Week 4 - EDC 533

Part 1 - July 3, 2014
The week of July 7-11 was very hectic. I commuted daily (2h one way) to Fredericton to attend St. Thomas University (STU). I took a week long course called EDUC 6153 "Assessment for Learning". The classroom component of the course is done and I can now focus my time on EDC533. :-)

I listen to Podcast 1 week 4 this Sunday morning. Before taking this course, I did not realize the effort schools and teacher make developing and implementing curriculum in Maine. I also did not realize that you were dealing with common core issues as well. I graduated from UMPI in 2006 and NCLB was just coming online at the time. Lots of changes...

I teach in a school were sports is king. My goal as a science teacher has been to pull the educational pendulum back towards the academic side. We have also emphasized the idea of covering the curriculum. We have redefined this a bit to cover the essential outcomes in our PLC world. A comment in the podcast today was that curriculum is everything the school does. I have really viewed curriculum through this lens. In New Brunswick, we are looking at creating a new grade 9 science course that includes literacy as well. This will be our first co-curricular course created in New Brunswick. I teach Chemistry, Physics and some Math courses. I emphasize mathematics in my Physics and Chemistry course. I also try to make connections between these three courses.  I think all schools need to reflect on the four types of curriculum: Taught, learned, official and hidden. Great podcast! Lots to think about. Looking forward to listening to Podcast 2 week 4 later today (Sunday).

Part 2 - July 3, 2014
Poadcast 2 week 4 talked about the Google Shared document of the three levels of schools (elementary, middle and high school). We have the same system in New Brunswick. We certainly having provincial assessments, however the frequency of these assessments are being reduced. I have included assessment results below from our elementary and middle feeder schools. Our middle school math results are not great. Teachers in NB don't appear to feel as pressured to teach  to the tests as our Maine counterparts.

We sometimes feel at the middle school that our students coming to us from the middle school did not have a productive experience.  I sometimes feel a k-12 school is a better system. At least students become aware of policies and procedures as they are consistent. Some good points in the Google document and podcast 2 week 4 about all three levels. However, it is hard to make changes with such entrenched believes, especially when you consider that the HS curriculum has not changed for several decades.

Part 3 - July 3, 2014
I just finished reading: Joan Richardson, Playing ‘Catch-Up’ with Developing Nations Makes No

Sense for U.S.: An Interview with Yong Zhao, Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 91,

No. 4, December 2009/January 2010, pp. 15-20. T

My mental model of world wide assessments like PISA changed significantly after reading this paper. Yong Zhao is a very interesting person. He has his own website, different from the one quoted in the article. http://zhaolearning.com/

Part 4 - July 16, 2014
Watched a interview of Darlene Darling-Hammond by Dan Rather regarding education in Korea and Finland. She also complemented Canada. Clearly pointed out that the US is running behind overall. Did point out that the needs of some students. She made the comment that most people in prison are dropouts and most are illiterate. So, she fees crime rates are tied to education. Some keys to successful schools are: Equality, Successful, prepared educators and curriculum are 21C. US is the most tested and least examined in the world. Students in Finland learn at least three languages. She did point out that the US has some of the best schools in the world and that the challenge is to bring up the rest of the system and to support students in need.

Part 4 - July 17, 2014
I watched the Darlene Darling-Hammond Webinar last night. I could not find the link on Moodle. I was able to find it by doing a Google search. Please http://www.edutopia.org/linda-darling-hammond-international-assessment-webinar-archive. The video is a bit slow loading.