Saber Tooth Curriculum

When I read this article I thought about curriculum and why it was developed. Educators argue about what they feel should be taught and what is deemed important for the students to learn.
Should education be completely focused on society's needs or ideas that will help make them money? New-Fist took the approach of what society needed at the present time. He wanted to develop a way to provide the children with skills that could allow them to have a better life and keep them from danger.

When change occurred there was a conservative group with elder member of the tribe that felt if children were meant to do those things at such a young age it would be in their instinct and not have to be taught to them. This reminds me of the educators who are afraid of change and reluctant to try new ways of teaching children. Instead of doing what is best for the kids, they do what makes them comfortable. This is an issue in today's education.

Education must always continue to evolve over the years and people will always be resistant to change. There must be people that can think for themselves and come up with their own ideas. If we didn't have those types of people we wouldn't have new forms of curriculum on such a regular basis.

NJ DOE WEBSITE

The website was easy to read for an educator, but not very user friendly for the average Joe. This website should be a tool for parents to access and utilize. As a parent, everything on this website would be confusing. It should be broken down so the standards are clear. It shouldn't be a nightmare to fish around for them. People are reluctant to use websites as tools because of the confusing nature of them. If websites are set up to accommodate everyone, people would use them more often.

"180 Days"

After watching the video "180 Days" I thought about all the days we miss at school and realized how correct the video was. There are so many interruptions during the year that cut into instructional time. As teachers we always think we have so much time to get our lessons completed, but we definitely do not.

The ramifications of mising so many days results in students being illprepared for college or the workplace. The use of instructional time for non-instruction, causes some students to believe education is not as important as it should be. Others who already believe this to be true are reinforced in this belief by the daily fillers.

I would plan a schedule in which Fridays would be designated as the only day to be used for non-instructional activities or tasks that need completed throughout the school year.

Change Response

Educators are very slow to change because they want to remain where they are comfortable. Many are afraid of the unknown and whether or not they will be able to teach the new curriculum as well as the old one. Many of the older educators are intimidated of the use of technology, and they are also very set in their ways about how to teach. They believe what they have been doing for years has worked so why change it. Working hard as educators without fear should be something we are eager to do since we ask our own students to do the same thing.

While reading the different articles, I thought about why change occurs and the benefits of change. Without change in education, our society would not be where it should. The changes are great for the educators as well as the students. The times alter more and more; we have to be ready for this transformation and embrace it. This must be done as a team approach.

I am an educator that really likes change. The article by Patricia Lee Brown about using calming methods in classes excited me because I also thought it was a great idea to use with students. When I think of ways to help students learn better and enjoy what they are doing, I smile and think I have done my job properly. All educators should think about innovative ideas such as what Patricia Lee Brown came up with to educate kids to the best of their ability.

Prensky's Challenge

Reading Presnky's challenge really got me thinking as an educator. I thought his ideas were very different and exciting, but at the same time very unrealistic. There are so many different students in the classroom. Some may absolutely love technology, while others could never learn to the best of their ability solely using a technology means of learning.

Presnky was not an educator and that is apparent by reading his challenge. Packing an entire year's work into a semester just would not benefit any students. It would bring a great deal of stress and pressure, and add negativity towards wanting to learn.

Learning technology is very important, and students would benefit from some of his ideas; but this challenge does not accurately describe what can and would happen in the classroom.