A. As I was reading the article, I immediately thought how familiar this sounds. The purpose of curriculum mapping is to move all teachers into a collaborative/team attitude where the tools that they use will guarantee a safe landing for all students. Curriculum planning was devised because all too often teachers are following and interpreting the curriculum in ways that may and may not benefit the students' level of success. With curriculum mapping, according to the article, "world class" standards will always be achieved by the students because of the way that it is implemented through small learning communities.
B. My school has not mapped its curriculum, but now with the new curriculum trends, we are moving more towards "pacing" the curriculum. Like curriculum mapping this is our first year doing so through departments and as a way to put all teachers on the same page. Like curriculum mapping the special education teachers are forged in with the regular education teachers to partner up and allow the students the ability to be in with the regular curriculum. In my school it is very difficult to form the mapping process due to the large student body and staff that we have. If we are ever going to implement this we must have a 3-5 year vision of incorporating all of the necessary tasks to do this.
C. This curriculum mapping relates to the broader concept of curriculum change by forcing everyone to keep up with new trends in curriculum. If we want our students to do better than we must all be on the same page. Schools first have to get more collaborative measures in place so that the overall success is measured throughout in a uniform measure. We have seen how the 21st century is bringing on many new changes and challenges. To meet these challenges we have to be willing to participate in changes that cause changes under a different lens.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Online Learning Experience
The experience for me taking this class online has been challenging, but very rewarding. I actually love being able to take the class at home in the comforts of my living room. It is very accommodating to my schedule and at the same time I am able to put a face to the students online because of the meetings that we have had in class. I am an individual who thrives on people interactions so it helps me to know who I am responding to through the blogs, BB, etc.
I had never done a blog before or a video to post online. I am grateful for the opportunity ( though I lost sleep at first)to be able to this. The technology age is something no one can shy away from and meeting it head-on is the only way to conquer the skills of the computer era.
I would definitely repeat an online course. I believe that the professors, through a few class meetings can also put a face and a name together. Being in class can have many benefits for students. I am like a sponge and I absorb all of the professor's knowledge for the sake of my personal gain. Reiterating what I have learned in class is my main goal in the professional arena. The online class helps us take different challenges to a greater level. I had to seek help on a few occasions for the technical aspects of the posts, but it only enhanced my learning of technology. I also feel that through the online class we are able to "surf" through the directives of the professor and find on our own other educational tools that we would not have necessarily had if we were in the classroom. Online learning helps individuals work at their own pace and on their own time while accomplishing the goals of the class.
One way that the professor can facilitate the online class is to "model" during the class meetings how to navigate the computer to reach the goals that are required. For example, steps on how to do a "Did you know video?". I found this to be the most challenging.
I had never done a blog before or a video to post online. I am grateful for the opportunity ( though I lost sleep at first)to be able to this. The technology age is something no one can shy away from and meeting it head-on is the only way to conquer the skills of the computer era.
I would definitely repeat an online course. I believe that the professors, through a few class meetings can also put a face and a name together. Being in class can have many benefits for students. I am like a sponge and I absorb all of the professor's knowledge for the sake of my personal gain. Reiterating what I have learned in class is my main goal in the professional arena. The online class helps us take different challenges to a greater level. I had to seek help on a few occasions for the technical aspects of the posts, but it only enhanced my learning of technology. I also feel that through the online class we are able to "surf" through the directives of the professor and find on our own other educational tools that we would not have necessarily had if we were in the classroom. Online learning helps individuals work at their own pace and on their own time while accomplishing the goals of the class.
One way that the professor can facilitate the online class is to "model" during the class meetings how to navigate the computer to reach the goals that are required. For example, steps on how to do a "Did you know video?". I found this to be the most challenging.
UBD Self-Reflection and Evaluation
I had Principles Of Curriculum and we had to use UBD to formulate a lesson plan with the end in mind. I have realized that after implementation you begin to "flow" with the process of UBD. I do not feel that I encountered many challenges other than creating the essential questions at first. I am in the middle of the lesson now and it is going very smooth. I have a small group so I am able to assist them as needed and guide them in answering the essential questions in their minds.
I liked the format, but I think that the "whereto" at the end is too lengthy and I found myself reiterating the facts. I omitted topics that had already been addressed. I will continue to use UBD and I find it to be extremely helpful, particularly in cases where teachers may need an extra boost in their regular lesson plans. As a future administrator, I will take UBD into the classrooms and assist teachers who are in need of assistive programs to implement in their lessons.
