Final Blog

When I started this class I was excited because it was one of the last classes I had in the program. I came into class expecting that we would be given several readings that vaguely related to current concepts in the classroom and write several papers on how they related to administration. This class broke that mold and gave me a new perspective on curriculum.

The class not only talked about how to be a change agent, but also showed us how to be a change agent. The class illustrated how curriculum should be a living document that challenges the student to think and spread that knowledge. The use of various technologies and methods illustrated the many ways in which we can impact change in our classroom. I think the class expanded the way I think about curriculum and illustrated how it can be an agent of change.

I think the lesson about understanding by design was extremely valuable. By creating the lesson I was able see how the big ideas should drive the lesson. I have tried to implement more of understanding by design into classroom, which has brought more focus to my lessons. Instead of having asking students to recite every step in a cycle, I want students to be able to give me the general idea about the concept and be able to explain why it is important. I feel that in today’s age students can always look up the information, but they need to be able to explain and justify their answers.

Curriculum change has not only changed my ideas about curriculum, but also shifted my views of technology. It has expanded my technology skills and shown that it needs to play an intragal part in schools.

Orange Middle School

I think that Orange is taking steps in the right direction. Breaking up the middle school into small learning communities allows teachers to focus on a set group of students and track their progress. Allowing these teams to meet enables them to focus on strategies that might help the students. I also agree with the school extending math to an eighty-minute block, but the school should ensure that the teachers are prepared to use that time effectively. As stated in the reading, middle school students are restless and need to have physical activity. The teachers should have lessons that allow the students to get up and move throughout the period to keep the students focused. The teacher throwing around the basketball is a good example of activities that will allow the students to remain engaged. The administration should also look to infuse some bullying and social skill workshops for the students that might decrease the social problems in the school.

Curriculum Mapping

I view a curriculum map as a diagnostic tool that the district uses to determine the areas that need improvement. The district uses the curriculum map to determine if there is a difference between what is taught and what should be taught. The curriculum map allows districts to see if the curriculum is meeting the needs of the students and ensure that the curriculum does not have any gaps between years.

My school is limited in their use of curriculum mapping. When developing curriculum the district allows teachers of all grade levels to come together and discuss the skills that are necessary for each grade. This is limited to the specific subject area. The science teachers do not talk to the math teachers about the skills the students might need at a particular grade. This means that the science teacher could require students to perform math problems that they do not have a basis for in the curriculum. I believe that the district should start looking at mapping the curriculum by subject areas.

I feel that curriculum mapping allows district to see the need for curriculum change. The mapping allows for districts to find holes in their curriculum that could be fixed by modifying the curriculum.

Online Reflection

Online Reflection

I think that the online classes were a nice change to attending class every week. The power points, movies, and other various assignments made the online classes interesting. I think that the format of having a regular class every other week allowed for assignments to be clarified. This experience has also showed me that I would not want to solely take online classes due to the lack of social interaction with a real class. I feel the regular class meeting provide a better format for discussing issues facing education and provided students an opportunity to debate the issues.

UBD Reflection

UBD Lesson Reflection

I think that the UBD concept is an important way in which to teach a lesson, however the UBD format did not make sense. Each teacher should look at what the big picture in a unit. This allows teacher to drive their implementation of the curriculum rather then the book dictating what the teacher should teach. As a new teacher, I was following the book and did not use the curriculum or the big ideas to help me teach. I was concerned about the students regurgitating the knowledge in the book and it was not until I had a few years of experience that I started to look at the big ideas. Focusing on the big ideas allows teachers to teach more effectively. Before planning a unit, I try to find the important big ideas that I want the students to understand when they leave my class.
I found the UBD format very confusing and that I could repeat concept or student objectives multiple times. I could not make a distinction between what the students would understand, will know or will be able to do. It seemed that they were asking for the same concept. In order to plan a true UBD lesson I would need to understand the difference between the U, K, and S columns.

UBD Lesson

Stage 1 Desired Results

Establish Goals: Analyze the three sub-atomic particles that make up all atoms.
Standard 5.6.8.A.1
Describe the history of the atom and all matter is made up of atoms.
Standard: 5.6.8.A.1 and 5.1.8B.1-3

Students will understand that:
Atoms are made of protons, neutrons, and electrons.
The experiments scientist’s used in order to construct their model of the atom.
The current model of the atom was based on other models.

Essential Questions:
How did each model of the atom help the next model?
What were the experiments used to determine the models of the atom?
Where is the location and charge of the protons, neutrons, and electrons?

Students will know:
The location and charge of all sub-atomic particles.

