A quote from another...

I find in amusing as we go through our Masters degree the extent to which we take things for granted and how with each class my eyes are opened up to see things in a new light. I can remember becoming a parent and seeing for the "first" time how many mini-vans are out there. Experiences such as this shape how we see things...either for the first time or just changes our perceptions to see things in another light.

I was flipping through a book that my wife borrowed from the library (and if you are not a library member you should be) about 100 Best Worldwide Vacations to Enrich Your Life. A quote from Miriam Beard, an American writer and traveler, spoke to me. Change a key word and could we not be talking about curriculum. With a nod to Miriam Beard the quote would read as such..."Curriculum is more than the written goals and outlines; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent." Within this statement are many different layers.

Firstly that curriculum can be both explicit and implicit. What is taught in class does not necessarily have to be what the students learn. I cannot really recall any student thaanking me for teaching a specific piece of knowledge. However students have thanked me for teaching them other "unplanned" lessons about life.

Secondly is that curriculum can be both negative and positive. We like to think that we always create a positive change but as in life there can be a "dark side" to curriculum (implicitly or explicitly). Is everything that is modelled within a curriculum a positive change? Perhaps an innocent comment taken wrong can undue positive change. I seem to recall many of us arguing something similar when talking about the roles of homes in a child's life and how what is taught within the hours of 9-3:30 can be gratly undone by the influence of their homelife.

Finally the deep and permanance of the curriculum. Do we really know how deeply we might change and alter a student's life/perceptions/etc? Though not an example from school it is something that happened to me and my parents. When I was a child I ate everything in sight. However upon a visit to our family doctor he said that vegetables weren't all that important. As an impressionable young child I took it literally and refused to eat veggies again. My mother could have killed him. This innocent comment greatly effected my outlook towards veggies that has lasted til this very day. Could a lesson do this? Can we as teachers do this? Yes if we are not careful.

I have to be careful what books I pick up...who thought a travel book could evoke a thought about curriculum?

Been thinking...

I have been thinking about Nutana's change in policy about not awarding F's to students. I realize as John said in class that a rose is rose by any other name...but I think that this is a step foward. Words and what is uaually associated with them can often hurt and demoralize a person moreso than any other form of abuse. I think F is one of these and the schemas that go along with it. If you get an F you are a failure, clear as can be. Sure we think that this might lose meaning to people and they simply don't care, but have we asked them about how they "truly" feel about getting an F? Is this not contradictory to the Ministry's effort to build lifelong learners? By giving them in incomplete it does not indicate that they are failures, it indicates hope and that they just came up short. Often with these students hope is a much better way of appraoching them to succeed than failure. Without the negative stereotype of being seen as a failure these students might come back to finish what they started. If one of our main jobs is to help build character and perservence does not an incomplete work towards that goal of lifelong learners rather than an F?

Trying to find something else...

I found this video on YouTube while searching for something else. I think this individual makes some valid points regarding teaching/learning within the "product" model. He does compare students to "little robots" that work on the assembly line, working for society and the economy. Are we simply creating students that repeat what we want them to think? I can recall many "high end" students at Carpenter picking my brain on how I wanted to see an assignment done. I know and understand that they are just trying to improve their grades, but are they not just leaning on me as a crutch? Am I helping them to succeed? I think in a world that trains students to be little automatons yes. But I want more. I want to challenge them to think outside of the box. To get them to think for themselves, not simply for someone else. Is that wrong? Does this individual hit the button for so many students and how they feel that schools are restricting them?

Struggling...

I have over the the past couple of months been struggling with this course in terms of defining what I believe about curriculum and what it means to me. Where I began with my rather simplistic definition of curriculum and where I am now is different, but I have yet to conclusively state what it is I currently define curriculum as.

This has become a little clearer to me as I tackle my final paper for this class. I originally was going to question curriculum along students perceptions and feelings about what they are/were taught. I thought before asking my current students their feelings upon the subject of curriculum I would refine my questioning with former students via emails/social networking sites (such as Facebook). The answers I received were not that surprising. However what i also did was send similar questions to former colleagues of mine across Canada to gauge their feelings about curriculum.

This afterthought of mine sopke closer to me as I saw that not only myself, but others, were struggling with idea of what curriculum is. The variety of answers and interpretations came back as startling. As I began to sift through the responses (about 20 in total) I started to understand a little more of what wehave talked about in class (process, product & praxis). By sifting through the responses I challenged myself to group them into the three "P"s. This hands-on work clarified much of what was challenging me.