I liked the format, but I think that the "whereto" at the end is too lengthy and I found myself reiterating the facts. I omitted topics that had already been addressed. I will continue to use UBD and I find it to be extremely helpful, particularly in cases where teachers may need an extra boost in their regular lesson plans. As a future administrator, I will take UBD into the classrooms and assist teachers who are in need of assistive programs to implement in their lessons.
UBD Lesson
Lizette Zebi
Strategies for Curriculum
UBD Lesson Plan
The First Native Americans: Their Story of Travel, Wisdom and Survival
Students: High School Native Language Resource Class
Stage I- Desired Results
Established Goals: Students will be able to understand the struggles and challenges that the first settlers had in our country and compare them to the present and future.
Understanding:
How everything in the world is correlated through the past, present and future.
They will be able to distinguish between what the first settlers did for survival and what is done today in countries where there is poverty.
Students will be able to see how little similarities and differences are as well as the magnitude of the differences and similarities.
Essential Questions:
Describe the way of life of the first Native Americans?
What are the myths from their time arriving?
What barriers obstructed their destinations?
What survival challenges did they face?
Students will know:
The struggles that the First Native Americans went through.
They will be able to distinguish amongst the different tribes and what special traits they each had.
How to make an igloo
Students will be able to:
· Graph information
· Give ceremonial names for each of the tribes and their customs.
Stage II- Assessment Evidence
Performance Tasks:
Students will be able to graph and map out the journeys of the First Native Americans
Students will be able to align a timeline to the dates of the travels and the places where they went.
Other Evidence:
Students will be able to locate the areas on a map where the settlers came.
Continued….
Students will demonstrate achievement of the results through role-playing from each of the tribes such as the: Nootkas and the Shamans.
How did each tribe survive ( They will perform a play in class)
Students will reflect and self assess by making comparisons of the medicine man to that of their own cultures and if it is applicable.
Stage III Learning Plan
Learning Activities:
The activity is going to the end results of comparing, contrasting and relating to current issues in the world.
They knew how to read, graph and what survival was so they had a good grip on where they are going.
The students’ interests are held because they live in an area where poverty is a constant concern and people learn different survival skills. One skill is to eat less meat in the family and survive more on rice and things that are economically cheaper.
Students are equipped by viewing the natives through different lenses and being able to use technology as assistive devices in their classroom.
Most of the work is tailored and structured to meet the individual needs. A few of the students need more prompts due to their disabilities, but once given they catch on quickly.
Strategies for Curriculum
UBD Lesson Plan
The First Native Americans: Their Story of Travel, Wisdom and Survival
Students: High School Native Language Resource Class
Stage I- Desired Results
Established Goals: Students will be able to understand the struggles and challenges that the first settlers had in our country and compare them to the present and future.
Understanding:
How everything in the world is correlated through the past, present and future.
They will be able to distinguish between what the first settlers did for survival and what is done today in countries where there is poverty.
Students will be able to see how little similarities and differences are as well as the magnitude of the differences and similarities.
Essential Questions:
Describe the way of life of the first Native Americans?
What are the myths from their time arriving?
What barriers obstructed their destinations?
What survival challenges did they face?
Students will know:
The struggles that the First Native Americans went through.
They will be able to distinguish amongst the different tribes and what special traits they each had.
How to make an igloo
Students will be able to:
· Graph information
· Give ceremonial names for each of the tribes and their customs.
Stage II- Assessment Evidence
Performance Tasks:
Students will be able to graph and map out the journeys of the First Native Americans
Students will be able to align a timeline to the dates of the travels and the places where they went.
Other Evidence:
Students will be able to locate the areas on a map where the settlers came.
Continued….
Students will demonstrate achievement of the results through role-playing from each of the tribes such as the: Nootkas and the Shamans.
How did each tribe survive ( They will perform a play in class)
Students will reflect and self assess by making comparisons of the medicine man to that of their own cultures and if it is applicable.
Stage III Learning Plan
Learning Activities:
The activity is going to the end results of comparing, contrasting and relating to current issues in the world.
They knew how to read, graph and what survival was so they had a good grip on where they are going.
The students’ interests are held because they live in an area where poverty is a constant concern and people learn different survival skills. One skill is to eat less meat in the family and survive more on rice and things that are economically cheaper.
Students are equipped by viewing the natives through different lenses and being able to use technology as assistive devices in their classroom.
Most of the work is tailored and structured to meet the individual needs. A few of the students need more prompts due to their disabilities, but once given they catch on quickly.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Shmoker Excert
I really believe that this "Buffer" theory is an insult to the educational profession. Just like any other profession in life, there are good professionals and poor professionals. Unfortunately, things go unnoticed for long periods of time before anyone is actually brought to justice. To say that the situation if "buffered" is an inappropriate interpretation.
