How I Would Change Curriculum in my Classroom

Well, based on the readings and discussions in this class, I would like to change my classroom in several ways. I would like to incorporate more of the Partnership for the 21st Century Skills. I would like to stop sacrificing depth for breadth, and I would like to authentically use the ample technology I have at my fingertips.

As far as P21 goes, students are going to need to be ready for the current and future realities of their lives, and so schools that force them to step back in history do not accomplish much when it comes to this preparation. I think I have always integrated some component of environmental, global, and technological literacy, but one area I have fallen a bit short is collaboration. I tend to rely on a teacher-centered classroom, which I will say is not always bad. There is quite a bit of support for interactive lecture as a method for achieving results, especially with regards to science. This said, students are moving into a world where people collaborate - all the time. They email, phone, text, skype, facebook, blog, tweet, and so forth. It is fundamentally important that these communication and collaboration tools are used to accomplish work and learn in school, and I am working on how to incorporate them more appropriately in my classroom.

I have always felt like I have had to rush through an incredible amount of material in life science. From day one, we jump right in with the definition of characteristics of life, and we go full steam ahead until final exams. This is unfair though. There are so many opportunities and places where students can question, probe, and get creative. There are so many topics that could be unwrapped and delved into. It's a disservice to keep students from engaging in these - and it's much less fun to teach this way. I am taking our unit on genetics currently and getting into the ethics and moral dilemmas behind emerging genetic technology. I am presenting small groups with case studies supported with science, and asking them to evaluate the pros and cons, and develop and team statement to persuade the class. How fun!

And the final change I want to integrate right away is utilizing the technology at my fingertips. I have a ceiling-mounted projector, an interactive whiteboard, and students who have one-to-one computing. One of the lessons of this course was to stop doing the same old thing, but now using technology. Instead, we should begin doing new things in new ways. With this in mind, I am trying to make small changes. In the aforementioned genetic-ethics case studies, I would have normally printed out the PDF file and had students highlight. Instead, now, I am asking them to use annotations in the PDF and make color-coded notations about pros, cons, and questions. Granted, this is still annotating the text, but it is a new way to do so (and will avoid the "I left my paper at home" piece!) and in a way is a beginning.

I hope that many teachers are trying to make these changes. I feel like for the first 8 years of teaching, I perfected (as much as possible) an old-fashioned style of teaching. It is only in the past couple years I have really started to open my eyes and build in some different techniques. There is a whole world of teaching pedagogy, and it would be sad to have decided on the one true technique this early in my career! I am appreciative of the development of new ideas, and hope that as I become more engaged in my teaching, so too will my students.