If You Could Design Your Own College Curriculum, What Would It Look Like?

Were any of your answers to the survey questions impacted by your culture and how? What culture do you belong to? Explain.

In 1999, I left Haiti. Although it has been 16 years, I hold on to the memories for dear life. I lived in a city called Port de Paix, just a few hours away from the capital, which means it was quiet and peaceful; that was just wonderful. This essay will outline the wonderful memories of my childhood in Haiti.

To conclude I’ve been blessed to experience two different countries, although it wasn’t easy I’ve learned from both, while daily life in America/Miami is much different than in Haiti, there are many similarities as well. Underneath all of our cultural differences, the same heart still beats. Food must be eaten, clean water must be drank. Everyone must sleep at night, and wake up to a bright new day. Spending time with family and friends is at the center of the lives of both Americans and Haitians. With all of our differences, we are all simply human beings living a life on planet

Also, throughout curriculum development the goals and aims of the curriculum need to be taken into account. Without specific goals and aims for the curriculum, the curriculum could be unfocused with no purpose identified. Within the social studies curriculum that I analyzed, I noticed societal goals for the curriculum (Posner, 2004). Societal goals are emphasized because the curriculum supports the development of knowledgeable and engaged citizens within our country. By understanding the goal of my curriculum I am better able to understand the purpose of what I am teaching, which in turn helps me to differentiate for my students while still keeping the ultimate goal in mind. I also was able to identify the further learning aims within the curriculum (Posner, 2004). By identifying this aim I was able to see how the curriculum I was teaching tied into the curriculum that the students would experience in subsequent grades. By reflecting on the further learning aims I was able to see how my teaching was a valuable piece of a bigger puzzle

Going to Haiti is an incredible adventure and it really puts in perspective how much I take for granted everyday. Most Haitians my age have no bed to sleep on, a small shack which they call home and share with their extensive families, and not a clue what they are going to do that day when they wake up. In a way, which may sound selfish, I wish to live like them to feel what it’s like to always be happy and full of spirit regardless of the food they eat or the clothes on their backs. I have many memories and experiences similar to the ones shared and I had moments like those spent with Kata and the man during village ministry every day with various Haitians. The Haitians impact my life more and more every second I am there, and even though Haiti may seem like the poorest country in the world and the mosquitos are horrible, and the heat could drive one mad, I will always choose Haiti over any other place in the world as my happy place, and there is not a place I’d rather be than

Any student, whether in elementary or college, learns better when the subject matter is thought-provoking and appealing. Traditional and old curriculum provides a baseline for students to meet and follow. Also, traditional curriculum is based of individualism and discourages exchanges between the student and teacher. Individual work teaches the child to develop internal critical thinking skills but it may bore the student. Teachers should continually interact with their students and challenge the student to think outside the box. Great teachers in today's system should help students develop a new way of thinking about history, math, english, and science and their education in general.

Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing a great inspiration to me, my mother, Stephanie Sacks, about her experience in college. She went to Evergreen State College for her baccalaureate degree. She enjoyed the vast majority of the classes she took; “All of Evergreen was sort of an extracurricular.”, she said. The one she didn’t like was a biology class. “I absolutely hated that class.”, she remembered. The room was so warm, and the lectures so boring, that she fell asleep on multiple occasions. “Thank god I didn’t go to a regular college, because I would have absolutely hated it,” She chuckled. “I hated studying things I had no interest in.” Her favorite part of college was getting to pick which classes she took, which she said, “...was

When I was thirteen, my mom, brother, and I decided to go on a mission trip to Haiti. We took a flight over there, through Miami. I got off the plane into a hot, crowded jungle of people in the airport. Every seat was filled waiting for their flights; people

It was filled with two hours of sudden jerks and bounces because of the path of rocks that were normal roads for them. All the while I was very concerned for myself and was still debating my decision. After we arrived at the orphanage, dozens of kids came swarming to me wanting hugs and attaching themselves to all my limbs. To them, I was a complete stranger and was also instantly their new best friend who was going to be around them for the next week. Before this trip, I couldn’t even imagine that happening here, in the United States. Here, even saying hello to another who is walking down the sidewalk is rare. At that instant, I felt relief, joy, and all the emotions that were pushing down on me before seemed to of vanished. My love for the dismantled country would continue to grow over the next few days. I saw it in the kids, the orphanage workers, and in other Haitians that were in their

I believe that curriculum should serve diversity of students because each student differs from the other. Since my philosophy aligns with essentialism, I believe that books are helping tools that offer basic knowledge to students, so I will encourage my students to expand the knowledge, which they have studied from the textbooks. As an English teacher I believe in the importance of reading and writing skills because they expand the vocabulary and writing style, which English language follows. I will focus on sustainable development of my students' intellectual abilities through discussion and critical thinking. In addition, I will ask them to read a story, which suits their level, each two weeks then I will ask them analytical questions related to the story. Definitely, visual aid tools such as presentation slides will be used in my classroom in order to facilitate the learning process among my

Wiggins & McTighe (2005) said it best “teachers are designers” and we need the right to craft our curriculum and learning experiences to meet specified purposes (Pg. 13. Ch. 1). We are all teaching different students, in different cities, in different states; all of whom that have individual strengths and weaknesses, come from various homes, a multitude of diversified backgrounds, who speak different languages and all of whom who have experienced their lives in different manners. I have been teaching for well over 11 years, and I have never once modified my teaching to meet the needs of a curriculum, I always have and will continue to adapt the curriculum to meet the needs of my students.

While my current teaching approach is more creative curriculum and high scope based there are still elements I think should be controlled by the adults such as; environment, assessment, adult-child interactions, and daily routine (Jaruszewicz, 2012). High Scope Curriculum incorporates important goals to include thinking about actions and interactions, problem solving, and self-directed learning.

Developing a curriculum is a difficult process, moreso when an educator has to keep in mind the number of students they are trying to reach. At the secondary level, it is not uncommon for a teacher to be responsible for 150 or more students. Each of these students presents a unique and trying task for educators who want to help students learn. Students have different modalities for which they gain knowledge, and it is the teacher’s job to engage those

From the Rusken College speech in 1976, a whole new approach to education was to be invented and from this came the introduction of the craft based qualifications, his idea of the government putting money into education and seeing very little return, made him concentrate on making people fit for work, in turn helping the economy and paying the government back on their investment. This is the main model used in my specialised curriculum. One of the attractions of this approach to curriculum theory is that it involves detailed attention to what people need to know in order for it to work. Lesson plans are produced with the main theme of ‘by the end of the session the learner will

In order to teach successfully teachers must learn about first learn about their students. Teachers must assess the student’s capabilities and interests. Some students are visual learners, while others learn from hands on activities, or verbal communication. Not all students can learn through memorization, rather they learn through interest and relation to the topic. “To realize what an experience, or empirical situation, means, we have to call to mind the sort of situation that presents itself outside of school" (Democracy and Education). The curriculum should encompass material that is most useful for a student to learn. It seems that in the majority of schools, students are not given the flexibility to guide their own learning, but rather follow rigid instructions that destroy the student’s imagination.