Richard says that "the buffer theory prevents communities and the boards from knowing how well teachers teach". It is the only profession where the professional is doubted. When the banker at the bank takes on his roll as a trusted employee handling money, he remains at his job until he steals, the physician who is in the operating room is trusted by the external members of his organization to trust that he/she knows what they are doing, the mechanic is trusted under the hood of your car until the car fails, and there are a million other professions where accountability is measured by the code of professionalism. Not all teachers sit at their desks and read their newspapers. When teachers went to school for an education in teaching, we were all taught the legalities of the profession. To jeopardize that is to take the risk just like the banker would, or the doctor going to work drunk or the mechanic using the wrong part.
I do know teachers who give busy work and have no ties to the curriculum, but that is only a few and select individuals. I blame the stakeholders and the board for not going after them aggressively enough. I work in an area of the school that is rarely frequented by administration. Any individual can go there at any given time and they will see engaged learning taking place.
Teachers are evaluated just like any other professionals are.To go out of one's way to deliberately insinuate that the teacher is under the "status qou" theory is just another way that stakeholders go after the largest union of people who are responsible for educating the future generation.
Richard says that "the buffer theory prevents communities and the boards from knowing how well teachers teach". It is the only profession where the professional is doubted. When the banker at the bank takes on his roll as a trusted employee handling money, he remains at his job until he steals, the physician who is in the operating room is trusted by the external members of his organization to trust that he/she knows what they are doing, the mechanic is trusted under the hood of your car until the car fails, and there are a million other professions where accountability is measured by the code of professionalism. Not all teachers sit at their desks and read their newspapers. When teachers went to school for an education in teaching, we were all taught the legalities of the profession. To jeopardize that is to take the risk just like the banker would, or the doctor going to work drunk or the mechanic using the wrong part.
I do know teachers who give busy work and have no ties to the curriculum, but that is only a few and select individuals. I blame the stakeholders and the board for not going after them aggressively enough. I work in an area of the school that is rarely frequented by administration. Any individual can go there at any given time and they will see engaged learning taking place.
Teachers are evaluated just like any other professionals are.To go out of one's way to deliberately insinuate that the teacher is under the "status qou" theory is just another way that stakeholders go after the largest union of people who are responsible for educating the future generation.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Sex Segregated Schools- what are your thoughts??
The Article "Gender Matters" is an article written by Amy Standen and if focuses on single-sex schools. The area is in East Palo Alto, California and the majority of the population are kids classified as "high risk". They only have single-sex instruction in curriculum studies, but they share the grounds for all of their other activities. There are 51 single-sex schools in America. A wide range of tribute is given to the success of students who were in these schools. It is important for schools to be divided because this way they are mirroring the needs of the sexes.
We may be thinking "Segregation" and automatically align it with negativity. It is not the case with these individual schools who are still abiding by the law because it is only the instructional time that is segregated. The students are allowed interaction with their peers. The study found that "when you segregate groups based on a characteristic, you give enhanced importance to that characteristic."
We may be thinking "Segregation" and automatically align it with negativity. It is not the case with these individual schools who are still abiding by the law because it is only the instructional time that is segregated. The students are allowed interaction with their peers. The study found that "when you segregate groups based on a characteristic, you give enhanced importance to that characteristic."
Monday, October 8, 2007
21st Century Collaborative Essay
It is hard to think that what we are instructing our children will not be very useful to them in the future. How many of us and how many children know what is beneficial? When I took shorthand in highschool I needed it as an elective. Years later it is a skill that I can't imagine not having learned. I would be useless in my classes had it not been for that skill. There is never a real stamp on what is actually needed for the future. Look at all of the thousands of dollars that graduate students pay and what do they use when they actually graduate?
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Did you Know? Shift Happens
This video left me with a whirlwind of emotions racing through me. I viewed this at home and I was inspired to have my 16 year old watch it also. He had questions, but at the same time he was in awe. I posted a comment on another blog earlier explaining how I would be willing to be involved in a study on India's educational movement. What are they doing that we can't master in the United States. I guess it comes from them memorizing the tables in Kindergarten and speaking two to four languages simultaneously.
Having 10-14 jobs before the age of 38 gave credit to the fact of the ever changing times. For humans who are creatures of habit, is it good or bad? How can we teach towards the things that we do not know? I guess that is why some individuals take pride in teaching as it was done 30 years ago. We must always be willing to adapt technology and embrace its success, but at the same time I like to tell students that technology is great, but be ready to do things mentally in case the power goes off and nothing was saved.
