Student Oriented Curriculum

Blue Barracudas, sorry I missed your presentation! I heard that it went really well though. Anyways, I did get a chance to look through all of your resources that you posted on the wiki. Excellent job. I wanted to get a chance to discuss these links.

The link for teamwork is outstanding. It was interesting for me to read it, as I don't think I have actually worked together with people as a team. Most of the work that I have done with others has been group work. While I was reading the description about what teamwork is, it just appeared to be a more positive experience. If I ever had the opportunity to work collaboratively like that, I think that people can accomplish more and with a better attitude in general. I'm planning some lessons for our Egypt unit where I have students working together, and I plan on using the teamwork model. Great link!

I think the blog about inclusion is awesome also. I'm in Special Ed. right now and we are learning all about inclusion of special ed. students in the regular ed. classroom. I think it is awesome when we can connect the ideas from one subject area (aka Special Ed.) to the ideas we are learning in a different subject area (aka Middle Level Ed.). I think that this is important, because the more we see and experience this being done at this level, the more we will be able to make that happen for our students. Anyways, inclusion of special ed. students can often be as simple as making an a slight modification or accommodation to your instructional methods. But, once again, if we are using differentiated instruction, that is exactly what we are doing already, for all of our students. I love the connections!

I also absolutely love the team building strategies!!! This is an excellent resource and can be a great tool to use especially at the beginning of the school year when you have new classes of students. One thing to point out that I find interesting though. Because you are stressing the fact that a classroom is a place in which the responsibilities should be shared between the students AND the teacher, I think the teacher needs to participate in the team building strategies as well.

Well, from what I saw of your resources, it seems like you're lesson was packed with a lot of information, and I'm sorry that I missed it. But thanks for the great resources!