I don't have any experience in creating curriculum. The only experience I have is following it. During my student teaching I created unit plans that aligned with the state standards, and the schools curriculum. But other then that I'm relatively inexperienced with it. After getting my teaching degree I became a stay at home mother, so I never had a chance to dig into a school district and really look into how their curriculum is formed.
Living on a military base I have some really strong questions about how their curriculum is formed. Having students have to move across the country, and to other countries I feel make make a more universal curriculum necessary. Schools and teachers need to make sure the students are all learning the correct content, at specific times. Otherwise, they may be learning the same things years in a row. DOD (Department of Defense) has their own school system, referred to as DOD Schools, or DODEA (Department of Defense Education Activity). I would be very interested to learn how the DODEA curriculum aligns with the public school systems.
With all of the variations between state to state on curriculum, I feel like some sort of consistency would be nice. There are so many variations, even within schools, on what is covered in the classroom. I have never heard of the DODEA and I agree that it would be interesting to see how it aligns with the public school systems. Do they use some sort of measuring stick, such as national assessments or standardized tests like public schools do?
ReplyDeleteLike you, I don't have any experience in developing a curriculum. As a Title One Ed Tech, I follow the curriculum and have in the past designed my lessons to match the Common Core and district curriculum. I completely agree with you about a universal curriculum. If curricula were used as more of a guide for student learning, it would be easier to create a universal curriculum.
ReplyDeleteGood questions, R. The idea of a universal curriculum has been a contentious one for a long time, especially as we move toward a national curriculum with the a common Core and more standardized testing. But the kicker is that states control the curriculum so there is the conflict!
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