Chapters 1-4

     Heidi Jacobs makes several important point in her first few chapters, which she supports with examples and evidence. 

     The first major point she explains is how the state systems are in parallel universes in the United States. Educational standards vary across the country and are wide-ranging. We too often focus on testing, and teaching to the test opposed to empowering students with knowledge through making it meaningful and relevant. Policymakers and education leaders need to make choices to develop a plan to reform the education system. We need to stop talking about making a change, but start making choices and progress towards improvement. 

     Teachers are using the same dated content, assessments, and materials they have been using for years. The dated material needs to be thrown out and replaced with new essential curriculum. If teachers strive to update one or two units per trimester and incorporate technology, soon all of the units will be updated and engaging for students. I personally am I firm believes of every journey begins with the first step. It is vital that we begin omitting what it not important and relevant from curriculum and establish 21st century curriculum for our always changing world. I think it would be less overwhelming if teachers made a goal to update at least one unit per trimester, and it will become easier with practice and experience. Teachers need to work with their IT members to learn what software and internet-based capabilities they have in their districts, then collaborate ways to use it for instruction and assessment purposes. 

     Schedules was another important topic Heidi addressed in her first few chapters. The scheduling frame often does not match the nature of the tasks teachers are assigning. Teachers are planning to fit inside time periods opposed to authentic, meaningful content and presentation of it. We need to focus on teaching in depth opposed to breath so students can connect with their learning and develop a love for learning. This because stressful with the numerous CCSS we are expected to cover each school year. To solve this program, we can create interdisciplinary unit plans. 

     Although there are many areas where our school system needs reform, one important aspect I learned from this course is that the United States is doing better than many countries. Our school system is not failing, but it can always improve. It is important that we are proactive and positive simultaneously. Also, that we progress towards improvement and make changes and decisions opposed to just having discussions and discussing the negative. 

Highlights

I enjoyed taking this class because I can use so much what I have learned immediately starting this new school year. The major realization I had was that there is so much more to curriculum development than I originally had been aware. Curriculum is not just what students are taught but it also encompasses professional development opportunities for teachers, methods of pedagogy, key competencies, empowering students with values, preparing students to develop a love for learning and strive to be life-long learners, global socialization, sustainability for the future, technology incorporation, involving parents and the community, and so much more.

The necessity for technology incorporation in the classroom was my favorite part of the course. With today's society, it is vital that students are competent in using technology and connecting with the world through it. I am excited to have had the experience have use podcasts, video casts, voice threads, blogs, and more. I was glad to have the opportunity to use them in this class prior to having my students experiment with them. Technology engages students and gives them choice for projects. Both technology and choice are two engaging options to motivate students.  I learned the reasons technology has not already been used more in the classroom and ways to empower coworkers to incorporate it.

I really enjoyed the comparative assignment and researching New Zealand's curriculum. New Zealand has a successful school system which I feel is a model for the United States to use strive towards during our education reform. I learned there is not one right way for curriculum development but a multitude of options. The goal is to link state standards with the needs and interests of the school.

Educating for a sustainable future and global competence were two topics which stood out to me. It is vital for students to know how the world works and their role in keeping our earth healthy and the future of next generations. Students need to be globally knowledgable. With technology advances today, it is likely many of them will have jobs where they work with colleagues from around the world. Using google hangout and blogs, students can have conversations with students from anywhere in the world. Diversity should be celebrating in all classrooms and this is a wonderful opportunity. There are even instructors who teach foreign languages through skype which I could show on my smartboard. We could also have google hangout sessions where we interview people from the different cultures we are learning about in class.

There is so much more I will be taking from this course, but those are the highlights which I connected with and will be able to use in my classroom beginning the start of this school year. I plan to continue to use this blog to share my thoughts, questions, and opinions for what I experience in the classroom with the new tools I have acquired from this course, and also future courses. I can use this blog as a reflection to reread my ideas and share them with colleagues. It would be awesome if I could convince my grade level team to also start blogs so we can collaborate together through blogging.

Technology & Learning

  There are different areas of need in the curriculum for my district. The most prominent in my opinion is the lack of technology incorporation. There are many teachers who rarely use any technology at all where it is not a requirement. I thought the Digital Dossier video has a key message that students are absorbed in technology even prior to their birth!
   I decided to research the reason educators have not embedded technology into their classrooms and how to solve this issue. I found there were various reasons. Amongst many were that educators are fearful and  not confident using the technology. They haven't had adequate training on the equipment. Principals frequently fear technology because they are afraid it will break,  students will get on inappropriate websites,  cyberbullying, etc. Principals need to be the leaders of this drive opposed to making anti-technology policies. The last major reason was the lack of equipment.  Technology equipment should be a priority in school districts. There are various donors, grants,  and programs available to support schools.

Common Core State Standards

     I feel that there are some advantages and disadvantages to the Common Core State Standards. They are advantageous where they are adopted by most states which puts us all in the same starting place. When students are learning different information in different grades this causes a challenge for students who move, and I know that a great population of students move at some point in their school life. In Massachusetts where I went to third grade, they taught a huge unit on the continents in 4th grade. In Maine at the school I went to in 4th grade, they did the major continent unit in 3rd grade. I missed it which made geography a big challenge for me in the beginning of middle school. Cursive was taught differently in the two school districts which was a struggle for me for a few years after I moved to Maine. I find CCSS to be a resource which is a guide for instruction but is not too restrictive. Teachers can use different curriculum and personalization and still use the standards. The number of standards is overwhelming though.
      I was intrigued when reading Marion Brady's article. She did have some important points in my opinion. The first part which stood out to me was that an issue with CCSS is the lack of emphasis of habits of mind. When I was researching New Zealand I found they have a national curriculum which had key competencies and values embedded into the curriculum which I would like to see emphasized in the CCSS opposed to just subject knowledge. The other point she made was that CCSS does not directly address the issues of why students are struggling in school. I feel that outside factors such as poverty are a major contributor to student success. We need to find a way to improve these outside factors as a nation.

