Alternative Education

A few weeks ago a teacher came to me and told me that a student with whom I had developed a good relationship with was struggling. In fact the chances of them graduating was slim at that point and it frustrated me so much because this was not the first student who needed a second chance at learning. Over the last few years I have become the teacher you go to when it seems that you have hit a dead end because regardless of what you have done or where you are at I won't give up on any student. So in looking for solutions for these students I began to look at alternatives in education and learning environments.

I call them learning environments because they are not traditional settings. These "classrooms" can be anything and they seek to find a way for students and teachers to develop a much more personal relationship. These new environments focus on the relationships and building trust with the student so that the appreciate learning again. The fact that students are able to see that they are trusted, respected, and surrounded by people who care about their success goes a long way in the students believing in themselves and their success.

To track or not...

For many years there has been a heated debate over whether or not to track students. After reading several articles I have come to the following conclusions:

1. Tracking is beneficial to higher level students when they have a strong peer group to build relationships with through out their schooling.

2. Tracking has only negative affects if students are ability grouped and those ability groups cause students to be shuffled to low income and low achieving schools.

What I found interesting is that the trends are moving towards allowing high achieving students to be accelerated into high levels thus reducing the need for grouping. If students are allowed to accelerate into higher grade levels slowly by taking a few college classes at the high school level, a few high school classes at the middle school level, and then preschool before moving them up to kindergarten early there is greater success.

The biggest issue is making sure that students are moved as a peer group so that they can have a support group to work with until they become comfortable in their surroundings. This also cuts down on their undervaluing of their own self-worth.

For students of low-income and ability the issue is the fact that they are shuttled into schools and classes that receive less aid therefore they do not get the best materials or teaching. That is not to say that all low-income students are underachieving but it is harder to be recognized because there is a great number of students at this income level thus less time is spent testing or analyzing these scores. It has been shown however that lower ability tracked classrooms who have dedicated teachers can achieve high test scores if their teacher develops the curriculum for the class. Teachers that adjust the curriculum individually for lower ability students tend to show the most progress with those students.

I still agree with the concept of tracking and I know that I am in a minority these days but I feel that students who are given a chance to excel in homogeneous grouping will allow for better teaching and learning opportunities.

Battling Technology...

As a self proclaimed techno junkie I am the first to jump onto anything new I can bring into the classroom to engage the students in new ways. The biggest challenge is for me to bring other staff members into the techno world. Some of my fellow staff members are so set in their ways that they don't even want to hear about the new technology out there that might really engage their students. As technology and our students grow in technology we are becoming more stewards to the world for our students. We need for teachers to also let students run with the technology and help others to learn it in the classroom. Students can be our greatest assets in integrating our classrooms and finding new ways to learn with technology. I ask teachers on a daily basis what are you doing or have you used this new software? I go out and find new things for people to try in order to engage them more but even that is too much technology for them. Teachers are going to have to begin embrace technology or begin to fall behind.

Why is curriculum planning so hard

After my first semi-failed attempt at curriculum mapping I have realized why it is so hard to get teachers to talk about their curriculum, they are scared. I think it all boils down to nobody wants to take a hard look at their personal curriculum because it means opening themselves up for critique. I tried to get my department members to simply looked at what they teach each year so that we could re-align our curriculum to make sure that we are all teaching the same things at the same time but instead I got excuses. The most common reasoning is that we don't have set curriculum that has been handed down so left to our own devices we could not possibly set a curriculum tight enough to all follow it together. I think this is just another excuse and that if we were to work together as a team we could set up an amazing curriculum because I know I work with talented teachers who are brilliant. Maybe it is the extra work or the fact that we have written and rewritten curriculum year after year to meet the newest trend but for once I feel that this writing of the curriculum is the right thing to do. I am going to try to sit down again this time one on one to assess were we are so that we can really do the students the justice they deserve.

expecting more then the basics

There are some days when my students surprise me in a way that make me want to run out and tell everyone how amazing they are and how much they are learning. Of course there are other days when I want to bang my head against a wall because I can't seem to get them beyond the basics of the lesson. I have so many students who are willing to just get by with their learning and it is so frustrating to me to constantly watch bright kids settle for so little.

It was after a particularly hard day of teaching or more like preaching about a concept in chemistry that I decided to stop in the middle of one class and ask them why they did care to reach beyond the basics. The response I got was one of those surprising moments, "because nobody cares if we do." Which I immediately knew was false and so I asked why my students felt that way and that answers was just as surprising,"because teachers move on to get through the material no matter what." I never really thought about it that way before, it was never because I did not care if the student undstood it is was more about my thinking they did not care so they blew me off.

