The Merits of Curriculum
As it turns out, I am in the process of working with and developing curriculum as part of my Johns Hopkins program. In my course, we have spent the last month critiquing the four aspects of curriculum (written, taught, assessed, and hidden) to determine if the goals of a specific curriculum align with our hopes for that specific curriculum. In the middle of doing these readings and assignments, I came across two resources that are making me rethink our process and goals. 1) Below is a talk that was given by Sir Ken Robinson at the AERO Conference (Alternative Education Research Organization)...
read moreCurriculum Reflection
In the current school environment, there are many stakeholders that have a variety of perspectives on how schools should be managed. As each stakeholder tries to push their own agenda regarding curriculum, schools are caught in the middle. Some of the stakeholders with the most pull in these negotiations regarding curriculum are: the Local, State, and Federal Government; Local Education Leaders; and the local Judicial System. These stakeholders are clearly representatives of our current society and demonstrate the divisions in education culture throughout the country. In the current climate,...
read moreReflection on Observations
Recently, I conducted a peer observation on a member of the Staff at my school. It was an interesting process, and one that was valuable to me as a new administrator. As part of the evaluation, we were required to record our post observation conference. Due to some district rules, I was only allowed to audio tape the meeting. With the assignment, I will be answering some basic questions about how the observation conference went and what I saw. What strengths and/or improvement areas did you notice about the environment and tone of the post-observation? In my district and school, observation...
read moreStudent Engagement
It is here, the University of Delaware Student Engagement Conference! I am very excited to be invited to present at this conference and I am even more excited to be presenting and debating with Dr. Duncan from the University of Colorado. As I progress through the day, I will periodically update this post to show what is going on at the conference. Follow along with me and my view into what Dr. Duncan is presenting. 9:00am EST: Doug Duncan Great presentation! His slides about the effectiveness of PowerPoint are very conducive to discussion among the faculty.
read moreClassroom Layout
For the past three years, I have been very interested classroom layout, and how that plays out in student learning. During my Masters Program, a professor briefly mentioned the effect a physical layout can have. Recently, I was asked to help a teacher reorganize her room to remove the pods and place the tables against the wall (so students do not work with or even look at each other). It created a more “ordered” environment, but at the same time reduced student interaction and cooperation. When I was first learning to teach, the classroom layout was something that I never...
read more