Global Competence, Motivation, & Technology Integration

The first quote which stood out to me was, "U.S. students are woefully ignorant of other world cultures, international issues, and foreign languages (pg. 97). Vivien Stewart discussed how our students are going to be left behind if they do not have the new global context in mind. I believe that in order for students to be successful in life after school they need to have world competence to be employed in this global age. "Already, one in five U.S. jobs are tied to international trade, a proportion that will continue to increase (U.S. census Bureau, 2004, pg. 99). 

On page 105, Stewart gave specific examples of how to integrate international content into each curriculum area which demonstrates how easily this can be incorporated by educators. On page 111, she recommended framework changes essential for the states to consider to support this drive. 

Another quote which stood out to me was, "How do educators move students from this low-level mind of just making good grades- or worse yet, from not even valuing thier academic "graded" experiences at all- to personally experiencing the excitement that is the very essence of learning?" I can easily connect with this statement, because in almost every class I have ever taken- my priority was to get an "A." I enjoy learning the material, but I worry about my grades far more than a deep understanding of the material. I feel this is similar for the majority of students. The classes I enjoyed most in college were the two courses where the first thing the professor said was, "I want you to do the work for you and not for me. Don't worry about your grade, we'll figure it out at the end and as long as you work hard, you'll be fine." This is something I haven't reflected nearly enough in my own classroom. Chapter 7 made me reflect on this and brainstorm goals for this coming year! We need to find ways to maximize student achievement and have students establish a love for learning and strive to be life-long learners. 

I loved how at Malbury School the principal motivated the students by telling them that exemplary work would be placed into a global distribution where people could see it around the world. This also gives students a global voice! How empowering!! I also loved the suggestion by Tim Tyson to broadcast and record daily teaching so students and parents can view it at home if they have trouble with homework and it can also be used the following year as homework to give more time for other endeavors during the school day. The biggest challenge for me is that all of my student do not have computers or the internet at home. Hopefully this will change over the next few years as technology becomes even more prominent in society. 

Ravitch Article

     I was truly intrigued by Diane Ravitch's article, The Myth of Charter Schools. When I first began reading the article I was discouraged thinking it was another article criticizing public schools. It was empowering to read an article which was encouraging for public school employees. I enjoyed learning the contrast and misconceptions between public and charter schools.
     First, I just want to say that I am appalled by some of the behavior of charter schools. I cannot believe it was overlooked in the production of the movie that Geoffrey Canada kicked out the first class of middle school students that didn't get good enough test scores. Those poor middle schoolers! I guarantee they are disempowered far more than the average public school students. I find it preposterous that the charter schools are bragging about being prestigious when they only accept the top performing students, have ample education resources, and dismiss students from the schools just prior to state testing whom they think will hurt their school's reputation. If public schools were only assessed on their top performing students, obviously they would have better test results. I agree with Ravitch when she says, "If all inner-city schools had the same resources as his (Geoffrey Canada), they met get the same results." I am quite confident they would have much better results!
      Teachers are an important factor within schools, however there are various outside factors which directly relate to student success in school. Ravitch wrote, "Teachers statistically account for around 10-20 percent of achievement outcomes. According to University of Washington economist Dan Goldhaber, students' backgrounds, families, and factors outside of the control of the teacher accounts for 60 percent of student achievement." Where teachers only have 10-20 percent of the achievement outcome, it is essential that we focus on improving these outside factors in students' lives to improve achievement. I do believe teachers can always improve also, but they should not be solely to blame for the problems in the public school system!

Rethinking Curriculum for the 21st Century

     In chapter 13, I was empowered by Costa and Kallick's push for students to become lifelong learners. Teacher's need to reform their teaching from information providers to coaches for the learning process as discussed on page 226. This is one area I could improve in my teaching profession. I would like to focus on spending less time preparing the information for students and more time on encouraging the students to obtain the information and question the concepts for a more in-depth understanding of the material. This is a mind shift which will take time for me to develop automaticity.
     When reading about the metacognitive staircase, it seemed similar to Bloom's taxonomy. The metacognitive staircase has different levels similar to the levels within the domains of Bloom's taxonomy. Higher level thinking is increased throughout the levels of each. Both Bloom's taxonomy and the Metacognitive Staircase have invitational questions to elicit the level of thinking for each step. Costa and Kallick wrote, "Teaching students to think more critically, creatively, and skillfully should also include teaching them to think independently and spontaneously (pg 217). I feel that this is an emphasis of Bloom's Taxonomy and the Metacogonitive Staircase!
     I found the 16 Habits of Mind to be an accurate list of necessary behaviors for students to become thoughtful in learning and in life. I plan to emphasize these habits in my classroom to encourage students to use these skillful behaviors to accentuate their learning. I am thinking we can use the 16 Habits of Mind as a guide for an anchor chart which I will display on the classroom wall and refer back to regularly.