While reading this book and that conversation I decided to take a new approach...talking more with my students than to my students. I do not accept the blank stares or the shrugs, I ask them to teach me the concepts and to try new projects that the students decide. I am more class led than teacher driven. Who knows if this will work but I figure it is better to try everything rather than to constantly fail and complain about students lack of learning.

The science curriculum flow

So somewhere along the way it was decided that students should take earth/physical science, biology, chemistry, and physics in that order for all college bound students. While many schools only require 2 or 3 science credits to graduate they still stick to this dogmatic approach to earning the credits. I don't believe that we are truly helping students making them take certain courses in a prescribed order.

My suggestion is to give students more of a choice in their selections. I think earth and physical science are a logical place to begin but maybe let them try physics as a sophomore. Many of the concepts while based in math are not so difficult that students could not understand them with an algebra basis. One of the complaints I get year after year is that they don't get enough say in their classes and if they got to make more decisions they would get more out of the process.

Another thought is to have students take integrated classes for earth science and physics and then their sophomore year have them take chemistry and biology integrated. This allows students to specialize their Junior and Senior years. Students become more invested in their education and thus gain more from the experience. I think that the most important piece of all of this conjecture is that we need to explore the best options for students to gain the best experience of science education.

How do you determine what students should take...

I was tasked last staff meeting to determine what classes my students should take next year and I am a little nervous at the prospect. I know I am fully versed on their capabilities and their motivations but I still hate to give limits to students. Then come the phone calls about the fact that it is not their student but instead your teaching or your subject area. Do you know how many parents tell me that chemistry just does not interest their student so they do not try their hardest.

What does this have to do with curriculum well everything. When we set up the science department program of studies we do so with the student's progress in mind. We try to determine what the most logical sequence of classes and levels of class we will need. It is like planning a road map for students to take and with all good maps there are areas for u-turns and alternative routes which what is exciting for students. I want students to explore our electives and challenge themselves with harder classes.

My final thought is why do we encourage students to reach for the stars if we are going to put Plexiglas ceilings in?

How to map?

When I sat down to start working on the biology curriculum I started to realize that I did not know much about what other teachers where covering within my own subject area let alone the whole scope of science in the building. So I talked with our curriculum coordinator and she said I have just the tool for you to use to see the science curriculum at a glance. She sent me the curriculum mapping guide. What is a curriculum mapping guide you might ask...well it is all of the standards laid out with boxes for each division of science from 9th through physics and honors sections verse basic sections. It is a tool that is so great because you can sit down with your department and start from point A and move through giving each teacher a chance to say "hey that is what I do."

The next thing that is so great that it is a conversation starter as far as assessments go. You have a way to ask co-works what they are doing and what they are having success with without insulting or being awkward. Face it sometimes when you ask for resources or questions you feel like you are either questioning their abilities or seeming like a slacker and stealing their ideas. In high school the sharing environment is not always as friendly as some lower grades.

I am rolling out my first mapping session in March and I am a little nervous and hoping everyone in my dept. will be as excited!!!

How do you where to begin?

How do you begin to gather the scope of a curriculum from top to bottom for a district? Can you believe the test scores knowing that not all students really take the test seriously? How do you assess the what is really affective practice verse what is a dead lesson that teacher's don't want to let go? I keep coming up with questions without many answers on how to make this a reality. I know that all curriculum is a work in progress and that the minute you fix one piece you have to adjust the pieces you knocked loose. The biggest part is finding teachers who are willing to admit that there are parts of their subject areas that are not working for their students.

I think the place to start is with a curriculum map for each core subject K-8 and then each individual subject 9-12. By building these curriculum maps we can look for holes in each subject area. Seeing these maps allow for a curriculum coordinator to gather an idea of what the short falls of the current curriculum and begin to develop one that works. Allowing teachers to build these maps and coordinate with their K-12 counter parts gives a sense of ownership and pride in what they are teaching, or at least that is the overall goal.

Comparing the US to others

In my five years here at Old Town High School I have had several exchange students who have enlightened me to where they have come from in terms of education. It never ceases to amaze me that many European countries have been allowing students to specialize for years. Students come here and are amazed by the limitless choices that we have for our students. I have been reading several articles and everything that I read applauds the US for our creativity and innovative thinking that our students are allowed.

