Post 2

After reading the three articles required, it really got me thinking about the importance of curriculum. I feel like I spend most of my time focusing on getting my students to learn to read and comprehend what they're reading and on them learning the basics of math, and that I really don't pay much attention to curriculum. I think it is important to consider the necessity of curriculum because it gives both teachers and students a learning path on which to follow.

I would say the the model of correlated curriculum best describes the manner in which I currently teach. My students learn different subjects, but they are also taught how those subjects are interrelated. For example, this week our theme in reading is "birds." Their stories all revolve around birds, and they learn at a science station about bird homes and their importance, in a social studies station they learn about where to locate birds in a neighborhood, and in a writing station students must choose their favorite bird (either from the readings or on their own) and write about why they chose this bird as their favorite. I actually feel like this is the best model for use in the early primary grades. I feel like the correlated model best speaks to what I am trying to teach my children. At this point, their most important needs include learning to read, and I feel like the correlated model allows me to coach them in that, while working in elements of other subject areas.

I do feel that we need a newer approach to curriculum, perhaps especially beginning in the intermediate grades. So much of the focus in early primary is teaching students to read, because if they don't have that first, it will be more and more difficult for them to uncover knowledge on their own. I know from a recent meeting in which the teachers at my school were given information regarding state testing and gearing students toward the ACT, fifth grade teachers expressed concern that there was so much curriculum and so many different things to accomplish, that they felt as though they didn't know what to teach. And this was coming from seasoned, veteran teachers! I feel like there is so much that we are expected to get these kids to master that there's no time to allow for quality of teaching. It all comes down to quantity... How much can you cram inside a student's head before he or she just shuts down from all the miscellaneous facts you want him or her to remember and regurgitate for a test?! What was it I saw in one of the articles? ... "More is less..." That's what it seems like to me. It needs to be "less is more!"

Post 1

Hello, everyone! My name is Jessica Zehler. I am a first grade teacher at Florence Elementary School in Florence, KY. I graduated from Miami University (Ohio) in 2004 and began teaching at FES in 2005. I have been a first grade teacher all five years that I've been teaching. The last two years I have been the regular education teacher in the first grade ELL classroom. 12 of my 21 students are ELLs! The past two years have been the most challenging, but also the most rewarding! I also taught an afterschool dance program for one year to second- and third-graders, I coached intramural girls' cheerleading for two years, and I worked in the afterschool program for four years.

Outside of work, I enjoy reading, watching television and movies, exercising, and spending time with my friends and family. I am marrying my fiance Deric this coming June in Jamaica... Is it June yet? :) So obviously I am having fun planning our wedding as well!

I am looking forward to using all the different types of technology that will be offered in this course in order to get me more familiar with those that I don't use. I look forward to working with everyone!