Will this be on the test?

OK, dharter, you win.

I had discovered the thrill of blogging while taking Jeff's class. Then work realities hit, and blogging just wasn't a "priority" anymore. But in this beautifully interconnected universe, I could no longer bear a most recent post touting my my mom's new Christmas Nano.

As I prepare for my first ASCD convention, I wonder what lies ahead for curriculum and curriculum mapping. I can't deny that technological advances make our lives more accessible to more people and information more accessible to us, but accessibility doesn't change the substance of our needs or needed skills.

Working with educators rather than students provides many opportunities for questioning the path of education. Nonetheless, our technology shouldn't dictate the content of what we teach; it is merely a tool to accelerate our discovery learning.

Wiggins and McTighe use etymology in understanding curriculum - as the course to be run, given a desired endpoint. Until there are near-metaphysical changes in our destination (i.e., an academic degree leading to a job/career to support exisitence on earth), there will not be lasting change in the preparation toward this end - commonly known as k-12 education.

Richard Bach's biplane view of life offers winding roads filled with alternatives. He offers that Learning is finding out what you already know. Education should not restrict the path that students use in this discovery, but they need an aerial view of where the "course to run" is leading them

It is misleading, no matter how many different jobs a 21st Century student may face, to coax our students into believing that mastery of the traditional core subjects is anything other than necessary. How we lead them to discover those fundamentals can eternally morph, but without the possession of the knowledge and skills essential in a math, science, language, and arts education - traditional long before the industrial age - remains essential.

Rome Wasn't Built in a Day

I feel like a mouse in a labyrinth of new knowledge and ideas!

The change from the classroom to consulting after 12 years in the classroom is a true paradigm shift. Fortunately, this is hastened by courses in leadership which constantly asks for reflections on practices in my school.

I am blessed to now have thousands of schools/educators from which to learn. I know their histories and aspirations as I work with them and gain institutional knowledge from new and savvy colleagues.

We are internet based. This is nothing knew for meaningful curriculum mapping . If not familiar with it, learn about it now rather than at the latter part of your teaching career as I did, to avoid that "where have you been all of my career" feeling.

What attracted me to the firm first as a client and then as a career path is that we don't merely fly in, "consult and leave"; we learn from our clients and their needs to better education world-wide.

So what does this mean for in a climate of growing Technology and Learning for educators?

Thank goodness our development team is keyed in to the latest and greatest and embraces the firm's philosophy of growth. Thank goodness they know and are keen to know more about what tools teachers are using and could be using in the classroom.

But useful tools take time to build and generations to evolve. After all, the touchscreen ipod wasn't built in a day.

What to do in the interim?

Keep learning.
But to quote a friend and mentor, the cutting edge thinkers hurt my brain.

Listen.
How do you let ambitious teachers/clients know you hear their needs?

And wait. But there is so much at stake. Mostly, the quality learning of children.
Isn't it better to focus on teaching them how to be lifelong learners rather than feeding them facts and skills?

To steal the lyrics from Morcheeba:
One fine day, we'll fly away. Don't you know Rome wasn't built in a day?

Enjoy the music and dancing. Music always soothes my savage intellectual beasts when my brain is hurting. . .


(images hyperlinked to sources)