From Frustration to Understanding

Jim Riedl
Dec 08, 2008

Recently I had the opportunity to work with a Cyber Charter School. I will not go into detail about their structure but I will say they are unique, and I mean that in the best possible way.

As we began a two day project to develop a math curriculum, a high school teacher consistently voiced his opinion that what we were doing was really unnecessary. He said he already had what he needed to teach, his textbook. As we examined the state standards and started to develop topic maps, he began asking questions of other teachers about what they expected of their students at the other grade levels, comparing to what he had been doing for the past several years. Finally, in a state of frustration, he asked me if other teachers involved in this process often discover they are not instructing in alignment with the state standards and state tests. I informed him that he had reached a common level of understanding also reached by many at this same point in the process. His attitude about the importance of what we were doing changed dramatically. He was excited about the alignment of his instruction with the standards and tests. As he continued to work throughout the two days he became more and more enthusiastic about his student learning maps and the quality of the curriculum he would be able to deliver to them as soon as school started again. He realized he now had a curriculum that would drive instruction to guarantee students would have the knowledge, skills and understandings to be successful. He also commented that the course map would keep him on track to deliver the entire curriculum and not run out of time before he ran out of content.

Several weeks later I was back at the school to address the entire faculty regarding the summer curriculum work. As I reached the point where I was making the connection between curriculum and instruction my new found supporter spoke eloquently to the group about his personal transformation and how he believes it has the potential to influence a significant improvement in the quality of instruction. He is convinced the students will be rewarded with instruction that will better prepare them for any assessment they face.

Excerpted from The Amazing Book of Connections for Learning