Week 2

Truth be told, I'm quite a nerd. I really like analyzing processes and figuring out how to make things faster and more efficient. While these things seem boring to the average person they are interesting and exciting to me. This week our group was presented with an unique opportunity, which I'm quite excited about.

As previously mentioned, one of our group members is an instructional coach for a local school district. She has been asked to help create training material for the Alternative Route to Licensure (ARL) teachers in their district. We get to help! We will be designing the curriculum for the portion of the training that teaches them how to write lesson plans. I think this is exciting because I have the opportunity to really put my learning into practice in a very applicable way.

One of the key steps of the design process is defining the content needed to address the instructional need or problem. This content is then used to identify the objectives, design the instructional strategies, develop test items, and create the instruction (Morrison, Ross, & Kemp, 2007, pg. 94).

Our group met this week, which was very helpful. I had been feeling quite lost, and still do to some extent, but having something concrete to focus on really helped. We divided up responsibilities and work on the Analysis Phase. I am in charge of writing the objectives, which I've been working on. While this did reduce some of my anxiety, it also created some new anxiety. I'm just not sure that we can really complete all of this in the time frame... at least not to my standards. I have the highest standards for myself and would pretty much rather die than give this school district sub par curriculum. I don't want my name on something I'm not satisfied with.

This was an important step in our group meeting. I found it difficult to really do anything until the project was completely explained to me and I could identify the instructional need/problem. Knowing exactly what the need is, and what I'm expected to do to fill this need, gives me direction and purpose. Now that I understand the full scope of the project and what our part is in the completion of this project I can fulfill, and hopefully exceed, expectations.

The objectives indicate what a learner is expected to do after completing a unit of instruction, and they are expressed in precise, unambiguous terms (Morrison, Ross, & Kemp, 2007, pg. 124).

As previously mentioned, I am in charge of writing the objectives for our unit. This is a bit more difficult than one might initially think. The chapter in the Morrison, Ross & Kemp text was helpful, but the Mager text was extremely helpful. I really wish my copy of the text would show up (I contacted the seller and he says it shipped... but I have yet to see it)! I'm grateful to have been able to borrow the text from a group member. The main thing I got from all this reading about objectives is that they should be verb driven and define what the learners should be able to do after the instruction. I think objectives are often vague, such as, "I want my students to learn." What does that really tell anyone and how do you measure something like that?

In conclusion, I think this project is very beneficial because it shows I understand the content in my program and have experience creating curriculum for a real-world client. I am extremely interested in moving from teaching to curriculum development for a corporation, textbook company, or perhaps my church. Having this on my resume and as part of my writing portfolio will be quite helpful. Regardless of where my career takes me, I think this complete project will be more beneficial than the hodge-podge we would likely have ended up with because of our group's different specialties.