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week 6 monday
diary of a novice teacher cont. • The bell at our school is not automated. A boy in the secretary’s office has to ring it manually. I know that if I had to remember to do something every 45 minutes I would be awful at it, but it really drives me nuts because you have to plan about 5-10 minutes of flexibility into your lesson plans. Yesterday the bell to begin one of my classes rang 9 minutes late which is a HUGE chunk of time when you only have 45 minutes with them. And trying to round up 45 students from a courtyard of about 600 students is just futile. • The Spanish volunteer at the mission is named Natalia. The girls in the orphanage can’t keep our names straight at all. So some of them have just started to call both of us “mana (sister) Anatalia” to cover both bases.
curriculum • more than pieces of information, more than subject matter, more even than the disciplines • the ongoing engagement with the challenge of determining what knowledge and experiences are the most worthwhile • with each kid and each situation, you will find that the challenge takes on different shadings and meanings
contemporary curricular realities • no national ministry • FUMs (federally unfunded mandates) • NCLB • state boards of education (increasingly powerful) • LEAs (local education agencies—school districts) • Illinois has resisted consolidation more than any other state (879, in 1990 about 1200); 10% of all school districts in US
influence of text book companies • southern tier of states (Florida and Texas) have state-wide textbook adoptions. Also California • other states: district-wide, or even by school