Student will be able to:
Draw the location of protons, neutrons, and electrons.
Determine the charge of the protons, neutrons, and electrons.
Trace the history and progression of the atom.

Stage 2- Assessment Evidence

Performance Tasks:
Students will create a booklet or power point presentation that outlines the history of the atom. The booklet will include the name of the model, the experiment used to create the model, and an explanation of how the new model differs from the one before.

Other Evidence:
Quiz on various models
Drawings of the current model.

Stage 3- Learning Plan

Learning Activities:
Students will be broken up into groups to research a model and answer key questions. Students will then share their answer with each other.
Complete atomic model outline.
Review the experiments for each model through a series of demonstrations.
Complete a drawing of the current atom.

Results Now

I am shocked about the statistics that was put forth about the article. After reading the article as I walked down the hall I started to peek into classrooms to see if there was any truth to the study. I found the exact opposite to what the studies findings. Many of the classrooms had activities in which the student was involved in the lessons. Teachers were challenging students to think on a higher level. I feel all schools have a few teachers that are described in the article, but most are constantly trying to improve themselves. It would be great if it were easy for an administration could terminate the teacher that does nothing in their classroom, but I also think that tenure has benefits. I believe that the buffer that is between education and the public is sometimes necessary. In my school too many parents believe that they know how things should be taught in the classroom. Without this buffer, teaching would be extremely difficult. As with any profession we constantly need to improve ourselves and I see many teachers always looking for new effective methods to educate their students. I think the article focuses on the negative aspects that we are all trying to fix and doesn’t focus on the positive aspects or the challenges that occur within the classroom.

Did You Know

I think the Did You Know video highlights that the world is moving at an extremely fast pace which is only going to get faster. I feel that change can be seen in many aspect of life. Yesterday was our district’s professional development day in which we were all trained on how to use the new smart boards, united streaming, and the updated version of our website software. When I started teaching these tools were not accessible to teachers because of the cost. Now these items are becoming more prevalent in the classroom. Each one of these instruments can be a powerful tool in aiding instruction. I feel that the main problem is that by the time you master the technology it has changed to become obsolete. I feel that there are so many tools that educators can use that you are sometimes overwhelmed by the choice.
This is also true for the curriculum that we teach. During my junior year of college I took a genetics course that highlighted some the cutting edge research and breakthroughs in the field. Two years later I was looking though the seventh grade textbook and the same material was being taught in seventh grade. I feel that education is constantly pushing more advanced material to the younger grades because there is so much information that is out there.
This poses a challenge to educators. Since the world is constantly changing I feel that education should be more focused on instilling the big ideas into children instead of trying to have them memorize the material. I think children should be taught how to take a problem, ask the proper questions to obtain vital information, and find solutions to those problems. Each child should have strong communication skills and the ability to work together to solve a problem. If we put these concepts into our lessons we would give the student the skills they need in the future. As the video shows, what we are teaching today will be ancient history in a few years.
This constant change not only requires flexible teachers and administrator, but also the dedication of the students and community. Parents need to become a partner in the child’s education. The community also has to financially support the school districts. I feel that we are asking our schools to prepare the students for the future, while continually trying to cut funding for these programs.

Flow

I think that in a classroom you have a balance of all the experiences around you. I think flow would allow students to be totally immersed in their work. This flow allows students to generate a passion about learning and make a deep connection with the material. Flow also has some dangers. It could allow people only to gain knowledge of what they like to experience and prevent them from being exposed to great outside experiences. I liken this to allowing children to make their own decisions about what to eat. If it were up to kids they would probably only eat ice cream and cookies because they love to eat it. Parents have to balance a kids diet because we know that ice cream all the time is not good for you. As teachers our job is to expose students to numerous experiences that they might not be subject to in their everyday lives. We also understand that flow plays an instrumental role in these experiences. Our challenge to take all the lessons in our classroom and create some type of flow around them. I try to encourage flow by having fun labs that coordinate with the science curriculum. This generates excitement about the lesson and allows students to make deeper connections with the material.

Classroom Time

I think that the 180 days video is fairly accurate. Over the past few years the administration at my school has decreased the number of assemblies due to the amount of class time that is missed during the year. The school was having an assembly a month along with all the other special events that occurred during the year (book sales, flower sales, pictures, etc.). Many times teachers were missing the same periods, which caused some periods to be a few weeks behind. This caused the school rotate periods during testing and put assemblies during all parts of the day to prevent student from missing the same subject repeatedly. I think administrator need to be cognizant of when they schedule assemblies so the students don’t miss the same subject repeatedly.

