Curriculum…a reflection
Curriculum
has many definitions. Some are broad,
while others are very detailed. This fact applies to both prescriptive and
descriptive definitions of curriculum.
Curriculum, isn’t it the core of what we do as educators? Without a formal course of study, it is quite
likely that most, including educators and non-educators would define curriculum
as the education program that teachers teach. Period. Seemingly, depending on the time period and
the state of education at such time in the (history of education), societal
forces greatly impact school curricular. In our 21st century schools
this fact will remain a governing force that greatly influences how we address
curriculum and how we us it to help shape society by shaping the lives of our
children. The Common Core Standards are central to our district’s instructional
focus and the curriculum culture for our students. Societal forces are in part made up of people
who are in cohorts of shared leaders. Glatthorn, Boschee, Whitehead and Boschee
(2012) have stated that authors of curriculum know that people will support
what they help to shape. From the experience of shared leadership, Glatthorn
et. al. (2012) observed that standardizing and centralizing the curriculum
takes action within the school walls as a management system for what is taught.
In our digital age, technology is a major societal force. An illustration of
this digital societal force is the twitter communication during the
inauguration coverage of President Obama’s 2nd term in office. The
president in his inaugural address stated, “We must claim technology’s
promise.”
As
a middle school language arts chairperson, I share in the leadership
responsibility of centralizing/standardizing the curriculum. In our school system, which is made up of
approximately 126,000 students divided by 200 schools, our department chairs
are directly responsible for guiding the implementation of the curriculum. At most middle schools, the county promotes
the language arts curriculum. Following county leadership meetings, we guide
teachers in collaborative lesson planning sessions that incorporate the common
core instructional shifts (interpreting more complex text and developing
analytic writers) and/or provide a platform to train the teachers through
professional development as needed. Curriculum implementation is monitored
throughout the year. Our focus and
learning walks are designed to monitor curriculum implementation as well as
provide individualized professional development to “develop” teachers (Marzano, 2012). We expect
to see the taught curriculum with integration of technology at its highest
standard since we are one of four iPad middle schools. Each of our 813 students has an iPads for
daily instructional use. Teachers and school leaders are expected to incorporate
technology as a major instructional resource tool for increased student
achievement.
School
leaders can be proactive of these influences by forming strong alliances with
two-way communication within their schools, at state and at the national
levels. As well, a knowledgeable leader
versed in recruiting, responding and respecting community entities to partner
with their schools for the best and highest level of curriculum implementation
for 21st century digital schools is sure to meet success. Later in the
spring 2013, we will institute a parent/families iPad checkout system so that our
families can work along with their children to increase research or other college
and career focused skills.
Karin Chenoweth, senior
writer for Education Trust states that it takes lots of self-knowledge to be a
good leader of a school. I agree. Knowing your belief system with a clear
vision of the impact that curriculum can have on learning is important. Times
have changed and knowing the positive impact that families and community can
have on a school (no matter the socio-economic status) is useful knowledge for
a school leader. Leaders who allow for change and continuously adapt to our ever-changing
world and curricular needs, create a platform to successfully move their
schools forward now and in the future.
