Looking Back

Looking back at the coursework from our Strategies for Curriculum Change, I realized that I got the chance to throw away what I was expecting of this class from the get go. The general programs here at MSU are so straight-forward and by the book. We read from our texts and then spent 45 hours being lectured. We then perform a project that gets put together in the span of a few weeks that is nto useful for our craft. Well, this class was actually different. Did we do a lot of small assignments just to check our understanding? Yes, we did. However, we performed these tasks using creative and exciting technologies that actually made the work fun. Making a slam, writing a couple weekly blog entries, working on a collaborative essay. I have to say I cannot wait to integrate these ideas into my Middle School classroom [I am currently pending administrative approval for blog usage.] I have learned new, practical techniques for my classroom.

Secondly, and more directly I might add, I learned that when assessing a building's curricula, it is imperative for a new administrator to assess the hidden curriculum from within the building. Elementary Schools, Middle Schools and High Schools are living, breathing entities that are different from one another. It is important for an administrator to fully grasp the feelings that a school building engenders in its student population. I never thought about the value that the unwritten curriculum holds on the student body.

Orange

The involvement level of the staff of Orange Middle School strikes me as different from many other inner schools. The difference shows in their interest to develop a plan of action to aid their student’s growth. The staff members know that students need to connect to teachers in order to learn. The Orange Middle School wants to develop more administrators who wish to foster a sense of community to allow the non-existent family ties to appear in the classroom. Setting up small learning communities is a great idea to help reach students in a smaller forum.


I think it would greatly benefit the students in Orange if the school building was to establish more ways to keep the students off of the street. What I mean is, if the school develops intramural sports or helps develop more extracurricular activities, the student’s will feel like a stronger part of a school family which is very valuable for student’s who may not have a strong family life at home.

Mapping

I think that the curriculum mapping plan can be beneficial for a district to keep tabs on continuity across the content in each class in the building. The problems with this program appear to me to be twofold. 1) This program relies greatly on teacher buy in. If teachers do not follow through, trying to map them together will not work and can crumble the program. 2) I think there is great fault in school district’s looking to change over to mapping plans as I feel that many schools struggle to implement changes appropriately.
Districts that have several buildings that teach the same grade would seem to also struggle with them across buildings. It would take a lot of time working inter-building-ly [I made up a word]. I can see my district attempting to adopt this policy while not following through at all. What I mean is, it seems like a good idea so our school system would jump at the idea to look better than the other local districts. They would not, however, offer assistance on how to align the programs across our four elementary schools.