Curricular Inspiration from Career Tech Ed and Preschool Teachers

I recently had an opportunity to work with a Career Technical Education (CTE) department chair to begin to layout the vision for their program. Lately, this is the first step for me when I am helping launch with the facilitation of a curriculum renewal.

Develop a 1-page statement that is written clear, compelling and accessible language for all school stakeholders and community partners

• Opening Paragraph: Declare the contemporary relevance of the program
• Paragraph 2: Articulate the student goals that focus the work students engage in and become increasingly sophisticated over time 
• Paragraph 3: Clarify instructional approach that teachers will commit to in order to live up to the student aspirations and relevance of the program

If you want to see a draft of what they did, reach out to me and I will share the example.

As we were crafting this together, we explored the Preschool vision statement I did with their teachers last year. “I am stunned to see how connected we are to their instructional approach,” the department chair said.

Problem-based learning, Explicit instruction, Instructional modeling, Coaching, and Peer Modeling are the foundation of what we do.

Yes, the targeted way we go about doing this is based on the content of the programs. But fundamentally we care deeply about designing learning that matters to students. That they can see themselves wanting to commit their time, effort, and thought to the work because they see the value AND enjoy the experience.

When we tell the story of our program, the story of our courses, and the story of day-to-day instruction this way, there is a groundswell of energy that fuels attention, engagement, and pride in the work.