Posting Your Position Papers

One thing we will do as a class is have position blogs posted here. This course will almost be entirely paperless.

When your document is completed, you can sign in to this blog then post your position blog here with three easy commands on your computer: Control A will highlight your document; Control C will copy it in its entirety; and Control V will paste it in the blog's Customize/Posting/Create section. You can also type your document directly onto the blog if you so choose.

Classmates can review your posting and leave comments.

As more posts get added, your entry begins to scroll down the blog. By the end of the course, we will have every position blog and series of comments posted here for your future use...and the future use of classes yet to be formed.

The network begins!

Suggested Reading

The books below are suggested readings for anyone who intends to enter the field of curriculum. When this class is long over and your post-graduate work ends, I recommend that you add some of these titles to your personal reading library.

As the course progresses, feel free to recommend other titles as we come across them.

Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction - Ralph Tyler
Written in 1949, this book still sets the framework for curriculum writing.




America's "Failing" Schools - James Popham
Written in understandable terms for an audience of parents, Popham covers areas of assessment that curriculum workers need to know.



A Framework for Understanding Poverty - Ruby Payne
Payne explores cultural reasons for the achievement gap.




The World Is Flat - Thomas Friedman
Plenty of valid reasons why we need to teach differently and prepare students to be globally competitive.




Classroom Instruction That Works - Robert Marzano
Finally, a science to teaching! Research-based evidence of teaching practices that increase student achievement.


Writing With Spice - Mike Devono
Local southern NJ author shows how he developed a method to improve student writing achievement based on 30 years of practical in-classroom applications.


Understanding By Design - Grant Wiggins & Jay McTighe
The book shows how to design a curriculum by starting with the core curriculum content standards and essential questions. Wiggins recently helped NJ revise and align its standards.

21st Century Curriculum and Instruction

Wednesday, I discussed federal, state, and local funding for 2009-2010. The discussion was spurred by a recent article on the doubling of the federal education budget. President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan hope that this portion of the economic stimulus package can transform schools into places that will "provide rich material for 21st century curriculum and instruction that is real-world, relevant and rigorous."

Biden, Obama, and Duncan at Dodge School in Chicago

The importance of 21st century curriculum and instruction really hit me at my day job this week. The Educational Information and Resource Center (EIRC; www.eirc.org) held a teleconference for high school students who are leaning towards medical careers. They visited EIRC to watch a surgery taking place at a hospital in northern NJ. While this was happening, the surgeon and operating team fielded questions from the students in real time.

That was not the amazing part; after all, EIRC hosts 4 teleconferenced surgeries per year.

Teleconference of students at EIRC viewing a live surgery

During the surgery, the doctor never touched the patient. It was robotic surgery. The doctor worked at a machine called DaVinci. The machine is in the operating room to prevent latency, which is the time delay caused by translating analog information into digits on one end of a transmission and reversing the process on the other end. The shorter the distance, the shorter the delay, which is critical for surgeons who are viewing the robotic responses to their movements.

This too was not the amazing part. The amazing part is where robotic surgery is heading.

Once latency is overcome, surgery can be performed long distance. Say you need a kidney transplant and the best surgeon is in Australia. No problem...the surgery can be performed as he/she works from a home office in Melbourne.

Now...couple all this with the Ninetendo Wii. The Wii glove has been on the market since 2006. As it becomes perfected, it will become tactile. In other words, while your surgery takes place, your surgeon will feel the difference between hard and spongy tissue as his/her hands move through thin air down in Melbourne.

Wii Glove

I guess it is time to stop arguing about whether or not we should allow cell phones and iPods to be brought to school and start looking at the skills needed for students to succeed in the 21st century workforce. Let's face it: the surgeons who will perform our transplants are sitting in our classrooms right now!

School Funding for 2009-10

Hi to all:

USA Today had a story this morning that said "the federal economic-stimulus package...will double the country's education budget over the next two years."

Also today, I had the opportunity to see what kind of federal funding is coming to several southern NJ districts. Not bad at all...very few get $0. Most will get tens of thousands of dollars; some will get more.

What does all this mean?

Your district will most likely get flat funding from the state. While that implies that you get what you got last year, you really don't...well over 50% of your school budget goes to salaries and raises will eat up what was used for other things this year. With the federal funding increasing so dramatically, it won't solve 100% of the problem, but for most districts they will be in far better shape than how things looked just days ago.

The last piece of the puzzle is local funding, from your district's proposed budget. This goes to the voters on April 21. In this economy, no one is expecting miracles; but don't be misled into thinking that a budget that is voted down automatically means no increase. When the budget is voted down, it goes to the town government officials who determine how much of the requested budget gets trimmed.

Bottom line: things won't be great, but they could have been far, far worse.

Dr. Dugan