British Columbia DOE Puts New Jersey and California to Shame
The websites dedicated to educational standards in New Jersey, California and British Columbia are each divided into manageable areas separated by subject area and, where applicable, specialty. The language used in each are specific to task but generalized enough to allow for interpretation. Each has PDF’s available for review and printing and also contact information for those who may be able to answer questions about the standards.
Today’s Teacher: The Human Firewall
A classroom begins and ends with the competencies of the teacher and a teacher used to be defined as an instructor. More and more districts have aligned with the more modern interpretations of a teacher and the teacher is now defined as a facilitator. Both the traditional classroom and the NTeQ (Integrated Technology) based classroom sees a teacher as being able to facilitate but also prescribes the teacher to run the classroom as such and to let the students be considered the researcher. Thusly, the teacher must be a human firewall.
A Lesson Plan for Teachers on Music and Musicology 2
Students will demonstrate their computer skills by expanding their list of 30 musical terms. Using the internet to research their definitions and create a list of synonyms, they will be learning the proper ways to use music terminology.
Teaching Standards and Awareness in California vs. New York
This is a first person account of my experiences in both California and New York in regards to the knowledge of standards within the district. While both states are very different, they both have issues in regards to adapting the standards to the needs of the teachers.
Standards Based Curriculum and Assessment for Teachers
In order to change the instructional practices to reflect a standards-based curriculum we need to continue to develop the curriculum using the standards as a guide to align the standards with observational, written and oral assessments using clear and reflective reports. The standards, the curriculum, and the assessment tools need to align to achieve best educational practices. Making the standards the backbone to developing curriculum gives me the flexibility as a teacher to create lessons and units appropriate for students and still keep the provincial standards as the educational goals.
