Highlights of Blogging: EDC533

       There are a few main thrusts in my blogging that are highlights. My blogging highlights the ways in which I have more thoughtfully considered the needs of the 21st century learner and how to better meet these needs. I have also considered  the role of technology in student learning and curriculum development.  Throughout my blogging, I used commentary from Hayes Jacobs fairly frequently as her ideas and perspectives assist us in meeting the needs of the 21st century learner.
       In thoughtfully considering the needs of the 21st century learner my blogging helped me to focus on the importance of preparing the student for the increased connection to our global world that technology now offers us. I was happy to report about how my own subject of World Language fits in so critically to prepare our students for the language and cultural awareness necessary to function with increased global connectivity.
      In my blogging, I have thought about the role of technology from a student’s perspective and how this is viewed both positively and negatively. It shed great light for me as a teacher upon what the student believes about technology;  its usage to them for their learning, and socializing, as well as technology as a pervasive component of their reality. This generation has great hopes and great fears about how technology will operate in their lives. In conducting this research, I learned a lot about how I will structure technology usage in my classroom. It will definitely be included, but not without thorough reflection as to how technology functions to enhance learning, on the part of both teacher and student.    
  My blogging also helped me to investigate more fully the role of technology for the future of language learning. With all of new technology and its improvements in translation capabilities, it has directed me to think about what this means for the future of language learning and has brought up many questions. All in all I have enjoyed blogging as a means to more thoughtfully consider my own role the curriculum  development process.

These are my first three baby steps to curriculum change in my classroom: Add the technology.....rubric changes.......assessment changes!

              Having put into practice a little about what Hayes Jacobs talks about in Curriculum 21, especially concerning assessments, I will talk about what I am currently doing,... and what I aspire to be doing in my classroom, in terms of  changing curriculum in my middle level World Language classroom.
             First of all, the changes that I have been making this year in my classroom curriculum are within the areas of assessment, rubric development, and additional technology. I am interested and excited to be creating curriculum that builds global cultural awareness, in repsonse to our technology enhanced  connectivity to the world.  I have done a little in this area, but I am interested in developing more as I feel it is of great importance to this generation's future. Perhaps this will also lead to stronger communication ties with the Spanish speaking world.
             Having done a little work this year with creating new assessments, I can see the wisdom of Jacobs when she counsels us to begin with one thing at a time, and then the rest will fall into place accordingly. Jacobs specifically counsels us that we should actually start with changing our assessments first, as this will lay the foundation for an unfolding of change. Naturally, with the addition of technology into student performance based assessments, both the rubric and the assessment itself has to be augmented. So, there we have it! It became a cyclic operation.....add the technology........rubric must change......assessment changes! At least, that is where I am at right now! I am well  aware of the additional progress that must be made if I am to bring my students into World Language learning in the 21st century, and to sufficiently fill their imaginative and creative learning desires.
           I am happy to report that my online professional development has been the most important experience that I could have received to assist me in making technology changes to my curriculum. I have brought podcasting into the classroom, and am really excited to set up a VoiceThread with some classes as it will allow us to practice our communication skills in Spanish in a really fun way!
             And so it goes.... I will continue to make these changes until all of my curricula has been upgraded to
the 21st century... an exciting journey for the teacher also!

Transition Issues for the Ninth Grader: What Can Both Levels (Middle and HS) Do Better?

