This week’s chapter has my mind spinning. Chapter 4, Large Scale Curriculum Development, by Wiles and Bondi, provides a top down look at curricula at the national, state and district levels. While there were so many take aways, I found myself asking many questions. One questions: who is benefiting most from the CCSS? Is it companies like Pearson who, according to Wiles and Bondi, are profiting from their development of assessments and online teacher training programs? Could it be politicians or wealthy philanthropists who have the means and power to push their own set of beliefs when it comes to education? I am by no means suggesting that there is malintent on the part of any of these participants. Truthfully, I believe that we all want what is best for our children. My questions concern whether or not we are on the right path when it comes to education.
While I have many questions when it comes to this chapter, and even some concerns, my biggest has to do with teacher preparation and professionalism. To me, the CCSS can be ambiguous and without a proper curriculum and proper training these standards can be lost in translation. Are teachers currently being prepared to properly understand curriculum and the standards? There are so many buzzwords like, "unpacking the standards," "authentic learning," "rigor" etc. But what do these words actually mean? What do they look like in our classrooms? There seems to be constant changes that affect expectations, , best practices and education in general, but I wonder..............what about us, the teachers? It seems like we’re often forgotten when these initiatives are rolled out. It’s like boxes are just being checked when it comes to us and our learning at the national, state and district levels. Should not our professional development opportunities truly address and reflect these curriculum “changes?” In my experience, professional development offered through my district provides zero choice, with little engagement and does not reflect what we are being told to do in our own classrooms? If I want what I believe is relevant professional development, I am finding it on my own terms, using my own time. Keeping curriculum in mind, my question to you is: What should professional development look like? As educators, how can we best prepare ourselves to withstand these changes and continue to do our best for our students?
I believe that professional development should provide opportunities for teachers to work on improving their classroom practice. I think that it is best for professional development to be hands on and for teachers to be able to work on creating materials that they will use in the classroom. Often times, I find that professional development provided by my school is when the teachers have to listen to ideas and concepts rather than creating them.
ReplyDeleteI am lucky to be able to attend outside professional development provided by my school that teaches us and allows us to prepare materials for our classroom. This professional development definitely prepares me for any changes that are in the curriculum and helps me to understand the standards on a deeper level. This is more difficult for teachers who are not provided the professional development that helps them understand and prepare for the changes in the curriculum. Teachers could help each other to prepare by working together to understand any curriculum changes. Teachers could also complete independent research to ensure that they are staying on top of the changes in education.
Christine Joannidis
I think Diana is asking all of the right questions with regard to CCSS and professional development from the top down. The chapter itself raises doubts about the validity of how the CCSS have been implemented. It makes references to CCSS being hastily implemented without field research and districts "panic purchasing" of Pearson materials in order to be in compliance and eligible for federal funding.
ReplyDeleteThe sad reality, in my view, is that the politics and money that brought about these sweeping policy changes were not rooted in a desire to improve education, but in a desire to take control of schools and what teachers are doing in them. We now have a situation where teachers are limited in their ability to creatively teach. Instead, they are trying to decode the intentions of the CCSS. In other words, teachers are the one who are supposed to answer Diana's question, "What do they (the standards) look like in the classroom?" The folks who wrote the standards didn't have any idea. But they did know what they wanted in curricula, and what they didn't. So what's the antidote to all of this top-down control? Grass roots rising up. Teachers need to take back their profession, and remind society what it means to lead out the best of their students' abilities. Public demonstrations, letters to the editor, social media groups, use of NJEA PRIDE monies to fund campaigns are all possible ways teachers can employ to push a pro-student/pro-teacher agenda. The only trouble is, most teachers have a plethora of demands to meet just to maintain where they are in the status quo. It reminds me of an obscure Billy Joel song that has the lyric, "I'd start a revolution but I don't have time."
By the way, take a look at the "Additional Reading" at the end of the chapter. The author of the first article is B. DeVos, as in our current US Education Secretary. As it turns out, she didn't write the article. But she is identified in the article as one of the billionaires trying to kill public education.
Paul Brubaker
I believe professional development is the place where teachers should be learning and actively searching for new ways to teach in their classroom. I do have to agree with Diana, I am constantly looking for my own types of professional development because the options available at my school do not seem to "fit" my ideals or my subject. To me, professional development should be something that allows teachers to look at new ideas or ways to teach content to all types of students.
ReplyDeleteI do not want to say/believe that we as educators are being persuaded by the politicians or Pearson for the way we teach or what we teach, but this might be true. Going back to my post from last week, how standardize tests are beginning to shape how we teach and what we teach is exactly the problem. We are paying Pearson to be a part of their system and implement their test in our schools, which they get paid a lot for. This ultimately persuades us how to teach to prepare our students to take these tests which in turn reflects on our standards. So my answer is yes, I think it all affects how we teach.
Molly Allister