TIE536_Curriculum: What's It All About?

I found my mind wandering back to our discussion of curriculum last Monday. I have always approached how I think about ‘curriculum’ from the traditional viewpoint: an individual course or course of study, approved by a board of education, that leads to a degree or certificate—curriculum in the overt or explicit sense. But it’s quite obvious that there are many other factors at play that are in a very real way a part of every curriculum. The societal curriculum plays a very big role at my school in Wheaton, which might be best know for its unofficial claim as having the most churches per capita in the U.S.A. The hidden curriculum is alive and well at my school—the principal is very ‘hands-on’ and has certain expectations about the behavior within each classroom that become part of the curriculum. I’m not certain about specific things that are not taught in my school, and part of the null curriculum, although as an Art teacher I tend to stay away from highly controversial pieces of art. This may also be due to the fact that I’m new to teaching Art, period, but also new to the school and not yet tenured. That tends to make one more conservative in their choices. These are the aspects of curriculum which stood out most notably, and have led me to think in deeper terms about the decisions I make to include or not to include material in daily lessons, and will influence my future activities when I am involved in the formal writing of curriculum for my district.

TIE536_Technology: The Final Frontier

My 2-year mission at NLU has led me to what I now fully understand is only the beginning of my exploration of strange new worlds of technology, to seek out new life and new civilizations(?), to boldly go where too few teachers have gone before. . .
The challenge of integrating technology into curriculum can be daunting, indeed, especially when given time constraints of a 24-hour day, four teaching preps, extra-curricular assignments and sponsorships, and trying to maintain a healthy family life and make time for my other interests. I’m exhausted just writing this.

The beautiful thing about this is that because of the nature of technology, there will always be new things to explore and the rate of its development seems to be increasing exponentially. Because many of today’s students have been raised with a certain amount of computer technology that is already integrated into their daily lives, there will be little or no resistance from our students as we move forward to further integrate technology into our curriculum and our schools in general. As I explored the phrase, “technology integration” at edutopia.org, I was struck by the observation that the biggest obstacle to overcome in technology integration is the basic human resistance to change. As I am beginning the third career of my life, I’d like to think that I have a track record of being able to embrace change even in the face of adversity. So perhaps I have conquered the biggest hurdle—the rest of this will continue to be an amazing adventure.

Credit
“Star Trek” created by Gene Roddenberry

TIE536 Technology Integration

I'm in my fourth year of teaching in the Art department at Wheaton North High School; my preps have included Into to Art, Graphic Design, Photography and Interior Design. Each semester I've tried to further integrate technology into my curriculum. This has taken a variety of forms, from using the Internet for a virtual field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, to budgeting and planning for a kitchen redesign. I'm comfortable as a technology user, but still consider myself to be in the early stages of learning how to effectively merge my personal use with the development of new teaching strategies and learning opportunities to achieve the goals of my curriculum.

The class definition of technology integration as "a process of bringing the use of technology into learning environments (devoted to other outcomes) in a way that streamlines/enhances/supplements/transforms the understanding of both" describes the goal I've been striving for in my own classrooms. Although there are students that need basic instruction on using computers and the Internet, that is not the focus of my activities. I try to include the 'Big Picture' in each of my lessons, reinforcing that the technology is a tool, not an end unto itself.