I'm beginning a new path and a new purpose for the blog.... curriculum leaders institute (cohort 2). It's 1:30 in the morning and I can't sleep - the brain is full. This is probably not the best time to get started on this, but it beats just lying in bed trying to organize my thoughts in my head.
School has been in session for about 5 weeks now. It always begins with organized chaos - teachers and students transitioning to scheduled work and leaving behind unstructured play. It's not that the curriculum work has stopped altogether. However, the pace slows as the players get rested and re-energized. These are definitely needed components if the work is going to be lasting. Which leads me to my first question, thought, phase, and so on. How do you avoid burning the players out? How does one manage all the tasks at once?
Presently I am Assistant Principal at Central High. I have all the responsibilities that go along with that position - personnel evaluations and specific time lines, student and parent issues, discipline scenarios that pop up unexpectantly, special projects, etc. I'm taking two online courses (Michigan Leadership Institute Framework Endorsement - MiLife, and now the Curriculum Leaders Institute) and am involved in the Kent County Change Network (a county consortium of "change" leaders facilitated through Harvard University). I'm involved in several committees and wear several hats. But, I'm no different than any teacher who also has too much on his/her plate. When you add "family" to the plate, boundaries begin to blur.
When I ask a teacher to "play" and they tell me they can't because of the time commitment, I honestly do understand. When I try to coerce teachers during the work day to commit to a project, write curriculum, complete test out exams, etc., teachers again worry that they are out of their classroom, student learning becomes disjointed, sub plans must be written, students must be regrouped and retaught lessons upon their return, and there is not enough time to even complete the project that took them out of the classroom in the first place (more work). It all seems like a vicious cycle. Those that are willing to "play" initially get used and abused too frequently and are more likely to burn out.
I had a situation this week concerning an Economics test out scenario. The district got themselves in a pickle this summer. The High School Economics HSCES came out from the state late. They were out in draft form for a while and were promised in July of 2007. They actually weren't finalized until late October. We didn't have appropriate texts to meet the requirements. We began to look at text adoptions to meet our needs. That process took over a year. At the same time we also were trying to meet the MMC needs in several other content areas. In social studies, the district decided to go with Government Alive, US History Alive, and Economics Alive. Although I do appreciate the cohesiveness of the series, Economics Alive isn't expected to be published until May 2009. We are promised draft materials before then, but with no confirmed dates attached. So, presently teachers have no materials at their disposal and students have no texts for a course to be taught second semester. Last year we limped through with some teacher provided resources they made up. The State made more changes to the HSCES last year. So this year, we readjusted.
The trouble comes in with providing students with the ability to test out of a course. Teachers did make a test out exam that does match the HSCES. Basically, they utilized a demo copy of a test generator from a text they previewed but did not select. This is where the adage "be careful what you ask for comes in". We told teachers we needed the test out exam for the summer 2008. We supplied students with the old, out-of-date text as study materials. You guess it.... since the study materials did not match the test, we had no successful students. Students were discouraged, and parents were angry. Although a district problem, almost all of the students who tried to test out came from one high school - Central High. All the angry phone calls got transferred to me as I tried to smooth the ruffled feathers. It took a whole month to even figure out how the debauckle happened, as the teachers constructed the test with Central Office for the entire district. I only just heard about the test generator and the unselected text just last week.
Almost from day one that teachers returned we discussed that the situation needed to be remedied. The department chair and the teacher who initially led the charge agreed to find appropriate study materials for the already created test to give students another opportunity in early November to attempt to test out of Civics and Economics. The situation is very similar for the Civics component. October 1st was the selected target date.
With the end of September fast approaching, I reminded the department chair and the lead teacher of our agreement. On September 29th, I got a visit from the lead teacher after school. He asked if I "had a minute" which was a bad sign. Our "minute" lasted two hours. He explained that his department refused to come up with study materials and insisted that was the responsibility of the student to find resources on the internet. Or, another option they provided, was that the student buy their own textbook. To say I was blown away, was an understatement. I reminded the teacher of "free and appropriate education" so buying a text was not a viable option. As far as searching the internet for resources, students would not be able to discern what information they needed to know even given the content expectations. Although the teacher was sympathetic with the present plight, he didn't figure he could complete the task without assistance. None of our sister high schools (we have three) would step up to the plate since the problem was not relevant to them. The meeting ended with the problem not resolved.
Trying not to be overloaded myself, I began search the web for relevant online sources given the specific topics included in the HSCES. I did find three very relevant government sites for US Economics. I sent the sites to the lead teacher that night with the table of contents matching the content expectations and asked him if he thought they were in depth enough to match the classroom content. Since I'm a math and science teacher, economics is not my area of expertise. He quickly replied the next day which made me think he spent little time reading through the comprehensive sites. Each site had dozens of links. The problem was still not resolved.
I took the problem to our District instruction office and curriculum folks. My plan was to provide students with these online sources and write another test that matched the information given by revising the questions of the first test out exam or writing new questions that equally matched the content expectations. In truth, I thought this would be a function of the curriculum and instruction department. Instead, I was told that I needed mentor hours so I should proceed with the plan proposed. Case closed... next topic. The problem now laid squarely in my lap and the anxiety set in. Could I physically write an economic test knowing nothing about the subject and, secondly, should I?
The next day I, again, meet with the lead teacher. He felt guilty and wanted to lift the burden from me. I denied him as I felt he had been used and abused too frequently and was already meeting with teachers to put together a curriculum for the new civics being taught as well as planning for Economics where no resources were in sight. Personally, he was barely staying afloat as it was. Add in the coaching component and class advisor responsibilities, homecoming week, .... well you get the picture. We actually stood there arguing... "no you can't take this on". End result, testing is scheduled for November 8th and we must be ready. I'm going to issue the old text with the additional online resources on October 3rd (Friday). We have a month to construct the test. I'll try to give it a shot, and run the results through him to critique. Yes, it isn't the right way to get the work done.
The ELA and chemistry curriculum also lies on the table as well as the two day professional development retreat for all staff in November. There are lots of topics to blog about - fortunately or unfortunately?
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