  It saddens me to see our middle school student supported so much during the middle years, and then to know full well that these support systems will not be in place for them next year. I joined a mentor program this year, hoping to be of some assistance to kids in need of connecting with previous support systems at the middle level. Transition issues, unfortunately quite vexing indeed! One of the areas that we as teachers feel powerless at times in making a  difference.  So much disconnect between levels from elementary to middle and middle to high, causing so many problems for students which are severely detrimental to a positive,  educational experience. The questions raised are: How do we best confront and deal with these issues? What can we as teachers do to assist our students in experiencing positive transition experience? We may sometimes think that the special education student will experience the most difficulty with transitioning between levels, however upon further investigation we see that the grade level and student most affected by transition issues is the ninth grader. Ninth grade level students are at the highest risk for problems with  transition issues; problems which will result in student drop out and or non promotion to the next year. In Curriculum 21, Hayes Jacobs promotes the many options that we now have due to the flexibility of technology which address these ninth grade transition issues.
   Focusing on the ninth grader and the difficulty that they experience, here are some of their issues: “On average, ninth graders report being less involved in school activities and perceive the need for more school organization. They also indicate lower self -esteem and higher rates of depression than middle school students (Barber &Olsen,2004).”
 Looking at “The First Year of High School: A Quick Stats Fact Sheet.” by Elizabeth Williams and Scott Richman, AIR, at betterhighschools.org,  “Research has shown us that resources and strategies that include the following practices will support and guide smooth transitions into high school: “aligned standards and curriculum, team teaching, catch up course work in the first semester using the double block schedule, student advisories. at risk benchmarks, academic benchmarks, and adolescent literacy initiatives.”
 Here is where technology which transcends issues of time and space in the scheduled curriculum can help.  I know a few school systems that would benefit by putting this research into practice, and utilizing more technology to assist in their transition issues.(I’m sure you do too!)

Moving in the Direction of 21st Century Literacy.

      While reading chapter 11 entitled: Power Down or Power Up? by Alan November in Curriculum 21, by Hayes Jacobs, a few statements called out to me. The first statement that hit me, ...“the real problem is not adding technology to the current organization of the classroom but changing the culture of teaching and learning.” This statement prodded me to think about my experience thus far with          technology in the classroom.  One popular statement comes to mind. "Technology for technology’s sake." We teachers have all heard this a few times,  I’m sure.  Any teacher who has felt pressured into adding more technology into the classroom when she wasn’t ready for it, can identify with that statement. Any teacher who has even used minimal technology in the classroom, can understand some of the problems presented when students are using the Internet.  Finally, any teacher who has been grappling with wanting to add more technology in the classroom, and has then encountered the blockers to that implementation, both technologically and socially, can relate also! A confusing time for teachers. We want to take those necessary steps forward; feeling the initial excitement of all that technology has to offer and wanting to share this with students, only to be thwarted by censorship. So, I am in accordance with November on the need to change the culture of teaching and learning, with regard to the newest technology available that will enhance the learning environment.
    In the midst of all the controversy and tension of cultural shifts in teaching and learning as a result of our newest technology, November believes that.... “we should be providing students with guided opportunities and teachable moments that allow them to practice and hone their research skills.”  Again, another statement that I agree with and can happily add, one with which I am confident and comfortable. Confident, because I know I have provided these necessary research opportunities for students.  Comfortable, because as we negotiate the waters of cultural shift tensions, waiting for the inevitable tide to turn,  dealing with the blockers, controls, and censorship tendencies of the school community, at least we are doing the very best that we can to move in the direction of 21st century literacy. 

Interview #2 in a series of 2- What are the positive aspects of technology use in classroom and beyond?

              Once again I was amazed at the eloquent articulation of sixth graders, as well as their grasp on life in the digital age in their classroom and beyond. For this second interview,  I asked students to reflect upon the positive side of life in the digital age. Appearing to be slightly less animated than when I had asked them about the negative side of technology, they took the question seriously and jotted down a few notes about their feelings. A few interesting things came up during  discussion moments later, and the discussion took a surprising turn. Students were considering all types of technology not just their laptops, but phones, iPods, all video media, electronic devices and even cars. This was not my intended prompt for them, but this was their assumption about technology in general; that it should have broad inclusion of all things mentioned.  They all agreed that technology can make things more convenient especially in researching for schoolwork. It keeps you organized, contacted and updated was one mature  response. It's helpful for receiving quick information such as an environmental hazard, or a storm. One student remarked that he appreciated being able to write on a keyboard since he has poor penmanship. They included that it is easier to communicate with technology and to keep up with cultural awareness, online translators can be helpful with this, they thought. "It's entertaining."
            Even as the task at hand was to analyze the positive aspects of technology in their lives, students couldn't seem to resist talking about its negative aspects, much to my dismay as I tried to steer them back to the main interrogation. "More technology is not necessarily better," added one student, "because it does affect the environment, such as car emissions. Some people call it progress, but it's really a downfall because because of the bad effects it has." "It's good  to have a break and be disconnected for a while. People get angry when technology doesn't work. Then you realize that it's causing you stress, maybe you should get away from it," was another response.
           I don't think it's necessary to elaborate on the fact that these students verbal, written and analytical skills have clearly been increased due to their increased exposure to text. Maybe I should have them read  Hamlet's Blackberry, by William Powers? Based on their observations, I'm sure they would like it!

