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Tag: Curriculum

Updating the Diploma

Updating the Diploma

Updating the curriculum is grounded in preparing students for today’s job market and the elusive future economy.  It is also about providing students an opportunity to explore their passions, develop a love of learning not to mention the skills a learner needs to keep on learning.   When developing curriculum we often ask two questions (1) what do we want the student to be able to do (2) how do we know they know it?   The ultimate proof of completing a…

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Updating the Curriculum

Updating the Curriculum

Many school curricula have remained pretty much unchanged for decades some could argue centuries. The basic common elements of English, Math, Science and History are constants, it is the other curricular options that seem to come and go over time. When I was in middle school/ high school we had a choice of home economics options; sewing, cooking, money matters, early childhood education. There was also a “shop” track; woodworking, automotive repair, metal working, business accounting, keyboarding, and short hand.  …

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Standards, Curriculum and Assessment

Standards, Curriculum and Assessment

In Massachusetts we have, or is it had, the Mass Curriculum Frameworks and Standards.  Now we are transitioning to the Common Core. These standards, as I understand the term, are to provide the framework, backbone by which we build our curriculum. A list of standards is not the same as a curriculum. I think we tend to confuse standards (minimum to do list) and curriculum (expanded, creative how to guide). We tend to focus on the to do list and…

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Holiday Conversations on Education

Holiday Conversations on Education

Note: I originally wrote this over the Christmas vacation and lost it. So I am trying to recreate it from my notes. Not quite as good as the original. The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are a wonderful time for multiple generations to sit around the table and share stories about the good old days. Around our table the conversations usually lean towards education and science. My parents were in high school during the mid 1940’s and we were talking about…

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