The Saber-Tooth Curriculum

I feel that the saber-tooth curriculum article summarizes the struggle that is constantly occurring in education. Education is constantly trying to determine the skills that children need in order to become productive members of society. I see a similar situation to the saber-tooth curriculum occurring within my school’s library. Every eighth grade student is required to write a term paper and learn these skills from the English and Library teacher. The library teacher insists that the students learn how to obtain information for their paper from encyclopedias and other bound resources within the library. She maintains that the students will develop the proper techniques for gathering information and take proper notes. While I feel that the students will benefit from these lessons, but solely using bound books is just like students learning to catch fish with their hands in muddy waters. The teacher should give the student the knowledge to collect and organize research, but allow them to use current forms of media that is commonly used in today’s society. Many of the students should be using the Internet and computers to assist them in obtaining the best information for their projects. Education should give students the fundamental skills, but in a way that relates to real world situations. This connection would show students the importance of learning the material.

State Website

I think the state website has some use for teachers, but is of little value to the community. The website allows teachers to find the standards that they must meet in their classroom. The standards provide very little guidance to the teacher because many of them are very broad. I feel that many of the standards can be met with a few days of instruction. The website does give teachers some activities that help meet the standards set forth by the state. These activities can aid the teachers by giving them supporting materials and providing some focus to the standards. The ease of access also allows teachers to check other cross-curricular standards that might be met during the school year.

I think that the website is of little worth to the community. The website does allow the community to check and ensure that the district is meeting the standards set forth by the state. The website might give parents a general idea of what should be taught at each grade level, but it would be difficult for a parent to say the standard was not met by the district because the standards are so broad.

Change

I think that change is so slow because we as a nation, state, or even school do not have a constant goal in mind. I feel that many long time educators are resistant to change, because we have been asked to change many times without a constant goal in mind. When I started at my school we had block scheduling to increase the language arts periods. Two years ago the administration felt that middle school students could not stay focused for that extended amount of time and moved away from block scheduling. This year we went back to blocks because we have a new administrator who believes in block scheduling. I feel that this drastic movement from one side of the pendulum to the other is typical in education. Whole language vs. Grammar and solving vs. estimating math problem shows this constant movement back and forth. I think that veteran teachers resist change because they have seen education move one way and when the new administrators take office we move directly back to what we had. I feel that many changes occurs just to be a line on someone's resume. Change would happen quickly if it occurred from the bottom up and was designed to meet the goals of the school. I think that the quote from Taking Stock: What does research say about Technologies Impact on Education? makes my point.

“Q- Why do you think change is so slow? I believe I’ve heard you quoted as saying that technology will never make headway in schools because of resistance on the part of teachers.

A- No, I would us the word “resistance.” That’s an administrator’s term. Teachers don’t resist. They’re not saboteurs. They simply realize that the costs of adopting technology are very high and many of them don’t like it. “Adaptation” is a better word. Most technology initiatives are top-down. Many teachers want to use technology, but others don’t because the people who make the decisions for them don’t understand their need. ( Cuban, Salpter)”

Teachers will change as long as there is a clear goal that is in the best interest of the school.

Taking Stock: What does research say about Technologies Impact on Education? Technology and Learning.

Prensky Challenge

I think the Pesky Challenge would establish a school that would be every educator’s dream. The students come to class with a strong desire to learn the material. Students would help each other learn the material that would build a learning environment in which all students are striving for a common good. Teachers would support the student’s efforts, but it is the student’s responsibility to learn the material.
Unfortunately I feel that this school is just a dream. I feel that this school would only serve the students who are a type A personality. I think that all the students would start the year trying to learn all the material, but I don’t think their efforts would not be sustained. We are becoming a society of instant gratification and I feel that within a few weeks many of the students would lose focus of the long term “reward”. This school also is under the impression that every student can master all the skills. How would special education students be able to master a whole years curriculum in only half the year? What if one student who was fooling around all semester failed the test and everyone else passed?
This challenge reminds me of my first year teaching in which my 6th grade class had do a science fair project. The students were asked to pick any topic in science and create a project on the topic by a certain date. They were allowed to pick their groups and they needed to work on their project outside of school. When the science fair arrived I had students rushing to complete the project, student’s complaining that one person did more work than another, and I did not receive the quality of projects that I desired. The next year I developed a structure in which each student was assigned a role, I created a series of dates to check the project, and I meet with each group to check for understanding. This allowed for a better quality project than the first year because many students have difficulty managing time and breaking down a project.
I thing the Pesky Challenge is a great dream, but the reality of it is that it would never work.