Review on Curriki as a Resource for Spanish: Middle Level

 This is a review on Curriki for teachers of Spanish on Curriki. Curriki is called the K-12 Open Curricula Community. it is described as a non profit, empowering educators to deliver and share curricula.  There is a lot of material  in Curriki, all written by teachers for teachers. When looking for specific material you have some search options. Your search is refined by grade and subject, and then by “type”. Your choices for type of resource are: any, interactive, video, podcast. The types of resource choices are: any, exercise, unit, lesson plan, games.

Some types of usage have more offerings than others. The “exercises” choice has the most to offer. I was hoping that there would be more material specifically for  Spanish. There is plenty of resource, however there are a variety of language offerings, so it is not specifically grouped for Spanish. You have to weed through the all of the other language offerings to find your subject. When you make your selected resource choice, the content is displayed. There is also a bar at the top which allows your to find more information regarding the resource, such as, standards connections and comments. I would definitely use some of the material in Curriki, and even found one lesson that I may use in class tomorrow! I could also add it to my portaportal site. So, a resource that could use occasionally with students and/or add it to my portaportal site. Students could even go to Curriki directly and work on material.  If you join and become a member of Curriki you can review the material and post a rating using a  5 star system, 1=lowest,  5= highest. The lesson plans are written by teachers and reviewed by teachers.  

Here comes the heads up: if you are choosing popular thematic lessons then you might find more extensive vocabulary and sentence grammar construction in Curriki resources ( the ones I checked at least).This can obviously be quite confusing for students, not to mention, frustrating for you, the teacher!  For example, in your instruction, if you have included only one word for the color “purple,” and the resource introduces another word for the color “purple,” it can be extremely frustrating for the learner who may now distrust you as their instructional source. You are now a source whose credibility is in serious question with your fifth grade! A source who may have given faulty information..... according to student developmental estimation! Anyway, many of the material resources had this extended vocabulary and grammar additions to basic thematic lessons. So you will have to decide whether or not it is suitable to what you have been teaching, or requiring students to understand at the time. Oh, the joys of second language teaching and finding appropriate resources!

Getting into the "Flow", Educational Nirvana.

