project they published from the Internet. The graphs are precise, the pictures hi-res, the information seamless and accurate. Only it is not their own. The teacher unabashedly scorns the student for plagiarism, claiming one's ideas as their own. The bewildered student stares back at the teacher, unsure as to what they have done wrong.

As we become a global community of knowledge, we lose the property rights to such knowledge. The information is out there, part of our collective conscience. Information is readily accessible, learning becomes based on necessity. 21st century students don't understand learning "just in case" or "one day you'll need to know this". No, give 21st century students what they need [tomorrow's knowledge], when they need it [today]. This knowledge can be collected by students, but it is difficult for today's students to evaluate and/or synthesize such large amounts of information. Acquisition is a skill already possessed by most students. Comprehension is still something that can be taught. Students have blind faith in their Internet sources; they do not weight them against their personal values or local circumstances. We must therefore balance the use of technology with the promotion of real-world activities. Students must be able to gauge the effectiveness of tech-info based on its real-world practicality. The only way to make such sound measures is to garner real-world experiences.

But how do we teach students about what really matters? Is it our place? Surely we cannot tell a student what they can/cannot learn when we don't know what will be relevant down the road. But should students decide what matters? Young students may have the world at their fingertips, but they do not have a life's worth of experience to evaluate this world. Perhaps our efforts are best utilized in a compromise between educators' life-experience and students' youthful ambition. These are all convenient philosophical arguments on which we can waste away the day.

In the meantime, other nations have fully invested themselves in the technological age. U. S. students may not know what the 21st century marketplace will look like, but they can be sure it will be globally competitive. We can be sure that if we do not embrace technological literacy and innovation, we will soon find ourselves victim to it. And to ensure the basic competencies of our students, to ensure that they can be employed satisfied adults, we must teach them the skills that matter, the skills that employers might have in demand. These skills will extend beyond tech-savvy, to an adaptive personality that willingly accepts the inevitability and acceleration of global change.

Reading Don't Fix No Chevys

As a teacher I cherish those [few and far between] moments where students have transcended the conflict between learning and work. In these moments students are learning something to satisfy a natural curiosity, there motivation is intrinsic.
Skeptics would question the objective of flow. They wonder if our goal be the pursuit of mastery to the point of mindlessness, or should we continually challenge ourselves in the pursuit of new learning experiences. More importantly, can we do both?

Students can be inspired to learn by the sense of control and competence they receive. Students "own" knowledge, it is their intellectual property. All students like to gain respect or responsibility for their performance. Students are placed above novices as a result of their expertise. This placement validates student efforts and instills a sense of self-worth and pride in one's work. Students will soon find themselves motivated to do more and discover their true potential. In order for students to have a genuine "flow" experience, they must succeed according to universally accepted, objective standards for assessment.It is important that the "flow" experience provides measurable opportunities for this growth and the rewards associated with such growth are not marginalized.

"Flow" learning carries with it the belief that in the moment is that which is most important, relevant and true. while this experience is valid, we must teach students to balance such thinking with dispositions to be planful and reflective.

Congressional Letter

Congressman Garrett,

As a NJ educator, I wanted to take the time to address the pending status of the NCLB federal education program. NCLB has heightened school accountability, increased parental awareness of school performance, and moved towards a more standard U. S. education for children. I am a firm a believer that an equal educational experience for all students is a reasonable mandate and that such a standard helps to insure our democracy. While the principles behind NCLB are congruent with those of any educator, the measures for assessment are lacking. It is therefore my recommendation that NCLB legislation be significantly revised before renewal.

Unlike other professional careers, educators begin each year with the same circumstance, new students. The NCLB mandate presents a similar challenge in 100% proficiency expectation of all New Jersey students by the year 2014. This benchmark sets high expectations for teachers and students but does not recognize certain inevitabilities of education. While we can make some improvement on the abilities of students at every grade level it is unreasonable to expect such improvement to continue. Educators in successful schools throughout the state can expect to see diminishing performance margins as we approach 100%. Statistically relevant target groups dictate the use of financial and human capital. This is to say that certain students are receiving more attention and money than others.

