On Finding Flow, Flotsam and Jetsam

Photo by Mike Edwards

Yes, it’s that time of year! Revisiting curriculum plans and revising.  As a teacher of  middle school Design and Computer Technology  and high school Information Technology  I am always looking  for ways to improve the vertical articulation of knowledge, skills and concepts.  I think I agree with Lynn Erickson that many of us  may have gotten this all wrong.  Erickson advocates for concept-based curriculum planning that asks us to rewrite local standards in terms of enduring understandings that include at least two concepts. I attended a workshop that Erickson led at the IB Americas Regional Conference in Quebec City in July 2009 and she got me rethinking my curriculum.  Technology has not been a priority in New York State. According to the NYS Technology Education Framework Initiative we are currently working in an academic  “environment not friendly to technology education in schools.” But, because I teach in an IB school, technology is one of the eight core subject groups that are to be taught in every year of the MYP (Middle Years Program — 7th through 9th grades). At the DP level (Diploma Program — 11th through 12th grades) I teach ITGS (Information Technology in a Global Society), a  Group 3 — Individuals and Societies course at the Higher Level. It is a 2-year course that is only taken by 1/3 of the 11th and 12th graders. The work that I face is to rethink the these classes and revise through backwards planning of the conceptual understandings that are relevant at each grade level. I’m wondering if there are any colleagues out there who are using concept-based planning around technology courses.