Let me explain what I mean by getting into the flow when you are teaching. It’s a little bit like when you take advantage of a “teachable moment”, and the student makes the connections that you want them to make. Connections that will have an impact on their reality,( even if it’s just a critical perspective of their reality.)  Metaphysically speaking, that's pretty powerful! First and foremost, we as teachers want students to make powerful connections between their present and future reality with what they are learning.
         Here is a definition that I found on About.com: Elementary education. A teachable moment is “an unplanned opportunity that arises in a classroom where a teacher has an ideal chance to offer insight to his or her students.”  The article goes on to say, " that you can not plan for; rather it is a fleeting opportunity that must be sensed and seized by the teacher.” Let’s take this a bit further to get into  the “flow”. I think getting into the flow might focus more about how this process works to be both mutually beneficial for both the teacher and the student.  The type of experience that empowers us to know that we are in the right place, doing the right thing,.. simply put. Hopefully, we have all had a lot of these “flow” experiences in our teaching and our students have benefited from them also. They truly are sacred moments when you feel as if you have had some influence on learning for students that will help them........ whenever they recall it, or put in into practice. I can remember some meaningful  lessons, classes and teachers words or phrases as a young student. They were never, ever  about the subject material. They were generally times when the teacher was really leveling with us about life and being grown up, or our future, things of that nature. Pretty powerful occurrences, I’ll say again...at the risk of being redundant ! I have revisited some of these experiences time and again, and interpreted them to help fit my reality.  Students also need to be given flexibility to develop their creativity. Space and time in the classroom are not structures to support creative thinking, planning and work.  Most teachers and schools need more time in the schedule.  More use of digital technology and technology in general can help us with this.
           The teachable moment as well as getting into the "flow" is organic.  We do have to suspend our lesson plans or schedule to accommodate such unplanned occurrences. Have you ever veered away from a teachable moment just because it wasn’t scheduled? Horrors,.....be honest?  Well we all have had to at some point, for some reason. What would happen if we actually structured our school space and time to allow for this teacher and student creativity nirvana? How do we structure our time in school to allow for more teachable moments, and the “flow?”  Why must we constantly circumvent this for testing, not enough time in the block, etc? We need more of this OHMMM and nirvana time. We crave it, both teacher and student. it is the essence of true learning and creativity. The flow lessons are the lessons that we live for... both as students, and as teachers. Daniel Pink has much to say about the way we structure our time so as to create creative flow for both teacher and student. Economic studies have shown that positive growth has always occured when workers are given flexible space and time. I’m psyched, I’m all all for it. I am hopeful that being more flexible with our time and space for educational purposes will be our  near future.

Does an outside program help or hurt schools?

         Both, I think, and I will raise another question to this issue: Does the popularity of an outside program affect what schools will teach and consider valuable?  I say yes! In fact, if an outside program is offered in a particular school district and is considered necessary and valuable to a community, I think this will drive community efforts to offer such programs as a part of the curriculum. Here is the scenario. In my school district, there exists an arts center which offers classes to students that may be considered to be “enrichment.” Most of the classes offered at this arts center could also be characterized as arts oriented offerings. Offerings such as robotics, music lessons and second language learning lessons. Right, second language learning, just lumped in there with other types of art classes!  Please don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way maligning arts classes, or considering them to have lower value than traditional academic subjects, but let’s face it, art classes have always carried a certain stigma that perhaps they are not as rigorous as other academic classes, and that they are the fun classes. Unfortunately, this is a stigma that in some communities will take considerable effort to remove on the part of the parent's generation. Therefore, this may be detrimental in selling a language program as the rigorous subject that it is.
        In my own school Spanish is clumped in with Unified Arts classes, (or wherever it will fit for scheduling purposes!) So, in terms of community offerings hurting schools, perhaps if they are packaged as fun and games, this packaging may affect how the subject is considered. However, on the other hand, the fact that a particular subject is recognized, does lend a certain importance to the subject.
       It is interesting the way that things worked out in my school district with Spanish offered at the arts center. The Spanish offering at the arts center was popular, competitive parents wanted their children to learn Spanish early on. This community sentiment prevailed and the school district went on to begin a Spanish program a the K level. I taught at the arts center for their summer Spanish programs. After Spanish became part of the district’s curriculum beginning a the K level, the interest in Spanish at the arts center declined and the program is no longer offered. I’m out of a summer job, it was great PR for me! So, in that sense it was a positive thing for teacher/ community relations. Also, the program did die out because of economic strains on parents. Parents decided that they would save their money since Spanish was now offered at the school.
      There is a little good, and a little bad in offering outside World Language programs. In a perfect world,  both the outside and the district offering should complement one another, not detract from one another and should ultimately support one another... in a perfect world.

Reflection on Curriculum in the Twenty First Century : Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Brazil have much to offer a school district struggling to promote performance based assessment and curricula.

