Week 5 Discussion 1 - Involving Others in Curriculum Planning

Week 5 Instructor Notes Notes from the Field In recent years, I have become acutely aware of the need to involve students in decision-making where possible. Even at the college level, I would like to see more student representation on committees where they could serve. I know it is crucial to protect student privacy and those matters. However, I can see where their input would be very beneficial when we decide to overhaul programs. Probably the closest I came to that as a sixth grade teacher, since student involvement in curriculum matters—even student-led conferences—was not even on the radar, would be the report card my students did on me at the end of each school year. They were given the opportunity to tell me what had gone well and what had not gone so well. They took it very seriously and gave me some excellent feedback. I remember well one evening during an Open House at the beginning of the school year. One of my former students who had gone on to junior high school was there with his family (he had siblings still at the elementary school). As I was greeting and talking to parents, he stuck his head in the door and said, “Ms. Dunlap, you might want to teach typing skills to the students this year. If they have typing skills going into junior high, it will be very helpful to them.” Did I do that? You better believe I did. We brought in old typewriters that some of them had, I moved in a couple of computers that were on the floor, and we started out with “j – k – l – ;.” They left having a basic knowledge of where the keys were, and we had a lot of fun learning! Content Notes As we think about curriculum development and its application to school improvement, I can think of nothing more important that leveraging teacher leadership. In their book, “Awakening the Sleeping Giant: Helping Teachers Develop as Leaders, “ Marilyn Katzenmeyer and Gayle Moller write that “[their] experience with teacher leaders reveals that they are already making a difference in teaching and learning in many schools. It is out of this experience that we recognize the critical nature of the role that teacher leaders paly if visions and hopes for schools are to be realized. Teacher leaders provide the key to sustained meaningful change in schools” (p. vii – Preface). As Timothy Waters and coauthors of Balanced Leadership (2009), write, “The future demands on the school principal are massive. In order to meet the needs of all stakeholders, the principal needs to learn to share leadership responsibilities while understanding the implications of introducing change” (reprinted in Educational Leadership, October 2013, p. 62). As new administrators, it is hoped that you will begin to think about teacher leadership, knowing that there is no way in today’s world you can do everything efficiently. Terry

Wilhelm in “How Principals Cultivate Shared Leadership” shares skills that principals must cultivate for a shared leadership. Among those are:

1. Leading colleagues in analyzing student work and achievement data. 2. Facilitating group discussions about improved instructional practices. 3. Locating research-based methods and strategies that may be outside the current

collective team expertise. 4. Putting structures in place for team members to hold one another accountable for

trying and using the strategies. Mr. Wilhelm points out that “in shared leadership, the principal maintains a delicate balance—giving teachers responsibility without abdicating all authority.”(Educational Leadership, October 2013, pp. 62-63). On another note, I wonder what would happen if sometime at the end of one of our units of study our students had the opportunity to present their final product to an audience of teachers and community members. As we talk about the importance of global learning, we could see how students’ ability to connect their knowledge to real-world tasks and help to show them how their work applies to the world outside of school (Educational Leadership, 1995, p. 45). This would not only be a new experience for students but would also involve other stakeholders in the process. Finally, your authors mention the Framework for 21-Century Learning. As goes with my curiosity, I wanted to learn more about this group. I would suggest you go to the website for Partnership for 21st Century Skills (link below). This organization is only about ten years old, and I found a lot of good information about 21st century learning. There is also a link where you can peruse 21st Century Exemplary Schools in several states (link below). Partnership for 21st Century Skills http://www.p21.org/ List of Exemplar Schools http://www.p21.org/exemplar-program-case-studies I have begun to hear, and perhaps you have as well, that we are not teaching citizenship in our educational programs today. We kind of talk about the need to go to the polls and vote, maybe do a unit on that topic near the time of the national elections, but we are not teaching students in-depth about the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship. In years gone by, we had courses built into the curriculum (often called “civics”) that brought our attention to this topic. It was rather ironic that I found this article at the Partnership for 21st Century Skills website that resonated with me. You might want to check it out. Reimagining Citizenship for the 21st Century: A Call to Action for Policymakers and Educators http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/Reimagining_Citizenship_for_21st_Century_webver sion.pdf