Having 10-14 jobs before the age of 38 gave credit to the fact of the ever changing times. For humans who are creatures of habit, is it good or bad? How can we teach towards the things that we do not know? I guess that is why some individuals take pride in teaching as it was done 30 years ago. We must always be willing to adapt technology and embrace its success, but at the same time I like to tell students that technology is great, but be ready to do things mentally in case the power goes off and nothing was saved.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
NCLB Letter To Congressman BIll Pascrell
Lizette Zebi
Congressman Bill Pascrell
Robert A. Roe Federal Building
200 Federal Plaza, Suite 500
Paterson, N.J. 07504
Dear Congressman Bill Pascrell:
It is a pleasure to write this letter to you as my congressman. I recall vividly when you were in Paterson and you helped a young girl from Cuba adjust to her new environment. You were an essential tool to assist her in the transitioning process at Wayne Tech High School. The young girl was my cousin and now residing in Florida. I am still living in Paterson and I am now writing to you with the No Child Left Behind as a major drive in this letter.
I have been in education for ten years. Before that I was a business manager. It is very important to business leaders that there are competent and literate individuals in the workplace. I take great pride in the students whom I teach and prepare for the future. As a fighter for the American dream and the prosperous vital society in which we live and are a part of, I feel as an educator that NCLB is a “slap in the face” to our profession. You mentioned in your website that you thought that the NCLB was a rather “blunt instrument” that the state is using. There is a great deal of pride that educators take in walking the students to reach the bar, but at what price do we have to compromise our professional ability.
I would like to see the reauthorization of the NCLB go another route while keeping students in mind first as should be the case always. With NCLB students are keeping up and trying to complete with other students in areas that they may not be able to. Special Education and ELL feel the bluntness of the discrimination because of the pressures that are involved. The numbers will be skewed and eventually the districts will lie and the long term effects will be one in which districts that do need the financial assistance and extra programs simply will not get it.
I am urging that your recommendations for NCLB reflect the needs of our students and our professional growth as well.
Sincerely,
Lizette Zebi
Congressman Bill Pascrell
Robert A. Roe Federal Building
200 Federal Plaza, Suite 500
Paterson, N.J. 07504
Dear Congressman Bill Pascrell:
It is a pleasure to write this letter to you as my congressman. I recall vividly when you were in Paterson and you helped a young girl from Cuba adjust to her new environment. You were an essential tool to assist her in the transitioning process at Wayne Tech High School. The young girl was my cousin and now residing in Florida. I am still living in Paterson and I am now writing to you with the No Child Left Behind as a major drive in this letter.
I have been in education for ten years. Before that I was a business manager. It is very important to business leaders that there are competent and literate individuals in the workplace. I take great pride in the students whom I teach and prepare for the future. As a fighter for the American dream and the prosperous vital society in which we live and are a part of, I feel as an educator that NCLB is a “slap in the face” to our profession. You mentioned in your website that you thought that the NCLB was a rather “blunt instrument” that the state is using. There is a great deal of pride that educators take in walking the students to reach the bar, but at what price do we have to compromise our professional ability.
I would like to see the reauthorization of the NCLB go another route while keeping students in mind first as should be the case always. With NCLB students are keeping up and trying to complete with other students in areas that they may not be able to. Special Education and ELL feel the bluntness of the discrimination because of the pressures that are involved. The numbers will be skewed and eventually the districts will lie and the long term effects will be one in which districts that do need the financial assistance and extra programs simply will not get it.
I am urging that your recommendations for NCLB reflect the needs of our students and our professional growth as well.
Sincerely,
Lizette Zebi
Monday, October 1, 2007
Reading Don't Fix No Chevys
This article in many ways seems to be the revolving door around curricula. All the articles that I have come across have to do with "passion" and enjoyment. It is no wonder that this survey of 48 boys had to do with the things that they enjoyed and lost track of time doing it. "Joy, creativity, the process of total involvement in life". (Csikszentmihaly, Mihaly). People strive for things like wealth, happiness and prestige according to Csikszentmihaly, Mihaly. Why aren't students looking forward to attending classes with a passion?
The Chevy essay mentioned how the young men enjoyed cooking, biking and other things. When they were engaged in it they did not want to learn anything new. It is because of this that we know how to view the challenges that individuals go through with varying lenses. These individuals felt empowered and in control.
I will never forget classes that I had and adored vs. classes that I really hated and actually I did poorly in. The more relatedness that the classes had in my life the better it was and the more I learned.
The Chevy essay mentioned how the young men enjoyed cooking, biking and other things. When they were engaged in it they did not want to learn anything new. It is because of this that we know how to view the challenges that individuals go through with varying lenses. These individuals felt empowered and in control.
I will never forget classes that I had and adored vs. classes that I really hated and actually I did poorly in. The more relatedness that the classes had in my life the better it was and the more I learned.
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