CURR Week 3 Curric Action Plan

I've just been pouring thoughts on paper about our rough draft. My district is in the midst of a 5 year curriculum plan...Many believe, however, it's just to save the job of the higher up administration for the next couple years. We've met a couple times as a department but nothing has really come of it. It's unfortunate that they want you to VOLUNTEER to be on these curriculum committees without paying us...faculty meetings are one thing but meeting after school for an hour or two for just some free professional hours, not everyone is jumping at the chance. They (admin) try to make it seem that it should be us that writes it because we'll be the ones teaching it, but many feel that it's us doing their work while they reap the benefits of looking good under a revised curriculum plan.

Just like Fullan has been saying it's tough to deal with the thoughts of change, and you see that with many older faculty members that have their plans set from sept to june. These teachers fear change and it's up to us to know how to accomadate change and make it an easier transition with them. We'll see how my rough draft finishes up, see ya Wed.

CURR 534 Week 2

Week 2's class session dealt a lot with todays society and our perception of it. Many felt to get attention, a child didn't have to be good or have talent, but get in trouble and make a name for him/herself. We felt they didn't care whether or not this "name" or reputation was negative, they just wanted attention any way they could get it. We all agreed that as teachers today we need to be entertaining and hold onto the shortening attention spans of todays youth.

I personally agreed with the fact that justice seems minimal and society as a whole is affraid to hand down a punishment that fits the crime. Speaking of justice, I think back of the article week 1 of class of the poor substitute woman who is going through legal battles because of a small incident that could've been dealt with quickly, quietly and internally. Is what this woman is going through really justice, with all the problems in the world and in this country, this is the person we're going after? It falls under the bureaucracy ideal, nobody wants to be accountable on top so let's blame this woman who gives her time to help us out by watching over children in our school.

Someone also added the quote "I feel betrayed". I can sympathize with this feeling because I feel leadership is at an all time low in administration, atleast in my eyes. I think discipline is huge with kids, but few have the nerve to enforce it, quicker turn an eye than speak a word of correction. What happened to "the buck stops here"...we all need to be accountable for our surroundings and our profession.

What Did I Learn

In third grade I remember learning how to write in cursive. Here I thought that anything cursive at 8 years old got me a time-out and my mouth washed out with soap, who knew the difference. I remember the old strips of letters that used to hang ominously over the chalkboard showing you how to create a certain letter in uppercase and lowercase. It always amazed me how different a letter could look transforming from big to small. One of the first things we needed to practice was how to write our name in cursive. The teacher couldn't be more correct when she said we'd use this skill almost everyday of our adult lives. Even though they are both done in cursive, there is just that huge difference between a signature and an autograph. I haven't found anyone who hasn't practiced their "autograph" in hopes they would someday hand it to an adoring fan. What a fantasy sitting in 3rd grade @ 10:30am on a Tuesday!

I have to say that I wish we were forced to practice cursive writing because I haven't used it in over 15 years. It was supposed to be this great way to cut down on printing time, but I couldn't even go through the alphabet correctly now!