The downside is always the same which is that our students are nowhere near as far along in math and sciences. Students from Germany tell me time and time again that chemistry is taught much earlier so that students have that background before they specialize. If we could increase our math and science ability we could integrate those sciences much earlier which would allow for students to gain more from their time in schools.

I am going to continue studying ways to help students to achieve more in their time here and ways to prepare them for their future. I want them to have the chance to be exposed to all the cool things that are out there for the future and most of all I want them to learn how to never stop learning.

schools of tomorrow and the curriculum that drives them

Well it is unanimous we have to change schools but while everyone agrees that schools are becoming outdated in their traditional form nobody wants to set forth how to change them. One article I read said that schools are building student for an industrial world and we need to make them more adaptable to students like keeping them open 24 hours a day.

Based on those thought I began to think about how we are already changing:

Virtual HS which is in reality a 24 hour a day school

Co-op which is working with professionals at a job you might like to have in the future along with Tech schools for training.

Standards based education where students decide what classes to take to achieve the standards thus developing their own curriculum.

So with all these new options for education are we really that far behind the eight ball of change. There is something to be said for traditional schooling and that interaction with a class that is engaged in learning. Being in a class that is making connections with what you are teaching and then inspiring others in the class to make more connections is an awesome feeling. I think the trick is going to be how do we combine the two ideas. Using the skills that work from a traditional class and integrate them with the new ideas from an ever changing reality.

Defining Curriculum...can it be done

So I began to search out a definition for curriculum and after looking at reputable sources like the Merriam-Webster dictionary, my apple dictionary, and google on-line (yes even google is considered a reputable source) I realized that curriculum is never really defined. Most places say curriculum is a collection of classes students take to achieve a goal. Well if that is a definition then I could achieve that life long desire to become an underwater basket weaver with just a few classes.

As I read more and more about schools and what they call curricula I have determined the following:

Curriculum can be anything you study that helps you achieve a set goal. For instance taking the college prep curriculum from a high school should help you achieve the goal of attending college and being prepared.

Curriculum is a set of classes like the science curriculum or the english curriculum is all the courses within those departments.

Curriculum is also what is studied while taking a particular course so you could have an extensive biology curriculum that covers everything from cell structure to organ systems.

Curriculum is set at a very broad level by the state and federal government and then at a local level by the teachers.

For my purpose I am going to say curriculum is a set of knowledge you obtain through studying and learning new things. So my biology curriculum that I am working on will be based on requirements set forth by the state and federal standards but tailored to suit the needs of my students.

The next step is going to be how to make this curriculum worth something to the students and the faculty that use it.

Relating the day to day to the Big Picture

When I first began teaching I thought to myself that making a syllabus and planning my class would be easy because I could just use my curriculum. Then the ugly truth of education came to light...curriculum is not a plan and the plan actually comes from within. Ok, so some of you are going "no kidding!!" But for a person who had never stepped foot in a classroom until I was entrusted with teaching 100 students what I know about science this was a scary revelation.

What did I do? I ran to the nearest friendly face and asked for help. Luckily for me there were several willing teachers who gave me books, old syllabus, and a flow chart of their classes. Of course the part that nobody told me what exactly the curriculum was for my subject.

Then I went home panicked about what I was going to teach in just a few days and began the hard part of outlining my course. It was not until months later that someone told me that the curriculum was just the MLRs and to follow them. Which did not make sense to me...how can that be the curriculum.

It was not until my second teaching job that I sat through my first curriculum planning meeting. It was really interesting to talk to others about what they thought should be in the curriculum. More importantly it was the first time I saw it relate to what I was teaching. I finally saw my class laid out from start to finish and how it applied to the goals we were trying to achieve. It was amazing to discuss this with other professionals and actually see what I was teaching was reaching the objectives.

I still don't know how to engage everyone but these are the insights I received from that exercise:

1. Every year you should sit down and see if what you do for each unit achieves your curriculum goals.

2. Let others review your projects, papers, and lessons. It will amaze you at how the new ideas freshen your activities.

3. Always stay up to date on new methods of presenting ideas. If you get stagnant then your class will lose the engagement of yourself and others.

If you have any ideas or insights I am always searching for more ideas on how to stay relevant and connect what I am doing to the big picture...

Greetings from a Curriculum Novice

This is not a blog with answers instead it is a blog seeking answers. I want to know what makes for a good curriculum and how do you design something that both engages students and teachers.

This blog will go about seeking answers to these question:

Can you create the perfect curriculum?

Is there such a thing as the perfect curriculum?

How do you get teachers to become engaged in creating the curriculum on a volunteer basis?