         As I have been learning about curriculum in the twenty first century, I have been doing some comparative and contrastive analysis regarding the present scenario in my district. My analysis is in practice as my school district is in the midst of adopting an entirely performance based assessment and standards aligned curriculum. This is quite a change for most, and it is affecting how we structure our entire day from the Pledge of Allegiance forward. There are varying degrees of implementation by our teaching staff.   It is tremendously helpful for me to be learning about curriculum development right now, and I am conducting my own informal analysis of the process in my district. Based on my introduction to curriculum in the 21st century thus far, Heidi Hayes Jacobs stands out for me as a model for improved implementation in our district. The other standout for me is the country of Brazil, which I believe provides an excellent educational model for the type of integrated learning and program structure that we need most desperately and immediately in my district.
        In terms of the scenario in my district, quite frankly it is a complete mess, and we would do well to listen to Heidi Hayes Jacobs when she promotes that curriculum development should begin with assessment, or at the very least, chose one area to focus upon instead of changing everything about a school program all at once. My district is trying to change to a standards performance based curriculum. As Maine teachers we are all required to align our curriculum to state standards, and so we teachers in my district are all following suit. However, along with aligning to state standards our school has adopted a program called RISC, and we are now being required to change everything about our daily school life, including grading, standard operating procedures, as well as our classroom management techniques. I’m surprised they haven’t asked us to recite the school mission statement after the Pledge of Allegiance! Just too much all at once!
         So, as Hayes Jacobs advises, we would greatly benefit from our attempts for implementation of standards aligned, performance based learning if we considered focusing on one area at a time, and to perhaps begin with assessments as this will in turn affect many other elements in curricula.
         The other program of learning that I look upon with interest and desire for replication is that of the educational system in Brazil. Particularly, Brazil’s adoption of a chosen “theme” for each district with which each teacher will align her curriculum. The themes are defined for each district and are generally related to the local socio- economic or environmental concerns for that region. I like how each teacher has a voice for their own unique perspective as well as being part of a unified vision. I think that my district would also benefit from this approach. We are in desperate need for something that will unite us in our transition process. We are experiencing a dangerous state of disconnect with respect to the transition issues from every level including high school to university, varying degrees of staff implementation levels, as well as a major disconnect amongst the policy makers and stake holders.

Is the Internet a device for teleportation?...Not yet!

                    We are becoming increasingly more aware about how technology influences social trends. These social trends in turn affect much of how society is organized and do ultimately affect present and future teaching and learning.  Let’s take the case of second language learning, shall we? If we now have sophisticated voice to text translation with electronic translators, how might this affect how languages are taught and learned in our schools? Greatly, I say, and the discussion about how and what second language learning should be will take on new dimensions, as it already has.
                   One area within second language learning that is always a component to language study is the study of culture. How to “teach” culture, or how to encourage cultural awareness among learners is an area that World Language teachers have been grappling with for years. How to teach an awareness of something quite intangible as culture and cultural awareness? This is an area which cannot be learned through interaction with technology. It simply must be experienced through social interaction in real time, not Internet time. There is no doubt that greater social connections between cultures will be enhanced through the use of Internet social sites. Although much may be learned and interpreted and strong connections forged through social sites on the Internet, culture is something that must be experienced in the physical, first hand. We most certainly can look to the Internet as a source for greater enhancement to our learning about other cultures (and even other subcultures within our own culture.) We can also look for the Internet to create it’s own culture of netizens as it it currently doing, and this will be a common point of connection for us all as global Internet netizens. But, presently does the Internet have all the powers that we need for teaching and learning? In the case of culture, does the Internet have all the superhero powers that we need for teaching and learning ? The Internet is not a device for teleportation, (even the best virtual programs aren't there yet!) We presently cannot physically bring worlds and cultures together in ways that will support our understanding of culture.
                   Yes, indeed smiles can meet smiles on the Internet, but....... hands cannot shake, and arms cannot embrace on the Internet....... just yet.

We are awesome! In praise of teachers and all that they do!