Assessment of what makes a school successful is a hotly debated topic. If we gauge success on purely statistical data then we miss a significant portion of a school's function. Quantitative measures are functional, streamlined, and relevant, but it is the qualitative components of schools that lend themselves more directly to student success.
I would therefore propose the formation of a New Jersey Assessment Committee. This program would oversee the testing of students at every grade level. It would work jointly with the state Curriculum Office and the Department of Education. I would recommend the involvement of teachers, administrators, private test developers, and government officials. This committee could create a more standard state curriculum complete with formal and informal assessment measures for teachers, students, and school bodies. Working jointly, this committee can more clearly ascertain what makes schools successful and create reasonable criteria for assessment.

Public education has long been considered a social experiment. Both teachers and students have been willing participants in this endeavor. Unfortunately the instruments for analysis and criteria for evaluation currently provided by NCLB are not congruent with our shared educational aims. We can work better to provide for the education of New Jersey children. Please consider this message and vote against the renewal of No Child Left Behind legislation.

Regards,



Brian D. Hutchinson

NJCCCS Critique

In reviewing the Core Content Standards from the NJ website, I found several useful pages. The standards are clearly written, and deal with the information students will learn or the tasks they will be able to perform. The greatest value of these standards is maintaining uniform instruction throughout the state. The value of publishing these standards on the Internet is in making parents, teachers, and students aware of the performance expectations for each class or grade level. All told, this page is effective, but certainly open for criticism. Allow me to indulge.

The block quote from A Nation at Risk seems out of place for an official government site. This quote sets an ominous, misrepresentative tone for the linked pages and the standards they address.

I do not agree with the placement of human development skills in the Career Education and Consumer, Family and Life Skills. If this sounds like a jumbled mess, it’s because it is. The classes In reality, these topics are addressed through home-economics, career counseling classes, that have a very frail identity or purpose unto themselves.
Among the standards that should be considered are self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, work ethic, and morals. I feel that these universal standards should be featured more prominently on the page. They should be considered with the same care given to discipline-specific content standards.

I also feel that consideration should be given to developing the worldview and self-identity of each student. We cordon our standards by classical disciplines, but there is little regard given to the idea that these disciplines make up the larger human experience. To its credit, the Introduction page states, “Although the standards have been organized into separate academic disciplines, this is not meant to imply that each standard can only be met through content-specific courses.” Yet this still does not explain the utility of meeting performance standards across disciplines. Further, it does recognize that there is value to establishing perspectives that transcend classical disciplinary divisions. The standards for math, science, language arts, and history are content-driven; even when these standards discuss student behaviors the language is rarely consistent across subjects. Students must be expected to fuse these disciplines into a larger, practical understanding of their world. From such a perspective, the value of content standards comes not in their substance, but in the ability for students to connect learning across disciplines or throughout time periods.

Sabretooth Curriculum

“He knew how to do things his community needed to have done, and he had the energy and will to go ahead and do them. By virtue of these characteristics he was an educated man.”

New-Fist recognizes that progress is defined by our ability to improve on each generation’s performance, not to repeat it. Such thinking leads us to more secular notions of self-determination. While this creates practical doers, it does somewhat reduce the awe and appreciation students might have for those who have come before. A balance is therefore necessary between investing in the present, understanding the past, and preparing for the future.

He establishes an objective goal, to have children better prepared for the challenges of adulthood than the current elders were. He then created the three specific objectives to reach that goal, fish-grabbing, horse-clubbing, and tiger-scaring. These objectives proved worthy in that when they were met children were more likely to survive. Educational goals and curricular standards prove to be functional when we can prove their use in society. It is because our society constantly changes that curriculum must continually evolve to remain relevant. We should teach our children contemporary skills, and moreso teach them to realize that their skills must continually improve/change to meet the demands of the time.

At the same time we should always respect opinions of those who feel threatened by progress. This threat is actually concern for future generations that while technologically adept, may be lacking in the perspective or appreciation of how things came to be. The Y2K scare came about because computer codes had been written atop one another for 50 years . As we approached the year 2000, there were very few computer techs familiar with the initial code used as the foundation for future operations. There was a great degree of unraveling needed and suddenly old skills became relevant again.

We must be trained to use practical skills for our times, but maintain perspective as to why these skills are now relevant.

180

For kicks one year, a fellow teacher and I had once created a school-year calendar of excuses that children could not learn on a particular day. Distractions ranged from the Christmas holiday, Student Council elections, day after the Super Bowl, etc. I found the short film “180” to parallel the ideas found in that calendar.

