Jim Shetter Ed.

638 Curriculum and Leadership Final Paper Fall 2012

My course in Ed. 638 Curriculum and Leadership has been a realistic view on the importance of the nuts and bolts of education. Prior to this course, my main question was how and why does curriculum development matter? But without a fundamental understanding of the concept and principles of the curriculum, you cant develop your basic lesson plan proficiently without it. Ive had the opportunity to read many course books as an educato r and I found this book very informative and resourceful, though this was one of the hardest books to read in comprehension of it design. The Tomlinson book really is about developing a different model mode to guide curriculum design in building self-actualized and productive lives for our students. The idea to create a one model curriculum that will fit the needs of all students doesnt work and that the parallel curriculum model supports our educational system of today. I thought what really drove this course was the products of development and the ability to listen and learn from our web meetings of our cohorts while developing my own concepts as an Educational Leader from the weekly meetings. Between developing my Learning Theory, Principal Calendar, PCM Unit, Mentorship, and the Coaching Supervision process was the actual benefactor of the course. This is what made the course and the book workable in supporting

each other. All though the Tomlinson book gave a real objective and subjective evidence in the development of the core driving force in developing curriculum, the products made justice towards why the parallel curriculum model is so important towards concepts and principles of education curriculum development. The main foundation of this semester was working with my mentor principal in understanding of the products being developed in this course. He was able for me to support my understanding and the importance of each product. At the beginning of this course, I didnt feel that developing a Learning Theory presentation was that important until I developed one. After listening to my cohorts presentation, I still didnt get it. Why did this really matter? The learning theories we developed and with our experiences as educators have helped us define our own philosophies as educators. As experienced educators in this cohort, it was good to revisit the learning theories from the past as we base of everything we do in the classroom is from our personal understanding of educational theories. It was important to revisit these learning theories in defining our educational practices in our commitment to help students in the classroom. Being new to this cohort group this semester, I found common denominators in the sense of working towards learning what makes an Educational Leader. I found out that even though out was the new guy in the cohort, I was accepted and treated as a team player and found support and gave support this semester in our product development concepts during our weekly web meetings. The weekly discussions from the readings where informative and it was great to see another prospective from the readings and personalities. I have a well organized mentor. The Principal Calendar Review product was another

good example of his ability to share his expertise with me in this course requirement. The ability to deliver and stay on task in all of the different contents that it takes to run a school can be overwhelming. His process to stay on task throughout the school year is really amazing as he uses three calendars. One calendar he uses is his global monthly/yearly tasks. Such as testing dates, monthly awareness events, In-Service dates and mandated trainings. His second calendar is an electronic outlook calendar that is synthesized with his secretary for weekly meetings within the school and community. And his third is his daily calendar he uses for the daily functions of his school. I would use the same process but unify it onto a one electronic calendar and synthesize this onto my cell phone, i-pad or the outlook calendar to keep everything on one program to keep it simple but dynamic. It is the bible of your objectives to stay on task for the needs to run a school, obligations and disciplines as a principal. The Peer Coaching Plan is another product that I found demanding and complicated in this course. As this document can be used in the court of law and can support or diminish a teachers qualifications in their content area of teaching. Along with the entire daily, weekly, monthly and semester obligations as a principal, I found that this process is demanding. Developing a trusting relationship with a teacher and then evaluating them on their concepts and objectives towards curriculum and reflecting their on performance in the classroom can be difficult. This can be a refection not only on the teacher, but the school and district. This process takes much time on both the teacher and principal in scheduling time in the process. Setting up times and dates for each teacher assigned to or all in the teaching in your building is tasking. Another issue is the knowledge of experience of each teacher in your building and their contract scenario that can be use for evaluations per teacher. The amount of time used to meet individual teachers for Pre-Evaluations, Evaluations and Post Evaluation is one manner. Being

able to be objective and subjective without being personal is a task of its own. Developing a relationship and trusting partnership is a part of developing yourself as a good principal. Then after develop this positive scenario, writing up the evaluation that is subjective in which is time consuming as a written document that can change a teachers attitude and or future. The toughest product I found in this course was the PCM Unit Framework. This was the core of this course. The focus was how to develop a lesson unit through concepts, principles and understanding what makes the nuts and bolts of parallel curriculum model. This resembled the development and focusing on the evaluation process in the progression of this program. I had to make sure that I understood what the generalization, standards and evidence was taking place during the evaluation process. Correlating the evidence of the evaluation from the standards developed by the district was important for the evaluation form. I started to think about the 10 factors in the PCM in; content, assessment, inventory activities, strategies, learning activities, group activities, products, resources, extra activities and modifications for students used during the evaluation of the teacher. Ive advanced as an educator this semester then another other period in my educational career. This course has taught me the real core of curriculum development and the importance of curriculum in the classroom. Its the toughest course Ive experienced and Ive enhanced my past understanding of curriculum in development. As an educator, I do I look at my lessons on a daily basis differently. Can I comprehend the importance in my lessons in what Im doing in the classroom? Yes, I can relate my lessons and daily activities in the classroom with the standards and understand the concepts and principles of the curriculum.