            What are some things that we as a school community do well? I'm going to answer that question for teachers. As far as I'm concerned, we teachers are the ones who are doing well. If we think about all the people who make up our school community on the national and local level, there are a few subgroups within this large community toward which we would like to point the finger of blame.  But don't even try to point it at the teachers, please, because you won't get very far with me. Teachers are the ones who are doing the greatest things for kids and for their educational instruction. Amidst all the chaos of testing, standardization, globalization, digitization and the like, teachers are the first ones to do the following amazing things: we constantly revise and question. We change, we flex and we adapt when we have to. We do embrace a reach for the stars attitude in all that we do, and we inspire greatly. Need I say more? If we didn't, we wouldn't  remain the dedicated professionals that we are.     

Interview #1(in a series of 2) with a sixth grade classroom: What are your hopes and fears surrounding internet use?

                       Before presenting the results of this "interview,"  I must honestly admit that this was an  astoundingly eye-opening exercise for me as a sixth grade educator to hear my students speak so eloquently about this social issue.  I suspect that this is in part because I do not often get to hear my students express themselves in English, as the primary focus for classroom time is to optimize speaking and listening in the target language of Spanish. A strange reality at times, the World Language classroom on the middle level, that is, with students struggling to express themselves in both English and Spanish and/or both.  Just not enough time in the day,  the classroom,  the curriculum, the schedule, etc.  Perhaps a problem that is cured with a little more technology/Internet activity?????
                     In any case, what I learned from my informal questioning the other day was truly amazing. Here are some of the results: This generation really does have its own fears concerning Internet use and they are not just accepting the digital world into their reality without thinking deeply about it. Amongst their fears were: fear for their safety, fear of destroying their creativity, (how did they know that previous youthful generations were outside in their backyards playing with sticks after school,..... not surfing the net?), fear of interacting less with their environment, fear that technology will consume our lives, ecological concerns: fear of excessive electricity use and its resulting radiation, and finally, fear that our culture outside of technology will die.  I almost fell over, but I didn't, I grabbed a pen instead, and started recording their divine insight. After their drops of pure divine insight had finished pouring down from the inspiration sky that day,  I asked them a question. The question that I asked them after they presented their fears to me was: "Are your feelings a combination of what you are hearing, your own personal opinion, and what is actually happening???" Their response to me was,  an overall affirmation, "yes."
                  I will interview the students again, and this time I will ask them to focus more on how technology and Internet use will enhance their lives, and what are their thoughts on how they will benefit from more opportunity for global/international communication.

( It should be noted that I did originally ask them for both their hopes and fears surrounding this social issue, but time constraints prevailed. I will continue with their "hopes" in the second interview.)







 

Is "Global Education" moving second language learning to a place of greater value and respect in our school communities?

    Let's first talk about what I mean by "global education,"  and then move on to how this may be helping our school communities to value learning World Languages in a way that we have not previoulsly experienced. My definition of "global education" is one that I am adapting to teaching World Languages at the middle level. As I structure this definition to meet the needs of my middle school level students,  I'm using it to define that fact that our world is becoming increasingly more connected via the internet, and that opportunities for international communication exist for us now and will be exceedingly important for our student's future as global citizens and netizens simply by virtue of the opportunities that are now available with the internet.  I had a conversation today with a sixth grade Spanish class that I may not have had with them five years ago. So much has changed with technology in the past few years that is leading us into greater communication access to the rest of the world, drawing us closer, in a staggeringly instantaneous fashion, by the way. I want to help them to understand that technology and internet is a pathway to understanding more about other cultures, and languages. I want them to understand that their future may be dependent on their ability to connect with other countries based on their knowledge of the country's culture and/or language.
      For years I have opened discussion and presented lessons about how important learning a World Language is, and for years I get the same response. "It's great to know Spanish for traveling." "Oh yes, yes, Johnny.....it most certainly is." "So, I do hope you remember how to order a hamburger and a coke when you go to Cancún on vacation."  I then go into my diatribe about all the other reasons for the importance of  learning a second language that may be far more important than a spring break excursion to México.
     Now,  I'm thinking......... they just might listen to us, value us, and respect us a little more if we World Language teachers start focusing on the potential that technology and the internet has to offer for student's language learning, and that this learning to make real world connections with other cultures and languages, will be directly linked to: our nation's economic future...... it's staus as a world power,  and...... future student employment opportunity,  just to name a few.