However I was still struggling with my own personal "ism" of what defines me and my beliefs about curriculum. Through analysis of colleagues' remarks and our chart on "isms" that we developed in class I can tell you what I don't believe in. Hopefully as my paper emerges a clearer belief of curriculum will emerge for me.

Students' knowledge...

I have often heard the old addage that children are smarter than we sometimes take them to be. Knowledge, at times, can be hidden from view (due to their abilities/desires or ours). I see our jobs as educators to get to know our students well, and find ways to encourage their abilities and give them credit for what they know, not what they don't know. Do we know our students solely based upon their performance within school based upon grades on assignments, tests and exams?

Onoe of the "isms" sees children as empty buckets and that it is the job of the teacher to fill that bucket. However students come into our classrooms with knowledge that might not be readily apparent to us at first. Teaching and curriculums does not mean filling an empty mind. This knowledge, buried or not readily apparent, that children bring into the classroom is huge. We just have to delve deep to find it.

Over the past year I have worked on my observational skills and listening skills to enhance this searching analysis. These courses have taught me that through observation and listening to students, as partners in education, we can see what they know and determine, through their guidance, where our teaching needs to go next. I find that curriculum at times ties our hands in our ability to do this. I understand the need for accountability, but at times does it run contradictory to students' needs?

Quote from a genius...

"I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn."

— Albert Einstein

This quote that I found to me speaks largely about the post-modern educational movement. To me this is what I wish to strive for. To me what is not said is as important as what is said. This quote infers to me that pupils (students) and teachers come together to learn from one another. The teacher is the facilitator, guiding rather than [Socratic] teaching.

Transforming Education in the 21st Centruy? NOT!

As I was surfing Youtube I came across this video on Transforming Education in the 21st Century. It sounded interesting and I thought I would give it a try. After about 28 seconds of it I realized that it was totally "product" oriented gearing children to be nothing but workers in a new global economy. Is this really transforming education? No. It is simply taking the chalk and blackboards from years ago and replacing them with new technologies with [ultimately] the same goal of producing people for the workforce then and now.

Just watch the first 28 seconds and you will see.

What goes around comes around...

In reading many of the articles in our Curriculum Reader I am struck with the similarities that are found in the writings. What strikes me is that many of the issues and arguments are the exact same even though many of the artciles come from different eras. In our classroom talks we seem to echo some of the concerns that have been within the field of curriculum for the last one hundred years. Do things change or are we just spinning our tires?

I found this video while surfing YouTube and it sums up some of the same feelings I see above. Does it take a new breed of teacher to make this change? Will society be in favour of some of these radical changes?

Parent Teacher

It's been about a week since we had Parent Teacher interviews and with regards to the outlines of this class (Product/Process/Praxis) it was interesting talking with parents and seeing what they focused on.

The parents clearly fell within the Product paradigm clearly just wanting to know how their child did compared to others. As outlined on the note posted by Steve, from the NB class, parents were clearly focused how to achieve higher marks and their perceived short comings of the children. Unlike any other school or school division I have taught in there is such an emphasis on averages. Parents seem to need to measure their child against another and to prepare them for life after school. This to mean screams product based education.

No parent asked me about process and certainly not praxis. I find myself wondering that if we were to begin to reform education along process/praxis how supportive would parents be? I tend to be pessismistic in nature but I just don't see parents being supportive to these changes.

Other sources...

Since the beginning of this course it has really caused me to reflect upon where and for whom is the curriculum comes from and for who. In past posts I have clearly stated that early on in my career the answer to both was myself. Perhaps it was "new" teacher survival mode in trying to stay ahead of students while learning and adapting a new curriculum.

However over the past year I believe there has been a fundamental change in myself as I am beginning to open up to having students chart the course of the curriculum with me. Since my first AR project on the use of video to enhance my History 30 course I have seen the power of engaging students within the planning stage for course work. Their insights have caused me to question and engage the materials in new ways as they become more interested in directing themselves within the course materials. My role has changed to a facilitator of education, guiding students with their ideas within the curriculum trying to balance their interests with the accountability of government mandated curriculum.

As I have been developing my final AR project in embedding community resources within the Law 30 curriculum students have been paramount in assisting me in the planning process. Their insights into what the would like to learn has opened up some new challenges for me. One of these has been new technologies that I have to learn before I share with them. This growth for them is causing me to grow in new and exciting ways. Perhaps instead of a classroom in which the students are the only learners, a newer classroom where everyone is learning is the most obvious goal.