Blog #4

Blog #4-

A.  Determining what is important in curriculum is the teacher's role: 
     I was worried about what I would be teaching as an intern this coming year.  Thankfully, my grade level team members have recently given me a curriculum map which is detailed down to what I will be teaching by week.  This takes some of the stress off of me figuring out what is the important curriculum that I would want to cover.  Hopefully after this year, once I've had the opportunity become more familiar with the curriculum I'll feel more comfortable in doing this on my own. 
     From the text I learned that students don't do well with memorization, their minds want to make sense of it, no memorize it.   I need to teach in a way that supports this.  I found it interesting that if you teach less yet, better students score higher.  I think this might be because the information is less convoluted and concise. Teachers need to help students master essential information and link it to essential concepts that may appear in their lives. 

B.  Fox-Taming: 
"For students who struggle, he will plan multiple ways to teach and revisit the essentials.  He will check each activity and product assignment against his list of nonnegotiable to guarantee a match between what he asks students to do and where students need to arrive by the end of their exploration of the topic.  pg. 71
     -Teachers need to always have have different strategies or activities to help students.  These need to be planned ahead when making the lesson plan. 

"Mr. Johnson also wants to enlist the curiosity of his students as the unit begins. If he can make a link between science and their own lives, he believes, the students will be more invested in the unit."  pg. 71
      -Good teachers try to relate their teaching to their students to keep them intersted. 

"It seems unlikely to him that any single activity he develops would be appropriatley challenging for all students.  He wants all of his learners to do work that is focused on the essential underpinnings of the unit and that is intriguing to them, but e decides the specifics of the tasks would need to vary in order to make sure the work is a  little to hard for each learner."  pg. 74
     -When selecting assignments for students teachers need to be aware of every student in their class.  Not all students are on the same level and these assignments need to be selected appropriately. 


"The expectation in Mr. Johnson's class is that all students will work hard and continually look for ways to grow." pg. 75
     -I think it is important for teachers to create expectations in their classroom that students can become excited about.  If as a teacher you have high expectations for your students, then they will want to meet those expectations.