Let's warm up our curriculum workout with a good assessment stretch, good... now take a deep breath, and let it out!

   I loved the realism about the problem of 21st century public education that Heidi Hayes Jacobs presents in the initial chapters of her book Curriculum 21, Essential Education for a Changing World. Hayes Jacobs addresses real problems and gives real workable answers and solutions. Hayes Jacobs identifies one issue of curriculum change and development as being three pronged, and clearly outlines an avenue for change which has proved to be successful. Hayes Jacobs gives us a starting point for change: ... assessments. She describes that beginning first with modifying our assessments will initiate change for curriculum content and finally affect an upgrade for learner's skillls and proficiencies. I think I can deal with this. I can see that beginning with assessment will create a powerful impetus that will in  turn modify both content and proficiency for students. I will make an analogy for Hayes Jacob's proposal to begin modifications with assessment, to the proper beginning...... for a workout.  We all know that warming up our muscles with stretching and other aerobic exercise will help us to better perform our core workout. We will have better blood flow, hasten  oxygen to the muscles,etc. I think we can apply this to Jacob's idea of starting to enact change in our curricula by starting with modifying our assessments.   

Is this a definition of curriculum, or is it a mission statement?

Here goes, curriculum: an engaging, individualized program of learning designed for literacy as well as positive growth development that allows the learner to function optimally and considerately as a global citizen of the world.

Creating curriculum has been a solitary endeavor. Isn't it time for a change?

     Writing and developing curriculum for instructing World Language at the middle level here in Maine has been a solitary endeavor for the most part. A few years have seen me working with another World Language teacher to plan our French/Spanish classroom curriculum for grade 6-8. There were also a few years where our curriculum was developed to be part of a library research class. Other than the two year integration with a library research class, I have been on my own to generate curriculum for my subject area’s grade level needs. From time to time, I would communicate with the high school teachers who would be accepting my 8th grades students to see “where students were” on our somewhat  flexible continuum of transitional curriculum for the 8th grade student entering a high school Spanish 1 or 2 level class. My curriculum has been loosely based on the text supplement for the subject.  
   I can recount similar experiences with curriculum writing and development in Massachusetts, where curriculum writing was mainly text based for the high school level, and for part of the middle level. Exploratory format for the lower middle level grade levels was thematically generated. A highlight of preparing curriculum in Massachusetts was that we were actually paid to do so, a fun little motivating perk!  So, despite this short lived additional income, most of my experience with development and has been a solitary, confusing and ever changing task that is dictated by the annual, and once again, ever changing needs of the schedule as is seen through the eyes of the powers that be. In my district, the school board makes decisions about which subjects will be added/ deleted to our grade level programs. These dictates are then passed to the superintendent, and finally to the administration of the different schools, who then implement the dictates. The form of the programs and their various curricula is now subject to budgeting, time constraints, and several other factors which greatly affect learning in the classroom and beyond. Grade level instructors are rarely, to never asked for input/consultation about what, how, when, where, and in which form instruction will take place in my school district.
   Our school has recently been involved with a program called RISC, the reinventing schools coalition, which is helping us to transform our school into a school which is driven by performance based assessment and close alignment to state and national standards. On top of those changes to which instructors are required to show progress in implementation, my subject area has recently undergone some drastic changes. Briefly describing this scenario,  takes us to four years ago when we  began to initiate a k-8 Spanish language program. This has posed and imposed some concern for my fellow World Language teachers and I as we struggle to meet the needs of aligning k-4 curriculum with middle level and then also to accommodate for student transition into the high school levels, as well as high student volume in our heterogeneous classrooms.  I think it is important to add that as I began a graduate program in middle level education a few years ago, I was so excited about the possibilities for second language student learning in an integrated format. It has been frustrating to see a lack of commitment to progress in that area. A trend that we never saw come to fruition, or really even germinate in our middle school. Now, we are adopting a standards based program and we have never even mastered the integrated approach to learning! How can this be possible???