Thursday, January 31, 2008
Mission Statement
My mission statement is to engage students in activities and thinking that will prepare them for the academic, social, economic, and physical challenges they will face in their school years and beyond. Students will be able to overcome adversity, adapt to change, work collaboratively, and continuously seek new uses for knowledge. Students will have the freedom and confidence to express their thoughts, beliefs, and dreams.
What is curriculum? Who should design and control it?
Curriculum is a term that all teachers have heard of, all administrators speak of, and all students... I cannot think of any phrase to complete that sentence. I cannot remember any time during my coursework towards earning a teaching certificate of ever
hearing any professor give a clear, precise definition of the word curriculum. I sat in class last week contemplating how to answer the first question posed in order to exit for the evening, "What is curriculum?" Oddly enough, as I sat contemplating, I saw others in the class staring at the all-knowing classroom ceiling as they contemplated the same question. When I got home and looked up the term in a text, the text claimed that there were many different definitions for the word curriculum. I have heard of teachers writing curriculum, but I never thought much about it because i was too busy coaching to ever sign up for curriculum writing. Just hand me the finished product, let me look through the list of things my students are expected to know and I'll make sure that I cover those topics. Time ebbed on and I realized I eventually wanted to leave the classroom, so I took a stab at it. I now can only vaguely recall what I wrote: Curriculum is the blueprint of what students are to learn in school. After some assigned reading on the topic, I was enlightened a little. Curriculum was being mentioned along with other terms I had heard of in past courses, but they were not linked to the term curriculum back then. Curriculum should describe how students are to use knowledge not only over the next few years, but also how that are going to use their knowledge after graduation as life-long learners. The mission of a school should determine how the curriculum is written for all courses in that school.
Problem number one: As our text's authors point out, many schools have flawed mission statements. They focus on short-term goals of knowing content rather than long-term goals of applying knowledge beyond their school years. Problem number two: Since teachers are the ones in the classroom, they should be the ones to design the curriculum. Now, how many teachers actually know what their school's mission statement is? Effective curriculum needs to be developed with the long-term goal in mind.
How many teachers had training in curriculum writing? How many teachers were involved in creating their school's mission statement? Problem number three: Curriculum writing cannot just be assigned to a group of teachers to get done over the summer. Our text likes to use analogies; I like the one where they describe poor curriculum not as a blueprint,
but as a bad sketch on a cocktail napkin. Well, who is going to oversee the development and implementation of a good curriculum? In order for all of the construction builders to be well organized and efficient, they need a good foreman. In order for an effective mission statement to be developed that will guide the creation of an effective curriculum, a good principal needs to be in place. Another analogy I enjoyed from the textbook authors was how athletic coaches don't just keep running the same old drill; they adjust their drills to help facilitate improvement where needed. So, what is curriculum? It is a "living" blueprint describing how teachers can get their students to achieve the long-term goals of the school's mission statement. Who should design it? The school community should design the curriculum with a clear understanding of what the end goal is. Who should control it? The school's principal, along with the rest of the school community, should monitor, assess, and adjust the curriculum as needed.
hearing any professor give a clear, precise definition of the word curriculum. I sat in class last week contemplating how to answer the first question posed in order to exit for the evening, "What is curriculum?" Oddly enough, as I sat contemplating, I saw others in the class staring at the all-knowing classroom ceiling as they contemplated the same question. When I got home and looked up the term in a text, the text claimed that there were many different definitions for the word curriculum. I have heard of teachers writing curriculum, but I never thought much about it because i was too busy coaching to ever sign up for curriculum writing. Just hand me the finished product, let me look through the list of things my students are expected to know and I'll make sure that I cover those topics. Time ebbed on and I realized I eventually wanted to leave the classroom, so I took a stab at it. I now can only vaguely recall what I wrote: Curriculum is the blueprint of what students are to learn in school. After some assigned reading on the topic, I was enlightened a little. Curriculum was being mentioned along with other terms I had heard of in past courses, but they were not linked to the term curriculum back then. Curriculum should describe how students are to use knowledge not only over the next few years, but also how that are going to use their knowledge after graduation as life-long learners. The mission of a school should determine how the curriculum is written for all courses in that school.
Problem number one: As our text's authors point out, many schools have flawed mission statements. They focus on short-term goals of knowing content rather than long-term goals of applying knowledge beyond their school years. Problem number two: Since teachers are the ones in the classroom, they should be the ones to design the curriculum. Now, how many teachers actually know what their school's mission statement is? Effective curriculum needs to be developed with the long-term goal in mind.
How many teachers had training in curriculum writing? How many teachers were involved in creating their school's mission statement? Problem number three: Curriculum writing cannot just be assigned to a group of teachers to get done over the summer. Our text likes to use analogies; I like the one where they describe poor curriculum not as a blueprint,
but as a bad sketch on a cocktail napkin. Well, who is going to oversee the development and implementation of a good curriculum? In order for all of the construction builders to be well organized and efficient, they need a good foreman. In order for an effective mission statement to be developed that will guide the creation of an effective curriculum, a good principal needs to be in place. Another analogy I enjoyed from the textbook authors was how athletic coaches don't just keep running the same old drill; they adjust their drills to help facilitate improvement where needed. So, what is curriculum? It is a "living" blueprint describing how teachers can get their students to achieve the long-term goals of the school's mission statement. Who should design it? The school community should design the curriculum with a clear understanding of what the end goal is. Who should control it? The school's principal, along with the rest of the school community, should monitor, assess, and adjust the curriculum as needed.
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