Curriculum thoughts

(a) describe a personal definition description of curriculum (at least so far) in ONE paragraph, and...
(b) a short post about chapter 2 from Curriculum 21 that was particularly intriguing.

I see the curriculum as a list of what students need to know.  It needs to connect from one year to another so the student's education is always moving forward.  It need to be interesting and not out dated.  It needs to consist of objectives as how they are taught needs to depend on the student's needs from year to year as each group is different.  And maybe it should be one long list of objectives so what is missed in one year does not continue to be missed.   I am thinking from a mathematics standpoint which makes a difference, I think, as mathematics is like a stair case that needs to be climbed.  But students who are unable to climb as quickly as others should at some point be able to take the calculator escalator. 

There was a lot in this chapter that was particularly interesting.  I like owning the book so I can go back and look at my margin notes to refresh my memory.  That is something students need to be able to do and I know it is possible to do it in school texts with post it notes.

My two high points were different and not really connected in my mind at this point.  Page 27 quotes Jay Mathews as saying,"It calls for student to learn to think and work creatively and collaboratively." That reminds me of when I took a course called "Building Bridges between Schools and Communities".  The part I really remember from the businesses we visited was they wanted and needed people who knew how to work in groups, to work collaboratively.  It also connected to the TED talk where he found that the students worked better with one computer per group so they were forced to collaborate and not work independently.  Our students are social beings and will be more motivated when they work together. I used that this week when I challenged groups of students in my math class to find all the combinations of a certain kind of problem.  I offered a prize to the group that got the most and only gave them 5 minutes.  I was shocked, and pleased,  when 2 groups got all 16 combinations.
The second bit that was really intriguing was near the end where they mentioned replacing dated assessment types with newer forms of expression.  I don't love tests.  I am really good at taking the multiple choice kind but that's because you can get rid of some answers and up the chances of guessing the correct answer.  We have lots of students who don't do well on typical tests and yet, in the classroom, they can participate and answer questions.  While I know that not all teachers might be comfortable with only formative assessments, some done informally during class, I am still not in favor of assessing our students as often as we do.  I know when my class is understanding and when they don't.  It is written all over their faces.  Other forms of expression might take less time and show more of what they know and can do.