Teachers know that education is about quality, not quantity. Time on-task is probably one of the prime indicators of student success in a particular classroom. “Days on task” should then be the measure we use when analyzing the effectiveness of the schedule. Schools have made great strides to improve instruction through professional development, new textbooks, new staff, even new subjects.

Through all of this reform, education clings to its standard schedule Though its primary function is outdated, Americans still like their summer break, Labor Day last hurrah, and return to school. Spiral curriculum and semester long overlaps have been designed into curricula in order to accommodate this large break. Just as so many measures have been created with students’ best interest in mind so too may have come the time for this concern to be evidence in our schedule.

Change in Education

American education carries with it the most ambitious agenda in the world. To educate everyone, to provide opportunity for a meritocratic society...these ideas are grounded in our national values but become difficult to manage at local levels. To quote John Dewey, "To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness." Seeing that opportunity secured equally for all, that takes time. And preventing social imbalance sometimes means progressing more slowly as an institution.

It is because we must cater to all that education progresses so slowly. Public schools work with every student to develop the entire person. These student have countless differences and experiences along with countless motivations and goals. To focus on one type of student or one educational aim would be to compromise another. Because we believe in education of the masses all students must be able to succeed, all paths must be kept open.

Magnet and charter schools have grown in popularity in part because they are more efficient at meeting student needs. They create populations that are more homogeneous and are therefore able to streamline curriculum, materials, and staff to meet student needs. In some cases these schools have compromised the spectrum of learning somewhat to more directly match student interest. Public schools,

Add to this the dichotomy between progressives and conservatives. Is education a job training program, or the cultivation of cultural literacy? Such debate, and our democratic forum to do so, keeps education from progressing quickly. Yet it does ensure that public education will never wander too far from the intent of the public

Quieting the Mind

I was struck by the quote, "Parents and teachers tell kids 100 times to pay attention...But we never teach them how." I like the idea of trying to make students more efficient by making them self-aware. Children are impulsive by nature and if we can get them to consider their actions, or to be aware of their emotional state, then many of their costly decisions can be thwarted.

I have seen relaxation therapy done with students in an afterschool detention program. For the most part, it was effective. Students would still get themselves riled up afterwards, but they would at least learn effective management techniques for the future.

We should also note how technology can run counter to this aim. The fast-paced media society we live in compels students to move quickly, thoughtlessly. Relaxation and mindfulness techniques are all the more relevant, but perhaps only as a counter to the hyper-speed at which the rest of a child's life is paced. It is sound practice to look to improve the concentration of our students. We should look to optimize the learning environment and the mindset of our students.

We must at the same time recognize that every year we get a series of new students and the process must begin again. While we can improve procedures and implement new techniques, we cannot make students grow up any faster. Our success should not then be gauged based on the elimination of student distractions, but by gradual improvement in the grade level behaviors of students.

Prensky Challenge

Prensky's vision is all too radical for education. If I were to share this with colleagues, I would be chided. Prensky himself is probably regarded as a radical, someone without a realistic vision of what education is really like. These type of visionaries have nice ideas, but they don't understand the everyday challenges teachers encounter, they don't understand the friction educational ideas encounter in their journey from principle to practice. And it is because of his naive idealistm that his challenge should be considered.

Prensky is valuable in that he calls schools to "get different" not "get better" at what they do. He views education in terms of what could be; a visionary model. Prensky proposes innovation as a driving force, not popular acceptance. He lets that which most benefits students guide his thinking, not established curriculum. Most educators, administrators, etc. view schools as the management of status quo, with targeted improvement goals along the way. Such thinking leads staff to "act like teachers" instead of teaching kids to learn. This type of thinking is flawed in that it focuses on what education has been as opposed to dreaming what it could be. It leads to ever-diminishing returns and reduced staff motivation.

I really like the idea of students working together to achieve a common goal. The students recognize the task at hand, and are able to work each day with a tangible goal. I also like the idea of the technology-driven 2nd semester. Students will get real-world training; they will understand why it is valuable to learn to use technology. The one area of caution is in removing a natural incentive for work. We should not ignore the merit in a job well-done. Students who are too often driven to work by some reward will eventually find themselves unfulfilled, then unmotivated.

I would hope that Prensky's value might not be in changing education to meet his challenge, but by contributing insight and innovation to an all too stagnant national curricular agenda.