Curriculum Planning

When I asked Mrs. M about how she plans her curriculum, she said that the overreaching curriculum is previously set for the year; there is a curriculum binder that comes with suggested set lesson plans. Her first year teaching, she tried to teach straight from the binder's lesson plans, but found that some did not have the desired effect in terms of holding the students' interest, and the projects were found to come out looking very much the same. So now, while Mrs. M keeps to the spirit of the curriculum (i.e. the art history timeline), she has deviated from the curriculum binder, and now assigns projects that have proven to be successful in keeping the students' attention, and the projects are similar in their approach, but different in their appearance. She has found that she can be flexible with the curriculum, though she keeps the focus on a common theme, but may vary the projects that go with that theme. And while the objectives and content may be similar, there are various directions that a project can be taken. Ultimately, she is flexible in her approach to deciding what to include in her curriculum, and she reflects at the end of every year what projects were successful, and which could be tweaked or taken out completely.

I think it's nice that there is a binder that includes lesson plans of what should be covered with students by grade, but I would not go off of that alone. Depending on the lesson, I might take elements I deem as important for students to learn and create a different, more stimulating lesson with them. However, if I like the lesson enough, and I think it will be beneficial to the students' learning, then I will use it as it is. I think I would end up using certain lessons in the binder to try them out and see the results, and if they come back negative, I would know to either tweak the project or take it out completely, whereas if they came back positive, I would probably keep the project. Ultimately, I hope my job does not come down to me having to abide by a set curriculum by the school. I want to be able to plan my lessons on my own, and I want to teach them the way I think students will benefit the most from them. And if my way does not work the first time, then I can reflect on how to make my lesson more effective, which is all part of being a reflective practitioner. However, if I cannot plan my lessons, how can I reflect on building effective lessons in the future?