The Hoboken Curriculum Committee met on Saturday, December 13th at the Brandt Professional Development Center from 9AM-3PM. This will be the final Saturday meeting for the 2008 calendar year. The committee braved frigid temperatures this morning with the mercury hovering around 25F before turning into a cold crisp afternoon. Turnout was moderate given the holiday season and the fact that a number of faculty in the arts and music area were already committed to the Hoboken District production of "Disney's Mulan Jr", directed by Ms. Paula Ohaus. A summary of the day's curriculum development activities:Science- In grade ten, the big idea form for unit 1 – 7 were completed. The grade ten unit seven unit planner was completed. Also, Possible assessments for the various units in grade ten were researched. Furthermore, the drafting by design units 1-5 were typed and saved onto the L drive.
World Languages- Today the World Language team develop three units for the 11th grade IB Standard Level. Also, we typed the MYP planners for the 10th Honors and began typing the UBD planners for the 10th grade. We research and compiled the materials that we will use for the 11th and 12th grade IB Higher Level classes.
Social Studies- Today was very productive. The group completed the 2nd grade unit planners; finished the 3rd grade “Big idea” sheets; and organized the curriculum binders. In addition, there was discussion with Dr. Petrosino on interactions with the Hoboken Historical Museum and the Hoboken Public Library.
Mathematics- Today we complete grades 11 and 12 IB courses. All curriculum is complete from K-12. All that is left to finish is cross referencing the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for senior elective courses and the IB grades 11 and 12.
Curriculum Mapping (H. McKenzie)- After meeting with the various subject matter teachers to review the curriculum mapping, I corrected several errors and combined the various versions of the mapping on the network curriculum folder into one. In particular the world languages were corrected from grades 9 through 12 and several science topics were also adjusted. There were several typos that were noticed previously and corrected. Only social studies 9-12 need to be checked. There is now only one file of the curriculum mapping on the computer for individuals to view and edit. The three other versions have been moved to a temporary folder in the curriculum network folder to be deleted at a later date.
Technology-On Saturday Robin and I completed all but two of the big ideas forms for grades 6-8. While she worked on that, I began reviewing unit plans in Science to see where technology is being used in the unit or could easily be added in an organic fashion. You will recall that the standards for grade 4 in 8.2 (Technology Education) actually refer to science standards 5.2 and 5.4. So I am recording those correlations and making note of easy additions of technology. I am also noting where 8.1 (Technology literacy) can easily be added or currently exists. All of the documents I found from the NJDOE in my research indicate that technological literacy (8.1) needs to be integrated rather than taught in isolation so I think we need to document where we are integrating it. I think the obvious places to look are science, language arts, social studies and finally math.
Visual Arts- The Visual Arts Cir. Com. went back to the primary year’s program finishing 10 units under headings of My Body, My Feelings and My Actions. The Kindergarten is now finished and in the process of completing the 1st. grade.
