Sunday, September 13, 2009
Curriculum on Repeat
Throughout the past three years, I have observed a spectrum of teaching styles. This ranged from the teachers who's style was natural and easy, to teachers that seemed not to care a whole lot about whether the class understood. Unfortunately, one experience that occurred repeatedly was the teacher that has been teaching the same curriculum for the past twenty years. The problem with that, is that students, teaching approaches, and technology have have changed since then. Their curriculum remains the same so the material does not reach the students the same way. I do fear that if I become comfortable with a curriculum design that works once, that I will stop development as a teacher altogether. Therefore, I do believe that the strongest part of being a good teacher is the ability to adapt and incorporate any changes, whether it be the students, the school, or our ever changing technology.
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Ah Karen, you brought to mind my biggest criticism from my practicum!
ReplyDeleteOn my practicum I returned to my old high school and one of my sponsor teachers in bio was a teacher that had been there long before I had gone to high school. All her material was exactly the same, same slides, same quizzes, same labs, same exams... everything. It was like walking into a strange deja-vu....I showed her youtube and google.com and she was absolutely blown away by the idea that she could search videos on any subject that she was teaching!
I agree, that it is so easy to just keep doing things the same once you find something that works, and finding a way to change things each and every year will be a challenge. Maybe I should print out this blog and keep it as a reminder for when I've been teaching for 20 years.
I agree, we have to work hard to change things up and not slip into an extreme routine. People don't generally like change, so it's natural for us to want structure and routine. Sure, we can use things over again that work well, so long as they are still valid and interesting.
ReplyDeleteI find one of the biggest challenges for me is keeping up with technology. This is actually the first blog I've ever used. With so many internet resources available, we have to be aware of what our students are using for research and keep our assignments up to date and in touch with technology. Technology provides many different outlets and resources for students and teachers.
As we don't want to be the teacher who uses the same tests and assignments for 20 years, we also don't want to be the teacher who sticks by old technology due to routine and fear of change.