Tuesday, July 21, 2009

2009 Summer Curriculum Committee Day 6

The following self reported and verified activities were conducted by the Hoboken Curriculum Committee on July 21, 2009. -Dr. Petrosino

World Languages- Today, the world language group continued to revise, type and convert the planners. We completed the revisions of the UBD planners for grades 6, 7 and 8. Also, we completed the revisions for grade 10 Honors for the UBD and MYP planners. We started to work on grade 11-IB-Standard Level of the Diploma Program for both planners. We decided that at the high school level, we will have two district-wide grade level assessments per year. We are discussing the district -wide grade level assessment for K-8 grades.

Technology- We remapped the MYP Technology units for grade 6 and continued revising/consolidating existing units into the new template. We inserted the technology standards we documented into the world languages curriculum. We researched ideas for a design technology class proposal for the high school level.

Physical Education/Health- The group rewrote the MYP units using the new format. They are currently finished with sixth, seventh, and eight grade. They are currently working on ninth and tenth and hope to be finished by Wednesday. At that point the group will begin revisions on assessments.

Science- Today, For grade 11 ( Chemistry) MYP Planner were typed for Units 2-7 and the information from the existing MYP planner was transferred into the new MYP Format. For Grade 6 ( Earth Science), All of the updated enruring understandings and essential questions on the big idea forms were typed. Also for Grade 6 the MYP Planners were typed for Units 1-4 and the information from the existing MYP planner was transferred into the new MYP Format.

Language Arts (Middle): Martin and I finished revising Grade 7 LAL according to UBD and MYP standards. We then began revising Grade 8. The 8th grade revisions should be completed by Wednesday afternoon, Thursday morning at the latest. After the revisions are complete, we will work on entering the curriculum on the L-Drive via the new MYP unit planners.We have finalized the mapping for grades 6-8 and are confident with the time/workload that we have settled on. Our group will be working on district-wide assessments Thursday afternoon and Monday, July 27th.

Disclaimer: The 2009 Summer Curriculum Committee is roughly 50% the size of the 2008 Summer Curriculum Committee (29 teachers vs 60 teachers) and the budget allocated is approximately 2/3 less than the allocation for Summer 2008. Dr. Petrosino has explained numerous times that this represents a significant reduction in both expenditures and faculty involved with the curriculum project.