U & D

Today begins a 2-day session in Augusta led by Jana Boody, Maine’s Social Studies Specialist. We, a coalition of educators and tribal leaders, will be looking at LD 291 from a pragmatic point of view. Can we unify and produce a k-12 curricular design that will be functional in today’s classrooms; that will, in fact, be embraced and taught by our teachers in the trenches?

I have my own thoughts on this. They wander in the direction of an online curriculum that students can manage, after grade 3 or 4, entirely on their own, at most with the guidance of a teacher or aide. This obviates the need for expensive teacher-training and the expensive production of texts and course materials. It takes advantage of Maine’s technology-rich learning environment (one reason why our DOE Director is advising Pres.-elect Obama).

What group would take responsibility for “serving” (on a web server) the course materials? What groups and individuals would take responsibility for constructing the lessons and aligning them to state standards (not just in social studies, by the way – ELA and Science need also to be addressed if we want to do the job well)? Who would actually be the course facilitators?

These are people questions, far more interesting to me than the huff & puff of deciding which historical details to include on a timeline.

I will be blogging here the outcomes of today’s meeting, and then of tomorrow’s meeting. It will be interesting to see which wins out – unity or diversity; traditional or contemporary. Perhaps we will find a path on which there does not have to be a winner, just a way.