Artifact 4: Reflect on Curriculum and Teaching Career (TE870)
G: 1, 2
S: 2, 4
This artifact rethinks about curriculum and teaching career. What is socalled curriculum, it is interpreted by different persons (administrators,
parents, and students etc..) in the perspectives of different understandings.
Curriculum should be static or dynamic, it is a question deserved to be
rethought. And what are the special characteristics of teaching as of a career
but not a job? It is the second question to be rethought carefully in this
artifact.
According to MATC Standard 2 & 4, understanding of subject and know
how to design curriculum responsively are important in teaching; and
reflective inquiry and study of personal teaching practice is also
indispensible in teaching career. Only when a teacher rethinks seriously
about whom they are and what they have done for curriculum design, then
they are able to carry out critical inquiry and experience accomplished
teaching. I choose this as my artifact is because it enables me to realize and
fulfill MATC Standard 2 and 4.
Rethinking about the two questions is meaningful for me. After 2 years’
teaching, I am eager to find a role identity for myself, meanwhile form my
personal teaching style in Chinese. I have seen some teachers lose their
enthusiasm in teaching, some get stuck in their career, some are forced and
compelled to copy the collaborative curriculum without personal thinking
and specific teaching style. Teaching needs enthusiasm and inspiration,
which is important to me.
Think About Curriculum: Static or Dynamic?
As a foreign language teacher, I conceive curriculum in a personal but also
professional perspective. My school district is fascinated with a kind of
“curriculum map” designed by Oakland University, and require that each
foreign language teacher must follow it. The curriculum map is contentbased curriculum, regulates topics and contents in each unit of level 1 and 2
Chinese. But according to my teaching practice, the curriculum map for
Mandarin Chinese is not very feasible. First, the content of the curriculum
map doesn’t go well with Chinese language proficiency test. The conflict is
caused by the different designers. Oakland University designs the
curriculum map, but the language proficiency test is designed by another
group of Chinese teachers who taught here more than 1 year ago. The
curriculum map also has many other flaws. Such as, no matter high school or
middle school students, they are all required to learn the same curriculum
content in level 1 and level 2 Chinese. For high school students, it intends to
be somewhat easy and unpractical, but for middle school students it is too
boring and difficult to learn the required content. Then the school district
organizes some Chinese teachers, including me to design another different
curriculum map; but at the same time the school district still requires
Chinese teachers to use the old curriculum map. And, this year my students
order Chinese textbooks for learning. The textbook is one of the major
references Oakland University used to design the “curriculum map”. Thus,
under this situation I gradually produce my curriculum conception in order
to fit with all the complicated requirements in my school district.
However, in reality curriculum is a word misused and misinterpreted by
different persons. As I mentioned, we order Chinese textbooks for students
this year. But, definitely, a book cannot be considered a curriculum. It is
only used to prompt learning and offer visual scaffolding. Most curricula are
alike almost all the textbooks, since they are content-based, focusing on the
same topics, such as “myself” “family” “time and dates” “hobbies and
interests” and “transportation” etc.. However, parents think curriculum
should include everything so that their children could speak Chinese
everywhere needed, but it is impossible for level 1 and 2 learners; and
students think curriculum should include the things they feel interested and
not hard to learn; administrators think curriculum should obey the standards
and benchmarks of MDE “5C” (Communication Cultures Connections
Comparisons Communities).
Accordingly, in order to maximize students’ second language learning and
satisfy the needs of different persons, “Task-based Language Teaching
(TBLT)” and “Differentiating Instruction to Include All Students” (Kelly M.
Anderson, 2007) ring most resonantly in my minds when I think about
curriculum. Although they refer to instruction methods, but meanwhile also
place a great impact on the way I conceive the conception of “curriculum”.
Within the definitions of TBLT, two recurrent features stand out. The first is
that tasks are oriented toward goals. The students or participants are
expected to arrive at an outcome and to carry out a task with a sense of what
they need to accomplish through their talk or action. The second feature of
task is work or activity. It means the students and participants take an active
role in carrying out a task, whether working alone or with other participants.
Activity and goal are the features of task-based learning and teaching
(Teresa Pica, Ruth Kanagy & Joseph Falodun). Thus when I design a
curriculum or conceive a broad scope of my curriculum map, I will start
from MDE standards and benchmarks and then contemplate what activities
and goals I should consider into my curriculum design.
