This request is from a long time group member who has gone through much persecution along the lines of Bracey, if you can believe that. OK not that bad, but it’s not been an easy road of it for him. He is asking for anonymity here:
Ben,
You may or may not recall that last academic year I was given a smack-down by the principal of my school, who told me I couldn’t “do TPRS” and needed to use the new textbook since the kids had been taught that way since elementary school and we’re getting “thrown off course” with me doing something different.
Now, as if to mock me, I have been selected in some colleagues from four other schools in the district to rewrite the language of our curriculum. [ed. note: Alisa I will send him what you sent me and get them up on a new Curriculum Docs hard link asap.] Basically, that’s all it is, a rewriting of the words no one will look at even though it’s posted on the district web site.
I had foolishly thought for one brief moment before walking into the meeting with the District Director of Curriculum and Instruction that he might have been warned about me and would like to discuss CI. No such luck.
HOWEVER, I’m just the right kind of crazy and have recently been thinking of calling a meeting with him in private to discuss a consideration of losing this grammar focus, this textbook driven scope and sequence throughout our schools.
Maybe it’s a bad career move because I can imagine my principal might be very upset that I have gone over his head. Or it might be a great thing. Oh, life.
Anyway, what would you recommend I take with me about CI if, say, I played Russain Roulette and called a meeting with the Director. It’d be nice to walk into his office with some good stuff in hand and I forgot all that you’ve suggested before, so can you or the group remind me where to find the good stuff here that I need for this meeting?
Thanks!
PLC Member
4 thoughts on “Curriculum Docs/S and S Question”
If you have tenure (aka professional teacher status), you should do it. If you don’t have it, you should not do it. We’re sitting ducks if we don’t keep making moves to create room for CI teaching. So if you can’t be fired by your principal randomly, I would reach out to this curriculum director.
I agree with John about that. You were invited to meetings involving that person, so you didn’t entirely initiate that contact.
They obviously think somewhat highly of you since they gave you the task. I say go for it.
Funny, they want you to drink the “traditionalists” Kool-Aid by assigning you the task but you know what you need to do for the love of acquisition. Tenure helps here: Godspeed.