Reflecting back on UBD, Curriculum Planning and CCCS

Where do I begin to cover it all. Never having written curriculum or even closely followed curriculm, since I am a speech therapist, this class scared the _ _ _ _ out of me! The 5 page syllabus and course description had me in a panic. Fortunately, I began reading the UBD bible after our first class. From then on I said I can do this because I was the type of student that would have excelled when I was in my K-12 grades. Never able to memorize info for the test and not understanding information unless it was presented in a meaningful way, UBD was designed for me!

I have learned that I can survive as a non-teacher at this graduate level and also that UBD planning makes more sense to me than most people. To me it is a much more straightforward and functional way to present information to all students. I wonder if all curriculum was written this way, backward design, and then was taught this way would many of our learning disable students make it more successfully in regular educational classes. It always seems to me that students are either memorizing information or trying to figure out why are we learning this material, what am I going to get out of this and how can I make sense of this?

I plan to continue to talk about UBD to as many educators as possible and get this going in Midland Park where I live and where I was on the BOE for 12 years. What a shame I took this class this semester and not last semester. I still have my BOE buddies who will get the professional development $$$ in place for this to be a priority.

UBD reflection

I found the UBD group project very difficult and very stressful. However, "fleshing out" (once I understood it meant lesson plan) a two hour training segment of the 15 hours of novice teacher professional development, was extremely interesting and very valuable to the learning process of UBD. So the actual UBD method of teaching, presenting new material to students, really works! It made sense to me that it would work after finishing the Wiggins & McTighe book but to actually plan a lesson plan was the full circle of our true UBD course.

I am not sure if everyone really understands that this is the point of the whole course. No spoon feeding or memorizing. We are supposed to weekly UNDERSTAND the process by doing. I think the problem for me was not enough time in our groups to work on each section and then not enough feedback. But a very interesting way to change the way we think and learn about how to teach.

Core Curriculum and Content Standards and all the other bull......

Now I do understand the importance of these standards. But I find it hard to believe that until about 14 years or so ago NJ didn't even have them. I guess we just wandered around interpreting national standards from each content area's national organization. No wonder why when I headed to college I was at such a disadvantage. At a NY state school all the kids from NY, that were college bound, had been studying Regent's courses. they had a set curricula for each high school subject and took a state wide standardized test. There I was from NJ missing all that basic knowledge that every NY student had been taught. Then as Freshman in college we all took introductory courses in the basics which followed the Regent's curriculum. No wonder I was in big trouble that whole first year of college.

My point is I still find these standards confusing and difficult to interpret but they are a very necessary starting point for all school districts to follow. In my opinion.

Budget Voting

Tomorrow is the big day for NJ. Voters all over the state will go out and vote on their school budgets. Hopefully we will pass our budget in Midland Park. We have been committed to financially supporting professional development for our teachers in Curriculum mapping. Next will be Understanding by Design. I have already suggested it to the administration.

We just hired a new Superintendent last week but he is from NY. He never mentioned UBD during any of his interviews. All of the other good candidates mentioned UBD in some manner during the interview process. So I am now wondering if this UBD is not sweeping across the US. Is it only in NJ and Maryland because that is where the two authors currently work, Wiggins and McTighe. I hope this is not the case and other states are reading about it and using it.

Since my youngest son is a senior in high school my only hope is for grandchildren to go through this type of curriculum writing and teaching. I wish it had been around for me!

Budget Season

During the past month my home district has been involved in searching for a new Superintendent and also putting a Budget together. Tonight is the public hearing to present the budget to the community. As a board of education member you would think that I would have made some decisions about what exactly went into this budget. As the curriculum chairperson you might also assume that I would have some knowledge about curriculum items that have gone into the budget.

Tonight I will be hearing, along with everyone else in the community, what this budget is composed of, finally. Maybe there will be new books for a grade level in a specific subject? Maybe
new uniforms for a team? but isn't it a shame that we will continue to spend money on curriculum mapping without the benefit of UBD (Understanding By Design).

Too bad the budget is put together by administrators and members of the Finance committee only. I wonder why the chairpeople from each Board committee aren't in the process. It is all about the bottom dollar, that is why!!!

What are the enduring understandings that teachers need to grapple with?

This is again hard for me to write about with personal experience as a speech therapist not a teacher. But I guess it is similar in that I am asking myself these questions:
Did my students understand and take away from the speech session any learning?
Was my planning and then lesson functional for my students?
Where do we go from here? What is the functional purpose of this lesson?
As someone who works with very disables students I always ask myself is this a waste of their time, what are we doing this for, what is the benefit for my students? Can I justify what I am doing with sound therapeutic data and can I explain it the rationale to the families of my students?

Characteristics of a successful novice teacher

One of the most important characteristics a novice teacher needs is to understand and adapt to the culture and climate of the school they are teaching in. So many new teachers arrive in their new school and expect to continue teaching, communicating with their peers, parents and students as they had while student teaching. Many teachers that do not make it to their 3rd year in a school have not failed because they do not have the knowledge and skills necessary for teaching but because they were not a good fit within the grade level or the school culture.

Novice teachers need to be open to suggestions by their peers not just their supervisors and they need to have a great deal of perseverance. It would be so much better for novice teachers if all schools interviewed teacher candidates in a group setting composed of the teachers that the new teacher would be working closely with, if hired.

Fat Tuesday or Super Tuesday

Since I work in a school I know it's a Tuesday and that Mardi Gras is happening and also that I need to get out to vote since it is super Tuesday. But the only thing I keep thinking about is the GIANTS!! I still can't believe that Superbowl. I am the Giants fan that wanted Eli benched by week 5. I told my sons and husband that Eli's deer-in-the-headlights look said it all. He would never be the leader they needed. You don't win games unless the team thinks you can carry them down the field. Was I wrong! I am so sorry, Eli! You proved me wrong. But I will say when I saw him almost beat New England during the season I changed my tune. I told my family they were going all the way to the Superbowl to win. Once again everyone thought I was crazy.

So how does this relate back to Curr 530 you may be asking yourselves? Tom Coughlin the Giant's coach has obviously read Understanding by Design! How else can we account for the dramatic change in the way the Giants played in the last 5 games? They set their mission, to win the Superbowl, and worked backwards by design! Imagine that! Coaches have been using this successfully for years. Why did it take the education world so long to adopt it?

Curriculum, who's responsible?

I have always viewed curriculum as the backbone of every school district. Good curriculum can make bad teachers better and good curriculum can make good teachers outstanding. Schools so often believe they should completely control the curriculum. As a parent I have always appreciated when my kid's school district would ask, by questionaire, what did I think of the k-12 math, social studies,art or even gym program(just to name a few). It was my opportuntity to give my opinion, and boy do I enjoy giving my opinion! I enjoyed telling the district that the elementary art curriculum should try introducing students to different art modalities. Year after year of weaving yarn did not make much sense to me not to mention the kids hated it! I was able to question what was the point of memorizing the entire 5th grade social studies book. What is the point of testing memorization skills instead of knowledge?

Curriculum should be a cooperative enterprise from the State, the school district, the teacher and the parent, and when old enough the student. Shouldn't some of it be fun?

My personal mission statement

As a speech therapist working with multiply handicapped kids my mission each day is to be able to recognize all communication attempts by my special needs students and to positively reinforce it. Also to work cooperatively with my treatment team members even when they make me crazy.