As to Differentiating Instruction to Include All Students (Kelly M. Anderson),
options and flexibility in how the students demonstrate the knowledge and
skills they have learned after direct instruction and different activities are the
typical features. Differentiating learning is a kind of authentic learning, since
it affords the students the opportunity to make decisions and actively
participate in their own learning. Students may choose to work in pairs,
small groups, or individually. What is important in this concept of
curriculum design and application is that students are not only achieving the
curricular performance benchmarks, but they are exploring, creating, making
decisions, and playing an important role in their own learning process(Kelly).
In sum, curriculum doesn’t denote the static curriculum map or textbook,
contradictorily it means a dynamic process to impart the knowledge in an
activity with goals and allow students flexibility to demonstrate their
skills. Teacher will be the core to guide the curriculum. Curriculum is a
personal way to present what you have known to the ones who don’t
know. Curriculum is a professional way to involve students into the tasks
of learning and engage them in differentiating learning.
Think About Teaching Career: Survival Bracelet
When I meet with some new friends who are non-teachers, they like to
ask me a question, “What teachers will do (WTWD)?” Each time I
explain to them, I will notice something about my work I have never
noticed before.
What TEACHER will do? The non-teachers see this job as a good way to
support life without pressure. They admire teachers enjoy the long two
months’ Summer vacation, and the scattered breaks(Spring break, Winter
break, etc..) teachers have in the whole school year. But I have to explain
to them that, comparing with the leisure time teachers have, teachers
devote more daily time to teaching. The non-teachers cannot imagine
how much time a teacher must use for teaching? “What things you need
to do after you leave the classroom?” They stare into my eyes curiously.
The foremost thing I often have to explain is time-consuming. I use 45
minutes to teach a class, but I have to use several hours to prepare for that
class, to search information in books or on Internet, to design Power
Point, to prepare teaching materials. Then after class I have to use several
hours to check the homework, correct the mistakes in quizzes, to contact
parents if some students have problems, to input grades into computer
system. I teach in 3 different schools, so there are more things awaiting
me everyday. Thus, the whole day passes away quickly in a blink. If
everything is on your way in personal life, teaching in a tight pace will
make you feel fulfilled and energetic. But if something goes wrong in
your life, then you will feel frustrating and overwhelming to face the
huge amount of work piled up on your desk.
The second thing regarding TEACHER is self-reflection in daily teaching.
Teaching is not just about lesson plans and curriculum map, actually it
involves classroom management, family involvement, rapport between
teacher and students, participation in local areas professional
development and interaction with school administrators, etc. It is a kind
of like a connected biology chain. If any chain doesn’t work well, it will
affect the whole biological circulation. Thus, self-reflection is an
indispensable procedure in everyday teaching. Teachers need to keep a
teaching log to record everything happen each day. Then as a reference,
if the same situation happens again, teachers are able to solve it
confidently in a calm method.
The last but not least thing is “learning in teaching”. Some non-teachers
deem that teachers always teach the same content they are so familiar
with, so it is not a challenging job. But I have to explain to them,
TEACHER is not a job, contradictorily it is a career. In that career,
teachers are life-long learners. Teachers need to recharge more
knowledge in the same or different areas every year in community
college, in universities, in professional associations or in local
professional development. Teachers’ enthusiasm in learning will
influence their teaching positively. There is no ending in learning, and
there is always space to improve in teaching.
To be a good teacher is not an easy thing, the things you devote is not
just about your time, but also your passion and your love. This year I
come to teach in 3 Catholic schools, here the students and teachers are
all given a bracelet at the beginning of the semester. On the bracelet there
are four initial words “WJWD”. It represents “What Jesus will do?” Each
time when a student or a teacher encounters a tough situation, the
Brothers and Sisters in my Catholic schools will remind them of WJWD.
It really works to help you SURVIVE in tough situation. Then if I, as a
teacher, often ask a question: “What teacher will do? What a good
teacher will do? What a professional good teacher will do? ” This
question will also infuse me with a sparkling inspiration, an unbending
perseverance to go further in my career. Especially when I suffer from a
tough situation, I will look for answers from this question ─WTWD. It is
my precious survival bracelet in my lifetime career.